Family Biking: Two tweens on a family bike (part two)

They fit! I’m borrowing a two-tween family bike.
(Photos: Madi Carlson)

Our Family Biking column is sponsored by Clever Cycles.

➤ Read past entries here.

Welcome to my follow-up of last month’s post about my two tweens on our family bike.

I was beginning to think there wasn’t an “off-the-shelf” solution to carrying two bigger kids (ages 12 and 10, weighing a combined 171 pounds in my case) by bike. I’m happy to say I stand corrected! The Urban Arrow I’m currently borrowing isn’t the perfect answer to this question, but it works. And it makes me think that even if there isn’t a stock family bike that works for this purpose, small customizations aren’t as tricky as I had feared (to be addressed in a future column soon).

“Having passengers up front is wonderful for conversation and sibling bickering management. It’s also blissfully convenient to have a big open bucket to haphazardly dump cargo into.”

To reiterate the purpose of my investigation: yes, my kids are both able to ride bikes and we get most places on three separate bikes. And no, this isn’t about finding a bike for me specifically. I’m curious about solutions for families who have two tweens and want to replace a car with a bike. It’s hard to go from zero to 171 pounds just like that. I started carrying 20 pounds of baby on my bike and ever so gradually added weight. I don’t consider my bike a “car replacement” since we only travel kid-bikeable distances. That means we think twice and either skip or take transit to anything far away. However, that might not be appealing for a family used to having a car at their disposal. I want to identify a bike for them.

Urban Arrow family varieties

Kids, backpacks, camping gear — it all fits.

There are two models here in Portland at Clever Cycles, the Urban Arrow Family Electric Cargo Bike for $5,999 and the Urban Arrow Family Electric Cargo Bike With CX Motor and 500W Battery for $6,699. I’m borrowing the former. It has a Bosch Performance Line e-assist and it’s a joy to ride. The e-assist seamlessly works with each pedal push so there’s no wobbly hesitation when getting started from a stop — which is critical when carrying heavy loads. It features the coolest (in my opinion) shifter on the market, the enviolo hub using NuVinci continuously variable transmission technology. That means one can shift through an infinite number of gears even when stopped (see it in action in the video link below). This is also critical when carrying very heavy loads for those of us who sometimes forget to downshift when approaching a stop.

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Weight limits
Both versions of the bike weigh about 100 pounds and have a cargo box weight limit of 275 pounds and overall weight limit (bike, rider, any cargo, and accessories) of 600 pounds. That means even with my big kids I can add 100 more pounds of weight to the cargo box and then 50 more pounds onto the rear rack. Having all the cargo weight down low in the front is nice. I can walk the bike with both kids in it — something I can’t do with my longtail cargo bike.

Rider height

Very adjustable stem.

At 5’5″ the one-frame-size bike fits me very well with room to adjust a lot in either direction. The minimum suggested height for the rider is 5’4″ but I can put the saddle five inches lower than where I need it so I think someone even shorter would be comfortable on the bike (and I know shorter people who own Urban Arrows). The handlebars have two adjustment spots: the TranzX JD-ST17-2 stem adjusts from -10° to +60° and the Ergotec Moon Cruiser sweptback riser handlebars can be rotated to put hands higher or lower. I usually just worry about the shorter end of the spectrum because Dutch bikes tend to accommodate tall people well. I think people from 5′ to over 6′ can ride this bike (Jonathan rode it before me and he’s about 6′ 2″).

Range

Range display: 9 miles left.

Oh how I love talking about range anxiety! I forgot to charge the battery early on and had to pedal the bike around with no juice. Empty and in fairly flat conditions it’s fine! The range of the battery, even of the more basic model, has been excellent for me. There are four modes: eco, tour, sport, and turbo (newer models with have eMTB in place of sport) and riding around in eco mode with an empty box doesn’t need charging for days. At the other end of the spectrum, riding eight miles with 200-foot elevation gain while carrying both kids and moderate additional cargo while using turbo mode and often going 16 miles per hour used about 1.5 of the five battery bars and the display claimed 20 miles of range at the start and six miles of range by the end. Normally one would vary the assist, only using turbo, but I was still impressed with the range for this especially heavy load. The battery has two ports so it can be charged while still attached to the bike or while removed. I park the bike inside my house so I like being able to leave it all in one piece for charging. Range varies greatly based on cargo weight, terrain, and assist level. I like having the range showing on the display (other options are clock, max speed, average speed, trip time, odometer, and trip distance), but noting the number of battery bars left is a more accurate gauge.

Bakfietsen
A word about front-loading cargo bikes in general. I have always loved bakfietsen (Dutch for “box bikes,” the singular is bakfiets) and before bakfietsen with e-assists were readily available, I often rented analog versions when visiting flat cities. Urban Arrow has been around since 2010 and has always built e-assist bikes. I had my first UA sighting in 2014 in Seattle and it was a very exciting moment. This and many varieties of bakfietsen seat the rider in a bolt upright position with cranks positioned forward so it’s possible to get more of a foot down to the ground without sacrificing full leg extension. It feels a bit regal, sitting so nice and high. Personally, I feel like I’m channeling my Dutch mother and grandmother who never had bakfietsen per se, but did have regular Dutch bikes (also called omafietsen) with similar body position. It’s easy to check over my shoulder and it’s possible to come to a complete stop (ever so briefly) without having to put a foot down. The only downside is that switching to a sportier bike feels a bit squirrelly for a block.

