Bertha’s Big Adventure

For a while now, we’ve been offering free trials and hire of our bikes to families who are looking for environmentally-friendly everyday transport. But while I’ve had lots of hands-on experience of carrying our 1 and 3 year-old on our own cargo bike, and many hours in the saddle of Cargodale’s cargo bikes, I’d never actually used a Cargodale bike with my own children. So we decided to do a little road test, load up the camping gear, and see how well one would work as a family wagon.

“Are you sure this a good idea?”

Most of our bikes are Riese & Müller Packster 80 models. They’re 2.5m long and weigh 50kg, which puts them firmly at the larger end of the family cargo bike spectrum. But they can also carry a big 100kg payload and have plenty of storage capacity, both up front and on their sturdy rear racks. Our cargo bike Bertha has recently been fitted with double child seats, complete with four-point seatbelts, and a removable rain cover should the weather turn nasty. The first bike to join our fleet, she’s carried groceries the length and breadth of Calderdale, but never ventured outside the borough. So it seems high time to give her a taste of the big wide world.

We decided to aim for an overnight stay on a campsite just outside Addingham, on the edge of a swathe of open country that includes Ilkley Moor. Our family’s packing strategy tends to be “throw everything in”, and we often set off in a car packed to the rafters with camping gear, cuddly toys, story books, and everything else that goes along with small people. So we decided to take our own longtail cargo bike to carry our 3-person tent, clothes and bedding, then carry everything else on the Packster. A spare child seat went on the second bike in case of squabbling, and panniers added to Bertha’s capacity. We let the excellent route planning website Cyclestreets plot a course for us, then we were off.

Top of the moor!

To get anywhere from Hebden Bridge, the only way is up. Soon we were climbing past the hilltop village of Pecket Well and leaving Calderdale via a twisty moorland road. It’s a long drag up, and even has its own Facebook page to inform locals whether it’s been shut due to snow. The reward for all that graft is spectacular views, then a plummet down into Oxenhope. At this point the main road carries on to Keighley, but to avoid traffic we detoured through Haworth. Thanks to its thriving tourist trade, it has lots of nice independent shops and cafés, and after cycling up its cobbled main street we decided to pause for an ice cream, then stocked up on ingredients for the night’s dinner.

Arriving in Haworth in style.

After Haworth the route took us up and down a series of steep little lanes, before traversing across the moors high above Keighley, and dropping down into Steeton and Silsden. We rejoined the main road just as Friday evening rush hour was starting and I was reminded of how much impact heavy traffic has on quiet rural communities - even if most of it was barely moving faster than we were.

The scenic route was also the hilly option.

Then it was back into the lanes, and a big climb up to Addingham Moor. With a 20-mile route that included nearly 3000 feet of climbing, we’d miscalculated how far we could do on one battery charge, and the last ten minutes to the campsite were solely human-powered - a feat that my legs were feeling the next day. But we’d made it, and soon we were pitching our tent, firing up the Trangia and cooking dinner. The cover went on the cargo bike so it could double as extra storage and a food larder.

All set up for dinner.

The next morning, with both bikes recharged overnight, we packed up and headed back via Cliffe Castle in Keighley, an excellent stop-off for small people thanks to its playground, gardens and café. The flatter route wasn’t quite as scenic, but meant we arrived home with plenty of charge to spare. My older daughter even managed a quick nap in the bike (kids sleep on bikes almost as reliably as they sleep in cars). I’d pick a less hilly route next time and might keep some extra bedding handy to facilitate on-bike naps, but it was a good test of concept - and a fun first family camping trip of the year.

Snoozing like a champion.

If you’d like to borrow or hire one of our bikes to try with your family, including seats and cover, get in touch via our Contact page.