I don’t think they’re saying hills make cycling impossible, I think they’re saying Dutch-style bikes are not the best tool for the job if you live somewhere hilly.
Most of the features of a Dutch-style bike are absolutely great for cycling as transportation regardless of your location, but riding a heavy steel frame with limited gearing? It’s absolutely fine if you ride somewhere mostly flat, but it isn’t a well-adapted bike for inclines.
Real old school Dutch bikes are pointlessly heavy and limited. A friend has one and it’s single speed ratio was monstrous and it weighed 45lb/20kg
However just a slightly more modern take is much better and suited for anywhere. I ride an extremely rugged and durable steel city bike with igh gears, lights, full fenders and rack and it’s 32lb/14kg and fine for hilly areas. They don’t need to be monsters.
I guess at some point, if these become more popular, lawmakers will need to decide if cities will require additional types of paths: one for cars and bikes, one for bikes and pedestrians, and one for bike cars.
Their size makes them awkward to use on both bike lanes and regular multiuse paths, so something will need to be thought of to accommodate them.
I will say that I met someone with a velocar, and it was a bit of a PITA to manoeuvre on standard bike infrastructure. It was also a PITA to fix anything on it.
I can only give you advice, based on my experience with an older MTB that has hauled over 130lbs worth of groceries at a time.
I’m a fan of keeping the bike modular, so it can be ridden with no extra bulk (except for front and rear racks), but I can increase its capacity with a combination of baskets, panniers, or a cargo trailer.
My standard haul configuration is usually the trailer with rear panniers (25L Arkel Shopper bags x 2 + the Wike City Cargo Trailer with 100lbs capacity). It typically looks like this, although I don’t usually bring the trunk bag on grocery hauls, and will instead (if needed) mount a large steel basket, which is secured by voile straps.
If I’m picking up a really large/bulky grocery haul, I will bring two front panniers and a handlebar basket (Wald).
But… most errands and smaller hauls will either see me with a Burley Travoy trailer, which converts into a handcart for taking into stores, or just the rear panniers.
As I said, I like to keep things modular with the option of just having a “naked” bike to ride around with.
This is great info, thanks for taking the time to write it out! I didn’t even notice the front rack at first, does the handlebar basket just latch on to the rack? I think this (minus the trailer for now) makes a lot of sense for me
does the handlebar basket just latch on to the rack?
Ok, so Wald makes several types of front baskets. The one that I have has a bracket that gets mounted to the handlebars permanently (you can remove them, but they aren’t means to be removed like their quick release mount), and then the basket latches onto it.
Here is what it looked like after I installed the Wald mount:
It was a challenge to make sure that I could still have a functioning headlight and camera with the basket installed, so I also installed a handlebar extender to lift those up, and a bike light mount on the front rack. Since then, I’ve learned that you can get a clip-on mount for baskets that will hold the light, but I’m not sure if they use the same Garmin quarter-turn mount as my light, so…
But… I found that the Wald mount interfered with my regular handlebar bags (Arkel Signature BB and BB packet), so I’ve strapped some horizontal tubing to the Wald mount, so those handlebar bags can mount better without excess rubbing. I can remove the tubes very easily for when I need the front basket.
This particular bike is pretty busy, but it’s an AMAZING utility bike! I’ve also added a frame bag for added carrying capacity (mostly for extra straps and tools), a top tube bag, and it now has double feed bags attached behind the handlebars for quick access to snacks, my powerbank, compact camera, etc.
If I had only one wish, it would be that I wish I went with a front rack that has a platform. My front rack is a low-rider, which is great for stability, I won’t lie, but I would have made use of a platform.
One final mention. When I strap a basket to my rear rack, I tend to add a cut piece of 2x4 under it to give it a few inches of lift off the rack. This makes it easier to get the Arkel panniers off (and back on). It’s not necessary that I do that if I plan to use only the rear basket.
Let me know if you have any other questions, and I’d be happy to help!
This is awesome advice, thank you! I bought a rear rack and some cable housing (I’m worried the rear derailer cable will scrape on the rack mountings). I’m going to start with the rear rack and panniers.
My front fork is some kind of chunky mountain bike built-in-shocks thing and I’m not sure there’s a way to mount a front rack to it, but I’ll try to figure something out once the rear one is set up. Failing that, I’ll look for one of those handlebar baskets.
I figure I’ll start small, see if this is useful, and add capacity as I go.
I figure I’ll start small, see if this is useful, and add capacity as I go.
That’s what I’ve done! I’m lucky that the used MTB I linked is a 26"er, and so was my older one. I built up my older MTB with a bunch of gear, and they all ported over without issues. Then I just added more as I saw fit.
There are also handlebar mountable baskets, klickfix for example. I have klickfix adapters for all my bikes, currently not using it on my touring bike, but i did for a lot of tours. They’re not the most stylish baskets, but i like the easy possibility do dismount it and go shopping with it or whatever.
Except on my citybike i have a fixed basket that is mounted to the head tube.
Something like this might work with your fork. Front baskets are really nice to have imo.
That’s a good idea! I’ve got the rear rack attached, I’m going to add a kickstand and then some kind of front basket. I think these will work with my front fork.
The bike has rear mounting points but the type of bike racks that seem to be designed to use them claim lower weight limits. There are others that wrap around the seat post and rear fork.
That’s good to know! My SO’s bike has a basket, and I was surprised at how much of a difference it made. I found myself using her bike more than mine last year. For stuff like hauling groceries, would it be better to use saddlebags over the rear rack?
That definitely adds a lot of length to the back! I think I see these on the bike path sometimes but didn’t realize its an add-on rather than a custom-built bike. I’d been thinking when my SO and I have kids in a few years, we’d get one of those cargo bikes with the big wheelbarrow bucket on the front, where kids or probably another adult or groceries can ride. But I’ve never ridden either version - do the ones with the cargo in the front handle worse? Are there other tradeoffs?
I like his electric bike conversion. I’m brand new to anything more than the most absolute basic bicycle maintenance (this bike’s rear derailer was held together with zip ties at one point), so I hadn’t waded in to electric bike options and tradeoffs yet. I’ve heard they’re a huge game changer and an improvement on cars in the kind of built-up areas where I live. I’d figured I’ll set this one up for some cargo capacity, then sort of feel out what I want once I’ve been using it a bit.
OK in that case I definitely recommend a reasonably heavy duty rear rack and some good quality panniers. Your Kona will be able to take a decent amount of weight.
If it was me I’d then also put a flat front rack on the front and then you can fix a basket to that but also run it flat if you need to. Something like this: tredz.co.uk/.Specialized-Pizza-Rack_95421.htm
Then like you say, once you want to upgrade an amazing option would be the proper cargo bike like you say. Definitely on my list!
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