The Bike du Solei (Cargo Bike)

It’s not what you can buy, it’s what you can build

I have amalgamated the pictures related to the construction of my cargo bike in one blog post for those interested in its construction.  Since picture are worth 1000 words, I won’t put too much text, but include as many pics as I have. The name evolved as we originally called it the circus bike after the kid’s car seat were added, then it became the Bike du Solei
from the famous Cirque du Solei.

The platforms for the boys’ car seats are the ends of futon couch. The last of the construction pics shows a super easy and fast way to attach the car seat with a ratchet tie down. The bike is amazingly stable. I took a guess and made the rear steering arm a bit longer that the front one attached to the forks. It is perfect and makes the bike easy to maneuver in the garage as the front wheel can be turned nearly 90 degrees.

The main difference in design from similar “front cargo bikes” is that instead of extending the head tube for the steering, I simply made a brace from angle iron and then extended a tube attached to the original front fork, down through the frame that rides on a UHMW bushing (high density plastic similar to nylon).

Here are all the construction pics… They maybe a tad out of order, so scroll through to see what you want. Click any pic to enlarge it.