Each day, the average bike is pressed into service carrying groceries, boxes and bags far beyond its designer’s original intentions. At best we hang panniers, baskets, pods and trailers off of it: sometimes frustrating attachments to use and maintain. Better bike designs for hauling loads were first available nearly a century ago, then fell into disuse with the advent of the combustion engine. But today a tiny international network of ecology-minded bicycle engineers is leading a renaissance for workbikes. The old bikes are being brilliantly redesigned with lessons of the past century in mind, including the experience of being overrun by the automobile industry. Today’s mammoth bicycle corporations concentrate their marketing power on recreational and commuting bikes, perhaps unconsciously avoiding the transport territory of motor-driven trucks and vans. The primary exception in the US is New York’s Worksman’s Cycles (see Rain 14:1, p.44), a company making workbikes since the 19th century. The US market for human powered machines shrank as gasoline power caught on, and as a result Worksman ’s has been conservative when investing in new bicycle design. They mostly build massive, heavy-duty bikes for use in industry, made to withstand the disrespectful treatment they receive on the factory floor. Now, Jan VanderTuin of Human Powered Machines has brought more workbike models to the US from Europe, updating their design and broadening the social program for bicycle engineers. His designs are based upon classic European transport cycles, such as the “Long John’’ (or “Long Emma” as it’s known to the British), and the Baker’s Bike, with basket attached to the frame rather than Page 14 Rain Winter/Spring 1992 Volume XIV, Number 2
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