Cargo Bikes and Kids

Even with 40,000 cargo bikes in Copenhagen, most cargo bike action involving kids takes place in the neighbourhoods, where families live close to the schools. 26% of all Copenhagen families with two or more kids have a cargo bike. It's the Copenhagen version of the SUV.

There are cargo bikes with kids in the morning rush hour however. Here are a few of them. Just a kid reading a book on their way to school.

Enter the Headwind

There's a storm warning for Copenhagen and parts of Denmark today. Here's a little prequel. While many parts of Denmark are hilly, the central area of Copenhagen is rather flat. What many people don't understand is that wind is a major factor. On a windy day, cycling into a headwind, it is equal to cycling up a hill with a 6% grade. And hills end. Wind doesn't.

Today, the storm strength winds will transform Copenhagen into the Pyranees. We will, however, just get on with it.















It's nothing new, of course. Wind has always been a factor in Copenhagen, as the vintage photo, above, attests.

Make sure your bike is not free-standing today, unless you have a proper kickstand.

Some people are more prepared for the wind than others.

Adjusting Hugh & Saturation

I rode out to the airport in Copenhagen (which is no big deal) this morning, to meet this fine British chap, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. He was arriving from the UK to film a tv show about Copenhagen and Denmark and we thought it rather appropriate if we adjusted him immediately to Copenhagen life and saturated him in our bicycle-frienly city from the word go.

We chucked his bag in my Bullitt and he hopped onto a Velorbis and we cycled into the city centre - past Christiansborg (which the whole planet seems to know as Borgen, thanks to the television series), where I took this shot. I filled him in on all the aspects of a mainstream bicycle culture (which really is a non-culture), planning liveable cities with the bicycle as the most powerful tool for change, as well as the finer points of Cycle Chic.


We rolled casually through the city, hardly breaking sweat as we pedalled and chatted and I delivered him to his hotel.

It was almost orchestrated when we were leaving the airport and we saw this Copenhagen family arriving with their bags on bicycles, ready to head off on a summer holiday.

For Hugh, it was the perfect arrival in this fine city. Easing him into the city from the airport, down the cycle tracks that gradually grew more and more busy with bicycles as we got closer to the medival city centre. And all on a gloriously sunny day.

Welcome to Copenhagen, Hugh!

Keep Calm and Carry Amsterdam

A lovely cushion for your back rack, spotted in Amsterdam.

For carrying friends and loved ones like this:


But then again, you can also carry them like this:


Or this:


Or this:


Or this:

Tour of Denmark

Last weekend the Tour of Denmark took over the streets of Frederiksberg.  The race is quite an entertaining one to watch as the riders whip past every seven to eight minutes, doing 10 laps before making a sprint for the finish.  Above, the peloton, and Lulu-Sophia cheering them on.

A few highlights from the day...



Champions of the bike lane :)

Cycle Chic Super Cargo Dads

It's quiet in Copenhagen at the moment, during the three weeks of summer holidays. The numbers of bicycle users heading to and from work are still mind-blowing to visitors but it is clear to those of us that live here that most of the nation are holidaying at home, in their summer houses or off travelling.


Cargo bikes and Copenhagen are like a hand and a glove. With 40,000 cargo bikes in the city you're certain to see them everywhere. In the summer holidays the pace slows. Kids don't have to be transported off to kindergarten or school but cargo bikes still fulfill an important role. There are still beaches or museums to be visited, playgrounds to be explored.

Denmark is one of the countries in the world with the greatest level of gender equality. It's not just in business or politics - out of the eight polictical parties, four have female leaders, including the Prime Minister - but in everyday life. A simple phrase from other societies like "soccer mom", for example, seems rather odd and archaeic. We're just soccer parents.

We hear, however, the same thing from cargo bike brands and bike shops. When a young family is discussing getting a cargo bike, it tends to be the mother who calls the shots regarding brand, accessories, etc. Nevertheless, the bike becomes The Family Bike when it rolls out of the shop, as you can see in this article. Superdads just getting on with it. Rolling kids around the city.

Given our involvement in the European Cyclelogistics project, we have cargo bikes on the brain at the moment here at our offices. So here goes.


At left: Here are my kids napping on the way home from the beach on our Bullitt.
At right: My boy and two friends on our old Longjohn.






Christiania Bikes in action.







Nihola Bikes do their thang.


In Ljubljana and Montreal, too.




Bullitts from Larry vs Harry.


A no-name brand at left and an Winther Kangaroo at right. The flag reads "Go, Mum!" and they were riding alongside his wife as she ran the Copenhagen Marathon.

The iconic Triobike.


Bakfiets from the Netherlands.

Sorte Jernhest (means Black Iron Horse). The one on the right is available for residents to borrow from various locations around the city.

Then again... kids are doin' it for themselves.