Owning An Electric Cargo Bike In Ottawa
What Is A Cargo Bike?
It’s a term that any of us could Google. But for me, a cargo bike is a two or three wheeled bicycle that has a frame designed to carry more objects and weight than what can ordinally fit inside big bags, while attached to a simple rack. Electric cargo bikes are models that use electric motors to help you move. There are companies and individuals the world over designing and manufacturing a whole variety of cargo bike styles. There are companies designing trailers of every size and style that can be towed by most sorts of bikes. I think it’s amazing and only really just getting started. The idea being that even in a place like Ottawa, there are many options available to replace the need for at least one of your family vehicles.
Our first cargo bike was a Babboe Mini. We bought it in May 2020, the month we sold our little Mazda 3 hatchback. We sold it to a lovely family in Alta Vista who had a set of young twins who have a bike radius of roughly five kilometers, which is a great distance for this type of bike. We biked it all over Ottawa and left trails of sweat everywhere we went. But our needs changed and we moved to the world of electric cargo bikes.
I will note that Babboe has issued a world-wide recall on all their Babboe models because they had a number of bike frames literally cracking in half. The recall applies to bikes from 2011 through 2024. We’re working with the family we sold it too to repay them as all the Babboe bikes are being collected and destroyed. A fucking sad tale all around.
What Matters When Buying An Electric Cargo Bike
Again, I know this should be easy enough to Google but… there’s a lot of information on the internet and a lot of different bikes out on the roads and pathways. The list is not meant to be in any way authoritative but does follow some simple guidelines.
Design - Full disclosure, my first cargo bike love was the Bullitt from Larry vs Harry. It’s light. Stupidly light. It’s also fast. No surprise that messenger bikers love it. The front load area is very modular and DIY-friendly. But. It seems to have been designed for folks well over a certain height. My partner Lyn, is 5 ft, 4 inches. The Bullitt is designed for riders over 5 ft, 5 inches. It’s something to keep in mind if the bike is to be used by various family and friends of differing heights.
Batteries & Motors - There are two major (Brose is an example of a European manufacturer used by a lot of companies but is not well known across the pond so this is not meant to be exhaustive) bike motor and battery manufacturers. Bosch and Shimano. The important thing to note here is that both companies have their bike batteries UL certified. This certification includes the chargering units in the evaluation of safety. You don’t want a lithium ion battery to randomly explode or catch fire and probably want to purchase something that has good warranty coverage. There are lots of local bike shops that will not work on just any bike. If you’ve DIYed some Duracells to a motor you bought off of Amazon, well just set your expectation levels for when it comes to who’s going to let you through the door.
Four-Season Use - There could easily be a whole blog post dedicated to carbon belts, bike chains, derailleurs, internal gear hubs and “regular” chain drives. The cliffnotes version here is that if you want to use the electric cargo bike year-round, you will want a Gates carbon belt and internal drive system on your bike. Yes they are more expensive. They normally require far less maintenance than regular bike chains etc. I mean, if you have warm, underground parking, easy access to water and cleaning supplies and frankly, the time, to clean your bike after every ride when salt is around, by all means, live dangerously. That said, we ride our Yuba from April to November and then it goes into covered storage. Our Riese & Muller Load4 75 on the other hand we road all winter. We put studded tires on it and it was a dream to ride in most shitty winter conditions. There’s no way looking at it today you would guess it was ridden in any salt at all.
Pedal-assist & Throttle-assist - Personally I will never buy a throttle-assist electric cargo bike. You’ll notice them as they zip past you, with the legs and feet are stationary and you’re left confused as to whether it’s a bike or motorcycle. Here’s the thing to keep in mind. Cargo bikes are not your regular bike. Electric cargo bikes are not like cargo bikes with no motors. Electric cargo bikes can reach higher momentum quicker. They are capable of carrying more weight faster. Brake pads and the rotors on an electric cargo bike are normally larger and thicker. I mean, you do you, but the overall quality and safety of a device like an electric cargo bike are important to me. And based on the research I’ve done, bikes I’ve seen, and companies that make pedal-assist electric cargo bikes, none of the highest quality make throttle-assist cargo bikes.
