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.

The Azor relaxes after a ride to Garrison Park last summer

Back in August, we purchased an Azor Secret Service handmade Dutch bicycle from the Seattle Dutch Bike Company. We’ve written several reviews of the bike and its accoutrements since we got it, and have ridden the bike quite a bit to events and as a general commuting and car-replacement bike.

The Azor is a great bike, but it’s time for us to move on and get another long-term test bike here at Austin On Two Wheels. I think we have exhausted this particular model as a writing subject. We’re pretty sure that a maximum of nine months is probably all that’s needed for our long-term tests.

First, we want to announce that the Azor is now for sale (or trade, perhaps) at a significant discount to provide the funds for our next test bike. We paid nearly $2,000 for the bicycle and shipping originally, but would be willing to sell it to one of our readers for much less.

Second, we want some input on what our next long-term test bicycle should be. A touring bike like the Trek Portland? A cyclocross bike like a Surly Cross-check geared up for commuting use? Maybe a lower-cost commuting model like the Gary Fisher Simple City? What about something completely different?

Send us an email or post in the comments and let us know. We will take your input into strong consideration.

by Paul Andrews

You’re thinking about taking the plunge and ditching the car. But you wonder: How will I shop for groceries? What about the toddlers? And what if I need a sack of fertilizer from the garden shop?

Jamie Nichols is Metrofiets' torch man

You’re frustrated, because the car you own spends most of its life span nearly empty. It’s just you in the thing. But every so often, you need it to haul something.
If that occasional function is all that’s holding you back from ditching the car — or just riding your bike more — then you and Metrofiets need to have a conversation.

It’s a family vehicle. It’s a cargo vehicle. It’s a package delivery service. It’s a small business on wheels.

“With switchable platforms, you can turn our bike into just about anything you need it to do,” says Phillip Ross, a former research librarian in Portland OR who started Metrofiets with sidekick and ace welder Jamie Nichols in 2007.
Based in Portland, Metrofiets builds cargo bikes. Not the kind you’re used to seeing, which tend to be standard bikes modified to haul stuff — like Xtracycle. Metrofiets falls into the category of “box bike,” a package meant to haul stuff, as with Madsen and Bakfiets (the Holland “box bike”).

The impetus behind cargo bikes is the surging popularity of city cycling and street biking. As city dwellers look for alternatives to expensive, hard-to-park and fuel-guzzling automobiles, cargo bikes are stepping, er, wheeling, into the gap.
Metrofiets (the name plays off “city” and a Dutch term for “bike”) are custom-built from the ground floor up. You tell the guys what you want, they work with you, and what comes out 4 to 6 months later is a thing of beauty as strong as an ox.
At the Seattle International Bike Expo this past weekend, Metrofiets was showing off two of its creations. One held a flat platform containing a chess board, a butane mini-stove, and a stack of tangerines. There was plenty of room left over for, say, a pizza and laptop computer.

You can make coffee, play chess, and there's room for a pizza and your laptop

The floor model had a big carton with a lockable bench containing storage underneath its seat. The bench held twin seat belts for the kiddies.
The cargo carriers are built to order out of solid wood. They’re completely modular and can be switched out by flipping wing-nut retainers beneath them. Metrofiets bikes are rated to handle 250 pounds, which means I could sit in one with three 20-lb. bags of my favorite backyard bird seed and have capacity for my bichon frise as well. (Dogs naturally love riding in box bikes.)

Components are top drawer. Chris King headsets for steer mechanisms. Shimano Alfine hydraulic disc brakes and internal 8-speed hub (shifting is roughly 38-20, fine for most in-city riding. You can get a 14-speed Rohloff, or a standard derailleur setup as well.). Brooks saddle. Wheels are 24-inch, tires 2.35 inches wide (models can be fitted with a 26-inch rear wheel too).

The seat bench stores plenty of gear beneath and has belts for the kids to buckle up

Custom doesn’t come cheap, of course. Framesets, which take 60 hours or more to build, start at $2,600. At the Seattle show, the display models were $4,800. Nor does a cargo bike come light: Weight varies from 68 to 74 pounds, which sounds lumbering but runs 20 to 30 pounds lighter than a comparable Dutch bike.
Now you’re wondering: Who is gonna buy something like this?
So far Metrofiets has sold half a dozen bikes, mostly for personal or family use. Four more are on order, and the company is talking to a variety of small businesses who need portability. Espresso-stand operators. Pizza delivery folk. Farmer’s market vendors.

“The switchable platforms make possible our business model,” said Ross, who spent two and a half years doing research and engineering on the bike. Ross was motivated in part by frustrations over existing box bikes. “The geometry was wrong, so we had to change it. We did some different things with steer linkage as well.”

