Tern GSD owners – how’s it going

Seen one new at a great price, trying to weigh up the value of it having 2 small kids to move around the city, shopping to get, impending congestion charge, going to mobile jobs around the city etc.
Who has one, how useful is it, especially on those cold wet data, do you revert to car/van?

I don’t have one but fwiw I see a few of them around school run time locally. One of the most impressive bike design/formats in recent years I think. They seem to be very well rated by owners and one of those best in class bikes that probably retain value well if you get one at a good price?

It’s virtually a no risk but struggling to part with the cash from the business

I have one but I don’t use it for carrying kids. I use it for general getting about and carrying all kinds of stuff. I use it in all weather and it has done 5250 miles in about 18 months.

I think it’s brilliant. I really enjoy riding it and it is very capable. Mine is the Gen 1 derailleur version and I’m pretty happy about that. A friend has the Gen 2 version and he really rates it too. He uses it to carry two kids and has been on cycling holidays using it. He has the clubhouse fort and uses it in all weather.

I would love one.

Friend uses a Tern GSD to lug three kids around. Even took her husband to the train station at the weekend.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CX4UffdL-o1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I have huge E-cargo bike envy ATM after getting very used to using my wife’s E-dutch bike to blat around town during the pandemic.

The GSD is the only one we really have space for and the fact we could use it to run the nippers (age 7 and 10) about is the big selling point now they’re both getting into Cubs/playdates/activities etc.

I shall monitor this thread with interest.

Whilst I said I don’t carry kids about… I have carried my daughter on the back to the local woods for her run. It’s about 2 miles away and includes a > 20% hill. She is 27 and 5’10”. It handled the hill in both directions with no problem.

Just been offered one on trial win/win

I had the Benno on test (larger wheels than the Tern) and ended up buying it. I’ll be amazed if you don’t love it. I’ve done over 2000km on the Benno since last June, pretty much all short trips. That’s a lot of not driving the car. Let us all know how you get on!

Weve got a 10 yr old Yuba El Mundo.
Woudlnt be without it.
My van (our only vehicle as a family) sees 3k miles a year, tops.

The terns are smaller, and more cramped (i think), the smaller wheels are a bit crashier over bumps than 26″ wheels of the Yuba.
Having said that, they appear to have some great features.
I just think if i was in the market for another Bike, a tern wouldnt be that high on my list, personally.

I would have another ElMundo (Now the Mundo Electric) in a heartbeat.
We get lots of admiring comments, and i know of at least…4 families at nursery who have bought cargo bikes having test ridden ours.
Most of them have bought Rad Wagons. they are MUCH cheaper. Though as a “bike guy”, you will see why they are cheaper. Hub Motors, bottle cage batteries, low end groupsets.
Fine though! its a two wheeled truck, not a racing bike.

Everyone (who lives in some form of suburbia at least) should have a cargo bike.

The GSD is the only one we really have space for and the fact we could use it to run the nippers (age 7 and 10) about is the big selling point now they’re both getting into Cubs/playdates/activities etc.

The small storage footprint of the tern is a MASSIVE positive for them, especially with the tail-standing storage, and the folding handlebars.

Im not convinced youll be able to carry a 7r old and a 10 yr old onboard simultaniously though

My Manic Monday after school goes:

School pickup > Home > Rainbows drop off > Morrisons shop > Nursery Pick > Home > Rainbows collection > Home.

Its great.

If it’s a good price definitely go for it. I really wanted one a couple of years back and couldn’t justify it. Now have an electrified Surly Big Dummy, its ace, although it is very large!

Used to use it for the school run before my daughter moved school. My other daughters nursery is so local that it’s a 2 min walk. Still use it when I can though, it’s a really handy bit of transport

Everyone (who lives in some form of suburbia at least) should have a cargo bike.

I tend to agree. But I’d go further. I suggest that in much of the UK, certainly outside the highlands and definitely in most of Wales, a cargo bike is really useful. I live in a relatively rural area and I use mine all the time. It makes sense on ‘utility’ journeys of 10 to 12 miles each way here.

I had the Benno on test (larger wheels than the Tern) and ended up buying it. I’ll be amazed if you don’t love it. I’ve done over 2000km on the Benno since last June, pretty much all short trips. That’s a lot of not driving the car. Let us all know how you get on!

