Psychedelic Cargo Bike For U.S. Hipster Changes
America has a problem. Our citizens are overweight and lazy. Most of our trips, and more specifically most of our trips under five miles are made by auto.
For a variety of reasons it is either impractical or impossible to perform a number of tasks via bicycle. Some of this has to do with infrastructure, some with society and some with bicycles.
While countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have great cargo-carrying bikes, they largely have not hit our shores. Personally I think that Americans aren’t partial to the Amish-black color that these bikes come in.
Biomega and Puma’s long-term collaboration has resulted in a new approach to the U.S. cargo bike market. The new “fashionable” cargo bike reminds me a bit of the 1980’s mountain bike scene (right down to the Judy-yellow color on the fork) but it might just solve a problem–if you can get past the name..
The Mopion (sounds like a Volkswaggen moped) is an aluminum cargo bike that weighs in at a mere 50 pounds, and is available in more traditional colors like white and black as well as this eye-grabbing color scheme.
I’m looking forward to trying this bike out, as my current cargo-carrying solutions tend to feel a bit awkward and unsteady. I’ve ridden the fietbikes that these are based on in Amsterdam and the small front pivot wheel makes them a tad bit faster to navigate than what I ride currently.
This bike might not solve the urban cargo problem, but it’s a start, and it’s a much-needed one if we’re ever going to get our cities to look more like Copenhagen than like Newark.