In some ways, the Noomad cargo fork looks completely brilliant, the way it trades one front wheel for two, and can hold a suitcase or whatever, centered and low to the ground while you ride.
In other ways, like when every twitch of the handlebars gets amplified by the front-heavy load, or when the folks in the demo video above go careening through a Spanish plaza at a speed that must have made the steadicam operator tingle with joy, it looks unworkable, if not completely nuts.
And if I have to plot lashing your kid into a Noomad bikeseat adapter and turning him into a hood ornament on this new-fangled contraption on this spectrum, I'd put it closer to nuts.
But maybe it just takes getting used to. I mean, we ride kids on the handlebars and in bakfiets nowadays, right? What do actual bike people think?
Noomad Bike Advanced Riding System starts at EUR 441, plus EUR 85 for the child seat and support bracket [noomadbike via dt reader rolf]
I'm not sure why I would want this rather than a traditional cargo trike that will hold more than one child *and* a suitcase.
I'm a cyclist. It's an interesting idea for hauling cargo, but it's *way* too expensive, it'll add weight, and the smaller wheels will give a much bumpier ride. (There's a reason some mountain bikes are moving to 29" wheels.)
I'm a cyclist and also a cargo-bike cyclist who has ridden bakfiets and long-tail cargo bikes. As per the post by Chris, I'd be very concerned about anything that replaces the larger wheels with smaller wheels without being purpose-built to that frame. A bakfiets has a small front wheel bc the whole bike geometry is built for it. Further, not to get super nerdy (and nerdier even than the whole 29er debate in mountain biking) but if your front trail geometry isn't appropriate (basically the rake or bend of your fork and how it relates to front end handling) than you'll have twitchy steering and potentially catastrophic shimmying when going down any kind of incline. Lastly, all that aside, the idea of having a kid basically functioning as an unprotected battering ram on the front of the bike is super scary for city riding. Conversely, a bakfiets has both a marine-grade plywood tub and a steel front fork and alloy wheel in front of your kids to protect them. This thing looks terrifying.
a clearly argued position based on actual expertise that confirms my inexperienced snap judgment? I LOVE IT.