Cargo Bikes
 

Anyone use a cargo bike for all their needs? If you have one, do you use a two wheel design or a three wheel bike? ( Which is best?)

Xtra-Cycle made a kit with which I converted a cheap 26" wheeled Mountain bike frame into a long bike and I really like it. It does haul a lot of gear and heavy stuff like paint and sand even. Also can carry children and adults

I've had this for 20 years and it's still going strong . In the beginning it was a novelty, but now no one bats an eye. That's good, cargo bikes are mainstream.

That said, if all you need are a few bags of groceries, a regular bike with racks, and a front basket is hard to beat.

I think one of them key things for cargo is to have a solid kickstand arrangement.

I want a Big Easy pretty badly

Rad Power is under scrutiny right now due to a lawsuit. You can find the grim details elsewhere. Some bike shop mechanics over on MTBR have been unsparing in their criticism of the handling but I wonder how much of it is just the long wheelbase. Long bikes do handle a lot differently. Some of them blamed the fat tire on a 20" rim which makes no sense because that describes any motorcycle.

Good timing!

I've had issues with them as well, so I'm not surprised. Especially from the way they "handled" my issue. I do not recommend them. At all.

R&M is good. Bullitt is good. Urban Arrow, Butcher, and a few others are great bikes. I'd have zero issue recommending any of those. I'm partial to Bullitt, but when you lay out that much cash you should have some bias involved. Though if I were to buy an R&M I doubt I'd say anything different.

It also depends, style-wise at least to me, what you will be mostly using it for. I don't think I could handle a three-wheel version that well, but that's just me.

You have to specify your usage, cargo weight & desired travel distance per ride to be able to receive better suggestion.
There is not "best" cargo bike for every situation/operator.
Best anyone can do is offer their experience with their operation.
I bought a cargo ebike from Alibaba just before the pandemic, shipped from China to my driveway for under $1500.
It was received back in MAR 2020 and I used it to haul leftover food items from school to homeless shelter in Brooklyn.
I prefer 2-wheel for the narrow overall profile, so I can filter through traffic between car mirrors when traffic is bumper-to-bumper.
https://i.imgur.com/zsOYoBm.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ktTgem8.jpg

I think for this it's important to think e-bike or not. If you have a motor and you don't also have a car you can follow the "family car" approach and buy as much capacity as you might use, at least within local e-bike laws. If you are shoving it around all on muscle power you are going to want the shortest lightest thing that works... but I feel if you are not buying an e-bike you might be more likely to also already have that car.

Yeah, I guess I just assumed that OP was after an e-bike solution. But the recommendations I laid out also have pedal-powered versions.

I haul a lot so I went straight to the pedal-assist e-bike for my cargos. But those can also haul a lot from pedal power alone. I just have an occasional steep climb that I'm getting too old to tackle without assistance.

Also I like that blue Alibaba bike. Similar to Radwagon and Tern. Though your frame looks way beefier than those two.

Alibaba cargo ebike came with two batteries, they each weight quite significantly.
I didn't ride as far as one of those batteries can offer for range; eventually I have much more items to carry than the cargo ebike has room.
So I sold the cargo ebike last month, to someone making a living doing deliveries in NYC, I'm sure they're getting good usage of it.
https://i.imgur.com/OYGLqJj.jpg

Do you know what the range was? I was thinking of carrying some extra batteries with me to see how far I can go, but I don't have the time to really test it right now.

Range is highly dependent to rider & cargo weight, the amount of motor assist or throttle you use, and the wind direction.
From my usage, I can get 60-70 miles from one battery (with PAS 1& 2) and still have some juice left in the battery.

I have a Yuba Kombi E5. Good bike, though I haven’t pushed the limits of its cargo capacity so far because the compatibility of their stock bags with a child seat seems dubious. I’m reluctant to install the bags until my kid graduates to sitting on the rear rack. But the Bread Basket attachment (must-buy accessory in my opinion) easily has enough capacity for daycare and work bags for the two of us. Drop-off plus commute is about 10 miles each way with a sizable hill, and the range is adequate. It’s possible to do the whole thing on full boost, with the battery pretty low by the time we get home. In practice, I tend to vary the boost as needed on the morning commute, and go full boost for the homeward leg.

Rad Power isn’t under scrutiny in any sense that I’m aware of, apart from the civil lawsuit against them for wrongful death (the parents involved are suing Giro as well). Without delving too much into the details this case, my thoughts are 1) I wouldn’t recommend Rad Power to anyone because they spec totally inadequate brakes on all of their bikes*, with the apparent use of quick releases being the poop icing on the poop cake and 2) the reported claims in the suit seem extremely shaky to me, with the possible exception of the bikes being irresponsibility promoted for operation by minors. That quick-releases, and especially QRs with disc brakes are inherently unsafe is technically true, in my opinion, but also a very common spec in the industry with established manufacturing practices to mitigate the risk. Unless Rad Power has truly done something weird, it seems to me that these people have to argue not just against Rad Power’s but the entire industry’s use of QRs with disc brakes.

Personally, though, I recommend a cargo bike be equipped with hydraulic disc brakes and a more reliable, user-friendly wheel retention system. Thru-axles are obviously ideal, but my Yuba has a nutted axle with tabbed safety washers, and I think it’s a good compromise to cut costs.

*Among other reasons having to do with hostility to consumers, but sacrificing safer brakes in the name of cost-cutting is my number one problem.