The Make blog is following a Virginia man’s progress as he works to custom build a hauler/cargo bike with electronic assist power.  His plan is to have the bike easily haul 80 lbs. of cargo.   As of right now, he is still waiting on the parts to build the bike (which he will document in part 2 of the segment).  What is interesting is a detailed list of the parts he chose, and the reasons for choosing them.  The frame he chose is an obvious one, the Surly Big Daddy (pictured), which is rated to handle a 200 pound rider, and an additional 200 pounds of cargo.

Like many Americans, I began riding a bicycle as a kid. I still like bikes. I’d love to use a bike for local shopping. The grocery store is less than 2 miles from my house. Wal-Mart is 5 miles. Downtown Warrenton, Virginia is less than 3 miles away. There’s really no reason to use my van for most of those trips, except for one little thing.

My bicycle – an 18-speed mountain bike – doesn’t have a trunk. I can’t put 80 lbs of groceries on the bike because there’s no place to put them. And if I could put them on the bike, the local hills would probably defeat me. I’m not as spry as I used to be.

Maybe an electric bike would do the trick?

Lots of electric bikes are coming onto the market now, and that’s a good thing. But they all seem to have one thing in common: still no trunk. Most have enough power for the rider, and no more. Their gearing lets them help the rider sustain maybe 18 mph or so, but they have virtually no torque at lower speeds, so they’re useless for any sort of hauling. I couldn’t just stick a bicycle trailer behind one and expect to get up the local hills, pedaling or no pedaling.

Lets hope part 2 includes some really good detailed instructions.

[Via Make Blog]

[Images Via Surly Bikes, Commute By Bike]