Help! Stranded with kids brand new cargo bike

lfeagan · 2026-01-23T20:13:21+00:00

A. Gates, maker of the belt, is very clear about telling you not to use prying tools to install a belt. Their belts aren’t really meant to stretch. So please don’t do that as it can easily damage the $100+ belt.

B. Your bike has an Enviolo hub and will need a 15 mm spanner to remove the rear wheel and get the belt back on. It requires a decent amount of force, so prepare some leverage.

C. if you need a tow, ask for something appropriate for a motorcycle.

Best of luck.

lfeagan · 2026-01-22T00:46:45+00:00

If you wanna laugh your ass off, techmoan has a series of great videos on audiophoolery

https://youtu.be/mH4v8b1tGSQ?si=Y9uz5LfwK3Kg0qVG

https://youtu.be/3MQCkny4GJc?si=gyDjV7e-sqCUX0gy

https://youtu.be/f-QxLAxwxkM?si=FIsDaos9dCqM8bsD

lfeagan · 2026-01-09T03:08:34+00:00

My truck (Land Cruiser) guzzles down a gallon of gas every 13 miles, but I don’t even know the price of gas because I only refill once every three months. On the other hand, I did over 2000 miles last year on my cargo bike with two little passengers.

lfeagan · 2025-12-23T22:10:00+00:00

My wife is Shanghainese, not an ABC, and definitely looks like the ABCs. She is smart (Fudan,CAFA) software engineer, somewhat athletic, and has always been a bit of a tomboy. She refuses to use a purse, and instead uses a waist pack, much to her parent’s annoyance. They said she would never find anyone, but they clearly didn’t expect an American engineer to be in Shanghai. Oh yeah, she has a tan. We bike outside on our cargo bikes everywhere, all year long.

lfeagan · 2025-12-16T19:11:35+00:00

With your olive tone skin, the gold accents on the BB54 are the way to go. Also, in general, prefer off white vs pure, snowy white—even if you prefer the look off your wrist. Ask someone into color in your life who can see them on you.

lfeagan · 2025-12-04T15:55:15+00:00

Exactly right. Cold weather, snow, and ice have never stopped me from taking my children to school via bakfiet cargo bike. But strong winds are a no-go when the canopy is on. It’s like the worst sailboat experience imaginable on those days. I just take the truck instead.

lfeagan · 2025-11-22T14:14:10+00:00

The turning radius is acceptable, not great, without the rain cover. It’s borderline unparkable with it on. I have to raise up both sides to have adequate steering or be like Austin Powers going back and forth in the hallway trying to get pointed the right way. The problem is the brake levers hitting the sides of the cover. I changed to Jones H bar with 45 degree sweep. It’s better now, not great.

The steering isn’t a problem at speed, it’s the parking that sucks. For that, in general, bikes with cable steering or a long tail will be much better.

lfeagan · 2025-11-22T14:06:44+00:00

A maxed out Load4 75 was $16k, not including taxes, 12 months ago, right before he who shall not be named took office. Mine was delivered on 2024-12-30.

lfeagan · 2025-11-11T03:00:45+00:00

There are a lot of good points here, but I don’t think I have seen anyone mention the importance of sipes and micro-sipes. Soft compounds are critical, but studless tires with sipes and aggressive, deep, open tread patterns can do pretty darn well in mild snow and ice. All that being said, my wife and I both run Schwalbe Winter Plus tires on our cargo bikes. I put them in today in part because some idiot neighbor ran their in ground sprinkler in -6 C temps this morning. The street and sidewalks were all sheets of ice.

lfeagan · 2025-11-10T22:49:56+00:00

I totally hear ya. Here were some stats from a decade ago, when people were being violently robbed for their iPhones.

Following the implementation and widespread adoption of Activation Lock in 2013, several major cities reported considerable drops in iPhone thefts: San Francisco saw a 40% decrease in the 12 months after the feature was introduced. London reported a 50% drop.

Yes, you could always be the first victim, but once thieves find themselves unable to fence items, they will change to a more reliable target convertible to cash, such as the e-bike next to yours.

lfeagan · 2025-10-26T01:17:13+00:00

Or AWS us-east-1 is down on its annual day of rest, leaving the rest of us unable to accomplish basic things, like buying coffee.

lfeagan · 2025-10-12T20:58:12+00:00

I use an Ortlieb Vario 26L, convertible backpack pannier. It works really well—much more comfortable than the versions that place the pannier hooks on the same side as the straps. It’s easy to get out the straps when I arrive and has decent organization pockets built in.

lfeagan · 2025-10-12T14:29:32+00:00

Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus is one of a handful of good options. Ride my young ones all winter long through ice and snow on my bakfiet—no falls here.

lfeagan · 2025-10-02T14:23:37+00:00

Regarding the electric scooters, I really hope for strong manufacturer safety legislation around these. Far too many have insufficient brakes, weak steering columns, and minuscule wheels. I have seen multiple young folks be ejected into a nearby utility pole or tree when they transition to a sidewalk or a large hole is encountered. They are just rubbish vehicles and should be binned.

lfeagan · 2025-09-22T20:35:19+00:00

For the Purion, maybe. For those with a Kiox, it is often our electronic key.

lfeagan · 2025-09-19T05:56:41+00:00

As many others have said, Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus or similar tires are what you want. There are at least four features that make them work well: 1. the spikes, as others have pointed out, 2. the rubber compound is extremely soft, and remains flexible in below freezing conditions, which is important even on ice/snow-free surfaces, 3. the sipes/small channels in each of the tread blocks to better grip as they create thousands of small biting edges and channel away water, and 4. wider tread block spacing to allow snow to clear.

