Not got my bag yet, or the front rack 😈

I think the bag will work without the side rails, but will keep you posted with photos, etc. I’ve not ridden the bike since Monday, because the front guard was rubbing and I’ve not had time to fix it.

My Go Getter bag arrived at work today. Anyone need anything huge putting in a bag, because I have just the bag! 🙂

Seriously, it’s really very big – 85 litres, IIRC. I imagine it would fit to a Ute, Xtracycle or Big Dummy too.

I’ll mount it to ride home tonight (it’s swallowed the Karrimor courier bag I brought in this morning and has barely noticed) and will snap some photos later on and stick them on my posterous (http://miketually.posterous.com/).

How big is a Yuba Mundo Go Getter bag?

Big enough to fit a (tall) five-year-old inside:

Mike, thanks for the update. I’ll be interested to see the bag mounted on the bike and to see pics of how it attaches. One day I shall have a cargo bike… one day.

Can you fit your wife in it? I imagine you’d have to fold her up, but most wives must have a volume of less than 85 litres I’d have thought. Please experiment and take pictures. 🙂

Can you fit your wife in it? I imagine you’d have to fold her up, but most wives must have a volume of less than 85 litres I’d have thought. Please experiment and take pictures.

http://www.willitblend.com/

My worry with this is that it is too huge. If you want to carry that much gorcery shopping, say, you really aren’t going to like the way the bike pulls with a bag that size and weight all on one side, but you’re unli,ely to take 2 with you unless you’re doing a mahoosive shop.

The advantage in those circs of the Xtracycle system is that you fill 2 or 4 considerably smaller bags and you can then load more evenly.

Interesting to see how you get on with it though.

Yeah, tried taking my usual bag, plus a laptop bag (with laptop) and a lump of old coursework (@2000 sheets of A4) into work today in the Go Getter bag. The bike kept trying to fall over sideways when stood on the stand, so I left the coursework in the garage.

If I filled the bag with beer, tinned food or other heavy stuff, it’d be no fun. However, it would have been perfect when I stopped in at Sainsburys on the way home last Friday and bought 15 cans of Becks, a bottle of posh cider, a big bag of crisps, Wired magazine and 12 toilet rolls*. I strapped all that to the top of the rack with no real problems, but I did have to think about what I was buying, and the loo rolls got a big squished.

It would be nice to see something like the Xtracycle system, which could be fastened to the Mundo. I like that you just leave those on all the time too, while the bag I probably wouldn’t.

*there is more to my life than getting drunk while eating salty snacks and then reading about the guy who runs Tesla while having a really big poo.

you’re unli,ely to take 2 with you unless you’re doing a mahoosive shop

Two would be about right for our normal weekly shop, I think.

The whole question of ‘which side is the load on?’ is a strong argument in favour of Bakfiets, 8Freights, and the like, which have the large cargo box in front of the rider and centrally placed on the bike. Of course, there are also limitations from that set up as well, particularly for longer, or taller shaped objects.

There’s also the question of maneuverability of the larger freight bikes on typical British bike lanes and paths. Imagine trying to get a Bikefeits round the railings on the island in a two-stage tucan crossing.

Mike, absolutely. My post was abbreviated by the demands of work (shocking, I know), but I had meant to add that it is really encouraging that there are now so many different options available for this sort of thing depending on what you want to use a cargo bike for. The challenge, it seems to me, is in having a clear idea of your intended use so you can select an appropriate bike style in the first place.

I suspect that for the vast majority of people the light-utility style of the Xtracycle/Big Dummy/Kona Ute/Yuba Mundo with its handling being closer to a ‘normal’ bike is probably entirely adequate 90+% of the time, although even then there are relatively significant differences in approach, each with their own compromises.

Thankfully, there is still the rule of ‘n+1’. 😀

Looks stunning – who is the British dealer Mike?

Looks stunning – who is the British dealer Mike?

I got mine from http://www.practicalcycles.com/

one of the things to remember about the BakFiets is that it is used alot for transporting kids, which I think is a much more practical / safer solution than having them sat on the back of an Xtracycle or similar. Horses for courses I guess.

one of the things to remember about the BakFiets is that it is used alot for transporting kids, which I think is a much more practical / safer solution than having them sat on the back of an Xtracycle or similar. Horses for courses I guess.

Yuba Mundo bike seats are now available.

I don’t transport kids at all, so I don’t know, but you can clearly get two child seats on a mundo or an xtracycle for the little people, and certainly with the Xtracycle centre stand it isn’t going to tip over while stood up etc. Certainly no worse than a child seat on a regular bike. Don’t know about little legs sitting straight onto the rack, but I’m doubtful it’s a problem. I can see the bakfiets are more sociable and let you have the kids in view, but I’m a bit doubtful that they’re hugely safer, either from tumbling off or going flying if you ahve the misfortune to have a spill. 🙂

The most appealing part of having the kids in front on a BakFiet or similar is that they can see where they are going more easily than on an Xtracycle or similar. Not sure there is any difference in safety.

Measurements for Go Getter bag: http://miketually.posterous.com/go-getter-bag-measurements-and-light-fitting-0

Picked up a tanned blonde* on the Mundo on my way home from work tonight, so maybe the Xtracycle people are right!

* my daughter, from school