Hi Jay, I have a Wald Giant Delivery Basket on the FR8's front rack (which is itself bolted to the frame, not the fork, and can carry a huge amount of weight). That's enough for carrying school / commuting things and then some. For a full week of groceries for the family, I use large panniers too. (And the rack is big enough to be able to use panniers even with a child seat on the back).
I can't say enough good things about the FR8. I feel very lucky to live a few blocks from a distributor <http://bicyclebelleboston.com/cargo-bicycles/fr8/> so that I could test-ride them though... I probably wouldn't have had the fortitude to just order one from Amsterdam unseen. I haven't ridden an Edgerunner myself, but there are several around our neighborhood and people seem to like them a lot too. -Eli On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 11:30 AM, 'Jay B' via RBW Owners Bunch < [email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for all your input, Eli. It's super helpful. I have been looking > long and hard at both the Fr8 and the new Xtracycle Edgerunner, but the > Fr8, in particular, is really appealing to me for a lot of reasons. My (9 > year old) Xtracycle has been great, but at this point several parts need > replacing/upgrading (even before adding kid accessories) to make it a > dependable daily hauler. I think it might be time to pass it on to another > soul and start anew, rather than dumping more time and money into a old > bike. Glad to here you really like the Fr8. How are you carrying cargo on > it? Front rack/box? Panniers on the long rear rack? And I've seen the > Weehoo on REI's site, I believe. We'll keep that one in mind for when our > little guy gets a little bigger. > > -Jay > > > On Monday, August 25, 2014 10:47:07 AM UTC-5, Eli wrote: >> >> Hi Jay, >> >> I've used a couple rear child seats on my Sam H without much trouble, and >> I do like the Yepp Maxi. Lifting my leg over the top tube did take getting >> used to, and I made the mistake once of forgetting about the child seat, >> trying to swing my leg over the saddle, kicking my kid in the head and >> almost crashing in the process. Not a mistake I'll make again! :) >> >> But really, other than remembering that I have to, lifting a leg over the >> top tube really isn't a big deal for me. I'd suggest finding someone to >> borrow a rear seat from locally and just try it out and see how it is for >> you. >> >> Luggage is the bigger problem: you probably can't use panniers or a >> saddlebag with a rear seat. I have a small front bag on my Sam for that >> very reason (Acorn mini rando bag, no longer in production I think). >> >> I found the useful lifespan of the rear seat to be limited too. My older >> kid outgrew the Copilot we were using at about 4, and my younger one is >> still going strong in the yepp maxi at 3, but it clearly won't last years >> and years. >> >> We also use a Weehoo (a recumbent-style trail-a-bike), which both kids >> love. The younger one started going in it around 2 1/2. She still doesn't >> particularly contribute much to pedaling yet, but it's great anyway. And >> it does allow panniers, and also has some built-in luggage. So that may be >> an option to consider too. >> >> There are also getting to be tons of family-specific cargo bikes -- I >> love our Workcycles FR8 -- but if you're not into the xtracycle you already >> have, that may be less exciting. It got to be much more compelling for us >> when trying to carry two kids on one bike, which sounds like it's not an >> issue for you. But it's really cool to be able to comfortably carry two >> kids to school with their backpacks and lunch and my work stuff and still >> have plenty of room for picking up groceries or whatever else. But >> definitely a transport bike: it's REALLY heavy, bolt upright, doesn't go >> fast. >> >> -- >> Eli Daniel >> Somerville, MA >> >> >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
