Hi Family Bikers!

[Forrest Baum]

Hey all, I’ll kick off Family Biking!

I’ve family biked for almost two decades now, starting by making do with a trailer and trail-a-bike with my older son. Then we moved to a Yepp seat, unassisted Bike Friday Haul-a-Day longtail, built up a Metrofiets front box bike with e-assist. Now we have three cargo bikes as we mainly ride an Xtracycle RFA midtail, and everyone insists on riding on their own. We’re now usually all riding our own standard bikes (with racks for hauling) unless taking a cargo bike shopping or bike camping!

How do you bike with your family?

Any questions or ideas you’d like to try?

 

[Nacho Bikes]

We started this whole car free cargo bike family journey through mountain biking.

before our son could ride on his own we purchased a Kidsrideshotgun seat which allowed us to take him on some of the trails. We also started using it off the trails and started doing grocery trips with it too.

Now we are car free with 2 cargo bikes and use them for everything.
We got my long tail bike because our son is a few good meals away from reaching the Thule Yepp’s weight limit.

 

[whoalansi]

We started riding with six when she was 9 or 10 months old using a thule ridealong on the back of my 90s mountain bike (1999 Kona Hahanna ). That bike had been my commuter for years to that point. In 2020, my grandma gave me part of my inheritance early so I used it to buy a new Norco Search gravel bike. We added a second kiddo to the family in 2021 and transferred the ridealong to the back of my husband's bike when three was old enough to start riding. We added a Thule Yepp Mini to the front of my gravel bike so we could go for rides as a family.

The front seat opened my eyes to how much fun it is to ride with your kids up front - the joy & ease of conversation were such a game changer from the ridealong. In early 2023, a friend got his first e-bike and commuting to work primarily by bike. We were talking a ton & he figured he'd use it in the spring, summer, and fall, and then park it for the winter. I asked him why not get studded tires and bike through the winter if your commute has improved so much. He didn't really have an answer and we both started looking at winter bike commuting. I'd been watching Not Just Bikes for a while at this point, & stumbled upon his bakfiets video again during that time & started thinking about the idea of getting one (or moving to the Netherlands....you know...nothing too extreme).

The more I looked into it, the more I loved the idea of replacing one of our two cars with a bakfiets. We're super fortunate to have an awesome bike shop here that does weekend demos of their cargo bikes, so we booked one for a lovely June weekend. My oldest rode home with me after we picked it up and I knew within the first few blocks that I was going to be convincing my husband that we get one. One short essay, a summer of detailing drama getting the car ready to sell, & a well-timed UA sale later, we were the proud owners of an Urban Arrow Family. We rode over 3,000 kms in 2024 & I now almost always choose the bike over the car (or end up wishing I'd biked). It brings us so much joy.

Six also went from being a very nervous rider to doing her first 10km ride with me in November, the day before our first (very heavy) snowfall of the season. We made it through our first winter in a moderately snowy, cold Canadian city & have mostly come to enjoy winter biking. I'm even looking at getting some studded tires on my old Kona so that we can do some winter rides as a family.

 

[SeerySLC]

We're expecting our first this fall. We have a long tail currently and now I'm finding myself wondering if we should switch to a US. Seems like it may be easier to bike easier with an attached car seat rather than waiting for the 9-10 months to be able to sit in a Thule.

Would love to hear folks pros and cons to cargo style and young kids!

**Edit: Didnt notice the phone correct UA to US, yes an urban arrow!

 

[Forrest Baum]

We're expecting our first this fall. We have a long tail currently and now I'm finding myself wondering if we should switch to a US. Seems like it may be easier to bike easier with an attached car seat rather than waiting for the 9-10 months to be able to sit in a Thule.

Would love to hear folks pros and cons to cargo style and young kids!

I'm guessing you're asking about an Urban Arrow? I'd absolutely try out a bakfiets-style bike to see if it works for you. We loooooved our "I wanna take box bike!" time, and UA is an excellent option for getting riding with a car seat. We waited until around 8 months for a Thule seat (when we felt confident in the kid could holding his head up wearing a helmet). You'll love it. DO IT!!

 

[mikbikes]

We're also a bike family these days! I got my husband a Burley trailer when our first baby was 4 months old, and we had a hand-me-down front seat. We had to wait a couple more months for her to be ready and fit a helmet, and then we started biking a lot as a family. When I was newly pregnant a few months later with our second, I demanded that I get an e-bike and that made life with the trailer downright delightful. After 6 months of near-constant biking with the trailer (and the purchase of a second e-bike for my husband), we decided to take the big plunge and replaced our second car with an Urban Arrow. Between the UA and the trailer, I biked my daughter to daycare until I was 38 weeks pregnant, and I was back on the bike less than 4 months later with my second baby in a car seat in the UA.

We're about 18 months into full cargo bike life -- the urban arrow has 1600 miles and the other two e-bikes are each a bit above 2000 miles. The kids consider the bike to be the default method of transportation and we can go two weeks at a time without using the car at all. The fact that we all get fresh air and a bit of exercise every day is such a wonderful feature.

We're having a bit of a rough stretch right now--we were hit with the frigid cold of the last week, and that means that snow is sticking around longer and currently icier than it usually is. I attempted to bike a few days ago and was fishtailing enough that I didn't feel comfortable biking now (I'm pregnant again) and it's been such a drag to have to use the car for trips that I always would have biked otherwise.