Buying bikes from China and then stripping off a majority of the parts only to replace them with “better” parts is a waste. I own a flying pigeon. These bicycles are about 35 dollars in China. I paid 85 dollars, shipped to my house. Having good brakes, wheels and such is missing the point entirely. Half a billion Chinese get around on Pigeon like bicycles happily without all the upgrades and by the time you have a 350 dollar Pigeon, you could have bought a better bicycle from Giant or many others.

The intrinsic cost of these cargo bikes is high. All we do by making them in Asia and shipping them here is offset our carbon and waste somewhere else.

Bilenky (www.bilenky.com)sells a well made fully outfitted American version for 2695.00 and a few of the Portland framebuilders make them between 1500-2500. I would say 1500-2500 for a vehicle that lasts nearly a lifetime with basic maintenance, has no insurance costs and no fuel costs is pretty darn good value.

(I like that he has a locally made utility bike, the Mundo)

All the best,

Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles

Turns out the real job at Joe Bike was filled. http://bikeportland.org/2008/10/16/utility-bike-specialistconsultant-joe-bike/

You are right, the other jobs available at the company are less interesting/lucrative.

–EBR

Nice cargo bike though.