What’s the heaviest thing you’ve carried on a bicycle?
With the exception of child seats, few people here in Britain use bicycles as a way of carrying stuff. Elsewhere, cyclists have become expert at balancing or lashing all manner of cargo to a standard bike – the addition of luggage racks fore and aft transforms it into a veritable workhorse, and specialist designs can haul 250 KG.
For really extreme loads, the bicycle is an effective hand trolley
The best purpose-built cargo bikes in Europe might cost the same as a good secondhand car, but their widespread uptake in cities would have a transformative effect on our collective quality of life.
Trailers open a new world of possibilities – notice the leaf spring salvaged from a lorry
Imagine school run congestion, and the associated road danger, replaced with a procession of sturdy bikes – their cargo boxes brimming with kids. And if you worry your thighs aren’t quite up to the job of carrying the combined weight of up between two and four kids, there are electric motors available as an optional extra.
Most people will be unable to spend thousands on a cargo bike, while at the same time running a car. But for those who can turn to public transport, rental vehicles or a car share club when needed, they can make financial as well as environmental sense. Alternatively, there’s the DIY approach to the cargo bike. Many thousands of people across the world use bicycles to transport everything from building materials to livestock relying on their own ingenuity to convert a standard bicycle into a multipurpose load carrier.
DIY cargo bike – Who needs a side stand anyway?
Unleash your bicycle’s inner workhorse – Win a front cargo rack
We have the rack pictured above to give away. It’s a robust design featuring a chrome finish, wooden base and cup holder. To enter the draw to win it, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this page and let us know what you would use it to carry.
Giving up a car in favour of a cargo bicycle
Giving up a car in favour of a cargo bike and in the process saying goodbye to insurance, VED, petrol, resident permits, parking charges and fines, servicing costs and devaluation – not to mention the gym membership you’ll no longer need – can save the average city driver over £3,500 every year. £3,500 happens to be the price of the latest electric assist cargo bike from Butchers and Bicycles.
Elsewhere in Europe, the bicycle is considered a practical alternative to the car and cargo designs are used to carry loads of up to 250 kg. In Britain, faced with a growing number of parcels, the Post Office has phased out bicycle deliveries. By contrast, and in a perfect illustration of the European attitude towards cycling as a mode of transport, in Germany they developed a larger and stronger cargo bicycle to cope with the extra demand.
Such cargo bikes tend to be, by their nature, big and heavy and relatively slow. The Butchers and Bicycles MK1 aims to challenge the perception of how fun and easy riding a cargo bike can be without compromising usability.
Butchers & Bicycles is the young business based in the meatpacking district of Copenhagen (hence the name), behind the MK1 – a cargo bike designed to retain the performance and fun of a conventional bike.
The Mk1-E uses the same ‘built-to-tilt’ system that features on the rest of the range, but it also boasts a powerful Bosch eBike electric motor and an integrated parking stand that’s easily operated from the rider’s position. The cargo box seats two children aged up to around seven.
Carrying kids by Christiania cargo bike
Cargo trikes are being bought in increasing numbers in London, not only by businesses looking for an environmentally-friendly way of bypassing the congestion charge, but by parents looking for a practical and fun alternative to the car for the school run.
When it comes to transporting young children by bike, especially on the school run, there are various options to choose between. By far the simplest and most popular is the child seat fitted onto the rear rack, but on a standard bike it is not possible to carry more than one child in this way.
In Denmark many families with two or more kids, have turned to the Christiania. There is a choice between a standard-sized model, which can fit two to three kids, and a longer version, which can comfortably seat four to six. The box where the kids sit is in front, so everyone gets a good view, while the rider can keep an eye on the kids.
The Madsen Cargo Bike is like any other bicycle features an extended frame equipped with a tub large sturdy enough to carry 250 kg. The advantage it has over the trikes is that it’s easier to store and park if space is tight.
The ethical choice
The ETA was established in 1990 as an ethical provider of green, reliable travel services. Over 30 years on, we continue to offer cycle insurance , breakdown cover and mobility scooter insurance while putting concern for the environment at the heart of all we do.
The Good Shopping Guide judges us to be the UK’s most ethical provider.
Annmarie Pottrell
I’m always over filling my bike :p
It’s an e-bike with 3 panniers on back and a double child trailer as my daughter was a bit fussy in trailer choice.
After dropping her off at preschool I can do the shopping and cram as much into the trailer and rest into the panniers 😀 Then what’s left on a rucksack on my back.
A front rack would be lovely for quick,easy access to drinks and snacks, especially on a longer ride.
s.collins
I would add a cushion for my little dog who goes everywhere with me. He would love it !!!
Richard Scrase
Beer delivery!
Al Napp
I’d carry my folding bike on it lifeboat style
Jewell Kidd
I try to keep my car parked and use my bike to get to and from school. I love my old front basket but it has taken a beating from carrying heavy loads of books, to shopping, to delivering eggs to friends! I love the look of this one!
Iain Maclennan
I have a Kroozer Cargo trailer. I don’t have a car, so over the past 3 years it’s carried sacks of cement, furniture, groceries, children – you name it… It’s paid for itself many times over. It certainly turns heads over here on the Isle of Wight, and I’m surprised more people don’t use them.
