A cargo bike for the school run

The brief

A family who had sold their car and needed the school run to work without one. Two children, five and seven, a round trip of about four miles, and a hill on the way home that is steep enough to be a real consideration.

Loaded, this bike carries the rider plus roughly forty five kilos of children and bags. That number changes everything. Every part on it is specified for a weight that a normal bike never sees.

They were also, sensibly, nervous. A cargo bike carrying your children is not a purchase you make casually, and a lot of our job was explaining exactly why each part was chosen.

What we chose, and why

The brake argument, and how it ended

This took a week. Ossie wanted drum brakes front and rear, because they are sealed, they do not care about rain, and they need almost nothing doing to them for years. Wren wanted hydraulic discs, because a loaded cargo bike descending a hill needs real stopping power and drums fade.

We ended up doing both, and it is the right answer. A four piston hydraulic disc with a 180mm rotor on the front, where most of the braking happens and where you want power and feel. A drum brake on the rear, where you want something that always works, never needs adjusting, and cannot fail because a pad wore out unnoticed.

It costs more than either option alone. On a bike carrying children down a hill, we were not going to argue the family into the cheaper one.

An internally geared hub, for one specific reason

You can shift it while stopped. That sounds minor until you picture pulling away from a junction, uphill, in the wrong gear, with forty five kilos in front of you and traffic behind. With a derailleur you cannot fix that until you are already moving. With a hub gear you click down while stationary and pull away in the right gear.

It is also fully enclosed, which on a bike parked outside a school in all weather is worth a great deal.

Wheels that are the hardest we build

A 20 inch front and a 26 inch rear, both 36 spoke, both tensioned high. Small wheels are stiff and unforgiving, and the front takes the whole load of the box. We built both by hand and re tensioned them after a week of the family riding it, which is included.

Steering that had to be set up patiently

A front loading cargo bike steers through a linkage rather than directly. Slack in that linkage feels like a vague, slightly frightening bike. We spent most of a day taking the play out of it, and then another hour after the family rode it and told us how it felt.

Tyres you will not have to fix

Heavy puncture protection front and rear, and we made no apology for the extra weight. This is one of the few builds where we chose protection over ride quality without hesitating, and choosing tyres for mixed roads explains the trade we were making. You cannot repair a front puncture at the roadside with two children sitting in the box. In four years they have had one.

The box, the bench and the harnesses

A plywood box with a bench, two proper harnesses, and a rain cover. We fitted grab handles the children could actually reach, which is the kind of thing you only get right by having them sit in it in the workshop.

What it cost

Parts came to £1,440 to £1,700, and the spread is almost entirely the frame and the hub gear. Our labour was £280 for the build, and £260 for the two wheels.

Total, £1,980 to £2,240. It is the most expensive bike on this page by a distance, and it replaced a car. Measured against a car it is extremely cheap, and that is the comparison the family were actually making.

How long it took

Six weeks. The frame took four of them to arrive, which we knew about in advance and told the family before they committed.

Once it was here, the build itself was about five days spread over two weeks, because we wanted them to ride it, come back, and let us adjust it properly rather than handing it over and hoping.

What we would tell the next person

If you are carrying children, buy the brakes you are slightly embarrassed to have spent that much on. Everything else on a cargo bike can be upgraded later. Brakes are the part where the downside is not inconvenience.

Second, budget for a second visit. A cargo bike feels strange for the first week and every family we have built for has wanted something adjusted after they had actually used it. We build that visit into the price rather than pretending it will not be needed.

Third, if a workshop quotes you a cargo build without asking how heavy the load is and whether there are hills, go elsewhere. Our custom builds page sets out the questions we ask before quoting anything, and the touring build is the other one on this site where load changed every decision.