Cargo Bikes in action!

February 27th, 2008 by Russ Roca · 7 Comments

Just thought I’d share this video for those that may have not seen it yet. It’s a video by Clarence Eckerson from BikeTV that shows the 2005 Cargo Bike World Championship. Some interesting rides in the video. The Checkered Courier longhaul (aka Long-Jan..named after its maker) is from the Center for Appropriate Transportation in Oregon. You can also spot a few pedicabs, cargo trikes and trailers. Hodari Depalm, the winner of the race, is rocking a Bilenky!

Note: Some adult language near the end

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Tags: Commute

7 responses so far ↓

1 Quinn // Feb 27, 2008 at 3:42 pm

Kewl! though it still looks pretty dang difficult to handle front loader bikes
2 Lance // Feb 27, 2008 at 6:23 pm

haha, now that dude has some cycling PASSION!
3 Wayne Myer // Feb 28, 2008 at 6:09 am

I liked his original idea for celebrating better.
4 Val // Feb 28, 2008 at 10:19 am

I actually competed in the 2003 version of this race, and came in just behind Hodari, by about 10 seconds, which means that he was eighth of eleven competitors. He was not happy, and was quite vocal about it. What amused me is that he acts almost exactly the same when he wins. The best part is the pause…you can almost hear his wife saying “Gee, I don’t know…is he cute?”
5 db // Feb 28, 2008 at 10:55 am

Uh, yeah, he has passion, but I’m not sure if it’s about bikes or camera time… I guess his wife knew what she was in for, though.
6 Russ Roca // Feb 28, 2008 at 11:02 am

Val…sweet…what kind of cargo rig did you ride in the race? Any experience with the others in the video?
7 Val // Feb 28, 2008 at 12:25 pm

Russ: none other than my favorite ride - the Dreadnought. That race was the most extreme bit of hauling I had done on it at the time, and great proof of concept. By the way, cargo racing is an absolute blast! I had nothing to prove, and it was way too much fun. I have ridden various front loaders, too, and they work very well, though they take some getting used to. The higher center of gravity on the style ridden by Hodari definitely takes a bit of care in some conditions (he wiped out on some train tracks just before the finish in 2003), but that goes for anything with a large load. In the end, it’s all about the rider, not so much the machine. These guys are all my heroes.