bakfiets.co.uk |

Thanks for stopping by. This review generates more traffic to this site than any other. If you are thinking about getting a Gazelle Cabby, read on, but also consider that it’s not your only option for this style of bike. I subsequently compared it to a bunch of others of this ilk. Whatever you eventually buy, it’d be lovely to hear about your family cycling experiences in the comments. On to the review…

One of the first pieces of advice we got when we started considering cargobikes was to try them out. We managed to test ride three before buying, and one of the ones we rode a couple of times was the Gazelle Cabby. It doesn’t seem like much has been written about them, with the thread on Henry’s blog being a rare exception, so I figured I’d post my impressions in the absence of a full review. I’ve since written another post comparing bakfietsen.

I guess people in the UK who shop in commuter orientated shops will have seen Gazelle bikes around. Apparently they are the biggest Dutch brand, selling around 350,000 bikes a year. From what I read, it appears that they are now made in China (but assembled in Holland). Certainly in Cambridge, they appear to be the most common Dutch brand.

The front box was designed by the same firm that did the ubiquitous Quinny Zapp stroller, and as a former Zapp owner, you can see that some parts sharing has taken place. This is no bad thing, and as an space for a child, it seems more comfortable than any of the other designs I’ve seen. It’s absurdly roomy for 1, and could probably take 3 toddlers side by side without too much griping. The restraining straps are the same as on the Quinny, and are nicer to use than the ones on the Fietsfabriek 995 we have or on the Winther Kangaroo that we borrowed. They are also nicer than the Croozer 737 or the Wee Ride. The fittings are quality pram items, not some bog standard part. Also, the seat (folding) is well padded and robust. The floor is non-slip, and the box frame is well covered. I think any kid could make themselves comfortable, and I didn’t see anything about it that would stress even the most fretful parent.

In addition to the childfriendly nature of the box, it has another unique feature – it folds and locks closed! I wish I had a picture of it locked closed, but I can’t seem to find one on the web. There’s a video on the Cabby website that shows it, and is well worth a look. It’s a really neat design. It folds simply and quickly when a child isn’t in the box, and can be locked securely. This is an especially useful feature if you are doing some shopping as it means that you can close the box around bags of shopping and they will be secure. It also means that when you aren’t transporting items, the relatively wide box need not impede your progress through tight spaces. It appears that the box can also be removed, but I didn’t get to try this out.

The bike feels like a quality item. All the control points are nice, and the rotary bell is a really pleasing touch. Don’t get me wrong, I think the De Fietsfabriek push button horn is funky, but it’s not as effective as the Gazelle unit. If one ever comes up on eBay, it will be mine! The rack comes with integrated straps, and the chainguard fully encloses the chain. The gears are the 7-speed Shimano Nexus setup, which are smooth, and shift better under torque than the SRAM P5 setup on our bike. The brakes are roller front and rear, which takes less getting used to that the coaster brake setup we have. It also comes with a very nice hub dynamo-driven light. All in all, the bike feels like a premium product, and at less than a grand, it’s very keenly priced. Also, not withstanding a nasty comment from a local drunk, the bike elicited really lovely reactions from people in the same way that the Winther does. My hunch is that it’s something about the “prammy-ness” of the boxes that makes people appreciate it.

So, why didn’t we get it? Well, a couple of things put us off. Firstly, no child raincover was available at the time. Whilst a child could just wear waterproofs, there are times you want your child to be warm and snug. This was a dealbreaker for us, but there are rumours on some Dutch message boards that one will be available imminently for 99 Euros, and you can see what it will look like on the website. Secondly, the stand did not inspire confidence. It appears to me that the Bakfiets.nl design is ahead of the rest in terms of stability, with the new (2008?) Fietsfabriek 4 point design we have close behind. The 2-point design on the older Fietsfabriek is still quite substantial, but the Gazelle stand is very skinny, and the lack of rubber feet makes it noisy and a bit unpleasant to use. I don’t know what the weight capacity of the box is, but with that stand, I wouldn’t want to put 80kg in it. It may be that the relatively narrow distance between the feet means that the skinny stand is fine in terms of strength, but the compromised stability is the trade off. To be fair, we let our son clamber about in it, and it was absolutely fine. It just doesn’t inspire the confidence that the ridiculously chunky Fietsfabriek design inspires in us, and the bakfiets.nl does in its owners.

There were a few other things that meant it wasn’t as attractive to us as the Fietsfabriek, despite some relative merits. This is a very big bike. It feels very long compared to the FF 995 and the Winther, and it seemed wider than the FF 995. Also, the steering was more fidgety than the FF 995. It wasn’t as awful by any means, but I just didn’t have the same sense of confidence through turns that the Fietsfabriek gave me immediately. However, I suspect it’s something that became a non-issue very quickly, and both my wife and I had the confidence to carve through bends by the time the second test ride was over. I didn’t experience any straight line problems, but then my son is only 2, and the box couldn’t be described as heavily loaded. Certainly, the handling was miles ahead of the Kangaroo. However, it seems to be that you wouldn’t want to throw a month worth of shopping in a fabric box in the way you can with a wooden one. Lastly, the box is constructed from a metal frame wrapped in a waterproof fabric. Having had a Croozer long-term, and seen it fade, and also seen the weathering on a well-used Winther, I was aware that this design may not withstand hard use or provide reparability in the way a wooden box could. If the box got vandalised or damaged in a crash, with the wooden box designs it would be a doddle to replace a panel or indeed fit a box of a new design using the same mounting points. With the fabric box, you are at the mercy of the Gazelle spares department or the ability and willingness of somewhere like Clarijs. I appreciate that if you were concerned, you could always take the box off and keep it indoors, but that would be a huge pain compared to the “put the key in and go” experience that most Dutch bikes afford.

So there you have it. I guess re-reading that, I feel like I have been a bit harsh. It’s a really nice bike at the end of the day. Given it appears a rain cover will be available soon, and the price is so good (or it was at the time – in the UK the price has risen 40% in 2009), I do think it represents a good deal in the right circumstances. The box is both a strength and a weakness in my view. I suspect that it’s the right solution for some people, and the folding mechanism may open up storage solutions than make it the only viable choice for some people. I’d recommend anyone looking at buying any child carrying bike to give one a try, if only for the sake of having a sense of what is out there. Watch the video and see if you can imagine you and your child in one. I feel sure it would be a delight to the right family.

Posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pm in the category:Reviews. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.