Metrofiets falls into the category of “long john” because the rider sits behind an elongated front end, as opposed to putting the cargo behind the rider. Ross prefers the front positioning for stability and climbing. Another nice feature is the step-through capability, which helps the rider keep a heavy load balanced while mounting to start pedaling. Otherwise keeping the cargo steady would be a trick while swinging a leg over a top tube.

Ross, who hasn’t owned a car for 5 years and uses his ride to transport his 3-year-old daughter, is proudest of the bike for most part falling well below the 100-mile rule. “Everything is local,” he said. “Chris King headsets are made in Portland. The tubing is bent here. We have our own guy for welding, and Coat in Portland does the paint job.”

The detail work on Metrofiets is impressive. All frames are hand-finished after welding to resemble fillet-brazing; joints are smooth and seamless. There’s a U-lock ring for locking the front wheel to the frame (this is not a bike someone is going to pick up and walk off with). Jamie will even braze a rear rack to the frame. That thing is solid.

Integrated bike rack for stability and strength

How does it ride? “It’s like riding a tandem without having to fight another rider for control,” said Ross. The large-volume tires cushion the ride, and the long wheel base (8 to 9 feet, tire-to-tire) smoothes things out as well.

With the focus on “relocalization” due to peak oil, sustainability practices and concerns over climate disruption, people will find themselves able to live within close range of all their life needs, from their work to their friends’ places to the grocery store. That’s what grabs the imagination most about Metrofiets. It’s a vehicle whose time and place have come.

Long John: http://bikehugger.com/2008/12/cargo-bikes-and-stone-tablets-pt3.html

Transformative Trike: http://www.7gen.com/website/recumbent-bicycles/24248-innovate-or-die-transformation-trike

A lifelong cyclist, Paul Andrews is a Seattle-based online journalist who runs BikeIntelligencer.com.

Mark, Freya, and Courtney stand beside their bicycle mini-van, the Madsen Bucket

A few months ago, one of my neighbors spotted me taking my kids to school on our bicycle mini-van, a Trek 7200 with an Xtracycle Free Radical conversion kit and my own home made handlebars for secure child transport. Courtney e-mailed me to let me know she liked our setup and to let me know she had ordered a Madsen cargo bike. She invited me to come by and try it out once it was in to compare it to my Xtracycle. I said “yes” as I’m always in for trying out different cargo bikes.

Well, I got busy and honestly forgot to followup. Luckily, I saw Courtney riding her Madsen last week with her kiddo in the back (unfortunately from the seat of my car!) and contacted her about getting a closer look. This Saturday, I loaded up Miles & Clara in the Xtracycle, cold weather be damned, and headed over to see it.

Courtney purchased the baby blue Madison Bucket, which is a long tail cargo bike with a large 40 gallon plastic bucket over the back wheel and rack. The bucket includes seating for two adults facing each other or four children with a hauling capacity of 600 pounds. The Bucket version retails for $1299, is also available in black or cream color, and can be purchased through a dealer or from Madsen directly. It only comes in one frame size, but with a sloping, step-through top tube and a long seat post, the Salt Lake City builder claims the bike can be ridden by cyclist from 5′ to 6′6″ in height. There is also a version that comes without the bucket (just a long rack) for $1099.

I liked  the overall design and build of the bike right away. The powder coat paint looked good and the inclusion of fenders, chain guard, and double footed kickstand were a welcome sight in a utility bike. (These seem like no brainers, but you’d be surprised what large bike manufactures leave out of their supposed transportation bikes.) The design is like a reverse Bakfeits, with the cargo container stretching behind instead of in front of the driver. The front wheel is 26″ while the back is a smaller 20″ to accommodate the cargo container. The overall frame had a wheel base that was several inches longer than my Xtracycle. I took it for a quick spin empty and was immediately impressed with how stable its handling was from the first pedal stroke. The combination of smaller wheels, thick tires, a long wheel base, and evenly distributed weight made the ride quiet pleasurable.

Three kids and room for a fourth.

Knowing that cargo bike can handle differently loaded (the Bakfiets are much improved with carrying cargo), I decided to jump in all the way and loaded up both my kids and Courtney’s daughter, Freya, for a longer ride around the neighborhood. The Madsen Bucket did not disappoint. It remained stable from slow to quicker speeds, and I felt little instability when the children shifted around. The lower center of gravity of passengers plus its more secure seating make this a better design for hauling people and kids especially than the Xtracycle.

While I liked the bike overall, there were some glaring component missteps that mar an otherwise elegant design. First off like virtually all U.S. bike builders, there is an unexplained aversion to swept back handlebars. Somehow we’ve forgotten how ergonomically comfortable these bars are, instead going for the ubiquitous mountain bike bar. Anyone who rides an upright position will long for these better handlebars. And speaking of upright positions, the saddle is a complete mismatch for the riding style. They have put a hard, thinnish performance saddle on this bike. I like firm saddles, but I could barely stand this thing after 5 minutes.

