10 July 2012

Cargotrikes: For Kids!

After our own 4th of July bike parade fun, I saw that other friends had similar experiences. Specifically, transportland.org posted about Longtail Kids in a neighborhood parade with this awesome video.


You can imagine my surprise when later that week a kids cargotrike showed up on Seattle Craigslist. After a day of discussion amongst friends and family on twitter, we decided to bring it down to the Ranch. We met the seller near JRA Bike Shop, which we also visited because they carry Yuba Mundo and Sun Atlas Cargo bikes. (Testride!) We also met up with fellow family bike blogger Family Ride in her hood for more bike geekery and some downtime at the playground. I try to make the most out of every car trip to Seattle and this one was no exception.

Backstory: this Diamondback Lil'One (16" wheels!) was brought up from Mexico by a family moving to the Northwest.  They sold it to our CL seller at a garage sale, who has been holding on to it for nearly a year in an attempt to find it a good home. It was in great shape and even came with a clown horn, but I added a plywood base and some pink coroplast wheel guards before letting the kids ride in the front.

You know - for kids! 

There is a slight learning curve to tadpole trikes, but our oldest picked it up quickly. Basically, don't ride faster than a grownup can walk and give yourself plenty of room to turn. 

Hauling used razor scooters from a garage sale.

Hauling a brother.

Hauling a sister and a friend.

Losing a race.

My turn!

Apparently these little trikes would be used by children to help families sell items at a market or to run errands. I certainly plan on making my kids haul their share of the load in the future! Unfortunately I can't find any other photos or information about this trike's former life south of the border. Any one have any clues?

I did find is this cuter-than-cute flickr set of Kinderbakfiets from De Fietsfabriek. Leave it to the Dutch to make 495€ cargotrikes for their kids (that's ~$600 US). Adorable.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know this post is OLD. But.... I *need* one of these! Or more accurately, my daughter does. I ride a Yuba and she would think it was SO COOL to have a bike like mom's that can haul stuff. Have you any more info on it? Or are you willing to sell yours???? (Assuming you still have it.)

Matt in Tacoma said...

We still have it! Our older daughters have insisted that we keep it so that their little brother can ride it as a rite of passage. He currently rides a 12" pedal bike so we'll have it for a few more years. I've seen Dutch mini-trikes for sale at G&O Family Cyclery in Seattle, but have never seen another like this one.