Electric assist is a game changer for bike culture in North America

The explosive growth of electric assist for bikes has given a big boost to utilitarian cycling: moving kids and cargo. And the big brands are starting to wake up.

For many decades North American bike culture has been focused on recreational cycling: Road bikes, mountain bikes, beach cruisers, and such. Most people reading this site are probably on the vanguard of those interested in using a bicycle to move their kids and stuff around. Everyone else is completely surprised by the idea. But the large bike corporations have noticed a growing market and are offering new bike models that can carry lots of stuff and kids.

Just this last weekend, while riding my bakfiets (box bike) around town, taking my kids to different parts of a local festival, we received many comments of "Look at that bike!", "We need that!", "Is that homemade?" (because of the wooden box I bet). Since we moved to this town I've only seen 3 other similar cargo bikes so it couldn't be more different than our previous residence of Toronto where cargo bike usage has exploded. While cargo bikes are still rare in most small towns, I've seen electric bikes proliferate. I believe it won't be long until we start seeing more utility bikes.

This site lists a number of businesses who sell cargo bikes. Many of them are relatively small businesses compared to large corporations like Trek, Giant, and Specialized. The latter have noticed the success of some of former and are copying them. For example, Momentum (owned by Giant) and Trek are offering bikes that look inspired by Benno Boost, the popular Tern GSD, or other mid-tail cargo bikes by Xtracycle and Yuba. And Trek now has a long-john e-cargo bike which ticks all the boxes: integrated lights, five point harness on the seats, child seat integration, rain cover, built-in rack, wheel lock, belt drive and so on. It's rare to see a large company think about all the small details that make a bike useful for everyday use.

The prices of the corporate offerings are in the same range as the smaller businesses, and local availability may also be limited, so you may still be better off finding something specific to your needs. But it's nice to know they're out there. We all benefit from a growing cargo bike market. More people biking; better availability of service locations; better supply of parts and better municipal infrastructure.