I personally don’t really understand the hype for cargo bikes. Sounds to me like something that can be sold because it’s a novelty. A regular bike with good (!) bags can carry quite a lot, and a bike with a trailer even more. And it is modular, meaning that you can just disconnect the trailer or the bags, and you have a regular bike that weighs way less. Also, with a trailer, you don’t have to balance the weight, and they can have additional brakes.
I just don’t see the benefit of cargo bikes over bikes with modular equipment.
Why do you think so? With a cargo bike, the weight is always to be moved whenever you lean to the sides. The bike itself weighs more because you have to create the structure that holds the cargo on a longer bike: higher weight and longer lever (technically speaking) means you have to make everything two times stronger, not just one time stronger.
Also, a trailer gives you the possibility to get through narrow edges better, because it can move. With a cargo bike, you have one long non-bending bike. Also, you can disconnect the trailer and use your hands to get the trailer to the offloading site, be it indoors or somewhere else, where bikes might not reach that easily.
I seriously only see benefits. I’ve yet to read from someone to show benefits of cargo bikes. I’ve had this discussion quite a few times, but that never happened.
Two objective things that I can think of where cargo bikes might be better:
If you want to go backwards (e.g. if you are on a narrow path or have parked your bike). Reversing anything with a trailer is more difficult so cargo hikes have an advantage here.
Busy or narrow places. It is harder to be aware of a trailer as it is behind you while cargo bikes often have the cargo in front of the rider.
As a cyclist, if anything can convince someone to keep their SUV in the garage for a day I’ll take it as progress.
As a consumer, I completely agree with you. I can load my touring bike with 130lbs of gear, I do my family’s grocery shopping on it, I haul everything in reason. Trailer sounds nice but I haven’t needed one.
I personally don’t really understand the hype for cargo bikes. Sounds to me like something that can be sold because it’s a novelty. A regular bike with good (!) bags can carry quite a lot, and a bike with a trailer even more. And it is modular, meaning that you can just disconnect the trailer or the bags, and you have a regular bike that weighs way less. Also, with a trailer, you don’t have to balance the weight, and they can have additional brakes.
I just don’t see the benefit of cargo bikes over bikes with modular equipment.
I’ve never used one but I imagine they have better balance and manoeuvrebility than adding a trailer
Why do you think so? With a cargo bike, the weight is always to be moved whenever you lean to the sides. The bike itself weighs more because you have to create the structure that holds the cargo on a longer bike: higher weight and longer lever (technically speaking) means you have to make everything two times stronger, not just one time stronger.
Also, a trailer gives you the possibility to get through narrow edges better, because it can move. With a cargo bike, you have one long non-bending bike. Also, you can disconnect the trailer and use your hands to get the trailer to the offloading site, be it indoors or somewhere else, where bikes might not reach that easily.
I seriously only see benefits. I’ve yet to read from someone to show benefits of cargo bikes. I’ve had this discussion quite a few times, but that never happened.
Two objective things that I can think of where cargo bikes might be better:
As a cyclist, if anything can convince someone to keep their SUV in the garage for a day I’ll take it as progress.
As a consumer, I completely agree with you. I can load my touring bike with 130lbs of gear, I do my family’s grocery shopping on it, I haul everything in reason. Trailer sounds nice but I haven’t needed one.