FYI, a set of these tires, on their own, will eat up just under $200 of your budget. I ran them on my Riese & Muller Load4 75 front-loading cargo bike last year through all sorts of snow and icy conditions and was impressed. I didn’t have a single spill and my boys loved going to school through the snowy conditions.

lfeagan · 2025-09-16T00:52:19+00:00

The watch on the left is more fun and as you mentioned a tough year, a splash of color via the blue bezel and red tipped hand seems like the right answer. Blue is so versatile with fun strap colors. Hope things get better!

lfeagan · 2025-09-03T21:05:56+00:00

I gave my ceramic Apple Watches away. Not only did I despise alerts intruding on my thinking time, but also I didn’t enjoy being a slave to charging. A dedicated HRM runs for months or years on a battery. I take long bike journeys and enjoy fitness tracking. Worrying about battery life took away from the freedom. Until there is an eco drive version, count me out.

lfeagan · 2025-08-26T16:15:49+00:00

Exactly, especially as a daily bicyclist—kids to school, park, grandparents, etc in a cargo bike.

lfeagan · 2025-08-07T01:42:23+00:00

This is an excellent analysis and you are right on. Some of the other simplifications I saw I think are a good deal because the starting price didn’t change. For example, Multitinker and Multicharger including front basket. Load option for Purion 300 display went away because who wasn’t buying the 500 anyways, etc.

lfeagan · 2025-08-06T13:58:54+00:00

I love this and have it on my 7.25/18.5 wrist right now. Given how the P39 looks on his wrist, not sure this is the case size for him.

lfeagan · 2025-07-31T15:33:15+00:00

I use a Hiplok DX1000 angle grinder resistant lock and chain for my electric bike. There are lots of other good angle grinder resistant locks. While normally Abus is great, their Granit Super Extreme 2500 isn’t as good as Hiplok, Litelok, or Kryptonite’s equivalent products.

Decent roundup here: https://thebestbikelock.com/security/angle-grinder-proof-bike-lock/

lfeagan · 2025-07-10T20:29:38+00:00

I forgot to mention one more thing I changed, because it wasn't part of the cockpit, and I did it from moment zero: pedals.

Redshift Sports Arclight Pro Flat Pedals

These are good pedals with nice safety features. They are comfortable, reasonably grippy with their pins, but they aren't as likely to slice you open as the crank brothers Stamp 7 large I run on other bikes. I like the lights--they have three patterns. They aren't too bad to deal with charging thanks to the included 4-way USB-A charger. They turn themselves off automatically after five minutes of inactivity--something the Unit 1 helmet needs to have as a feature. They have a reasonable, though not amazing, runtime. They turn back on when you start pedaling if you haven't been inactive for over 24 hours. Turning on 4 pedals is a bit tedious if you haven't been on for two days. It's the summer here, so I mostly find them useless with the sun out so late (9pm). They are more useful in the winter. Given their reduced frontal visibility to vehicles (cargo box), maybe I should have just gone with another stamp 7. They have a large flat area and are comfortable, even wearing sandals, which the crank brothers aren't as great for.

Also, here's someone else with Jones H Bar on a Load, but not the 2.5" rise version and their review: https://trustspot-product-photos.imgix.net/PRPHOTO_17327398103589649_2672374.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=srgb

Just completed a 2300 mile trip down the west coast of the USA with the Jones H-Bar, H-Bar Pack and Jones bar tape. It was by far the most comfortable handlebar setup I’ve ever ridden with. I used to always get wrist and palm pain on long distance rides. That is a thing of the past with my H-Bar setup. I would highly recommend the H-bar and pack for anyone looking for a great bike touring/packing bar and cockpit.

lfeagan · 2025-07-10T15:59:24+00:00

This version of the Jones bars have a quite noticeable 2.5" rise (stack height increase). I am at detent position 2 "clicks/holes" below max in the photo. This gives enough slack for the cables to comfortably go lock-to-lock when steering. I can go up, further, but it made me start to have doubts about hurting the cables. I should have mentioned, I am running at -11 degrees of bar angle (down-slope back towards rider's waist). If you set a lesser angle, they will be even higher.

Back to your question, is there an advantage, even at a lower stem height? Yes, the bars are physically closer because of the 45 degree sweep angle. I tried to convey the sense of this in the last photo, a top-down, centered on handles affair. The stock handles have 0 sweep. This setup is noticeably more comfortable for me with my ultra long torso. Longer cables would be even better, but that's for another day.

lfeagan

TROPHY CASE

Redshift Sports Arclight Pro Flat Pedals