In the previous post discussing cargo bikes as an alternative for my car, four issues came up, the cost, the need for some form of motorised assistance, the practicality and finally the personal reasoning behind the idea.

The cost of creating a cargo bike using the Xtracycle kit, and some modifications to the bike (the saddle on it now was designed by a sadist!!) and a bag to fit on the cargo platform will cost around 550 Euros, about half the cost of a new Yuba Mundo purpose built cargo bike. But that does not include motorised assistance..

To be honest cutting through the advertising hype of electric assistance kits that bolt on to bikes has taken a lot of work trawling the internet but this is what I have found out.

There are basically two types of electric assistance, first the motor in the hub of the wheel -

These kits are ok for riding on mainly flat roads, for commuting within a city, the wheel just bolts on as a replacement for the front wheel. The problem this type of kit presents for me is that they are not very efficient for hills or load carrying.

The second type of kit and the one that would suit my requirements works though the gears of the bike, a far more efficient way of putting power into the wheel for hill climbing and load carrying.

Above is an Xtracycle kit bolted on to an ordinary bike with a Stokemonkey electric assist kit (the red bit!). The Stokemonkey drives the pedals which in turn drive the bike through the bike’s own gears. This not only facilitates good hill climbing, and ‘grunt’ to carry cargo but is a far more efficient way of using the power in the battery. By using the gears and the pedals, like in a car, one can choose the best combination of speed, power and gearing for the conditions.

And the cost? Well that would depend on exactly what would be needed for my own conversion but 1000 Euros would be about right. 550 for the bike, 1000 for the electric assistance and lets say 250 at least for the battery, 1750 Euros to turn my 35 Euro bike into a usable cargo bike. Hmmmm?!!?

So now let us look at the third issue, practicality. Including insurance, diesel, tax and general servicing, 1750 Euros will be the cost of 12 – 18 months of motoring in the land rover. BUT there are two things the bike will never be able to do, the first is winter fire wood. Fire wood here comes by the cubic metre which fits nicely into the back of the land rover.

The second point is the occasional emergency, at least once a year one of our dogs has to be immediately taken to the vet, the thought of having to sit watching one of our dogs in pain, waiting for my partner to get home so I can use her car to take the dog to the vets may be the clincher for me.

I have to conclude as far as practicality is concerned having the land rover available is looking like a need. I should add that if we could get a vet to visit or fire wood delivered then there would be no problem but neither is possible due to where we live.

And finally there is the personal reason. In my previous post I tried to point out the beauty of life around here that is missed by travelling around encased in a car, I believe that is case with everyone who prefers to ride a bike, where ever they live. In some ways it is similar to being mindful, one is there in reality, in the smells, the sounds, the ambience of one’s surroundings. It is a bit similar to sailing, anyone who has enjoyed the feeling of silently travelling through the water using nothing but the wind and one’s sailing skill will understand what I mean.

For me this mindful happiness of travelling on a bike is something I would dearly love to replace my present use of the combustion engine.

There is a beauty in the simplistic workings of bike that very much appeals to me .

At the end of the day maybe the answer to whether a cargo bike could replace my car is in this -

“SIMPLICITY

The more the body is adorned, the more its essence is concealed; the more luxorious a sail boat the more its sailor is hidden. Find a simple ship and the sailor is most apparent.

The more that is added the less there is

When enough is enough more is too much.”

Ray Grigg. ‘The Tao of Sailing’. 1990.

In other words maybe I should just get off this computer and go and enjoy a ride on my 35 Euro bike!!

For quite some time now I have been considering what to do about the fact that we are a two car family.

While I am building our home the land rover is indispensable but within the next year, (its slow going hand building a house!!) the heavy work will all be done, obviously both me and my partner need some form of transport but do we really need two cars?

And if not ,what would be a viable, greener solution ?

My partner has a 45 minute drive to and from work so by necessity, as there is no real alternative to driving, her car has to stay.

Which just leaves Geoffrey (the name given to the land rover by my daughter!).

The two alternatives that came to mind was a quad bike or a pedal bike. Forgetting the factor of cost I started looking for an electric quad bike on the net and found one for 6000 Euros which not only was way out of my budget, if any of you have read my previous post about our photovoltaic solar power system –

http://myblog.mapafuture4u.com/wordpress/plastic-bugs-and-building-part-2-energy/

you will already know that our small energy production would not be able to recharge anything more than a relatively small (electric bike sized) battery pack.

After a little more research looking for the ‘land rover’ of bikes I found this, the Yuba Mundo cargo bike.

Big enough and strong enough to carry 3 straw bales on the back!

Still a lot of money, just under 1000 Euros, but if I was to sell the land rover it would be affordable.

A cheaper, not so strong solution is the Xtracycle Free Radical. A system that turns any bike into a cargo bike, the grey bike frame is the original bike, the silver tubed extension on the back is the bolt on Free Radical kit.

With side bars to bring it up to the spec of the Yubo the cost is around 320 Euros + delivery from the USA.

OK this was all a lot of fun dreaming about owning a cargo bike but how practical is the reality of having to cycle everywhere?

Our house is 5 kilometres from the nearest town with shops, those 5 kilometres are one big hill winding up the side of a small mountain. Apart from a very steep hill from our house to the main road (Geoffrey can only get up it in 1st gear) the town is all down hill but is it realistic to think I could go into town, buy some shopping, get a new gas bottle and cycle back up a five kilometre hill with all that added weight???

If we lived in an urban environment I wouldn’t think twice about selling Geoffrey and getting a cargo bike but we don’t and anyway I haven’t actually ridden a bike for years.

It was time for a reality check. I needed to get a cheap bike and see what was really possible.

As if by magic one look in the local classifieds and there was an advert for two mountain bikes 35 Euros each.

New tyres, 21 geared mountain bikes, excellent, I got them home tested them and all they needed was some air in the tyres. The next morning was to be my test ride, the test being for me not the bike!!

So, the next morning came, I strapped a water bottle to the red bike, with my camera in my pocket I set off for a little adventure. As I cycled along the country mud track from our village my first impression was a real sense of ‘being there’. Encased in a car one can miss so much, for instance in the land rover this was just a pretty green tunnel to drive through.

On the bike I could see that it is in fact a massive Pecan tree laden with Pecan nuts.

To my right was the cave house I had heard about but never seen.

As I continued I was quite surprised how quickly I effortlessly covered distance, until I realised I had either been on the flat or downhill part of the track.

As I pedalled further into the Andalucian countryside I reached the pine forest, what a wonderful smell, a combination of heat, pine and earth, so quintessentially Mediterranean, something else one cannot experience in a car, and then it hit me, the first hill!!

As you can see it isn’t even a steep hill just a long winding hill

I had to get off and walk and I wasn’t carrying any cargo!

The prize for getting to the top of the hill was seeing this group of bee hives on the remains of some Moorish terraces.

The price of getting to the top of the hill was exhaustion and the realisation that a cargo bike for me will only be of use if there is a way to motor my way up the hills!

The options for doing this I plan to investigate and write about next week.

Before I go here is one last picture I took, I swear I can see all sorts of animal faces in the rock formation, I can see a lion, a lioness, a donkey and a snapper turtle, have a look yourself, how many faces can you see?