My experience:

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.

Mother and kid enjoying a Bakfiets

Yesterday, NPR ran a story on cargo bikes as a new market in the U.S. They brought up the concept of these bikes a green replacement for the minivan and their practicality among business users looking to reduce fleet fuel costs. The report included interviews with Bakfiets supplier Clever Cycles in Portland as well as one of my favorite custom bike builders, Metrofiets.

The reporter complains about the cost, around $3000, but seriously people, you are looking for a bike to carry you and your children plus groceries and replace your car, the ultimate money pit. Cargo bikes are not toys, they are tools. This is not a place to go cheap!

Meanwhile in a country where cargo bikes are the norm, the discussion is not about just what the heck are these things but whether you love or hate cargo bikes.

Interestingly, the girl that hates them the most still advocates riding a bike everywhere, just not on a large Bakfiets. We have a long way to go.

I would like to see one of these reporters actually try it for a week and report back, but I guess we’ll just have to wait.

The tour will have 3 route distances with the 24 mile leaving the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market at 9:00, 14 mile leaving Bicycle Sport Shop Central at 9:30, and 10 mile leaving the Downtown Austin Farmers Market at 10:00. Stops will be at urban farms, school and community gardens and more—featuring farm tours, sampling local food products and fabulous prizes, including a fully-outfitted cruiser bicycle. Registration is $25 for individuals and $40 for families and proceeds benefit Urban Roots Youth Launch, a youth development program that uses sustainable agriculture to effect lasting change for youth 14-18 years old, and to nourish East Austin residents who have limited access to healthy foods.

The Urban Farm Bicycle Tour is a featured event of Edible Austin Eat Local Week, December 5–12, a week long invitation to Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food by eating out and shopping at participating area restaurants and markets.

Well, not a day had passed when I came across the trailer for this new film “Beauty and the Bike.” The documentary interviews several young British women about why they don’t cycle and exposes them to the cycling infrastructure and great bikes of Continental Europe. Britain embraced car culture more than any other Western European country after WW II, so this film serves as an interesting reference for our country’s struggles to make space for people over cars. The fight to just get bike lanes painted in this movies sounds oh too familiar. The film appears to anecdotally support the ideas behind the research: women want to feel safe, find biking convenient, and ride a bike that is stylish and allows them to wear whatever they want.

Their discoveries of the ease and simplicity of travel by bike appears to reawaken the joy of cycling. More on the film here which is scheduled to premier in England on December 9. We are being sent a copy and hope to have a review in the coming weeks.

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As a dedicated transportation cyclist and builder of city bikes, I have been pretty disappointed by what the bicycle industry has attempted to offer the U.S. market as utility or transportation bikes. The offerings have inevitably been a variation on the mountain bike or fixed/single speed bike or both. If we are wanting anyone other than the already dedicated cyclist to regularly replace car trips with trips by bike, these products leave a lot to be desired.

The Dutchess concept includes integrated lights, fenders, and rack. Image courtesy of Cartlon Reid.

The fact of the matter is that most people just want to get from point A to B in regular clothing in the cheapest, most efficient way possible. They don’t see themselves as urban warriors or racers. It is also true that the majority of trips people take are less than 5 miles from their house. It would seem like the bicycle would be a great match to this, but it has to be the right bicycle for people who happen to ride bikes (as opposed to cyclists) to use them regularly. Unfortunately, usually these folks either purchase a low quality, desposible bike from a big box store or get something performance oriented foisted upon them at the local bike shop.

On the up side, the bike industry is slowly catching on with several serious attempts at offering true transportation bikes showing up at Interbike this year. Now, BikeBiz is reporting that Cannondale is entering the fray with a concept bike called the Dutchess. Considering Cannondale’s pathetic presentation of the urban bike at this year’s Interbike, there is a lot to like here. Based on the Dutch city bike concept, Cannondale modernizes the look with brushed aluminum and integrated lights, fenders and rack. This yields a bike they say is around 30 pounds, a shockingly low weight for so much utility. Full chain guard and drum brakes are also included, a practical, low maintenance touch that is pretty universally ignored on U.S. city bikes. Curiously, this bike also has a very radically oversized bottom bracket with a huge open space in the middle. One assumes this was done as a wow factor for a concept as I know of no one actually making something like this right now.

