Finn and Dad present the Bicycle Family Cargo Bike.

A milestone: Friday night I got to ride my Long Haul for the first time. It’s at a stage where I can throw a few parts on it and give it a test spin. Jane and my Mum both said they enjoyed riding it – the test was overall very positive. My Dad didn’t ride it because he was afraid he would scratch the new paint job.

Finn was the most excited to ride it on Tuesday. I couldn’t really pedal him around on it since I haven’t built the safe family box to carry him yet. That didn’t stop him from taking it for a stroll with me pushing. He also insisted on sitting in the drivers seat and steering it while I pushed him.

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Results from first test ride:

• The bike is remarkably light and the steering is good and nimble.
• The turning radius is a lot tighter than the Dutch Long John bike that we ride daily.
• The braking is good.
• A few minor adjustments were needed but nothing remarkable. (handlebars and stem are too high but that’s because I used a spare set while we wait for the proper ones to arrive.)
• Everything worked very well, I can’t wait to get the box on this thing and take Finn for a spin around town!

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The “demo” bike is not ready for public riding quite yet. Soon, soon! The family cargo box needs to be built and a few other major things need to be done like putting a rust proof finish onto some of the fabricated parts. The fenders, chainguard and dressguard are also very important and not commonly available on this continent, so development on those is ongoing. This bike is to be an example for future bike builds as well as a demostration unit that people can test ride and I can show off. Selling bikes one-by-one will mean each is customisable/unique. Yet, I’m putting a lot of time into getting things a certain way so that I can establish a distinct direction for the design. That, and I’m simultatiously tooling up the shop; which means building/aquiring/designing the tools as I need to use them – which means a few more weeks.

It was pretty nice to finally take it for a spin even if there is more to do.

The launch of the completed demo bike and an invitation to come test ride it will be announced soon.