I’d like to try a Benno. It’s looks great. There will be pros and cons relative to the the Tern but there is significant overlap in terms of what they do.

Whichever you get, expect to go through quite a lot of chains if you do high mileage (and aren’t on a belt drive) as well as brake pads. I just view them as consumables… it seems to annoy some people on the GSD Facebook group that they don’t last for ever.

I’d say it depends a bit how big the kids are – we considered the Tern among others but went for a front loader/box bike (Raleigh Stride 2) in the end as it was better for our 1 year-old and will take any future additions from fairly early on (will take a car seat with adapters).

We also strongly considered the Urban Arrow Family (another front-loader), but they brought out a new model and had a big price rise which made the Raleigh the sensible choice, despite being a little less polished.

I know three people now who’ve got them and they all say they’re brilliant (although the most recent did say it’s a bit of a lump to ride, but it’s their first cargo bike and I’d guess that’s true of any).

Every time I see one with kids on the back they just seem to be having the best time (the Tern YouTube videos are full of joy if you’ve not watched them). Someone else was telling me about their friends who have one with two similarly aged kids – apparently when they’re getting on they sit facing each other, and when they’re getting on each others nerves back to back!

Looking forward to borrowing one for a weekend as latest purchaser has promised I can have a proper go when they’re away some time. (his has got the enviolo hub as well which will be interesting)

I have a few friends with Terns and they all rave about them. I took one for a spin and was very impressed.

@bikerevivesheffield where did you see one for a good price? I’m seriously tempted.

I also rode a friend’s massive Dutch bike. A big trike thing with the kids in a box on the front. It was absolutely terrifying!

Im not convinced youll be able to carry a 7r old and a 10 yr old onboard simultaniously though

I had a feeling that particular boat may have sailed, but being able to just plonk one of them on the back and run them about will be really handy, feels really wasteful to fire up the van to drive a 3 mile round trip because othewise you won’t be back in time, and then do it all again an hour later.

In an ideal world we’d ride everywhere but even if the route is safe we usualy don’t have anywhere secure to leave his bike whilst he’s there.

Yuba range is worth a shufty too, lots of developments there in the last few years: ie

https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/yuba-spicy-curry/

I see plenty of people using them on the school run in Bristol when I occasionally go into the office, if I lived in a city I would definitely get one. Tempting to get something similar even though I live in a small town with an annoying school dropoff – 2 miles each way if I’m working from home or 4 miles if I go to the train station, but spend longer faffing around attaching bike trailer etc than riding so usually take the easy option (car)

Very experienced with cargo bikes and yes Tern’s are popular, but please look beyond their very pretty marketing imagery and read some of the forums on these.

I would only recommend the Tern GSD in the long tail segment as my ‘top rated long tail type bike’ IF, and thats a BOLD CAPITAL IF…
One of your riders/pilots is short, i.e. less than 5’3. The GSD is the only bike that genuinely fits everyone from 4’11 to 6’4 without needing tools to alter things, everything is QR clamp.
You are going to use that ‘stand on the tail and fold the bars’ design. I know and regularly deal with around 20 of them around Scotland. None use that feature, bike is too heavy and awkward to get up on its back end without it falling over and destroying your hall way in the process of doing it, or because as you walk on the floor, it deflects and the bike comes crashing down behind you.

Problems with mk1. Frames that aren’t made straight, impossible to mount a rear brake to without it rubbing constantly, frames with holes in them due to incomplete welding, frames with cracks propagating from those holes due to incomplete welding, headset cup recesses machined poorly or not at all (so your headset goes loose in one direction, and binds up in the other), wrong way around chain tensioner (easy to fix, but come on, really!), tricky cable routing around bosch gen2 motor mount for the rear hydro brake (often found twisted/knotted/and constricted from factory). Quality of accessories OK, no real failures, but for the money, they are a bit underwhelming. The ‘side stand’ provided on mk1 as standard are a travesty and honestly a few folk were thinking of going trading standards with them, brand new £5k ecargo bike with stand that either bends to death, snaps or seizes within 3 weeks of new? Pathetic tbh and reflects bad on our industry as a whole. The ‘double kick stand’ was much better, but very frustrating that they did not offer to existing customers as a replacement, instead asking for around £150-170 additional.
I know a few former dealers of Tern who have packed in their accounts as they’d had enough of receiving bikes with glaring defects and each and every time the response from Tern was ‘we’ve never heard of that before, can you send us photos’ and then them dragging their feet a fair amount more than normal (pre pandemic).