All the functionality of a Dutch bike, but why the "sit up and beg" geometry? Image courtesy of Carlton Reid.

It’s not all good. Cannondale kept the hybrid geometry that yields the sit up and beg riding position instead of the highly comfortable fully upright, arms at the side position of a true Dutch bike. Also, the marketing material on this assumes a gender bias in the design. “Designed for women keen to express their style amongst the fast paced and ever changing urban vibe, the Dutchess brings modern lines to the environmentally conscious whilst at the same time offering longevity and low maintenance.” I know us men can be kind of bone headed, but since when is having a well functioning, nice looking city bike a women’s specific design? I know we have a North American gender prejudice on step through frames, but this gender design designation is inspired by 19th century hoop skirts, not 21th century transportation needs. When you are carrying things or in stop and go traffic, the step through is a hard design to beat as our European brethren have learned. Finally, a kickstand is curiously absent from the mix. Ever tried to load some groceries on a bike with no kickstand? Do it once, and you’ll throw all concern about Fred-dom out the window and strap one on.

Short comings aside, Cannondale’s Dutchess concept is a welcome 21st century take on the tradition Dutch city bike. When you think about the needs of an average person just wanting a bike for transportation (regular cloths, low maintenance, low physical impact, short distances, carrying stuff), the Dutch design has a lot to offer and more refinement is great to see. I’d say the biggest down side to this bike is that it is not available for sale to the public right now.

Image courtesy of Copenhagenizer.

If you’ve ever ridden a bakfiets, Xtracycle, or Madsen, you know they are great on utility and hauling things/people but some trouble when it comes to parking. The heft and storage that make them so useful can be a liability. Add to that the fact that most cargo bikes cost as much as double regular utility bikes, and you see the need for some additional accommodations.

On-Street Bicycle Parking in Portland.

One of the best things about these lockers are that they are in the shape of car and take out an on-street car parking space. Replacing automobile parking with bike parking has been done elsewhere like Portland and Edinburgh. This makes car use more difficult encouraging alternative transportation use and supporting cycling. It also highlights the importance put on bikes as equal players on the road. If we are going to get serious as a city in reducing carbon emissions from transportation, we need to be actively making using a car expensive and inconvenient while doing the opposite for cycling, walk, and transit. We can wait for gas prices to go back up to do it for us or take control of our community and do it now while we have a choice.

Luckily, we have those without as much testosterone reminding us of the joy of riding in this Mama Bakfiets Race. My favorite shot is the cargo bike riding mama slaloming through traffic cones while holding an egg on a spoon. We’ll also notice there was not a thread of spandex to be seen.

Amsterdamize : Mama Bakfiets Race from Amsterdamize on Vimeo.

Pereira Cycles, the winning design, had this clever integrated U-lock. Beautiful bike, but one wonders what happens if the rack is not on that level with the bike. Image courtesy of Elly Blue, BikePortland.

As a builder of custom transportation bicycles, I was excited to hear about the Constructors Challenge. The challenge called on builders from all over the U.S. to “design and build an innovative, modern transportation bike in this technical trial of engineering dexterity and fabrication mettle.” I was unaware of the contest until after the submission deadline but was excited to see what some of the best custom builders in the country would come up with. I’ve been pretty critical of the larger bicycle industry in its focus on racing and recreation design prejudices when offering transportation bicycles and had high hopes for my frame building brethren in this challenge. Unconstrained by the demands of meeting high volume price points or marketing schedules, surely custom builders would show up the big boys when it comes to designing something from scratch for a specific purpose. Well, it turns out my fellow builders share many of the same biases as the mass market builders.

