Two Wheels Good – Three Wheels Good

The world of cargo bikes is typically populated by either 2 wheel or 3 wheel cargo bikes. I have been asked the question on various occasions, which is the better cargo bike? The answer is…how long is a piece of string!

OK, so the answer is not as straightforward as to say pick one type of cargo bike over the other. It is all dependent on your requirements & what type of bicycle you are most comfortable with. We ultimately went with the 3 wheel “trike” style cargo bike called the Babboe Big. This cargo bike has 2 wheels on the front & one wheel on the back.

Why did we choose a 3 wheeler?

When we decided that we would test out a cargo bike, we carried out a bit of research to see what was on the market. We have 3 young children, the youngest child was age 2 at the time & the eldest age 5. So we had a few things on the checklist:

• The cargo bike needed to be spacious enough for the 3 children
• We needed space to carry some school bags & other items
• We wanted a stable bicycle for safety
• The bicycle needed to be easy to use & manoeuvre
• We needed a bicycle within a budget we could work with

Armed with a list we headed to the bicycle shop & chatted with the retailer to understand what was available. It was apparent early in the discussion that a larger 3 wheeler bicycle was going to tick more boxes for us than a 2 wheeler.

We tried a few bicycles out at the bike shop & then settled on a cargo bike called the Babboe Big from The Netherlands. The 2 wheelers were fine but space was an issue. For 2 children, many 2 wheelers will do the job perfectly but depending on the design of the bike, it could get cramped trying to fit 3 children. I also felt a bit more comfortable & confident cycling a 3 wheeled bicycle with the children in front compared to the 2 wheeler which obviously you need to balance like a normal 2 wheeled bicycle.

I felt more comfortable cycling the Babboe 3 wheeler in comparison to the Danish Christiania bike. I preferred the handle bars & how the Babboe manoeuvred which is very important to consider if you are using road surfaces that are uneven or poorly maintained as is the case in Ireland. We ended up trying the Babboe for a week doing the school run & we all loved it & this is what we ended up buying.