Freight Bicycle - Development

Development

The first freight bicycles were used by tradesmen for delivering mail, bread and milk amongst others.

An early example of freight bicycles was heavy-duty standard bicycles, with heavy carriers at front or rear, sometimes with a smaller front wheel to accommodate a large front carrier. During the early part of the 20th Century these were commonly used by tradespeople for local deliveries. In the UK this style is still sometimes known as a butcher's bike or delibike, although the Post Office have by far the largest fleet; a more formal name is Porteur bicycle. Modern freight cycles still vary quite widely, with many old types still in production as well as a certain amount of new invention, and are often being tailored to particular applications.

With the domination of the combustion engine in the industrialized countries after World War II, freight bikes were relegated to factory floor duties and public park novelties such as ice cream bikes. In the rest of the world, they continued to be manufactured and heavily used. In the 1980s in Europe, and the 1990s in the US, ecologically-minded designers and small-scale manufacturers initiated a revival of the freight bike manufacturing sector.

A more recent development is the 'longtail' bike. It has a very long wheelbase, with the additional space behind the rider, for more space on the rear luggage rack, and strong frame and wheels to carry more weight on and around the rear wheel. This avoids the complications of a steering linkage found on cargo bikes with front loading cargo area, but does not provide a single large storage area. It is also more stable due to its long wheelbase. As of 2011 Kona (the Ute), Yuba (the Mundo), Madsen (the Madsen), and Sun Bicycles (the Sun Atlas Cargo) manufacture complete bicycles; Surly Bicycles a frameset or complete bike called the Big Dummy; and Xtracycle offers a kit to convert a regular frame into a longtail, in addition to a single-piece frame complete bicycle (the Radish).