Over the weekend, I took a look at a gallery of the 31 bikes submitted for this contest thanks to the excellent coverage of the event by BikePortland. (The Oregon Manifest site is pretty static and has no such coverage or pictures.) The bikes were beautifully made and great eye candy for the bike geek. How well they meet the needs of the transportation cyclists is another matter.

My favorite, the Ahearne step through looks great and nails all the needs of the transportation cyclist. Image courtesy of Elly Blue, BikePortland.

Here are some interesting observations:

• Front racks favoring the larger Porter style were the norm.
• The vast majority of bikes had road drop bars.
• Only two of the design winning bikes had chain guards.
• Out of the 12 selected design winners, I saw kick stands on only 4 bikes.
• Out of the entire picture gallery I saw only a half dozen bikes with kick stands.
• One of the winning bikes had no rack.
• Half a dozen entries did not have fenders.
• Three of the entries did not have an on-board lighting system.
• One of the builders seemed to have completely ignored the stated purpose of the contest and submitted a straight up fixed gear road bike with no fenders, rack, or lights lacking even the eyelets to retrofit these necessities.
• Another resorted to the tried and true bike industry tactic: mounting a rack on a straight up mountain bike and calling it transportation.

The beautifully painted Circle A Cycles entry adopted the French light touring design that was very popular in the entries. The design is a limited on carrying load but would make a good transportation bike (with the addition of a kickstand!) Image courtesy of Elly Blue, BikePortland.

If we are designing transportation bicycles, they need to address the functions of every day mobility: how to get you in regular clothes and your things from here to there in a variety of weather conditions both night and day. It appears over half the entries fail on at least one of these points. The widespread omission of kick stands alone is baffling as anyone who has ever tried to load groceries on a bike knows a kick stand is worth every ounce and risk of Fredness. This is even more important with all the huge front racks on display as loading heavy front loads can make the bike quite unstable as the front wheel flops.

Natalie Ramsland of SweetPea rode my personal favorite, the Ahearne step through. Unlike many competitors, Ramsland wore street clothes doing it up right with the little black dress. Image courtesy of Elly Blue, BikePortland.

In fairness to the builders, the language of the Challenge was much more touchy feely and less specifically practical than my design parameters. The technical trial also no doubtedly played a part in the designs as well. The trial was based on the old French touring bike technical trials of the 20s and 30s that helped innovate the industry with the development of reliable derailluers, strong brakes, and light weight steel frames. The idea of testing the bikes in their element to drive innovation is a great one and the Manifest organizers had a real potential to do something special here. Unfortunately, they choose a 70 mile course that involved only one stop to pick some beer up. No wonder the road bike/light touring bike design was the favorite and many choose spandex over street clothes. The winner was determined by the best time while the French trials involved a points system that rewarded overall speed but tempered practicality where the fastest rider was not necessarily the winner.  If this course’s purpose was to determine the best transportation bike for every day living, the organizers need to go back to the drawing board. Let’s see points for wearing regular clothes, carrying a two bags of groceries, locking and unlocking your bike, and the state of cleanliness of your clothes at the end.

This course is hardly a fair representation of what transportation cyclists need every day. The average urban cycling trip is less than 5 miles and involves navigating city streets and locking up your bike. Replacing a car means carrying groceries and children and wearing street cloths. The bike well suited for a 70 mile ride is not the same as a bike for daily urban life. There are trade-offs in functionality and performance made to meet these two different tasks. I don’t know a good design that will do both equally well.

Another integrated lock on the Cielo by Chris King. A bit more flexible but thin cable is lower security. Image courtesy of Elly Blue, BikePortland.

