sarahfrumento.ca
5th Cargobikeversary
How it started (me and Dottie) How it’s going (me and Keisha)
Five years ago I brought this cargo bike home. I never could have imagined the myriad ways this bike would add so much joy to my life.
When I got it, I just wanted to be able to replace more car trips with bike trips. In particular, I wanted a way to get my dog, Dottie, to the vet without driving, as that was really the only driving I was doing then after getting my first e-bike 4 years earlier. I was hopeful that I might be able to sell my SUV (save some money), but Dottie was old and I wasn’t going to force her if she didn’t like it.
Dottie took to it like she had been waiting for it her entire life. I had imagined we’d need a couple of weeks to build up to the 16 km trip (32 km round-trip) into the city for her rehab appointment, but I think we made our first trip (with several breaks) within the first week or so.
When I bought the bike, I was only thinking about how we could get from A to B. What I didn’t fully appreciate until we had the bike was how much both of us, but Dottie in particular, would enjoy the journey. She was alert and engaged the entire time. This was not her experience in the car, where she had to lie down and couldn’t see where we were going. She was also much more comfortable. I bought the Riese & Müller Load 75, a full suspension bike, to give this experiment the best chance of success. Even when she was a young dog she would let us know her displeasure if we hit a bump in the road. As a senior girl, with arthritis, I knew that if this was going to work it couldn’t be a bumpy, rattly ride and we lived in a rural area with lots of bumpy roads and trails. As hoped, the bike was very comfortable for her. The nice thing about the front loader was that I could see her and see how relaxed she was on it. This was in stark contrast to the trailer where I couldn’t see her very well at all. It was also better than our car, where I could hear her struggling to get comfortable at times, especially on turns.
We spent the last couple years of Dottie’s life going everywhere together on the bike. Her mobility was significantly limited by that point and she could only walk a few hundred metres very slowly. It meant our neighbourhood walks were not very interesting because we only hit the same short stretch. On the bike, however, we went to all sorts of parks and trails - many of which we’d never have even gone to by car. It was easy to stop if we saw a place that looked interesting and it didn’t matter if she couldn’t walk very far because she enjoyed checking out the new places and she also was taking in all the sights and scents during the ride there and back.
Fast forward to 2023, when we adopted Keisha. I got the sense that she was a bit more skittish, so we did take a long time to get her familiar with the bike (lots of puppy steps over approximately three weeks). But it worked! She loves riding on the bike as well. Whenever we get close to it, she jumps in.
I’ve never been a fan of driving somewhere to walk my dog. I did it for a while when we first got Dottie due to the lack of safe walking space in our old neighbourhood at that time1, but it felt really wrong plus it just added complications (i.e., extra gas/mileage/wear and tear on my SUV, finding parking, extra time to get to/from the place we were going and traffic delays).
The park nearest our house is really busy with people and dogs and Keisha can get a bit overwhelmed sometimes. It’s really nice to be able to hop on the bike and ride to less busy trails. I also cannot understate how nice it is not to have to worry about parking, as many of the less busy parks don’t have a lot of car parking spaces. We also use it to ride to see my family in the Cowichan Valley (via the Mill Bay ferry), thus avoiding a stressful drive over the Malahat. Keisha and I have already had so many fun adventures on the bike together and I feel like we’re just getting started. <3
Obviously my dogs are my babies and contribute so much joy to my life that being able to bring them with me on the bike is really important to me as someone who is living car-light, however, I also use my cargo bike for all sorts of other purposes that you would use a personal automobile for. It’s my favourite bike to commute with. I never have to worry about making an unplanned stop for groceries. I’ve used it to pick up bales of hay and feed for our chickens as well as all sorts of used purchases from FB marketplace (when I was on FB). When my niece and nephews come to visit, we use to the bike to get around instead of driving. I’ve also given rides to my friends and even my husband a couple of times (it’s a bit squishy for him, but he can fit for short rides).
Whenever I talk about this bike I can feel myself smiling - even after 5 years! I could gush and gush about it - I’m so glad I got the bike that I did. Living outside of the core and visiting family in the Cowichan Valley means that having a bike that feels up to any adventure is critical and that’s how I feel about my Load 75. I did sell my SUV a couple months after getting the cargo bike, when it was clear it was going to work (I have the option to drive my husband’s car, but I rarely want/need to) and I haven’t missed it at all.
My biggest regret with my first e-bike was that I waited a couple of years to get it, thinking I didn’t need it. I was wrong. It completely opened up what I could do by bike as someone who lived further outside of the core. I almost made the same mistake with my cargo bike, thinking I should get more use out of my first e-bike before upgrading. I’m so glad I didn’t wait. I would have missed out on so many of my most favourite memories, particularly with Dottie but also with my nieces, nephews, and friends.
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_This post was written quickly and without proofreading - please excuse any typos/grammatical issues. :-) I might come back to it at some point but I if I don’t publish it now, I may never get back to it._
1. a few years after we moved there the municipality did make a more dedicated walking space along one stretch of the road so we did more walks from home (instead of driving places) but it also meant we mostly only ever walked the one direction and back because the other parts of the road felt too sketchy. ↵