The omission of a wider saddle appropriate to upright riding is a mystery. Courtney complained to the bike shop about this, and they said the bike company puts on cheap stuff like this to save money knowing most people will upgrade to what they like. Give me a break. I know for a fact that there are super economy swept back bars and wide saddles out there. It doesn’t have to be Nitto and Brooks.

My final gripe comes with the gearing options. 8 speed is OK for regular utility bikes and is generally your best choice if you are going internal gearing (unless less you want a $1200, 14 speed Rolfoff hub), but the Madsen is not equipped with an internal hub. The choice of external gearing for a cargo bike is wise as the Nexus hubs aren’t up to hauling 600 pounds. If you are going to go external, why not give yourself more range. I only did one minor hill with the kids, but I could see how I could run out of gears really fast on something steeper or longer. If you live somewhere very flat, this will not be an issue, but anywhere else, a gearing change would probably be appropriate.

Seating for two adults or four kids with seat belts.

Courtney has lived in Amsterdam and wanted to make a stab at going car-free with this purchase. She communicated a disappointment that there has not been as much change in her transportation choices as she expected. The weight and limited gearing of the bike make it a real bear on hills so she has limited its use to around the neighborhood and to the grocery store which are flat runs.

For a company that seems to be marketing primarily to mothers, I’d say these component choices are pretty important. Women are in general much more sensitive to smaller saddles and are going to be less likely to be able to muscle up hills. I don’t think it is acceptable to expect this market, which it not likely to be the cycling enthusiast market, to have to upgrade parts out of the box. Putting a little more thought into how people actually use the bike would greatly improve this product.

Two Bike Mini-vans, side by side. Xtracycle and Madsen.

These gripes aside, I think this is a really great design in a cargo bike. It combines all of the best features of the Xtracycle and Bakfiet into one bike. While I still like the zippier, more performance oriented feel and lower entry cost of my Xtracycle Free Racial, I would seriously consider the Madsen Bucket for bicycle mini-van if I had it to do over again.

1. Delivery Notes and First Impressions
2. Quick Update

In the few months I have had it so far, I have traveled roughly 1200 miles now on my Azor Secret Service bicycle. I’m past due for an update, and I do have a few things to report.

Service, Please

Let’s start with the most important part, and the reason for the title of this post: service! And by service, I really mean “things I should know how to fix but don’t, because I’m not much of a bicycle mechanic, so I take it into a shop instead.” Of course, there are a lot of bike owners, like me, and perhaps even more so in this category, which bills itself as a bicycle for everyday commuting, wearing regular clothes, being a main form of transportation, and so forth. Anyway, I have had to take my bike in three times since I bought it.

Feeling “tired”

My first service incident occurred when I was riding back from Tour De Fat with my wife, and got a flat on my rear tire, somehow. Not bad, really, to have been biking in this town and not get a flat every week, I would say. We have enough glass and construction debris on the sides of the roads to give every cyclist in town a flat every single day. Now, I don’t, as I said, have much in the way of bicycle mechanic skill, so I wasn’t about to try something like patching the tire in place, as some would recommend, when you have an internal hub. Now, it was our great fortune that by the time the flat tire had gotten so low that I actually noticed, I was no further than 100 yards from great local bike shop Tsunami Cycles on South Congress! Amazing luck. Not only was I able to get my flat fixed in a very timely fashion, but I also got a great dinner out of the deal, and I also got the chain tension adjusted, because i figured it was time (and hill climbing had suddenly begun to get a big harder).

What the hell is that noise?

Only a couple of weeks later, I was biking to work and started notice that, every once in a while, I would hear a horrifying clunking sound, a sound you really don’t want to hear on any mechanical object - the sound of metal scraping on metal. I stopped, looked very carefully at everything, and didn’t see anything at all that would be the cause, so I went on to work. I’m not sure why parking my bike for eight hours would have made any difference, but as I started to head home, the noise became even louder, and I could feel it with each pedal stroke. This made me… nervous. Elliott and I looked over the bike again, and still couldn’t determine what the noise was from. Very frustrating. I decided to leave the bike and take it in for service first thing in the morning. It’s a good thing our building houses security and is well lit. Otherwise, I’m sure that would have been a bad idea. The next day, when I brought my bike in to Tsunami again, I found out what the noise was, and it was quite surprising – It was the brakes! Apparently, the force of roller brakes can eventually make things loosen up a bit in there, and then the cooling fin starts to slide against the frame a bit and, well there you go. Whew. At least it was nothing all that serious, the noise notwithstanding.

