Earth and Body Friendly

Presenting Jillis again, from the Netherlands, who cycles a lot. Here is part two of his article ..

In the first part of this article, I ended with the problem of taking people or goods with you on a bicycle. Often, the backseat or boot of a car seems a much better and bigger place for them. But in recent years, plenty of solutions have arrived on the market that enable you to use your bike in the same effective way.

Taking young children with you

First I present some solutions for taking young children with you. For babies and toddlers you can install a child seat on your bike, even two—one in front and one behind you. That’s not a really new thing, but recently special Mum and Dad bikes have been designed that are sturdier and better balanced to allow you to have more control.

But once they get a bit older—and you’re able to handle this configuration—you can also get a trailer for your bike especially made for carrying children, with rain cover and safety flag. When they reach the age of cycling themselves, but they can’t keep up with you yet, you can get them a trailer-cycle, which is essentially half a bike trailing behind yours. For examples of these and similar solutions, see this dedicated web shop, BicycleTrailers.com. My Mum once said she wished these kind of things existed when I was a kid.

And there’s another good solution which is discussed further on.

Solutions for carrying goods

Solutions for carrying goods of course depends on the size and quantity of those goods. For carrying groceries, my partner and I have both put a pair of cycle bags on each of our bikes, big enough to carry two full shopping bags. When we both go shopping on Saturday morning, that’s enough to carry groceries for the whole week.

If that’s not enough, there’s the option of getting a cargo bike. Where I live, they used to exist for ages in only one bulky version but recently much more appealing models have been put on the local market. They’re quite popular in the larger towns where they’re a better alternative to cars when it comes to shopping. As they’re quite expensive, their use is currently limited to people who can actually afford them, so you usually see them only in certain parts of those towns. Some of the models are multifunctional, having a child seat in the cargo hold, so you can put both your shopping and your kids in them.

An alternative to a cargo bike is a cargo trailer, which you can hitch up to your existing bike. They’re featured at BicycleTrailers.com, but if you’re any good with tools, wood, steel and wheels, you can build a simple one yourself, as my Dad had done many years ago. It worked fine, with hardly any stability issues at all.

If these solutions appeal to you, but they’re not available where you live, you might consider importing them or even start manufacturing them if you see a local demand for them.

So, to some of the drawbacks there are no easy solutions, but there are good alternatives. And other problems you can solve, making cycling a more appealing way to get around town and country in a sustainable way.

Possibly related posts:

1. Getting around town and country on two wheels
2. How green are your groceries?
3. Buying second hand clothing
4. Reuse your bread bags
5. Lemon Ink recycled bags