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Comment by CalRobert | Hacker News Reader

I was so excited to try a cargo bike I made sure to rent a Cristiana bike on a holiday to Copenhagen with my pregnant wife. Then I crashed while turning with her as a passenger. She was displeased.

We now ride a two wheeled urban arrow. Three wheelers seem incredibly unstable except perhaps for ones with independently pivoting wheels like the babboe carve

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When you buy one, they come with the warning to drive around first without cargo. But yeah, you need to take it easy. Safe speed is perhaps 10-12 km/h on a bike path with other bicycles, and you need to slow down to almost a complete stop for 90 degrees turns.

Perhaps I should add to this that they're actually super stable at slow speeds, compared to two-wheelers, especially when loaded. My wife prefers a cargo bike to her usual non-cargo bike, I think for this very reason.

While super unstable three wheelers are good for very heavy or large loads. Like moving a refrigerator. Start stop city traffic with +100kg load is easier on three than two wheels. Must say I never liked riding the Christiania bikes myself.

The old ones in NL easily take 300kg. You just have to learn not to attempt sharp corners. A normal bike also allows you to jerk the steering wheel 90 degrees at high speed.

It begs the question, are you carrying extreme loads, like refrigerators, on a daily basis? If not, then this is like buying an F-350 when you're mostly taking your kids to school. If so, then maybe none of these are the right design and you might want to look into something like a cargo trailer.

Well yes a ton of people are ferrying multiple kids plus their school bags everyday. They are far from common enough to get compared to F-350s. Nobody would commute on them daily if they didn't have a recurring need to haul something. They are far too expensive to buy as a beater.

> Nobody would commute on them daily if they didn't have a recurring need to haul something. They are far too expensive to buy as a beater.

I really can’t tell, are you referring to an F-350 or a cargo bike?

otoh there are large bicycle trailers that can carry those refrugerators.

Weren’t most of the babboes recalled?

https://www.babboe.nl/klantenservice/terugroepactie

Yes, but due to unrelated issues (the frames would break)

And what is the innovation that means the urban arrow frames will not break ?

Better (more expensive) Engineering. Different frame geometries, different materials, better quality control on the welding. One of the main reasons for the recall was that babboe did not follow up on reports of frames breaking until a regulator stepped in. And by then, it was too late to contain it to a few batches.

Babboe is a rather budget brand that uses a single round lower tube under the box. Compare that with the frame of an urban arrow or a R&M load that use multiple tubes and a proper stiff platform under the box. Even if an Urban Arrow Frame would crack, it would bend out of shape instead of failing catastrophically like the Babboe did.

Maybe a better alloy? The urban arrow also has an aluminum frame though, which is the normal recipe for snapped frames. Having broken a couple myself, and not being a racer, I always opt for steel now.

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