Mk2. Many improvements, frames better so far, routing better, same size and handling etc. Few issues still, rear brake mounts aren’t that straight, so you have to face them, have access to the Park tools and the VAR disc face tool, none really fit the frame because of its design.

Main issue with Mk2 GSD. If you get the medium size black foot rests for the kiddo, which bolts on in 3 or 4 places, try and remove the rear through axle for the rear wheel. You can’t. You have to upend the bike, unbolt at least 2 of the 3 bolts, and 1 of these might be unable to remove due to the kickstand, so you end up loosening the kickstand too. In order to get the rear wheel off in the event of a puncture etc. This is a staggering oversight. Other issues we still have with mk2 and mk1, the plastic chain guard behind the cassette gets caught on the freehub body retaining component, and unscrews it causing the freehub to pack into the frame causing at the least the chain to keep getting thrown off, at the worst the rear wheel locks up and throws you off.
Maybe not an issue, but a point of note. For MK2 you will need a very long chain, around 150 links IIRC. The mk1 at least used a 138 link chain (easy to get in 9 or 10s), but for the mk2, you’ll be buying 2x e bike chains every 1000 miles*. Last point, suspension forks, yes they make the ride a bit plusher, but I can’t imagine any of them lasting more than 2 years of hard use in the UK.

*All mid drive cargo really go through chains quite quickly.

If your gonna get a mk2, have just the bare frame foot rests, or the big flop down jobs, the medium sized bolt on one is literally stupid.

Benno eBoost is mechanically better than GSD mk2, accessories are far nicer made (and same price pretty much), riding is more confidence inspiring, handling is genuinely neutral. Priced similar/a little cheaper. Downsides are they don’t really work for riders/pilots under 5’3, and require an allen key to change bar + saddle positions. Amazingly they weigh less than a mk2 GSD once you’ve put like for like accessories on them. And the sizes of the overall bike are very similar, Benno is maybe 2-3cm longer overall, but the back seat area is quite a bit roomier, the seat pads are far far better quality (made of Santoprene I think, vs Tern is regular sofa foam wrapped in vinyl with a stapler).

This isn’t a rant, this is a public message to help folk make more informed decisions rather than blindly following some pretty marketing images with some actors kids. Yes longtails work very well for kids aged 5-12 years + shopping + daily life. What I’m saying is please do not blindly go and buy GSD because a magazine said its best in class, those people aren’t owners, mechanics or have any grasp really of the real life issues that these bikes *can* have.

If your on a budget, (still £3-4.5k!) Yuba Spicey Curry is really also worth a look, does everything the above do, some economies are made obviously, Surly and Kona also do some good longtails.

These ride nicely and are not too big, though less compact than the GSD.

Justlong

Choice of frame design and E assist or not.

The luggage/cargo but is good as easy to convert from flat load cargo to somewhere to put kegs through.

@BrickMan That’s really interesting. I haven’t found issues with my GSD (yet!) but those issues are important to know about.

I’d like to try a Benno. If I remember rightly it has a QR rear axle. Is that a good/bad/neutral thing?

There are also a load of other compact longtails including the one @rootes1 posted and the Moustache one.

It’s a shame we don’t have more cargo bikes available here. I really like the look of the xtracycle bikes but they’re not available here

Im not convinced youll be able to carry a 7r old and a 10 yr old onboard simultaniously though

I had a feeling that particular boat may have sailed, but being able to just plonk one of them on the back and run them about will be really handy, feels really wasteful to fire up the van to drive a 3 mile round trip because othewise you won’t be back in time, and then do it all again an hour later.

I totally agree using the bike for that kind of journey is ideal. Its the Tern that looks small, to me. Just consider you can get bikes that will carry them both more comfortably, but obviously the bike itself will be bigger. so depends where your priorities lie.

do it

I have the gen 1 and have had it since 2018

Been very good – ideal for chucking the kids on the back and taking them to school / beach. Popping to shops. Going to pub etc.

