The Rise and Fall of the Home-Made Cargo Bike

I currently have three primary school aged children who, up till recently lived in a house that was 800m from their school gate. Most days the three kids biked to school, and they could all handle this distance fairly easily.

However, we’ve recently shifted into a bigger house a few streets over and it’s now a 1,400m bike ride to school. I didn’t think this additional 600m would be a big deal but, in reality, found that my five year old’s tiny little legs have been struggling to last the extra distance.

I own a regular e-bike with a carrier on the back. On a couple of occasions I found myself giving him a ride, by sitting him on the carrier. This got him to school, but it felt a bit unsafe and wasn’t really a satisfactory solution.

Several other parents ride their kids to school on purpose-built bikes like the one below. I’ve written about these things becoming increasingly common at the sports fields on Saturday mornings (here).

I started looking enviously at these other parents with their long-tail bikes and thinking that’s what I need. So I jumped online for a shop. Turns out they will set you back anywhere from about $4.5k up to $10k+.

This is more than I wanted to spend, so I started checking Trade Me and Facebook Marketplace for secondhand ones. However nothing came up. It seems like people who buy these things tend to hold onto them (possibly a sign that they are indeed useful?).

Instead of forking out the big bucks, I thought I’d try rangi something up with stuff I had lying around the house.

I cobbled together some plywood I had lying around into a makeshift seat, put it onto my carrier and Voila! A home-made long-tail cargo bike. Here are the two kids testing it out. It just sits on the top of the carrier, with a little latch to hold it in place.

This setup worked an absolute treat. They do still sometimes bike themselves, but it’s nice having the option to jump on if they’re not in the mood, or we’re in a hurry. I was initially quite chuffed with my handiwork.

But after two weeks disaster struck: my back tyre blew out. I think it was from overloading.

It was easy enough to fix, and the bike is up and running again now. But it is a clear sign that the tyres aren’t designed for the kind of weight I’m putting on them. And I suspect the whole rest of the bike is also being put under stresses that it’s not designed to take. The carrier itself is only supposed to take 15kg, I’m probably putting 30-40kg on it.

So the bike is limping on for now, but if carrying children is going to continue I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and buy a purpose built child-carrying bike. Maybe go for a slightly cheaper one like this:

But also I think I’ll wait a little longer to see if government introduces an e-bike subsidy. They’ve been promising one for years but never quite managed to get it off the ground.

Hipkins threw it on his climate bonfire earlier in the year. But it’s one of the better and more popular policies. I have a sneaking suspicion we may see it back on the table before the election silly season is over. And if it is you may see me and the kids cruising round town on an upgraded longtail.