Test Ride - Pretty simple. Test ride the bike your interested in. Thinking of getting an electric cargo bike to replace a family vehicle? Test ride the bike. I’m going to jump ahead to talk about one of the local bike shops in Ottawa and our experience with Scooteretti. They do not stock demo models of some of the most popular electric cargo bikes. They told us last year that we would have to buy one to ride one. Because it’s inconceivable to me that we were expected to drop over $15,000 on what is a car replacement and not even touch or see one in person. I’m still flabbergast a year on that this was expected. And no dear reader, we did not order one from our local shop in Ottawa. We, like many others we know went to Toronto (others go to London, Ontario) on a weekend vacation to test ride the bike we wanted to buy. Don’t bother gaslighting me, I’m aware of the financial cost to invest in expensive bikes to use as demos. But I’m still at a loss for words that this was said to us. And that instead of trying anything to hook us up with a mitigation to keep our business, they let us walk out the door. And this is what we as consumers have to push our local bikes shops to do. Connect with your local bike shop. Let others test ride your bike. We need community events all over this city all the time getting all the different types of bikes in front of as many eyeballs as possible. And we desperately need a bike shop in Ottawa to do what Curbside in Toronto and the London Bike Cafe are doing for their cities and communities. If you own a cargo bike, give your info to the bike shops. If they do not stock a model of electric cargo bike and you have one? We’ve let a bunch of random strangers ride our bikes.
Long-tail, Mid-tail, Front box/load - I’ll include images below but it’s pretty simple. A long-tail or mid-tail cargo bike is one where the frame has been designed behind the rider to accommodate all the types of cargo people carry. Mid-tail may be to pedantic of a description but as you spend time looking at various models, some bikes have long “tails” behind the rider than other models. That is all. A front box cargo bike is one where the design of the bike accommodates cargo in front of the rider. Some, like the header image is literally a wooden box. Most are not and are designed to keep safe whatever it is you have up front as you ride. My only caviat to this binary design is that there are companies like Omnium (linked below) who have done really innovative things to make bikes that are adaptable, light and fast. I’d hazard “front load cargo bike” would be a better description but for the majority of folks the binary works.
How Many Brands Of Cargo Bikes Are There?
There are probably more companies not listed here than are. My goal is merely to list some of the companies who make reputable electric cargo bikes. It’s not a list of all the companies that make electric bikes.
Riese & Muller | Yuba Bicycles | Muli Cycles | Black Iron Horse Cargo Bikes | Larry vs Harry | GinkGo
Omnium | Carqon | Specialized | Gazelle Bikes | Urban Arrow | Tern Bicycles | Cube Bikes | Benno
Here are two popular models that use throttle-assist technology. I’m including them here so that you know about them. I’m not gatekeeping shit.
Where Can I Buy A Cargo Bike?
I want to first shout out a little business here in Ottawa: Let’s Go Cargo. Based in Hintonburg, they have three electric cargo bikes you can rent for whatever reason. They are also rent Thousand bike helmets and include bike locks in the rental. It’s a great way to test ride some various cargo bike models, provide fun transportation for friends and family visiting town with kids or furry family members.
TallTree has been a Yuba distributor for a while and it was where we bought our Kombi E5 mid-tail cargo bike. FullCycle announced that as of 2024, they are now a distrubitor of Yuba Bikes as well. This is great because it adds their shop in Hintonburg and out by St. Laurent Blvd as locations that can service them and order parts / accessories as well.
Scooteretti is a shop located in the Byward Market and distributes a number of electric bicycles and electric cargo bikes. They include Tern, Riese & Muller, Gazelle, Cube Bikes, and Benno. So here’s the thing. They do have some floor models for you to look at, feel etc in their shop.
If you decide to go further afield, here are some good recommendations:
Montreal - Allo Velo
Toronto - Curbside Cycle
London - London Bike Cafe
