Cargobikes: Maybe it's time for a rethink

 My favorite Instructable photo of all time!

Welding, snagit! Welding is a big holdup for me as a builder of eco-friendly things. I was a pretty decent welder as a kid, but I had access to a big shop and a very nice and expensive welder. But that was a few decades ago. In the time since then, I have occasionally relied on the kindness of friends (or strangers who wanted money) for some of my welding needs. But most of my welding needs have actually driven me to think of ways around welding. When building my electric Vespa, I wanted to weld up a swingarm to suit my needs. I eventually (ahem) adapted a small swingarm from an electric dirt bike to suit my needs. I am (ahem) pretty happy with that solution, but it is quite far off in form and function from what I wanted to build.

Cargo bikes have been popping up a lot on this blog lately. As much as I love bicycles, the standard bicycle is mostly just good for transporting one person with minimal stuff. If you want to truly replace a car or truck, you need to find a way to haul extra people or extra stuff. So cargo cycles make great sense.

But cargo cycles are expensive. For Instance, the NTS bikes start somewhere around $3500 and go up into the mid $4K range. And I do not question their worth or their value. But I sure question my ability to pull $4K out of the family budget for a bicycle, especially after I spent that kind of money a few years ago on a motorcycle that has proven to be extremely unreliable and has literally spent more miles in the back of a pickup on the way to the repair shop than it has on the street. (Sigh)

Or, you can build your own cargobike for a lot less money, but you need to be able to weld.

For me, lack of money and lack of welding skills (and a welder) have kept me away from owning or building a cargo bike.

But there may be hope for me after all. An article appeared yesterday on Treehugger.com that featured an open-source, modular, cargo bike. And it's very ugly. But that may be just skin deep. And I could (I hope) build one pretty easily without putting a big damper on the family budget and without the need for a welder. Now, where did I put that chop saw? I hope you find this thing as fascinating as I do.

Learn more here at Low-Tech Magazine

May we all find better ways to haul our stuff without destroying the atmosphere for everyone and everything else.

A Self-Powered Pickup on Two Wheels

Not being (financially) rich is a blessing for me. First, it forces me to find cheap and creative solutions to expensive problems. Second, it keeps me from running off and blowing all of our hard-earned money on somebody else's hard work and creativity.

That somebody else for today's blog entry is a guy named Neal Saiki.

Neal, among other things is the co-founder of Zero Motorcycles. At this point in time, Zero is probably your best option if you want to go out and buy yourself a new electric motorcycle, but don't ask for Neal if you drop by the factory. (And it's very hard to drop by the Zero factory - I tried last year.)

You will find him down the road at his new place - NTS Works, where they build some extremely cool and functional electric cargo bikes. Pricewise, they are in the same range as the cool cruisers featured on this blog back on January 8th (link at the bottom). But there are a few major differences. The NTS bikes are not built to be beauty queens or showpieces. They are built to do work and to be two-wheeled trucks. And one of the NTS bikes is built to feed itself. All you have to do is park it in the sun.

If we had the hard earned money just sitting in a pile at home, I'd be throwing that money at Neal as soon as I finished this blog post. If you follow this post through to the NTS website, be sure to check out the very high-powered and compact solar panel and how little the price difference is between the solar and the non-solar models. And check out their interesting and appealing approach to battery warranty. And, just bask in the glory of the functional coolness. (Sigh.)

Now for those of you who sigh like I do and don't have the pile of money to throw at Neal, here are a few Instructables to help you run out and build your own cargo cycle.

And here is the January 8 Mesquite Hugger post.

And here is the original Derek Markham article  from Treehugger that led me to the NTS Works website.

May you be inspired whether you throw money at Neal or not.