DIY Cargo Bike Progress
A while ago I stumbled upon Tom’s Cargo Bikes - a great little site about cargo bikes (does what it says on the tin!), which includes instructions on how to build your own.
Seeing as I used to be an engineer, I decided to have a go. First up, I sourced a couple of suitable steel frames and some plastic tubs to help me size up the cargo box:
I chopped them up:
Got myself some steel stock & some weekend time with a friend who’s a qualified welder. Unlike Tom’s original design, I opted for box-section rather than round tubes:
The beast looked BIG while it was being welded up…
… and even bigger on the floor:
We’re almost finished now - yes those are the original handlebars from the BMX bike being used as the prop stand:
Detail of the steering linkage - we had to add a couple of stops either side of the head-tube, otherwise the steering could become unstable & lock in the 90º position, which would NOT be good!
Initial test rides in the garage show that the frame geometry is basically stable (can be steered no-handed), and despite the length (nearly 3m long, with the cargo box’s base being 85cm long), the turning circle isn’t too bad - around 6.5m. OK, so that’s a LOT more than the Brompton’s 1.2m, but this really isn’t a nipping-through-the-traffic kind of bike.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t weigh that much more than the original mountain bike did - probably just a couple of kilos, and most of that is in the extended rear head-tube.
Things left to do:
- Cap off the sawn sections of the BMX’s frame & fettle up the more agricultural welds
- Add brackets for the box
- Sort out the prop stand’s spring so that it’ll stay in the up position
- Paint the frame
- Build & fit the box
- Fit the missing components - a taller quill stem, brakes, pedals, gears, etc.
- Go out frightening the traffic
It clearly needs to be painted orange. With a crate made from recycled mahogany furniture. Gears?
That is a little harsh. Have you delivered or picked up anything. There is a fish monger in Port Townsend that delivers from a bike,
like this, only without the skirt, boots and miserable toddlers in a box.
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/11/29/1322594381673/Xmas-gift-guide-015.jpg
Interesting that the Bakfiets is built with a rack, just in case you need to carry anything that won’t fit in the box? But does make the back end of the bike level with the box, maybe source an old steel rack and weld it to the MTB frame before painting?
with built in bar:
http://cargocycling.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/hopworks_beerbike.jpg
or dance platform, people could jump on and off like a routemaster:
http://cargocycling.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/09-cargo-106.jpg
Great progress, so you are going to get into training for Svajerløb 2012?