Memorial Day is winding down, and I got zero miles in this weekend. Work interfered and some stuff with the family took precedence over cycling. That's how it goes sometimes.

Last week I visited a new shop in Chapel Hill, NC. It's called Cycle9 . I went specifically to test out the xtracycle and the Yuba Mundo. Turns out they're only about 50 miles from my house, which is better than the 90 miles to the next nearest X dealer. WOW! The folks at cycle9 are wonderful, very knowledgeable and helpful, and friendly too! They're still getting things put together in their shop, but they have a couple of xtracycled bikes and at least two Yuba Mundo's to test ride. One of them has electric assist. I can envision thousands of uses for this type of bike, what is generally termed a "cargo bike."

Here is a short list of tasks/users for which I believe the cargo bike is perfectly suited:

1) Take out delivery vehicle. Pizza, Chinese, subs, whatever. In a defined delivery area of dense population in a relatively small radius, this bike would easily outperform a car in arriving quicker. Think about an area of student housing, either on-campus or off-campus in a large apartment complex. Consider a large office park where a couple thousand people work. A nearby restaurant could corner the market on deliveries with a couple part-time people riding the Mundo's or Xtracycle bikes.

2) Smartbikes, basically a borrowable bike that is owned by a university or town that lets citizens just take them and ride to their destination, and either leave it there or ride it back for some small rental fee or some activity fee built-in to other fees.

3) College students. Any student I knew during my college days would have loved a bike w/ the versatility and load-carrying capacity of these cargo bikes. When I was a student, I lived 17 miles from the campus, and would drive to the giant commuter parking lot with my mountain bike in the back of my soob. Once parked, I'd get the bike out, throw on my backpack, and not return until late in the evening. The bike was far superior for moving around campus, and the downtown areas where the eateries and bars and the library were on the opposite side of the campus from the giant parking lot. Later in my college career, I lived only 8 miles from campus and did use my bike to commute when I didn't have to leave school directly to go to work...10 more miles further from home.

4) Mail carriers, Paper carriers, Office Park or Parks and Rec staff who need to move items around a specified area like an office complex, Park, or mail route. The cargo bike is well-suited for these tasks as it can carry hundreds of pounds and move swiftly and easily over paved or non-paved paths.

There are many more but I'm sleepy now, so more later. In the meantime check out the Mundo at Cycle9, you'll be amazed with this bike.