There is the culprit...

Calm down, you’re all tense

Things were rolling along just fine for several weeks, and then the last item I mentioned two sections above started happening again, except this time a bit differently. I began having a little more trouble than usual climbing hills, which I ignored for a few days and tried to pass off as just fatigue on my part. A week or so after that, more symptoms began to develop. Most noticeably, third gear just stopped working. Now this was a big deal! I generally am in third, fourth, or fifth gear on any flat surface, depending on my energy level, and it’s hard to get through the gears when you have to skip one. Additionally, fourth wasn’t working too well either. Fifth was still all right, but having to go between second and fifth wasn’t too fun. The day shifting got bad enough that I finally decided to take action was fortuitous, as I was already headed to Eastside Pedal Pushers to take photos for the review that Elliott wrote of their shop. Naturally, I gave them the Azor to work on as well, and walked back to the office. These guys were also quite fast, and had my bike done by the end of the day – and yes, it was the chain tension again. I’m not sure how often chain tension should actually be adjusted, but it does seem to be needed somewhat frequently on this bicycle, and I’m almost tempted to learn how to adjust it myself! Shocking.

All’s well that ends well?

So that’s it! One flat tire, two chain tension adjustments, and a brake adjustment. Not really anything serious, so far. It’s a well made bicycle. As I left Eastside Pedal Pushers that day a few weeks ago, I joked with them that this bike just might outlive me. Pretty good investment, especially compared to that other form of transportation.

My Azor Secret Service takes a break in the shade of trees at Garrison Park in South Austin

It’s been a bit over two weeks since I started riding my Azor Secret Service dutch bicycle, and I wanted to just provide a quick update on how things have been, the good and the bad.

Overall, things have been going great. The only problems I have had are with seat position and angle, for the most part. All of the mechanical parts on the bike have been just fine, thus far.

Seat position, height and angle: honestly, this has been hard to figure out. I think I have adjusted the seat angle almost every other day so far, because none of them have felt quite right. It would be great if there were some diagrams or instruction pages online for this. The correct seat posture is really unlike any other bike I have ever been on. I’ve also been wondering exactly how long the break-in process for a Brooks B67 is…wow! Months? Years?

The Azor has had to share space with my wife's Trek in our garage

Other than the seat issue, the Azor Secret Service has been remarkably comfortable for my commutes to work, and for errands after work and on weekends.

Let’s get one thing straight, though – this IS a bicycle for people who aren’t necessarily interested in going too fast, especially uphill. The heaviest thing on the bike is ME, of course, but still, anytime I’m going uphill, it’s a huge momentum killer. Now, if I lose 40 pounds, this could change!

Kickstand: Man, that double kickstand is heavy duty. It’s actually so sturdy that so far the best way to get it to go back up is to lift the bike for a moment, and push it with your leg. A few times I have rolled the bike forward to get the kickstand started, but I’m afraid of doing this too often because it may cause the rubber ends of the kickstand to wear too fast.

Shimano Dynamo Front Hub

The front headlight could be brighter. For winter, I am definitely going to be adding a front flasher or secondary light. Either that, or consider replacing the front light with an LED light instead of a halogen. My rear lights are fine, I think, now that I have the DToplight in place of the rear reflector.

That’s it for now, more in a few weeks as things progress!

Yes, I like Steve Martin in The Jerk, am now somebody. My Xtracycle FreeRadical kit arrived yesterday evening and I immediately went to work converting my old Trek 7200 hybrid into a true S.U.B, Sports Utility Bicycle.

Xtrcycle FreeRadical kit installed and ready to ride

It took me about two hours to fully install the kit while keeping my children from running off with some small key piece. I found the build quality to be good and with a few minor issues, the instructions easy to follow.

Giving Nicole a ride

No sooner had I finished putting the FreeRadical kit together than I went over to Marcus’ house to give him and his wife a ride on the back. This was great fun, and I also was able to haul back a baby gate Marcus had borrowed ealier in the week with ease. This morning I loaded up the back with a bunch of stuff to take to work and felt my road bike at home in favor of my Xtracycle.

I’ve been impressed with the ride quality in my initial ventures with the FreeRadical. I found the handling to be quiet zipping, in fact feeling zippier than my hybrid before the conversion. This may have to do with the inertial built up once you get going, however handling in turns at high speed is great. It is not a speed demon like my Bianchi road bike, but it is definitely more fun to ride than a regular bike with a trailer.

All in all I’ve been very impressed and am enjoying the freedom of carrying much more on my bike with ease. I plan on making some additions to the FreeRadical in the coming days to allow my children to ride safely on the back and doing a more complete review in the next week.

Stay tuned.