Coming soon to a city near you: Bakfietsen (Danish cargo bikes)

[larsks.livejournal.com]

The Dutch Bicycle Company is apparently opening a store in Somerville. From an email I received recently when I inquired:

We have rented a spot at 50 Tufts st in Somerville, we should be open for business around January 30- this date depends on the city counsel and occupancy permits etc... So barring any weirdness from the city, we should be open in about 6 weeks.

If you haven't seen one before, this is a bakfiets:





Room for two or three kids, or lots of groceries. They're expensive (seriously), but an interesting option for running errands around town. Great for kids, since you can see them and talk to them while you bike, the the kids can see where they're headed (as opposed to say, trailers, where mostly they see your bicycle, or child seats, where they have an uninterrupted view of your backside).

I've seen one roving around Somerville this past fall. If only I had a garage!

Comments

[jodi.livejournal.com]

the more bikes the better!

maybe if more people had cargo bikes, i wouldn't get such crazy looks when attaching an entire cart-full of groceries to my regualr old cannondale!

[ron_newman]

Love the idea, but please lj-cut the photo. Thanks. -- Your friendly co-moderator.

[ron_newman]

Oh no, not 50 Tufts Street! Do they know what they're getting into? From last year's Somerville News:

What lies beneath Tufts Street?

The soil at 50 Tufts St. is contaminated with harmful chemicals spreading to the surrounding East Somerville homes, according to a consulting firm hired to investigate the land.

The pollutants most likely stem from the days when the address was used as a warehouse for the storage and transfer of tetrachloroethylene, a chemical used in the dry cleaning industry, said Ileen S. Gladstone, vice president of GEI, a Winchester-based environmental firm.

“After storing chemicals for 50 years there was likely a lot of spillage on the property,” she said.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I think there's already a cargo-bike place on Oxford Street in Cambridge, just down from the Oxford Spa and across from the Baldwin School playground. Unfortunately, my snow-addled brain is not remembering the name of it.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Oh my god oh my god oh my god!!! I mean I already have an Xtracycle, but oh, the temptation!! I could haul EVEN MORE STUFF.

[turil.livejournal.com]

My Burley Flatbed trailer (at about $200) can haul more than this cargo bike.

I mean, I love cargo bikes and all, but this thing doesn't seem to have all that much value for the extra cost compared to a bike with a trailer. Plus, with a trailer, you can remove it and have a regular old bike, which makes life easier for storage and shipping and such.

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Even though you warned us it was expensive, I still nearly had a heart attack when I saw those prices! OMG!

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

The contamination is unlikely to affect anyone just walking around on top of the site. And from what I know, which is a bit out of date at this point, they're installing a large-scale vapor removal system in the buildings to prevent the infiltration of the contaminated gases from below the site into the occupied spaces.

[larsks.livejournal.com]

I have both a Burley cargo trailer and a child trailer. I think these bikes could carry at least as much as the flatbed, depending on how the load was configured, and I think they're certainly better for kids than a trailer -- for the reasons I stated in the original post. Mind you, given their cost I'm probably going to be using my Burley's for the forseeable future, and even if I could afford one I've got no place to park it.

[larsks.livejournal.com]

That the New Amsterdam Project (http://www.newamsterdamproject.com/). They're a delivery company -- they'll haul your stuff for you, but they won't sell you a bike, at least not yet. Plus they operate mostly with cargo trikes, and don't really have anything suitable for carrying kids.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Ah. As you can tell, I never went in there, just noticed the cargo bike (or trike) in the window.

[ursamajor]

Even having seen the difficulties people had with these on the Amazing Race recently, there's something really adorable and retro about them. And I regularly have 40-lb grocery loads that would fit perfectly into the basket ...

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

No kidding. Maybe they need a Zipcar-like model for these things. I'd rent one to go to MarketBasket, just to avoid finding a parking space. But at $2500+++, I can't see buying one soon.

[rosiewoodboat.livejournal.com]

What NAP is intending to do, in addition to renting fleet cargo-bikes, is manufacture Bakfietsen-like cycles domestically.

Typical Dutch

[rosiewoodboat.livejournal.com]

The Dutch model for parking these cycles is outdoors. They are designed with Stainless and other corrosion resistant materials to be left outdoors in the weather.

[larsks.livejournal.com]

I brought a Christmas tree home on my trailer last weekend. Now *that* got some real looks!

[larsks.livejournal.com]

It's definitely eye catching! :) That's why I noticed the place, too.

[larsks.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome. They mentioned something to me about developing a cargo bike but I didn't get any details. Cool.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

now, that i would need a trailer for!

[jodi.livejournal.com]

i'd be very enthusiastic about renting these zipcar-style!

[summerrose.livejournal.com]

They also sell really awesome traditional-style and modern dutch bicycles of the non-cargo sort. I'm planning on getting one in the spring.

I doubt that the chemical problems in the area of their new location will be a problem - it's not like they're planning on growing produce there or something, but I'm a bit worried that's it's out of the way enough that they won't get much foot traffic.

[ron_newman]

Just walked by it today -- what a great display window.

[julishka.livejournal.com]

pssst, danish and dutch are not interchangeable. just so ya know.

danish = from denmark
dutch = from the netherlands