Even squeeze 3 in on occasion.

Haven’t had issues with it.

Both myself and partner can use it (6’4” and 5’8”).

7&10 they should be riding themselves…..

7&10 they should be riding themselves…..

That’s a bit of a sweeping statement and, I would suggest, somewhat unhelpful to people trying to make the vital shift from cars to other modes of transport. At that age I think there are trips that are perfectly feasible on a kid carrying cargo bike that you simply wouldn’t expect a 7 or 10 year old to ride themselves.

@alpin, how old are your kids?

@hatter a great deal of my miles have been done with my 11 year old on the back. It’s how I do the school run, and sometimes the supermarket shop (if it’s not going to need all available space). I have carried my 13 year old (who is basically adult size) and I have even sat on the back – she and I are both over the manufacturer’s weight limit but the bike seemed to manage it fine, even up hill. We’ve added BMX pegs to stop dangling feet dragging on the ground. It’s a brilliant set up and I was lost without it when it went in for a service!

And @alpin yes, my kid can ride a bike, very well as it happens, but school logistics (and crap security/storage) mean it’s rarely possible for him to ride to school. Being able to ride and having a cargo bike to make some trips on aren’t mutually exclusive.

Thanks Hannah

7&10 they should be riding themselves…..

I thought I’d addressed this in my earlier post but…..

The boys been riding Welsh trail centres since he was 7, the wee lady is getting pretty handy as well but I’m not hugely comfortable leaving his pimped out Transition Ripcord or her heavily upgraded Early Rider locked up unattended whilst they’re at Cubs, playdates, the skatepark or whatever.

Back when they were really small and I could sling their bikes across my back and ride to meet them I did, but they’ve got a bit beyond that.

how old are your kids?

Haahh… No kids!

Mk1 here. 4500 miles.
1 cassette and chain.
2x front pads, 1 rear pad and disc.
1 tyre.
Used all weathers.
Best purchases: Cyglove bar muffs and a poncho for the boy from decathlon.
Things that have failed: chain idler pulley. Replaced with a pit bike pulley after Moore Large (distribution) were shit at dealing with the issue.
Centre stand: original maintained but still failed so replaced with atlas stand at my cost.
Size: I’m 6’2”, my wife is 6’4” and it fits us both.
It fits in the back of my Subaru Outback in cases where we transport it.
And now pictures

@BrickMan that was an interesting report on the GSD.

*Overlong (swidt) cargo/town/utility bike ramble warning*

tl;dr ‘look before you longtail’

As an MTBer I normally agonise for months before purchasing an MTB. I’m suprised that I hardly even agonised over anything when buying a cargo bike. When there are so many different types to consider. I just bought the most affordable mountainbikey one I could find. The shopowner even suggested a Gazelle Cabby instead of. And I (being embarrasingly honest) thought, ‘pah, girl/town bike-looking thing, how woll that get me across welsh mountains’? It didn’t occur to me that my MTB was already perfect for crossing Welsh mountains, and that my soon-to-be cargo bike needed instead to be perfect for no-faff carrying stuff across towns/stop-start traffic, easy dismounts etc, etc, etc. Hindsight.

Surly and Kona also do some good longtails

Images are powerful.

Surly school run

Gazelle school run

I’ve long been in the ideological market for an electric cargo bike (can’t afford one yet so run a cargo trailer, and the bike remains pie-powered) since ditching a Kona Ute (vile thing) many years ago.

I’m on the whole more than skeptical about Kona and Surly offerings to the school run and shopping world, and for a number of reasons. A few of these reasons are from my own direct experience with the Kona Ute’s high-up loading, unbalanced riding, flexy nonsense (some of these may or may not have since been fixed with the electric offering) – but some are more general obsevations.

Have been carrying groceries and people on various bikes for around two decades with a number of different bikes and trailers. I struggled mostly with trailers and 26″ MTB hybrids for half of this time until bought and attempted fitting an Xtracycle long-tail kit on a 26er MTB. Unfortunately it didn’t fit my bike and so I exchanged the kit for a Kona Ute. The Kona looked sexy and awesome (and was also to be my first 29er) it was rugged-looking and mountainbikey and I couldn’t wait to get shopping and bikepacking/camping with it!

