7 reasons to ride an electric cargo bike with your kids

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2) It's cheap (after purchase)

Riding an electric cargo bike is cheap! No need to pay for a bus fare, no need to pay for parking, and most importantly no need to pay for fuel.

The average cost of filling up a 55-litre tank of a family car costs more than £100 (since June 2022).

Electric cargo bikes can come with a high price tag, but there are budget options available, both for electric box bikes and longtail cargo bikes.

Charging the battery of your e-bike and maintenance will be your main expenses for running a family cargo bike, but it will be way less than the costs of running a (second) car.

Find out more about the costs of running an electric cargo bike.

3) You won't get sweaty - unless you want to

With electric assist on your bike, you won’t have to break into a sweat, even when going up a hill.

If you do want to improve your fitness, try cycling without any electric assist or put it in ‘eco’ mode to get some easy and cheap exercise as part of your daily routine.

Cycling is a great form of exercise and can help improve overall health and fitness. The NHS recommends that adults do some type of physical activity every day.

Riding a bike counts as moderate aerobic activity and it will raise your heart rate and can reduce the risk of heart disease or stroke.

5) You can bring lots of stuff

We all know that with kids comes stuff, lots of it - snacks, water bottles, book bags, PE kit, musical instruments, sports kit, and more snacks!

A cargo bike can easily deal with all this stuff; either chuck it in the box if you have a box bike or get some large panniers for your longtail.

With a bit of creativity and some bungee cords, you can also attach small buggies and balance bikes to your cargo bike.

The biggest advantage of a cargo bike over a normal bike with bike seats is the ease of carrying all the stuff you need with you.

6) You can go further and up hills

If you were riding a normal bike before getting an electric cargo bike, you will find you can easily ride further because of the electric assist.

Being able to cycle further with the help of the motor on your bike will allow you to go on a detour to the woods or that lovely playpark that used to be out of reach.

Sometimes they say that e-bikes flatten hills, and it’s true! Where you might have avoided hills in the past, especially with kids in bike seats or in a bike trailer, you can now whiz up hills more easily and can explore places that you previously didn’t visit.

7) Endless possibilities

With a cargo bike, you’ll find you spend more time exploring and being outside than you would be in public transport or by car.

You can park your bike wherever you want and spend some time in a park, go to the shops and then head to the library or a cafe.

This is much more complicated when you need to find a parking spot for your car.

If you’re cycling on traffic-free paths your children might want to walk a section or explore the environment because they’re so close to it.

You’ll also bump into friends more than you would be if you’d be driving a car.

Bonus: cargo biking is environmentally friendly

Electric cargo bikes require so much less energy and smaller batteries than an electric car.

There is also no noise, fumes or other small particles coming out of a bike, which means it is so much better for the environment than a fossil fuel powered car.

No air pollution = better health for you and your children.

If you're really keen you can always do what the host of The Family Cycling Podcast, Alex, did and power your electric cargo bike by solar panels to really boost those green credentials!