A bakfiets or a christiana...hmm...

With gas prices going up, I decided to look into "alternative" forms of transportation. Since I live in a fairly small town/city, normal mass transit really isn't an option. We have bus service, but it only goes on one-two roads, and not really that efficient for what I need. I could probably walk faster. We won't have a commuter train until probably 2012, would be my guess. So, what to do right now?




Well, a few months ago I had read an article in the paper about a family about an hour and a half away from us, who live in a much larger city, that goes around town in a bakfiets. They ordered theirs, I want to say from the Netherlands. So, I decided to shop around on the net and see what I could find in the area of bikes that could cart my little kids and myself.




The bakfiets has it's own website, and looks pretty functional. For most people the benefit would be that it has only two wheels. For me, not so much. I have a hard time riding a bike with just a backpack on my back, let alone a big cargo/seater on the front of my bike. I'd be scared of tipping over and hurting my kids. They do have a tricycle option too though. The price, however, is what gets me. Cost + shipping is over $2,000. A little steep in my mind.

The other options out there, that I could find, aren't much better in the price arena. They are all over $1,000, some going for as much as $4,000 when you include how much it would cost to send over here. They do look pretty cool though.

There are bike places in the US that sell the special bakfiets, etc, from the Netherlands and Denmark, but they again, are still over $1,000.

The most expensive seemed to be the triobike, but it looks really cool.

The winther kangaroo looks really sleek, and if I could afford it, I'd probably get it!

The christiana bike looked like I would be carting around a little mini amish buggy.

The nihola looks like something my husband could do...hmm, not a bad thought...

There are also a lot of sites that go over the pros and cons of different "trike" bikes. I learned a lot. Initially I thought I would want a trike that had the cargo basket on the back, but then read that Delta tricycles (which is what they are called when the two wheels are on the back and one wheel on the front), are difficult to ride fast and turn on. I guess one of the wheels has to drag a little to do the turn, and the trike is prone to tip over that way.

Trikes that have cargo on the front also have pros and cons. The pro being that you can go faster and still be in control, but the con being that if there is more weight in the cargo area than on the seat of the bike, then the bike tips up.

So, for now I am still undecided. The very frugal part of me says it's too expensive, but then I thought about how much it takes to fill up my vehicle, and realized that one of these trikes could be paid for in just a few months with the money I would save in gas.