Joe

Most makers of bakfietsen/boxbikes/longjohns try to impress you with how much their bikes can carry–300, 400, even 600 lbs. We think they’ve missed the point. Very few people have any intention of carrying more than, say, 200 lbs. of anything on a bike; rather, they want a safe, stable, secure environment for their kids along with enough capacity to carry things like groceries. Most of those manufacturers do incorporate some kind of passenger system, but it’s usually in the form of a plywood box with a hard plywood bench and shoulder straps secured to immovable wood. Some provide a rain canopy that keeps the kids dry but separates them from their parents by a sheet of wet plastic. And almost all of those bikes are too cumbersome (typically 80-100 lbs. and about 9 feet long) for practical, everyday riding in many American cities that have hills, such as Portland.

Joe Bike has a different philosophy. We wanted an accessible, lightweight but strong, easy-to-ride family bike that either a mom or dad could use to easily carry two kids and groceries, in both safety and comfort, whether their typical ride included hills or not.

We wanted to keep both the kids and the rider’s hands warm and dry, with no barrier between the children and their parents. We wanted a rain canopy that would also lower wind resistance.

We wanted quick-release mounts so that the cabin could be removed in seconds without the use of tools, either for easy storage or for swapping the cabin out for heavy-duty cargo racks.

We wanted weatherproof, grease-free, virtually maintenance-free operation, combined with excellent stopping power.

And we wanted to make these bikes in the US, specifically in Portland, using superior materials.

Bikes with those qualities did not exist in 2009. So we spent the winter designing and building our own. And after putting the ShuttleBug through its paces, we find we’ve produced the best family/utility bike in the world, with these best-in-class features:

–a very light (55 lbs. total), nimble, stable, surprisingly quick and easy ride

–frame geometry designed with hills in mind, unlike the case with Dutch and Danish versions

–a safely secured yet easily removable steel cabin covered with waterproof fabric, including soft but firm adjustable-height fabric seating and five-point safety harnesses that provide lateral as well as front-to-back restraints and that are attached to the fabric seats rather than wood, to minimize the chances of jarring or injury

–a reflective strip stitched all around the cabin fabric, for extra visibility at night

–a cabin featuring a unique window so the kids can watch the road in front of them, while the pilot can see the front wheel

–pockets inside and outside the cabin for storing the children’s and the pilot’s things, from water bottles to clothes, books, and cell phones.

–quick-release mounts so that you can remove the lightweight cabin in seconds and replace it with a heavy-duty cargo rack or the Joe Bike kids+cargo attachment, making this bike uniquely versatile…all without the need for a single tool

–Optional Gates carbon belt drive for light, clean, quiet, weatherproof operation. It’s quieter, cleaner, more efficient, and several times longer-lasting than a chain

–Alfine 8-speed hub (11-speed when available), Shimano’s top-of-the-line internal gearing systems; Nuvinci, Rohloff, Nexus Redline, and derailleur systems are also available

–Excellent Avid BB7 disc brakes, front and rear

–Quick-release seatpost clamp so that riders of different heights can easily adjust the seat height in seconds

–Frame and cabin construction of 80% American, 20% German aircraft-grade chromoly steel, which is superior to the steel used in almost all other bikes of its kind

–Despite its very light weight, the frame can carry up to 300 lbs. of cargo (in addition to the pilot). The steel/fabric cabin can easily carry 150 lbs.

–The optional rain canopy (not shown) is uniquely useful: it covers not only the passengers but also the hands of the pilot, while presenting no barrier between the passengers and the rider, unlike other canopies. It is also shaped to act as a wind faring more so than the other canopies.

Pricing: The entry-level, chain-drive version features an Alfine hub and disc brakes, and starts at $3180. The belt-drive version runs around $3500. The customer has a choice of powdercoating or ceramic coating in any color desired, along with color choices for the cabin and canopy. Accessories such as dyno-hub lighting, rear-wheel locks, and Brooks saddle are available.

These bikes were designed and built completely by Joe Bike staff at our fabrication facility in Southeast Portland. Our staff bring together design, framebuilding, and production experience from Co-Motion, Bike Friday, Civilian Cycles, BOB Trailers, FSA, and other manufacturers. All our handmade frames come with a 5-year warranty. The cabin frame, cabin fabric, and canopy include a 2-year warranty.

Customers who choose the entry-level version may upgrade to Alfine 11-speed and/or Gates carbon belt drive at a 40% discount for this change within the first year of ownership.

Note: All the photos you see here were published originally on Bikeportland.org. The Joe Bike camera’s memory card was wiped out and all our photos were lost. We’ll replace these with our own photos as soon as we can.

Portlanders like to make their own stuff, whether it’s beer, vodka, music, social revolutions, or bicycles. Tom’s a guy in Portland who stick-welds bakfietsen from old mountain bikes and such. It’s become a popular business for him. Rather than trying to prevent the rest of the world from making bikes like his, Tom actually shows you how to make a hillbilly bakfiets! Thanks to Metrofiets for the tip, and of course thanks to Tom too. That’s the Portland spirit!

My mom’s from China. She got out on the last US Navy vessel to leave there, from the port of German-built Qingdao, in 1949. She was young, it was traumatic in ways I can’t imagine, and she could never bring herself to go back to visit (even with her son). She still insists they don’t have things like refrigeration there. So when she comes to Portland next week we’re taking her to see the China Design Now exhibit, which should change her mind.

For this exhibit, Portland Art Museum borrowed a few of Joe Bike’s Flying Pigeons to display. Bike Hack was there and blogged about it, with photos. To promote the exhibit, the museum strategically placed a second Pigeon somewhere at The Nines hotel downtown and a third somewhere at Portland International Airport (haven’t seen either). These aren’t the retrofitted Pigeons we normally sell, but bone stock. Cottered cranks and all.

And it’s true, what you’re saying: there’s nothing “now” about the Pigeon, and the design is in fact English, having been brought to China from England via a Japanese businessman in the 1930s.

Sadly or not so sadly, for 2010 we’re moving away from the Pigeon in favor of bikes made for everyday transportation in Portland, bikes so gorgeous the very site of them will send a rush of glucose to your quads–so see these Pigeons now, before they fly away for good. The exhibit ends January 17.

More on the new bikes soon.

Two big, blank canvases on prime Hawthorne real estate are screaming out for your artwork, as long as your artwork appears to the untrained eye as signage that’s all about our work. Get in touch, okay? Okay. Flake not!