Upon actually riding it when loaded I was subsequently gutted. It was thoroughly impractical ie high-loading, wobbly, (even dangerous) for purpose. It also had nothing included with it for practical use by the way of lights, locks, mudguards etc. Then I stupidly began thinking maybe I should have saved more and gone instead with the Surly Big Dummy. Again, I rode/ride mountain bikes, so it was a natural desire to have a mountainbikey ‘cargo’ bike.

I made a substantial loss on the Ute selling it on, and so bought a used and ugly Dutch utility bike for around 100 quid to tide me over. Was surprised to find that it was a nearly seven foot-long steel 26″ beast of burden with a long rear rack and it also kicked the Kona (and all other prior utility purchases of mine ) to the kerb and some.

It had everything useful onboard (lights, hub generator, mudguards, locks etc) and most importantly a massive step-thru frame so loading and dismounting, and stopping, etc where a breeze to perform. As it should be.

I could even carry someone (adult) on the low, long rear rack if required. In short – it was the first serious town/utility bike I had ridden, and it was a revelation which kicked my MTB roots in the nads.

I now keep my MTB requirements for MTB. MTBs IMO are rubbish for being a daily cargo/ute/town bike (compared to actual daily cargo/ute/town bike). Yes they CAN work, just as a hybrid/townie be ridden offroad. But why would you choose it over something built for purpose? Except for fashion/format familiarity?

While the Surlys look cool for gravelly mega-touring (or trail building) and could no doubt carry all manner of titanium mugs and Patagonia clothing along the bumpy tracks of, well, Patagonia …

…are they really (for anyone’s money) the best ute/transport to carrying kids and vacuum cleaners and four bags of shopping across town? What criteria/experience are informing your choice?

Article one:

Sexy rugged MTB longtail:

– Kids/toddlers balanced high up out of your view in parental fart-zone/dismount kick-zone
– Big wheels for rolling over big obstacles
– Lots of options to buy lots more stuff to make it semi-useful in town
– Panniers. Who doesn’t love panniers?

Boringly purposeful cargo/town bike

– kids secured low-down or even in front of rider
– Step-thru frame and big centre stand, so no opportunities to kick heads, fart-punish or even overbalance when dismounting
– Mudguards and lights and stuff
– Big box to throw shopping bags in or
– Kiddie-seats with raincover or
– No panniers required (how boring is that?)

I suppose the Tern GSD sits in its own niche being a very compact long-tail which is often essential for city-dwellers in flats etc. And it does have a step-thru-ish frame and small wheels going for it. Both very useful features for cargo, so it beats the Kona and Surly options on those alone, IMO. If bike storage space is limited I can see the attraction of a compact long-tail.

Have looked at that Benno before. Looks a sensible format for a compact longtail option if having a longtail is important. Why a sidestand though?

Note: I’m not against longtail format per se and looked at the (doscontinued?) Edgerunner and Yuba Spicy Curry as not-so-bad town transpor/cargo options on account of their sensible low-loading and stepthru features. But if I’d personally just shelled out the best part of £6k on a Surly Sexmule (minus lighting, locks and mudguards) for to transport my precious cargo sporks across the Andes between charging points Harrow to MTB nirvana school/Sainsburys then I’d seriously question whether my love of panniers + integrated fartzone/dismount-headkick/long-fall/out-of-sight-out-of-mind features for the kiddies-in-tow were actually in my selection shortlist 😉

gowerboy
Full Member
Everyone (who lives in some form of suburbia at least) should have a cargo bike.

I tend to agree. But I’d go further. I suggest that in much of the UK, certainly outside the highlands and definitely in most of Wales, a cargo bike is really useful. I live in a relatively rural area and I use mine all the time. It makes sense on ‘utility’ journeys of 10 to 12 miles each way here.

I was reading your comments yesterday while thinking that I regularly see a couple of these bikes ridden around Swansea. And then, as I was riding home, one went past me in the opposite direction heading up through Clyne. It wasn’t you, was it? 😀 (Not being a stalker, but enjoying the coincidence if it was!)

