Life After Bakfiets

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20 Responses

  1. Peter Clinch says:

    Could you not have had electric assist retrofitted to the Bakfiets?

    • Diana says:

      Good question! I did look into that but it was going to be relatively expensive. Also, the two children were starting to get a bit squashed in the bakfiets. Living in sunny Scotland, we use the rain cover a lot. With the cover on their heads were getting pushed down and together. This was causing many “he / she is pushing me” type arguments.

  2. Phiona says:

    What about a kids trailer… My children at that age went to school and back every day in a $140 bike trailer. They loved it. I used it until they were 8 and 6..

    • Diana says:

      Because we have to use some roads to get to school I’ve never been too keen on how low trailers are to the ground. The cargo bike also allows me to sort out any arguments quickly!

  3. Cassie says:

    Hi, I live in a really hilly town so had to go for an electric cargo from the start. My son is four and I can easily carry him, his bike and my husband (only when his bike is out of action!) all around town. I have an urban arrow family and it was expensive but the fun it has given us and the car journeys it has saved us are invaluable. I hope you go in to have many more happy years in your e assist too.

  4. Karen Gee says:

    Oooh – I am SO jealous of your e-assist cargo bike! I wish I’d had one of those – we went from trailer to tagalong and front bike seat, and then independent cyclist with tagalong. Not ideal and an e-assist cargo bike would have made life much more stressful. It’s amazing the developments that have come along in the past decade – so much better for the knees! Looking forward to reading about your adventures in it. Karen

  5. Rachelle says:

    Which e assist model did you get? I am looking at the babboe city email assist but live somewhere moderately undulating and can’t decide if the moutain e versions are worth the extra ££?

    • Diana says:

      I got the city e-assist, basically the cheapest e-assist cargo bike they do, and it is great. We’re in Edinburgh so it can be quite hilly here. There are only one or two hills long and steep enough that I still have to work quite hard to keep the bike going. Even so, I can still manage them fine. I’m planning a full review here soon!

      • Ben says:

        Hope you got it checked out after the product recall recently where they had issues with frames snapping in half – it happened to ours.

        • Diana says:

          Same thing happened to ours! https://www.mummysgoneacycle.com/a-cargo-crisis/
          Did you get it sorted?

          • ben says:

            Yes – it was our bike breaking and our ‘complaints’ that led to them referring themselves to the Dutch health and safety authorities and the bike being examined by an independent company. They then recalled all of the bikes affected once they got the results back from the examination.

            Babboe lent us a city mountain whilst the bike was being examined, and when all was done with the process they let us keep it. It’s reinforced under the frame in the part where our City-E snapped. I’ve seen some other City E’s recently which appear to have the same reinforcement fitted now as well.

  6. Richard Loke says:

    Very interesting and thorough review of the market, but just reading the Circe Helios ‘cons’, I notice that you say it does not work as a cargo bike?
    Maybe you are not aware that it is quickly convertible into a cargo bike? Admittedly not as heavy duty as some, but enough for a significant shopping trip or any other cargo functions. In fact, we have customers transporting all sorts of large, unwieldy and heavy cargo.

    • Diana says:

      That’s really interesting to know, thanks for posting. Do you have any pictures you could add? A family near us have had a helios for years and I always admire it.

  7. Jenny says:

    Hi ! Thank you so much for this article… currently trying to work out options for carrying my kids and had wondered about many.of the non-cargo bike options you’ve outlined above and also worried about many.of the same issues. Your post has really helped me clarify my thinking.

    • Diana says:

      I am so glad it helped! I am hoping to find time to do a review of the babboe e-assist cargo bike we opted for in the near future too. Did you manage to decide what to do?

  1. February 13, 2018

    […] for three years, I really did feel like I was cheating or in some way copping out when I bought an e-assist cargo bike. I had this niggling feeling that I was less of a cyclist because my bike had a battery. Three […]

  2. June 5, 2018

    […] Any kind of bike will do. Road bike, mountain bike, hybrid bike, folding bike, e-bike. Take your pick. Because I choose to lead some of my rides between nursery drop off and school pick up, I lead these on an electric cargo bike. […]

  3. July 20, 2020

    […] weight of shifting my beloved bakfiets was making this worse. After a long time considering all the options for continuing to carry two children by bike, I bought an e-assist Babboe cargo bike. It has been not without it’s problems, but I still […]

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