Having passengers up front is wonderful for conversation and sibling bickering management. It’s also blissfully convenient to have a big open bucket to haphazardly dump cargo into.

Everything I thought would be impossible to reach has proved easy after all.

Before spending time with this bike I thought I’d have to make adjustments to my everyday routes for a frontloader, but it turns out that’s not the case at all. Here’s an example: to get onto SE Foster Road I ride north on 62nd, but to avoid the three-way intersection with Holgate I use the third driveway from the corner (the closer two have dangerously high lips). This smooth driveway is paired with a dangerously thick seam in the middle of the sidewalk so it’s necessary to turn sharply as soon as I’m on the sidewalk (though the 2.15-inch-wide Schwalbe Big Apple Plus tire on the bike is probably fine with any road seam). Then I make a wide, slow arc around Round Table Pizza so as not to startle anyone walking in the opposite direction — this is something I thought the box would definitely get in the way of, but it doesn’t! And finally I can’t reach the walk button from where I would normally place the bike for crossing the street, but it’s surprisingly nimble so it’s easy to pull too-far and too-right forward to push the button and then back up and re-angle the bike. Every new experience (passing through a narrow diverter, carrying one adult, carrying two kids, carrying the dog) has been scary the first time, but a breeze the second.

Accessories

Urban Arrow makes several awesome accessories. I’m using the extra front seat ($199) since my kids can’t fit next to each other comfortably on the standard bench. This bike also sports the rear rack ($89) that’s hefty enough to hold one of my kids and designed to attach a Yepp child seat to. The accessories I think are most exciting are the Maxi Cosi seat adapter ($215) for attaching a baby car seat into the box and the Yepp Mini adapter ($109) for adding the toddler seat that typically goes on the front of a regular bike into the box. Watch the Urban Arrow Cargo Bike video by Clever Cycles to see the bike in action and get a look at the amazing poncho ($119) that attaches to the bike raincover ($299). My kids are too tall for the rain cover, but for families with shorter kids, there are accessories to accommodate all ages and stages in all weather!

Other great built-in parts are the saddle handle, wheel lock, kickstand, and reflectors. The hand hold under the saddle makes it easier to maneuver the bike. It’s not light at 106 pounds, but that’s mostly in the front of the bike and I often lift the rear of the bike to get through doorways or move it closer to bike racks. The rear wheel cafe lock puts a metal bar through the spokes at the push of a lever and the turn of a key. What’s special about this one is that it shifts its position if you forget you’ve engaged the lock and push the bike off the kickstand. Otherwise you’d run the risk of bending a spoke. I thought this was a silly feature at first, but the same key sets the wheel lock and removes the battery so when I forgot I had the battery out for charging and pushed the bike forward I immediately appreciated this feature. Note: a second lock should be used in addition to the wheel lock. Bakfietsen usually have wide and stable kickstands and the Urban Arrow is no exception. It’s easy to pull down with a foot, even when balancing a heavy load in the bike. I’m not very strong, but I can rock the bike back onto the kickstand as well we shove it forward to get rolling even with a load heavier than myself.

Pixie

While the kids would be happier in a wider bike that they can sit side-by-side in and both face forward, Pixie (a nine-pound chiweenie) loves it just how it is…though that’s not a good thing. I let her ride along in the box once and she started on the rear seat, with a terrific view. Then she migrated to the middle of the box, perched atop my cargo and still able to see fine. But she soon realized she could lean out the front of the box to really sniff the scenery and feel the wind in her ears. She loves being on bikes to begin with, and this was her favorite bike experience to date. Mine, not so much. I couldn’t convince her to sit back down so now she rides in her doggie backpack on the bench.

Thanks for reading! I’ll have one more part to this series to share so creative solutions to carrying two tweens.

Remember, we’re always looking for people to profile. Get in touch at madidotcom [at] gmail [dot] com if it sounds like fun to you.

— Madi Carlson, @familyride on Instagram and Twitter

Browse past Family Biking posts here.


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Madi Carlson

Madi Carlson

Madi Carlson (@familyride on Twitter) wrote our Family Biking column from February 2018 to November 2019. She's the author of Urban Cycling: How to Get to Work, Save Money, and Use Your Bike for City Living (Mountaineers Books). In her former home of Seattle, Madi was the Board President of Familybike Seattle, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting bicycling as a means for moving towards sustainable lifestyles and communities. She founded Critical Lass Seattle, an easy social group ride for new and experienced bicyclists who identify as women and was the Director of Seattle's Kidical Mass organization, a monthly ride for families. While she primarily bikes for transportation, Madi also likes racing cyclocross, all-women alleycats, and the Disaster Relief Trials. She has been profiled in the Associated Press, Outdoors NW magazine, CoolMom, and ParentMap, and she contributed to Everyday Bicycling by Elly Blue.

