Big Dummy Love

Photo David D’Agnostino.
Cargo bikes like the Surly Big Dummy can carry up to 400 lbs worth of passengers, groceries, and gear. This one is outfitted with a Mac Ride front child carrier (for little stowaways). Bigger kids or adults can ride on the back.

 

Big Dummy Love

I’d like to deviate from the usual mountain bike ramblings this month to show some love for my favourite bike – the Surly Big Dummy. While most bike manufacturers use names that conjure up imagery of quick, powerful, and efficient animals and machines, the Big Dummy tells it like it is. It’s big, strong, and not particularly sharp or nimble. It’s a cargo bike. It’s also arguably the most important bike I own.

I bought my Big Dummy more than 10 years ago when my wife and I decided to join a couple of friends on a bike tour from Ottawa to Halifax. It was a 3-week tour. We rode roughly 100km/day and camped each night. I wasn’t into the idea of a traditional touring rig that could only carry the most strategically packed loads. We wanted something that could not only hold a tent and sleeping bags but also a stove, a bunch of groceries, and a guitar.

The Big Dummy is similar to most other cargo bikes in the fact that it can carry an impressive 400 lbs (including the rider). Since coming into my life, it has hauled groceries, tools, cases of beer, bags of mulch and soil, our kids, other people’s kids, my wife, our dog, and even other bikes. Now that I’m a father of 3 young kids, it regularly carries me and our two oldest boys and often their bikes when they’re too tired to ride or the streets are too hilly. It will surely hold all 3 of them some day.

It’s strong, balanced, and stable. It gets the kids to school just as quickly as hopping in the van. More importantly, it helps us spend less time driving places and encourages us to explore every corner of this beautiful little village.

People are often curious about this bike because it looks so unusual. The back wheel is pushed back almost half a wheel-length to create extra cargo space. It has what looks like a wooden skateboard deck on the back for flat loads and passengers to sit on. The bags are big and adjustable and double as tie-down straps. It’s incredibly versatile.

It’s not cheap though. A new cargo bike will cost somewhere in the $2,000-$3,000 range – a number that can make many people shudder. However, I’ve learned to think of its value more in car terms. Regardless of the age of your car, some combination of depreciation, maintenance, insurance, and gas will get most people to a similar dollar figure pretty quickly.

The point, of course, is not that cars are bad. The point is that, for me at least, a bike like this keeps me out of the car for trips where I really don’t need it but don’t have the time to walk (or patience as a parent!). For others, perhaps, it could mean owning one less car.

Surly’s Big Dummy is just one of many cargo bikes that are available to consumers. Other models to check out include the Xtracycle Edgerunner, Kona Ute, Yuba Mundo, or anything made by Babboe. Some even come with optional electric motors.

This month’s trail tip: Make easy hard. Push yourself and your skills on easy trails to prepare for more challenging terrain. Be more aggressive in low consequence corners and sprint up small hills.

A Singletrack Mind by David D’Agostino

 

 

 

 

 

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