“Not Much Can Go Wrong With That Bike” 4

Sofia on Daddy’s cargo bike – Photo by James Schwartz / The Urban Country 

Last night my wife took her car to the grocery store and when she tried to start it again, the battery was dead. I grabbed my cargo bike and went to a nearby mechanic to borrow their mobile booster pack to recharge the battery enough to start the car.

The booster pack managed to get the car started once, but when she stepped inside to drive the car away, she inadvertently shut the car off.

Unfortunately, the booster pack didn’t work again. So I packed all the groceries along with my daughter into the cargo bike and headed home and returned the booster pack while she waited for roadside assistance.

When I returned the booster pack to the mechanic, a taxi driver, who was a patron of the garage, lauded the cargo bike. He loved the idea that a bicycle can easily carry a 2-year-old and a couple weeks’ worth of groceries.

He was of course waiting for his taxi to be fixed by the mechanic, so I explained to him that we can’t always rely on cars, but I can always rely on my trusty cargo bike.

He agreed and said, “there isn’t much that can go wrong with that bike”.

Indeed. My two bicycles require a tune up once a year, and in between there isn’t much that goes wrong with them, save for the odd flat tire, which has happened just once in the past three years.

Efficient, reliable, lazy transport.

James D. Schwartz is the Editor of The Urban Country and is based in Toronto, Canada. You can contact James at james.schwartz@theurbancountry.com or follow him on Twitter.

More Articles Like This:

• Urban Bicycling Is For Lazy People (June 2013)
• Bicycles Are For People Who Can’t Be Late (Mar 2013)
• The World Has Changed. So Can You. (April 2011)
• “Bicycling makes me feel like I’m a part of the city instead of feeling apart from the city (June 2013)
• My Ideal World (Sept 2012)