Bicycle Press,
The cargo bike sector is longing for a great apples to apples review of the cargo bike offering on the market. Reviews that crop up in periodicals big and small continue to be cursory (hey! look at this!) and apples to oranges (comparing a 10′ long Bakfiets to a 3 wheeled Zigo to a bike with a basket). These reviews are really just page filler, and do little to increase ridership of this new and growing class of bikes.
Readers please be aware, this is a long diatribe – not for the faint of heart, or those of a fleeting Facebook-sized attention span (like myself at times). Please feel free to move along if this isn’t your scene or the right time – no hard feelings. If you are intrigued, please read on! And share.
Here’s what’s in this letter:
1. Bicycle Magazines are capable of more than an agnostic ‘survey’ of cargo-bikes couched as a ‘review’ – Bicycling already did this 1 yr. ago, with little effect on the market.
2. Regardless of style of cargo bike, what makes a cargo bike great?- Xtracycle designs around three characteristics that make all the difference.
1. Hear me reviewers! Reviews that explain, contextualize and invite people to consider cargo-bikes are possible and necessary.
If we believe in bikes, and we believe in the power of cargo bikes to transform our lives, neighborhoods, cities and culture, you owe it to our readers to do more than broadly recommend the sector without helping people understand what makes sense for what purposes when it comes to loaded bikes. Bicycling has written two stories about cargo bikes in the last year – one in May that profiled a handful of bikes with no apples to apples comparison. Each individual reviewer took their own approach to a ‘review,’ resulting in a diverse round of perspectives on a diverse round of bikes. The net effect of that review, from the perspective of someone new to cargo bikes – was the notion that cargo bikes are heavy (Mundo at 83 lbs), big (Cetma frame ships in 2 huge boxes!), may need more wheels (i.e. Kangaroo Thing). Most of these bikes are unusual even in their home turf – Europe. Walking through the streets of Europe’s cycling hubs, one is struck by the incredible proliferation of fairly regular bikes – slightly longer than those here in the States – with racks front and back, and people and stuff draped about. To promote full-blown ‘cargo-bikes’ here as the logical next step for the average intro-level utility bike consumer is absurd.
We have all ridden a Bakfiets-style bike – how many of us own one? Or will own one? They are great in limited circumstances, but for so many, they are impractical. Being cargo-bike style agnostic actively prevents people from making educated choices about bikes that might actually fit within typical North American bike preconceptions about weight, cost, size, convenience, ability to portage on a car, etc. To overlook these critical factors and how they might impact the average rider does cargo-biking and urban biking a disservice, just as it would if Consumer Reports recommended the Hummer as the perfect family car in 2012 – after all it has all the necessary qualities in spades: weight, safety, cabin room, amenities, saying nothing about cost, fuel efficiency, convenience, impact on those around you, etc. Yes, the Hummer is a great SUV, but probably not one to be recommended as equivalent to a fuel efficient and safe Toyota or something similar for a North American audience.
Think about the Oregon Manifest that billed itself as a cargo bike competition. The word around town was that the competition was already won by cargo-pants. Seriously – the challenge for these world class designers involved the portaging of a 6 pack. Hell, I’ve carried a 6-pack in my teeth while riding no hands talking on my cell phone. This is not a valid challenge! For more on that, enjoy this similarly cantankerous rant from one of my heroes.
Bicycling’s second story was by a renown writer (Nat’l Geographic, Outside, etc.) Tom Clynes and his personal experience riding a bike and profiling the sector. As he began to unravel his own relationship to biking – some truly wonderful realizations came to the fore the offered up some legitimate entry points for a large number of people to embrace this new sector of biking as a car-alternative. He spoke to bike people unable to bike because of their busy/family oriented lives – this to me is the jumping off point for a great review that forwards the conversation. Here’s a link to the Xtracycle-specific portions of that Bicycling Mag article. Here’s the full read.
Here’s how to start a review that will be incredibly useful to consumers:
Profile your reviewer and their needs clearly, then have them rate the bike on how well it meets/doesn’t meet their needs defined before riding it. Like,
• I live in the suburbs and want a safe easy to ride bike to carry kids and groceries, or pool toys to the pool.
• I am a commuter that struggles to get everything I need in my panniers – I need weather proofing, a bike that doesn’t slow me down, a bike that’s safe to park outside my office.
• I am a into bike-adventure touring, I need capacity and quality!
• I need to ride my bike more! My kids keep me behind the steering wheel too much! I need to cover some real ground! I can pay for electric assist!
• I am a community bike organizer – I need a bike that can haul a stereo for community events. Parking is not an issue – this is a bike I use once a week and park in our office as a conversation piece in between.
(you get the picture)
Help your readers, help us as manufacturers open up this sector. The bicycle press have developed such a great megaphone – now use it to get people on bikes, not marvel as this and that new gadget presented by gear heads not people with real-life problems they need solved.
2. Xtracycle’s criteria for great bikes (applies to all bikes, and especially cargo bikes).
1. Ride quality. The bike must ride GREAT! You must want to ride it. If the bike presents significant ride quality challenges, parking challenges, riding on busy street challenges, we are failing our customers and hampering the transformation we are committed to. What attention has been paid to ride quality? Does the bike ride like a bike? A tank? A boat? A stroller?
2. Cargo capacity. Cargo capacity is often linked to weight. Frequently consumers are misled to believe more capacity = better. (Dude! My bike can haul 500 lbs!) Unfortunately, more capacity = more weight, which often makes the bike less fun to ride even when you’re not carrying a 1/4 ton (which we have found is about 99% of the time). So, the key is the best cargo-capacity to weight balance. How efficient is the design? For every extra pound of bike, how much additional carrying capacity do you get? How flexible is the carrying technology – can you carry long stuff, bulky stuff, kids?
3. Affordability. Like cargo capacity – affordability, or value, is often overlooked – cargo bikes of wildly different price ranges are compared frequently (how fair might it be to review a consumer grade Jamis road bike with trek’s new full carbon?). We believe that affordability is key for our consumers – they are value driven smart consumers that are weighing options – sell our second car, join a carshare, move closer to work, get a cargo bike. Like any investment, the keys to value are
• quality – how well made? what materials? what components?
• expandability – will this bike grow and change with my needs? will my family/I grow out of this bike or cargo accessory (i.e. trailer, stroller) in a few years?
I hope some of the above perspectives help you to think about your upcoming cargo bike review. Clearly, I have spent some time thinking about this in light of recent reviews.
3. Turn the tables. Give us a challenge – that’s what we’re all about!
We at Xtracycle are excited to put our products to the test in your reviews and I would end on this question – Xtracycle has the widest array of cargo solutions of any US manufacturer – we can meet the most number of needs with an exciting array of products. What challenge would you put our products to? Who (i.e. your reviewer) has a problem we can help solve? We would love to meet the challenge, and we’re excited to send you a combination of bikes + accessories that help your reviewer find biking more fun and useful than ever before.
– Nate Byerley, Xtracycle COO, 3/27/12
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