The Ute is a long wheelbase cargo bike. For 2010 it comes with front and rear disc brakes. It comes as a 700c bike, but my only motor sitting around was a 26" model. I am working on lacing up a 700c motor but I don't have the right size spokes yet. So I quickly assembled it with what I had available. Fill size images can be seen in the Photo Gallery Here.
The great thing is that there is room for a whole family grocery trip back there, even with the batteries. And there is no need to figure out a rack mount. With this capacity, all day riding and touring should be possible. I am thinking about a west coast tour ride at some point.
On its maiden voyage I just threw the battery packs in loose. I plan to try other battery mounting options as time goes on. It rode pretty well with a 26" wheel in back and a 700c in front. The big 2.35" Big Apple made the 26" close to a 700c in size. It is nice to know that monster tires do fit. And with discs front and rear you could put 26" tires/wheels on it if you wanted to.
For a later ride I did a grocery trip and came back with 4 12-packs of soda, a gallon of milk, enough groceries to fill all the bags on the bike, and I had my batteries in the bags. That was probably over 100lbs of stuff. The bike handled the load. Really heavy loads just sitting in the bags can sway a bit, which makes the whole thing wag a bit in the back. As long as I rode and pedaled smoothly everything was OK. But if I wiggled around on the bike or shook the bars while riding (remember, I was doing a test), the back end magnified it. If I had the kind of load that I could lash to the top of the deck or secure on the sides on the Ute that amount of weight would be fine.
Here are some details of the build such as it is.
The Ute comes with a 26-36-bash guard crank. I installed a road triple crank. But then the chain interfered with the stock kickstand, so I installed an Esge model where both legs fold up on one side of the bike. With the 11t small cog in back I have a big enough gear to allow me to add pedal power at all speeds.
The bike comes with a very nice drivetrain for the price. But, as usual, Shimano trigger shifters will interfere with twist throttles. The solution is Sram thumb/thumb style trigger shifters. If an 8 speed cassette fits back there, I will install Sram Attack models. It will require extra long shifter cables, which I have at the ready.
I will post an update after making some changes to the bike.
It looks like Kona is about to introduce their own electric motor option for the Ute. I recently compared the Electric Ute and the Yuba elMundo on my blog at http://mycargobike.net/2010/05/27/dawn-of-the-u-s-cargo-bike-revolution
ReplyDeleteElectric assistance increases the possibility of using these bikes as a car replacement for many hauling scenarios. It's still an interesting question how they perform in real-world scenarios. I'm hoping to test each and report the results soon.
I've posted a review and video of the Electric Ute on my blog at http://mycargobike.net/2010/06/15/first-look-at-the-kona-electric-ute. Cheers!
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