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Jim Lee
Jim Lee
4 years ago

Nice ride around the neighborhood, Madi.

I once rented a non-electric bakfiets from Clever Cycles with the NuVinci continuously variable hub, but I think a ordinary multi-speed hub would be better. Actually the multi-speed is easier to shift when stopped, in addition to having noticeably less friction.

Both are good. The absolute dreadfulness of chain-flipping transmissions for city riding is impossible to overemphasize.

ed
ed
4 years ago
Reply to  Jim Lee

The problem Jim with using any other internal hub other than the Enviolo (NuVinci) is that a Bosch motor must be de-tuned (power lessened) if used with them. The Enviolo hub is the only one that can withstand the increased torque of the motor. This advantage more than makes up for the friction difference you refer to. The Enviolo (NuVinci) hub has the same fully tuned motor setting a derailleur geared bike gets – no loss of power.

anon
anon
2 years ago
Reply to  ed

And that’s to make up for the Enviolo (NuVinci) hub’s poor 70-80% efficiency.

Shimran George
Shimran George
4 years ago

Thanks for the synopsis Madi!

I really think getting people into electric bakfiets can be a great way to get people into bike commuting and running errands around town.

Obviously well need to figure out how to get the price down, but otherwise it helps lower the barrier to entry into being around town cyclist!

Rudi V
Rudi V
4 years ago

See, in my day being one of the kids in that photo would mean social death. By that age we were off on our bikes or out in the woods 12 hours a day and wouldn’t be caught dead getting pedaled around by our moms. Not that that ever would have happened in the 70s.

I hope these kids are just posing for a photo and don’t actually ride around in that thing. Then again, a kid on a bike almost ran into me when he rolled off the sidewalk into the street without looking a week or two ago. He looked to be about 12 and had training wheels. So that’s… worse.

BradWagon
4 years ago
Reply to  Rudi V

Quite a feat making it all the way to the comments but missing the third paragraph of the entire article!

BradWagon
4 years ago
Reply to  Rudi V

Re Range: I have this same motor on my bike and find the most efficient use of power (while still getting somewhere in a sensible amount of time) is to leave it in either sport or turbo mode and accelerate quickly up to either a speed at which you can reduce the assist or hit the 20mph shutoff. Granted this may not be practical in a grid street network but accelerating or riding up hill is what draws the most power so getting through that phase in the shortest amount of time possible is going to help. Also, these motors are really great at just gently feathering on and off at the governor speed limit as needed. I can get about ~30 mile trips with my kids even in Sport/Turbo mode (yes you could extend that out towards 40 or more on eco mode but… the 45 minute commute home is long enough as it is).

BradWagon
4 years ago
Reply to  BradWagon

Whoops, ignore the nesting on this one.

Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
4 years ago
Reply to  Rudi V

Unlike yesteryear, today’s kids are over protected and pampered.

Anna G
Anna G
4 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

Yesterdays’ kids did not have to contend with increased congestion, SUV’s, distracted drivers on their phones, lack of enforcement etc. etc. Not a valid comparison since circumstances have changed so much.

Alex Reedin
Alex Reedin
4 years ago
Reply to  Mike Quigley

Unlike yesteryear, today’s parents are very often judged negatively for letting their kids play outside unsupervised, and it’s not unheard of for today’s parents to face a DHS or criminal investigation for letting their kids play outside unsupervised. It sounds like you’re concerned about the impact this has on American kids. Please advocate for policy changes like Utah’s “Free Range Parenting Law.”

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/utahs-free-range-parenting-law-now-officially-effect/story?id=55021088

Anne
Anne
4 years ago

As the mother of two tweens and a toddler I appreciate this research project. I ride an assisted Madsen when I need to carry all 3. I also want to give you some mama solidarity in carrying older kids. I really dislike the “they should be riding themselves” judgement.

BradWagon
4 years ago
Reply to  Madi Carlson

Maybe: “Do you make your 10 and 12 year old drive themselves in their own cars?”

Andrew Kreps
Andrew Kreps
4 years ago

I think Pixie should maintain her “Titanic” position. 😀

Andrew Kreps
Andrew Kreps
4 years ago

Having recently begun e-biking, I find that monitoring the battery level gives you an interesting game. How to use it up to get along at a reasonable clip vs getting home on boost at all. Watching your outbound amps is educational. 🙂

StephanieL
StephanieL
4 years ago

I’ve been riding the Urban Arrow around Portland for 5 years now. As a car-free mom, it’s really wonderful to have the carrying capacity, electric-assist and ease of use that the Urban Arrow provides. I feel safe, visible and strong. I’ve wipped out a few times (without a kid in the bike) with no real damage to the bike. I plan on using this bike long after my child outgrows it. A side-effect of riding around in this bike: my son recently told me he wants to be President someday so he can “make cars illegal”.