Anna Hayball
Now that my children can cycle their own bikes, we’ve moved on from the multiple combinations over the years of child seat / trailer / tag-along plus child seat, etc with basket on the front for school bags. I only wish I’d had the foresight to invest in a cargo bike from the start. My bike now feels extremely trim without all of that paraphernalia but I occasionally dig out the child seat and use it as a trombone or guitar carrier. Not sure they would fit on that cargo rack but there’s always the handbag. 😉
James
I have two panniers full of shopping on my way home every week. I used to take loads of marking home. On holiday in France and Spain I once took a trailer with camping gear and what a trip!
Helen Taylor-Carter
My Naughty Norman the lucky black cat could do me a favour or 2 sitting in the rack
Craig S-A
I’m always carrying children or shopping on the back of the bike and for bigger shops i use a cargo trailer. I’ve considered a front carrier but have never seen one that looks as good as this one 🙂
Jim Clark
Funny in the 1950s I rode what was then called a trade bike delivering meat on Saturdays, I think I got 10 shillings (50p). bakers also had them for delivering bread etc. (of course}. it was a great brute of a thing for a 13 year old. Very awkward to ride full of next days Sunday roast. It had a small front wheel to allow room for the carrier and a metal plate under the crossbar with the butchers name. Postmen had similar but with two equal sized wheels. So really nothing new.
In mining areas it was not unusual to see several bags of coal on bike, either sea coal or coal gleaned from slag banks. Two slung across the crossbar and one in the V of the frame. The bike was pushed on foot. At one pit there was a low bridge just out of the exit, lorries overloaded with coal would shed a few lumps which were gratefully dealt with by the local villagers.
Peter Clark
Milk. Two teenagers. It’s a near daily purchase
Anna Shakoor-Green
I’d use it to carry groceries
Sue Whitham
Two dinner wagons -the sort with castors, and a folding table… could not Resist charity shop purchase!…..one wagon and the table on the back carrier, and the other wagon on the front basket. It was a long trip and it was raining. Panniers also full of stuff at the time.
Paresh
I would use the rack to deliver freshly made cup cakes to my team mates at work, or better still, carry a picnic for me and my son, as he directs from the child seat at the rear!
Phil
I want one
Bill
I’d also mainly use it to carry groceries. My mum (in her 80’s now) lives about a mile up the road and I often stop and buy a few bits for her on my way to visit.
Wayne Fox
With competitions like this, it’s easy to get carried away.
Rob
I use my bike with Carradice panniers and saddlebag for shopping and cycle camping. It’s great not having to worry about parking. It’s a lovely looking front rack, but anything in it would have to be strapped down – otherwise it would bounce out on the roads where I live. I would use it for shopping, it would be good to take some of the load off the back wheel.
Janet Pye
I’d use it for work to carry my laptop and small equipment in my role as community physiotherapist. Do you think I could fit a Zimmer frame on there? I would if I could. Leading by example arriving on a bike is a positive thing for my patients.
Tim Earl
I acquired a Black & Decker workmate on Freecycle (as it was then called), and wheeled it home on my bike – 10 miles. I was planning to use it to make a trailer, but haven’t managed it yet.
Christina
Great for wood for the stove, shopping to everything else!
Wai
Looks perfect for carrying a picnic basket or plants from the garden centre
David Curran
When I was a teenager, I was a grocery delivery boy, and since the grocers’ bike was so terrible, I could often be seen using my own road bike, with a large box of groceries balanced on handlebars.
More recently, my heaviest load has been a large and heavy car battery bunjee corded onto a rear rack (very dodgy for balance).
The next Lance
I would carry some grocery shopping at the weekend and my laptop, office wear & my lunch during the week.
John Holiday
Good to see that one isn’t a lone voice in the wilderness!
Have been trying to persuade people that load carrying bikes are the way forward, but haven’t seen much take up!
Lewis
I would use it to carry my certificate that congratulates myself on actually winning one of these 😮
Alistair Bloomfield
This would be ideal for carrying cat food and other supplies back from the supermarket.
John Cossham
My Surly Troll and Surly Bill can carry 150kg in the trailer, up to another 50kg in the panniers and on the rack, and I’m 100kg. However with that load, I can’t cycle up many hills!
I carry logs, compost, two slim adults, and hey, who needs a car anyway?
TheCyclist
My bicycle is a proper workhorse. It takes me on everything from short rides to do the shopping (when all 4 panniers are fully loaded, as well as the handlebars), to long distance tours which have exceeded 1,000 miles.
So yes, I would love a front cargo rack for my bike too, please. It would make my life on the bike significantly easier. 🙂
Melanie Carroll
Books, shopping (retail therapy and food), my work stuff!
Absolutely lovely and so much nicer looking than the basket that does that now 😉
Anne
I would carry all my hopes and dreams for being able to cycle everywhere. Too far to cycle to work at present but who knows what the future holds. I can dream of being a super mum bringing all the shopping home in that basket.
Elle
I hope I win that front cargo rack made in chrome with cup holder and wood lining! Oh please let me win!
I would use the cup holder to place my 30oz Ozark tumbler.
The rack I would use mainly to store my school bag. And when I’m not doing that, I would place a cushion to put my 8lb Yorkshire Terrier for a bike ride!!