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Bakfiets and Nihola Trikes go head to head!
Our Nihola and Bakfiets.NL Trikes are reviewed ‘head-to-head’ in the latest edition of the excellent Velo Vision Magazine.
You can read the review by clicking here (it’s a large document – give it a few seconds to open)
Photo courtesy of Peter Eland, Velo Vsion Magazine.
Book Fiets or Bakfiets?…
…Well both actually!
Viewers of the Culture Show on BBC last night will have seen Bakfiets Trike full of books from the nominated authors of the 2011 Booker prize.
The trike is oneof two that Practical Cycles recently delivered to the Comrie Development Trust who kindly loaned the bikes for use during filming for the show.
You can watch the trike in action (it appears several times!) on the BBC iPlayer page – click here to go straight to the footage (only available for another 6 days!)
You can read about the day we delivered the Bakfiets Trike sto Comrie – in a previous post.
For those with no time to watch the whole show – here are some screen grabs:
Bringing communities together
Earlier this week I had a delightful journey up to Perthshire, Scotland to deliver two beautiful Bakfiets Trikes to a customer.
The Bakfiets trike is one of our favourite bikes in the Prctical Cycles ‘stable’. It’s fully ready to be a child carrying beast of burden capable of conveying 4 children each with their own 3-point harness. Add the Rain tent and the kids are good to go anywhere in all weathers.
Travelling by trike is really safe. No matter what your cycle handling skills and balance, a trike is very hard to fall off (unless you are Krusty the Clown) and also really quite difficult to tip over. Amazingly, despite the size and width of the Bakfiets Cargo Trike, it is immensely easy (and fun) to ride – the turning circle is especially tight and it should also fit through most doorways.
Our customer in Scotland is Comrie Development Trust. Comrie is a beautiful small Scottish town sitting on the River Earn that nestles beneath the Trossachs in a flat river valley that is perfect for riding the Bakfiets Trike!
Arriving at the CDT headquaters, I was greeted by Andy and a very excited team. After introducing the various ‘things to know’ about the trikes they were soon whisked off on their first ride!
The Trikes will be available for use by the people of Comrie to do shopping, go to the allotment, take children on picnics – in fact just about anything. The intrepid may attempt to take the trikes to higher altitudes but for the majority the Bakfiets Cargo Trike will cope just fine scooting gracefully around the streets of Comrie. I would imagine that the town of Comrie has just found itself two black and red celebrities. I wonder what they will name them?…
Kids on bikes
A hint of sunshine, no gloves required, 3 months until the longest day! Time then to get out on your bike; and having one two or more ‘wee ones’ shouldn’t stop you having fun on two or even 3 wheels.
A new bike, sorry trike, has arrived at Practical Cycles. But it’s hard to describe this machine as ‘just a trike’.
You see, the Zigo is actually all things to all men,… mums,…er parents!
At its simplest the Zigo Leader (to give it the proper name) is a 7 speed Nexus, hub drive bicycle. This is no concession in design or afterthought – the Zigo bike is a really nice bike to ride and actually looks pretty cool too. 20″ wheels give it the look of a folding bike but without the fold! The only giveaway that this is more than a bike is the hinged clamp nestling just behind the headtube – this is one of the connection points for the Zigo Child Pod.
Child Pod? Yes – this is effectively a child stroller – for two children. It has two 20″ spoked wheels and two folding casters to the front (more on them below).
The main frame of the Zigo Child Pod connects to the Zigo Bike at two critical points – one with the hinged clamp behind the headtube (as mentioned above) and also by slotting a metal prong into the bottom end of the fork steerer tube of the bike (once the front wheel is removed). The prong is then secured by a hand tightened tap which keeps it in place but also engages the brake levers of the bike to work with the drum brakes (yes drum brakes – amazing!) of the Zigo Child Pod. The Bike and Child Pod linked together in this way becomes a very rideable, fun and Practical Child Transport Trike.
But the versatility of the Zigo doesn’t end there. The Zigo Child Pod has two more modes in which it can operate (if fairly inexpensive accessories are purchased). It can operate as a Jogger – ie a Stroller which you can run fast with. This is achieved using the Jogger Kit from Zigo – the two front casters of the stroller flip-up out-of-the-way and these two casters are replaced by one single 20″ spoked wheel that connects to the front ‘port’ on the Child Pod.
The final flourish of amazing Practicality that the Zigo offers is again with the Child Pod. This can be adapted using the Zigo Towing Hitch, to function as a regular child trailer. This offers families a great deal of flexibility. For example, mum could drop the children off at playschool – here she would quickly detach the Child Pod and leave that at the nursery – she would then ride off to work on her Zigo Bike (panniers on the rear rack with all her important meeting notes). At 3pm dad would tear himself away from his housewifery duties and trundle down to the nursery on his achingly cool fixie. Upon arrival at the nursery he’d find the trailer hitch that mum left stowed in the Child Pod, he’d hook it up and then off he’d go with it in tow. (He’d return 5 minutes later to pick the kids up that he forgot).
And not a car wheel would need turning to safely transport 2 children and 2 adults in the dry with minimum fuss and maximum fun.
If you’d like a test ride, you know where to contact us – http://www.practicalcycles.com
Nihola – Official UK Dealers
We are really excited to have the Nihola Cigar Family Trike here – there’s been lots of interest in them in the couple of weeks they have been here. During that time I’ve managed to ride one quite a bit.
The first trip was with two lively children in the front – they loved it – you can tell by looking at their faces!
My other trips have been ferrying some large boxes of stock around. It handles beautifully with nice smooth steering even when you wrench on the bars at speed it does not try to throw you off – it’s beautifully poised loaded or unloaded.
Looking at the quality of the frame, the paint job and components I’m amazed at the price. A handmade tricycle with sophisticated steering, Shimano Nexus IG Hub, Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres, Blackburn Rack, Rain Hood and Quality Humpert ‘cockpit’ at less than £1900 is really great competition for the Bakfiets (which we also love!).
We hope to make the streets and paths of the UK soon resemble one of our most favourite (cycle) cities – Copenhagen! Join the Ride!
History of Cycling Exhibition – St Annes, Lancashire, UK.
We have been exhibiting at a local cycling event all day – it was the first outing for our Nihola Trike from Denmark which arrived on Wednesday. More details on this soon….
History of Cycling Exhibition, St Annes 23 October 2010
At todays event were bikes through the ages from Bone Shakers, Ordinarys (Penny Farthings to most people) and of course wonderful cargo bikes/child transport bikes/delivery bikes courtesy of us!
There was also the obligatory smoothie maker, Cleveleys Road Club, Lytham St Annes Cycle Campaign (sorry I couldn’t help out today chaps! – I was busy with my own bikes!), British Cycling (with their very popular virtual races static bikes) and also other stuff.
If you came to see us, thanks for popping by, if you didn’t, stay tuned to our blog, mailing list, twitter, website or the jungle drums for news of future events….
Nihola!
We are the Cargo Bike dealers that like to say Nih (ola)!
These beautiful trikes will be landing at Practical Cycles very soon – all the way from Denmark.
More information soon!
Nihola Child Transport Trike
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