UrbanArrow owner regret...??..

[Arrowgirl]

We purchased an '22 UrbanArrow, fantastic bike. Our 18month old loves riding in the front and probably will for the next few years.

However, our number 1 use case is dropping our LO off at day care and then commuting to work downtown. The UA is just too large to bring into our office so unfortunately we end up riding back home then switching onto our regular bikes.

I'm really thinking of selling the UA and picking up a smaller cargo bike that is more nimble and right-sized for our use. The Tern HSD seems to be the one speaking to me now.

Curious how other UA owners or other large cargo bike owners have dealt with bike biggness issues. Thank you

 

[indianajo]

I see from the website urban arrow is a bin in front bike. https://urbanarrow.com/ About a meter longer than a regular bike. There would be quite a problem parking it. With 25 mph winds common these days in my locale, I would have a hard time riding a bike with that much frontal area. 60% of the time the wind is in my face.
I ride a stretch frame cargo bike, about 15 cm longer than a regular MTB or cruiser. See the picture in the avatar. There is plenty of room on the back shelf for a car child seat, or two children sitting on a pad within monkey bars. Unfortunately the bodaboda frame is too long to fit the racks on the front of city busses. The bus racks are about 50 cm narrower than the bus width, which seems to me to be a waste of space. I can't argue with the government. My bike fits indoors in my garage. I no longer work so fitting indoors at the factory is no longer a problem. At my volunteer job I cable the bike to a power pole outside on the sidewalk. 13 mm SS cable, not the cheap flexible cable sold at the bicycle or home stores.
I would find the 20" wheels of a Tern HSD jaw rattling through potholes. I can't always miss them in the rain or snow or following a car through a green light. My bodaboda has 26" wheels, much smoother. I would say as a compromise, if you are small, a Blix packa has 24" wheels. The yuba combi which replaced my bodaboda has 24" wheels, but has a steel frame which I find archaic.
One other suggestion: when I was 2 to 5, my Mother carried me in a child seat on the front of her 1946 cruiser bike. The seat fastened to handlebars and fender mount holes, and was built by my father out of steel angle and masonite panel. There was a leg divider bar to keep me from sliding out, and a perimeter of bar for me to hold on to. I found the excellent view from the front of the bike thrilling. There was no such thing as a child helmet in 1953, but we never hit anything or fell over. I was particularly portable, weighing 42 lb when I entered third grade age 8.

 

[Brendon@OEB]

We purchased an '22 UrbanArrow, fantastic bike. Our 18month old loves riding in the front and probably will for the next few years.

However, our number 1 use case is dropping our LO off at day care and then commuting to work downtown. The UA is just too large to bring into our office so unfortunately we end up riding back home then switching onto our regular bikes.

I'm really thinking of selling the UA and picking up a smaller cargo bike that is more nimble and right-sized for our use. The Tern HSD seems to be the one speaking to me now.

Curious how other UA owners or other large cargo bike owners have dealt with bike biggness issues. Thank you

Front loaders are great vehicle replacement but as you've found out, they're big!

We sell pretty much all of the cargo brands, front loaders are great for folks who have the space and/or want to be able to keep an eye on whatever their cargo is. I ride a Tern GSD and rode an HSD S11 last summer. Both phenomenal bikes, the geometry works great with the small wheels, handling is impressive! Typically with smaller wheels the bike feels "twitchy" but they way Tern has done it with a decent size tire, they absolutely rip. Front suspension keeps bumps from reaching your hands.

HSD has about the same wheelbase as a traditional bike with the ability to haul up to 139lbs. Sounds like your kiddo can fit in a Thule Yepp seat? Both GSD and HSD have mounts for Thule seats, plug and play. If you have room for it I'd lean towards GSD. It's got the full power Bosch Cargo motor, the longer tail section will fit a kiddo and the smaller Cargohold 37 panniers even with stuff in them. When I would carry a passenger on the HSD the bags would have to be folded flat.

Here's the GSD ready for the Santa pub crawl we did in Dec!

 

[m@Robertson]

Frontloaders are without question easier to ride loaded. They have the BIG advantage of a large single cargo area that is low and centered. Once loaded, they are just as easy to ride with the only indication of being loaded the increased inertia of the bike. You find out you have an extra 100 lbs on the bike when you use the brakes.

The issue of switching back to a longtail or a midtail is all about that, plus loss of convenience. You no longer just have a big cargo box you can chuck your stuff into and go, without a care for balancing the load, or even packing it. With a bike that uses panniers to load cargo, you will go to a lot more effort to pack and also balance the load.

I know all this stuff because I own a longtail, a mid-tail and a frontloader. Actually I started out with mid-tail, graduated up to the biggest longtail on the market and then, about a year afterwards, built out a frontloader. I live in two towns switching between them as work dictates, and I kept the long- and mid-tail at one residence. These bikes are used as auto replacements so trips around town, shopping and commuting.

But I found that - once I had gotten used to the convenience level of a frontloader - the once-taken-for-granted effort to use a longtail was completely unwelcome. I resented the unnecessary extra work and rode less as a result (I'd do my shopping in the other town on the frontloader and load up the car when I traveled home). Thats no way to run a railroad... I'm selling the mid- and longtail and building a second frontloader right now.

Of course, as you originally state... you have to be able to park the thing. I would try harder to figure that angle out somehow. Once you lose the big, brainless cargo box, there's no going back, and you may end up regretting its loss a whole lot more than you might think.

EDIT: I have heard from more than one rider in cargo bike groups that the Urban Arrow can be tough to steer. @Arrowgirl do you find that to be the case? Mine are both Bullitts, which are pretty much the opposite. I don't know if steering difficulty is true for all UA owners, and when I was over in the Netherlands and Belgium last summer I noticed UA's were favored over Bullitts by about 10 to 1, so the UA can't be so bad with that kind of a numbers advantage.