Hi Gary - just thought you might be curious as to how we are going with the new wheels. We are loving it!

Thanks for all the help and we will be passing on the word!!!

Just wanted say how much I appreciated all the work you did to my bike. The Solar electric kit is working extremely well and is an absolute joy to use on my rides to/from work. I would highly recommend the kit and your excellent service to anyone.

Kind regards,

Steve

Being a keen cyclist, when we had our little baby boy, we spent the first 10 months of his life researching ways for moving him on a bike. We settled on a bike trailer and used it extensively from when he was one year old to when he was two. Then we decided to get a rear bike-seat. We had this until he was 3. By this time, we had another baby and we were keen to find ways to move them both at once. After a lot of research and test rides, we saved up our pennies and went for a Long haul Box-Bike from Gary at Cargocycles. And it has been the best biking/lifestyle choice we have made. I wish we had got it first...

We went for the e-assist model for a number of reasons. I do a lot of riding with our son (and will do with our daughter soon). We do weekly trips to the zoo, the museum, footy at the MCG and visiting friends in neighbouring suburbs. Apart from the odd holiday drive, we are close to car-free. Having the e-assist makes a big difference if you are going to use your cargocycle to go up hills or over 4 or 5 kms at a time. If the e-assist model was not around, I’d still get a box-bike, I’d just sweat a bit more!

Here’s a list of the things we love about our cargocycle:

• Reason number one is that it holds 1, 2, 3 sometimes even 4 kids. Only boxbikes can do that. Many cars can’t!
• Second reason is that “up-front” is so social and fun. We chat as we ride, he “reads” me books, we share observations, I can reach over to give him stuff, I can keep an eye on him/them, he can even sleep in the box (I added some extra seatbelts so he can sleep on the floor).
• Third reason is that it’s two-wheeled so it rides similar to a regular bike. The 3 wheel versions are great for short trips and wide bike paths, but the two-wheelers allow you more range, more manoeuvrability, can fit through tighter spaces and are quicker.
• It’s very good value. About ½ the price of the European models (which, by the way, don't come with all the extras that the cargocycle does – which you need). Sure, its not the Mercedes Benz  that the European ones are, but I don't drive a Mercedes car either. I'm confident that the quality is good enough to perform adequately for the course of the bike’s life. So far, so good! Gary also puts solid warranties on his bikes.
• Although initially seeming expensive, I reckon we will pay it off by the time the kids are out of it simply through not using our car for these trips (saving fuel/maintenance costs/parking fees/insurance premiums lower with less car-use, etc).

The only real downside is parking. You need a good sized spot to keep it undercover.

We’ve had a ball in our cargocycle, our little boy really loves it and its just a really fun bike to ride!

I should also mention that Gary has been an exceptional dealer to do business with. We had as many test rides as we wanted and he met us on the weekend to show us around his bikes. He has provided us with enthusiastic after-purchase service too.  Thanks Gary!

Ride on Magazine recently reviewed one of our Zeitbikes Longhaul bikes and gave it an 86% rating.

You can download and read the review here and check out Ride On magazine here.

Copied from Lloyd's blog, South Gippsland Futures, with permission.

I've been minimising my car use lately and riding the Cargo Cycle between our nursery, our house and my factory. It's a stretch of fairly flat road so it's easy going on the big bike. I made the mistake of cutting across the golf course to our Chamber of Commerce meeting last night at the Golf Club and discovered it's heavy pedalling in long grass!

Here's a shot of the bike in my workshop with a load of tools (about 50 kilos) I brought back from the nursery a few minutes ago. It easily handles big weights (I've had 100 kilos in it) as far as pedalling and handling goes. Steep hills are another matter of course! It has an eight-speed Sturmey-Archer hub gearbox, which is very clean as it allows for a chain guard and it seems like a very nicely made unit.

Anyway I'm the agent for these things in Foster. I'm getting lots of interest in it as I pedal around the town and have one trader seriously looking at buying one. In Holland there is a longer version available which would certainly be very useful for tradesmen. This is a Chinese copy of the Dutch original, but it's very well made.

I like the way you can chat to people as you ride by. It saves lots of fuel and takes hardly any more time than using our diesel van, which I was driving up and down Station Road half-a-dozen times each day before I started using the bike. It's taken me a short while to get used to it physically, although I generally walk the dogs a couple of times a day so I'm not totally unfit. But still, it gives me a heart and lung workout! Helps to burn off the boysenberry muffin I get each morning from Ando's Bakery too.

My plan was to use it as a local delivery vehicle for the nursery, and with a suitable cargo container we could use it for flower deliveries from our florist business too.

The bike is used here on a daily basis. The kids love it.

Our nanny has no drivers license yet, so it's an ideal combination.

A few months ago, I received a big box full of CargoCycle. I had opted to put it together myself. I'm no bike mechanic, but I do have an array of tools and generally know what to do with them, and I got it together myself in half a day without too much grief - just the odd thing needed 'persuading'. Riding is easy, with nicely spaced gears (I rarely use anything above 6th) and it becomes even more stable with a load. Many friends have given it a try, and are impressed with how easy it is. They all remarked how much it is like riding a normal bike.

Since its arrival, it has become a big part of our regular transport options. The hub gears take a few weeks of breaking in, and the rear hub brake also takes a while to reach its optimum. (The front V-brake stops the bike well from the get go). Generally three days per week I'll drop off our 2.5 yr old to childcare, and then ride it the 4.5km into work. It is a 'happy' bike to ride. Provided you're not in a hurry, it's just so comfortable and enjoyable. My daughter is rapt every time we take it, and sometimes quite disappointed when she learns that we have to take the car. We use it for shopping, and for the odd errand (picking up a mail-order esky from the Post Office for example). We live around 5km from Melbourne Zoo, so that has been, and will increasingly be, a common trip. There's a few hills, but none that are too arduous. I'm also quite impressed by the dyno-hub. So much so, that I'm considering one for my other regular commuter bicycle. It puts out quite a lot of light, even at low speeds.

I rode it (with daughter) in this year's 50km route of the Around the Bay in a Day. It was first time I'd been on long, flat routes with it. I was amazed how quickly you could get along. Pedal a bit, up a gear, pedal a bit, up a gear. Soon I was passing many of the riders, with no real effort (I was pacing myself). The bit that did require some effort... well, let's say I was happy to see the top of Westgate Bridge... but the gearing certainly made it very achievable.

On the whole... if you are looking for a viable alternative to a car for many of your shorter trips about your neighbourhood, with the prospect of some longer trips, I think it's a great option.

Before starting Cargo Cycles, we imported two sample cargo bikes for evaluation. We kept one and sold the other - Brian was the lucky buyer.

There were a few components that we wanted to change, and we upgraded the sample bikes to be as close as possible to the production spec. Unfortunately the sample bikes' front brakes couldn't be upgraded, so they retained the original front caliper brake for some time before they could be upgraded to the more powerful V-brake of the production bikes.

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