You can also just put seats on a normal bike. I have two kids seats on my bike, front and back, and take my 3 and 6yo to kindergarten that way. It's cheaper than a cargo bike, and much less likely to get stolen.
I am dismayed but not surprised at just how much money people will spend on e-bikes to avoid exercise.
There are literally millions of decent analog bike frames bouncing around in various corners of <your city here>. Getting one up and running, and strapping a seat to the front and back as you have done, would be about 10% the cost of a new e-bike, and maintenance would be negligible.
Plus, you get to eat whatever you want guilt-free!
> I am dismayed but not surprised at just how much money people will spend on e-bikes to avoid exercise.
I am dismayed at how much people spend on plastic coffee pods just to avoid making a proper coffee!
Before I got an ebike, I didn't have confidence of riding on the road proper- > now I know I won't be slowing down to 5 MPH on an uphill, with someone behind me honking incessantly or overtaking dangerously.
I installed nice bright lights powered from the central battery, mirrors and a horn. This makes a world of difference.
There is a lot to be said for shitty bike infrastructure causing confrontations like this. Yet somehow I've never been hit except once in a right hook, so I'm sure you can pull it off too if you dedicate yourself to it.
I'd like to point out that the carbon footprint of a used bike is a negative number and the out-of-pocket cost is laughably low. I love when people can reduce their emissions by replacing a car with something with much less impact like an e-bike, but those are the exceptions statistically speaking, and it also doesn't delete that car from existence but rather brings about more demand for mining and materials. Buying used e-bikes is also a fine option.
Actually this is not accurate and somewhat bad advice. A normal bicycle frame is designed for... normal use.
No need for ebikes but child seats should be used on reenforced frames such as what the Dutch call "Moederfiets", you can also use a 'Transportfiets' frame.
You are adding an extra 5 Kg to your front steering tube and another 20 kilos to your back cargo loader. That is not what most frames were designed for.
Secondly things like double leg kickstands and steering stem lock are really important to load kids in and out of seats safely, which again don't exist in 'normal' bikes.
My point is you don't need an ebike but you should definitely not be using an off the shelf thin frame to carry kids around everyday.
I regularly load 40kg+ on a steel touring frame (a remarkably "normal" bike by all accounts) and it's lasted 12 years so far.
Yes, you shouldn't use a department store bike. I (mistakenly?) assumed this is obvious to this reading crowd.
You sound like you have never worked on a bike before. It is not difficult to add different kinds of kickstands to existing frames. I believe you are quite under-informed on bicycle capacities.
Your regularly sounds like something that happens on the weekends. My regular is taking 2 kids to school everyday and leaving my bike parked out in the rain year round. Not all bikes have enough trail room to fit a double legged kickstand and I have never seen a stem lock fitted on anything other than a moederfiets/transportfiets (not a lock smith 'key and lock' but a 'twist' lock to lock the stem to take your kid out of the front seat without the front wheel spinning around on you).
My point is just that if you're planning on replacing a car with a bycicle there are already solved problems for kids transportation.
Exactly. Weight distribution makes a big difference to how the bike handles. If you put a lot of weight on the back without balancing it with weight at the front you'll lose grip on the front wheel easily, which can be dangerous. Front wheel skids are almost impossible to control.
That would be a good example of something we call "user error". I am also not surprised that the first instinct of the risk-averse is "make it heavier", but look where that's got us with cars?
It's true that you'll get more exercise if you do the same trip on a regular bicycle. But according to [1], e-cyclists cycles more and longer than regular cyclists. End result is that they exercise about as much.
I loved biking into work when I lived close enough (7mi) but honestly I would never have done it if I didn't also have shower access (was a small company but the business park had a shared shower).
Doubly so if you're doing any hills with a passenger on board.
pretty narrow to view ebikes solely as a means to avoid exercise. The list of benefits is long and proven. Regardless, suggesting someone simply dredge up a used bicycle and strap their child to it after a bit of maintenance is unrealistic