If we are to get more of the general public using bikes as practical, every day transportation, we need to jetison our more extreme past. Most people just want to get from point A to B in comfort not race. I think these kind of users would have a hard time seeing their life lived on two wheels with most of the design entries. The builder needs to think about this and not let their own riding style dominate their design. If he or she is not willing to do that, the builder should pass on the build and recommend another builder who is passionate and invested in the riding style and needs of the rider. Similarly, the Oregon Manifest needs to get more specific in their challenge. Are we designing the best bike for a randonnuering brevet or the bike that will inspire someone who does not consider themselves a cyclist to get out of that car and experience the sublime simplicity of city cycling? If it is the latter, you can expect an entry from me next year.

Mother and child enjoying a Bakfiets at Clever Cycles in Portland

I’m a big fan of cargo bikes. They add major utility to transportation cycling making the thought of living car-free even more of a reality. You can do a week’s worth of grocery shopping, transport small children or even adults, or pick up a couch. Best of all, you can do all these things while not having to drag along a trailer.

There are various designs for cargo bikes out there such as the Xtracycle, Kona Ute, Yuba Mundo, and Madsen bucket bike. These are all great bike designs (heck, I have two Xtracycle Free Radicals!), but none except the Madsen can carry as many varieties of stuff as the Bakfiets. Based on the Danish Long John design created in the mid 20th century, the Bakiets is a bucket bike with the cargo riding in front of the driver. This has the advantage of putting the cargo at a very low center of gravity for improved handling as well as the ability to keep an eye on things.

The major downside of the Bakfiets has been their limited availability. A few retailers like Clever Cycles of Portland and Seattle Dutch Bike (which also has a store in Chicago) stock Bakfiets imported from The Netherlands. Also Joe Bike, an utility bike shop, sells the Chinese Flying Pigeon version of the Bakfiets with a Portland edition that jettisons most of the crappy components for quality ones. UPDATE: They will also soon be releasing a double decker, Portland-made Bakfiets called the Joe Bike with pictures here of the prototype.

How about Made in the U.S.A.?

These imports are certainly worth looking at, but why not save the shipping fuel and employ some American workers when you buy your Bakfiets. There is a growing list of U.S. builders making Bakfiets and we’ve put together a quick list:

Bilenky Cycle Works- Master builder, Steve Bilenky, can build you just about any kind of bike you want, but he also makes a Bakfiets inspired Long John. Frameset is $1650, full bike is $2700.

Center for Appropriate Transportation: Human Powered Machines- Based in Eugene, OR, CAT offers a Long Haul model with a wooden bucket, covered fiberglass container, or flat bed. Starting price for the flat bed version $2100.

The two part frame of the CETMA cargo bike allows you to separate the frame for easier storage or transport.

UPDATE: CETMA Cargo- Built in Oregon, these Bakfiets have a unique, two part frame that allows the normally lengthy cargo bike to be taken apart for easier storage and transport. Framesets at $2100 and full bikes $3150.

Double Dutch Bikes- This New Jersey company was recently brought to our attention with a range of no frills Bakfiets under $2000. It is unclear from their site whether they make these bikes or have them made off shore, so caution if you are wanting to buy Made in America. UPDATE: Danny from Double Dutch Bike let us know that they are an American company, but they import the bikes. Nothing wrong with that, just know they are not manufactured here.

Metrofiets- Hand made in Portland, Oregon, we recently posted an article about this company from the Seattle International Bicycle Expo. These are certainly the prettiest Bakfiets out there, and framesets start at $2600 with complete bikes coming in at around $3800.

Metrofiets of Portland

Want to learn to build your own Bakfiets?

The CAT Human Powered Machine Long Haul with Fiberglass Container

Do you want to add your name to the growing list of American cargo bike builders? Well, the Center for Appropriate Transportation holds a five month class in Eugene, OR twice a year to teach the craft of fine cargo bike building. Students learn hands on by working with teachers to build cargo bikes for CAT. Various different cargo bike designs are taught, and students leave the class with their own cargo bike of the design of their choosing. CAT also teaches students bookkeeping, management and marketing, skills which are woefully absent from most bike builders in my opinion. Tuition is $5000 and communal housing is $300/month. The two five month sessions are held July 15 to December 15th and from January 15th to June 15th.