My experience: Yuba sent me a Mundo 21 speed with lots of accessories to test, and I’ve been riding it several times a week for 6 weeks.

Build Quality: 3.5/5

Function: 4.5/5

Style: 2/5

Overall: 4/5

Availability: Yuba is actively looking for an Austin dealer but for now you must order online at the Yuba site. A stripped down 6 speed version is available at $850 in green or orange and a nicely equipped 21 speed at $1100 in blue, orange or black. One size fits most. Like the Xtracycle, Yuba also sells other accessories including bags and child seats through their online store.

Summary:

Along with the Xtracycle and Kona Ute, the Yuba Mundo offers riders a full on cargo bike with a long tail as a legitimate automobile replacement for carrying kids, groceries and just about anything else you can stand to pedal. While the finish and build quality is a little rough around the edges, the Mundo gives you a well functioning cargo bike and a best in class hauling capacity at an astonishing $850 entry level for the bare bones 6 speed version and $1100 for a very nicely equipped 21 speed version.

Build quality and Style

Yuba sent me an orange (they call it Carrot) 21 speed bike with several accessories including pannier bags and a child seat. It arrived dealer ready which meant I had to do final brake and shifter installation as well as install of the wheels, seat, and handlebars. The Mundo also has a large side runner tube for a foot and bag rest that was separate and hand no installation instructions. Keep this in mind if you order online. If you are not confident of your ability to do a final build up, you’ll need to budget a little bit more and pay your local bike shop to get it ready for you.

The frame itself is extremely beefy but had sloppy, industrial welds at the joint. These do appear plenty strong, and  for the price point of this bike you are not getting master framebuilder elegance. There were some other rough edges in the bike including a fork that was out of alignment but not enough to be an issue. Also, the wheels were quite out of true and the many bolt bosses on the frame has to be re-tapped. Again, these are issues your local bike shop can address, but a sign of the lack of attention to detail that you are going to get with something mass produced at this price. The standard Mundo comes equipped with V-brakes but also has dropouts that allow disc brakes. The rear dropouts are vertical and designed with an external derailleur system in mind.

The actual equipment spec’ing of this bike is quite good. Unlike the Madsen, Yuba had the rider in mind, and swept back bars and a saddle designed for an upright seated position provides a very comfortable natural position. They’ve been paying attention to good utility bike rider geometry. The brakes and shifter groups are nothing to write home about but of a good quality for the utility purpose. The pedals are huge Victor VP-565 pedals with a nice grippy platform, my favorite component on the bike. While I’m a fan of the double footed kickstand (available as an add on), Yuba has provided the best single foot kickstand I’ve used to date. It is very larger and long providing a sturdy, stable resting point. Finally, little things like full on fenders and a bell showed the designers were thinking of the real world use of transportation cycling when pulling this together.

The only glaring omission on accessories were lights. I know it is popular to let the consumer choose lights as a way to keep the price point down, but this is a serious transportation bike and should come with the ability to ride after dark out of the box.

The overall style of the bike tends toward the industrial mountain bike look. This is not my cup of tea, but the orange paint job looks really good, and I got lots of compliments on how good the bike and it’s matching bags looked.

Function and ride

The Yuba Mundo will no doubt draw lots of comparisons to the Xtracycle. There is good reason. Yuba founder Benjamin Sarrazin was one of the people that developed the Xtracycle but wanted a bike the had more hauling potential than the Xtracycle Free Radical conversion kit. The Mundo succeeds on this front with a massive best in class 440 pound carrying limit and the 48 spoke rear wheel to back that up. I found the uniform frame to be extremely stable and not at all flexy under load.

Hauling my kids was a breeze and at one point I carried both my children and my wife on the back. The rack frame is a good 6 inches longer than the Xtracycle facilitating this. The foot runner provided an ease step up for them and the low center of gravity designed into the Mundo meant I had none of the potential twitchiness I sometimes get when kids shift around on the back of my Xtracycle Free Radical. Yuba did send me a child seat, but it was not compatible with the bags they sent. I chose to keep the utility of the bags and communicate to my 3 and 5 year old to be sure to hold on. If you do plan to use the child seat, keep this in mind and use more standardized pannier behind the seat.

The bags are the best accessory for the Mundo (an add on at $69 per bag). Unlike the Xtracycle, they have a cover and are waterproof. They are also absolutely enormous easily carrying three bags of groceries on each side. Also included with the bags are a shoulder strap so you can carry the bags off the bike if you don’t want to leave them behind. There are lots of tie off spots all over the frame so you can strap all kinds of things on the bike with twine or a bungie cord. The only down side to Yuba bags are that the extra width they create combined with the bike’s longer rear length make turning and maneuvering the bike in tight quarters a little more of a challenge. This bike has a real presence which is great on the road but may need some consideration if you don’t have a lot of space for storage when not in use.

As I said earlier, the rider geometry is a nice upright seating position with swept back handlebars providing longer ride comfort. I rode with my son for about an hour and a half at one point without any discomfort or issue. The frame is a semi-step through and designed to be one size fits all. This should be fine for all but the shortest riders. My wife who is 5’6″ still had plenty of room to lower the seat and handlebars when she test rode the bike.

Probably the biggest drawback to the Mundo as with most cargo bikes is the overall weight. It is definitely heavier than an Xtracycle, and I would highly recommend the 21 speed version for its gear range if you live in anywhere but the flattest city. (The inclusion of fenders, nicer shifter group, and rack deck in the 21 speed version make it a better value anyway.) The Yuba site indicates that this bike is e-bike ready whatever that means, but I do believe an electric bike conversion would make this an ideal car replacement. It does not appear to be compatible with the Stoke Monkey but should be able to handle hub based electric systems.

UPDATE: A Second Opinion

My wife also test rode the Yuba Mundo and had these comments:

Elliott’s wife here. I enjoyed test-riding this bike, too. I want to second what he said about the bike feeling nice and stable even as the child behind you suddenly moves around. I do have a complaint about the bags; the buckles are very low, almost underneath the lower railing. They’re black buckles against a black bag, and very hard to see, so you end up down on your knees or bent all the way over the back of the bag groping around for the buckles. And you have to buckle them every time; otherwise the straps drag on the ground. Hopefully the company will do a slight redesign on these bags and move the buckle up to an easier-to-reach location.

Summary

Picking up where the Xtracycle left off, the Yuba Mundo provide a lot of carrying capacity at a low price and reasonable quality. It is by far the least expensive entry into cargo bikes as a complete bike and does not skimp in its ability to do the job. Only the Xtracycle Free Radical conversion of an existing bike gets you into cargo biking for less at around $500. It’s unified frame provides a superior ride and hauling capacity to conversions, and I’d recommend moving up to the 21 speed as a better value for equipment. If you are willing to overlook a few non-critical rough edges, you can have a great replacement for the family sedan for a 20th of the cost.