I was reading your comments yesterday while thinking that I regularly see a couple of these bikes ridden around Swansea. And then, as I was riding home, one went past me in the opposite direction heading up through Clyne. It wasn’t you, was it? 😀 (Not being a stalker, but enjoying the coincidence if it was!)

It wouldn’t have been me yesterday on the Clyne path (the closest I rode yesterday was across Fairwood) but it could well have been my friend and colleague who lives in the Sketty area and rides an orange one all over the place too. If you see a bearded oaf on a blue GSD (often with a yellow bag on the front) give me a shout!

I rode mine from Gower up to Crosshands for a meeting today. The ride was the best part of the day!

@p7eaven

I suppose the Tern GSD sits in its own niche being a very compact long-tail which is often essential for city-dwellers in flats etc. And it does have a step-thru-ish frame and small wheels going for it.

I’ve still not ridden one, but isn’t the key thing with the GSD that the wheels are small enough to stop the COG being too high?

I’ve still not ridden one, but isn’t the key thing with the GSD that the wheels are small enough to stop the COG being too high

Certainly one of the key benefits. A lower CoG partyl informs my positive opinion of smaller wheels around loading areas for cargo bikes.

Other reasons I think smaller wheels are (generally) better for cargo bikes*:

– They make more space for a loading area
– They get up to speed/accelerate faster than a bigger wheel
– Better strength to weight ratio
– Are more sturdy than a bigger wheel (when built like for like)
– Make the bike more manoeuvrable
– Compactness for storage and turning circles
– Increased tire compliance with the road surface because they get higher pressure per square inch on the ground. The superior maneuverability is particularly helpful on wet surfaces and in tight turns

Obviously there will be a point of trade-off, ie comfort vs wheel-size vs road surface. Most streets in the UK today for instance will be less fun with a very small wheel under your rear end. 20″ wheel with a large volume tyre shouldn’t cause problems. Long-john/bakfiet bikes typically have a larger rear wheel (better for comfort) and smaller front wheel (better load-space/CoG/agility and strength where required) so not so much of an issue. I had a 20″ Dahon folder for a while and it was great on smooth tarmac but hellish on potholy back streets. Unfortunately my model didn’t have clearance for larger volume tyres which would have sorted it.

* city/sub/urban everyday cargo bikes as opposed to long MTBs designed for carrying gear off-road (IMO/FWIW a smaller rear wheel/mullet config would be better for those types of bikes)

Happy as ever to be corrected/debated/better-informed.

It wouldn’t have been me yesterday on the Clyne path (the closest I rode yesterday was across Fairwood) but it could well have been my friend and colleague who lives in the Sketty area and rides an orange one all over the place too. If you see a bearded oaf on a blue GSD (often with a yellow bag on the front) give me a shout!

I will, and I’ll also shout “Hello to Gowerboy’s friend” when I see him! 😀

Ive never had a “top heavy” issue with the Yuba. A front loader like our Urban Arrow is fantastic, for all the reasons above, but they are a bit of a different beast to ride, and suffer from lack of front wheel grip and therefore terrifying understeer if you get a bit to over excited in the wet.

the Yuba is barely any different from a “normal” bike, to ride, and thats part of its success for us.
You can feel the kidws wriggling around, but its not a problem. I think he main criticisum of the Kona Ute is it was too springy, so you could feel it flexing excessivly with passengers. 700c wheels too.

The Spicy Curry is a mullet:

https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/yuba-spicy-curry/

26″ up front 20″at the back, but i think once you get kids out of the bolt on child seats, you might find their knees are up around their ears, so not as comfortable?

I did also read that the 20″ wheels, even with big tyres, dont roll over “features” of the road as well, and so it doesnt maintain its speed easily.

26″ seems like a good size to me.

Just chiming in to say that the extras on a cargo bike are really important

My cargo bike has a full set of xtracycle goodies and other bits which make the bike much easier to live with
– centre stand
– full mudguards
– rack, footboards, panniers, stoker bar etc
– front rack and steering stabiliser
– dynamo running front and rear lights
– hub gear so can change gear when not moving

If you end up buying a cargo bike, you really need to budget for the extras to make it easy to live with