Wednesday 8 February 2017

A Pretender to the Crown?



Something I thought impossible has just happened. Nihola has a rival for my affections. Just when I thought life couldn't get much better than the school pick up on my favourite cargo bike and a bit of a snooze on route to the park -it did.

After the snooze (a sneaky coffee for dad, yes I know Starbucks) we cycled down to the cycle parking by the main kids play area.

Here we parked up beside a "Dura" bike, which as I understand is maybe a locally produced Singaporean cargo/utility bike, with cargo capacity at the rear and a phenomenally long chain (no electric assist on this one). You see quite a lot of this style of bike in Singapore and often in the parks being used as work transport for park maintenance staff.

I am saying maybe at this stage because I don't know if it is the frame or bike itself that is produced by "Dura" and I have yet to visit a store that sells the product.



You see from this side that the frame certainly doesn't look adapted and I am pretty sure it is factory produced given the fairly large number you see around appear to be standardised.

Anyway it wasn't "Dura" that I think is a real market rival for Nihola when it comes to family and kids transport.

When I first saw @StripyMoggie and @stevenpatt99 on their classic Dutch style cargo bikes in Belfast, although I was very impressed I didn't regret my Nihola purchase.

When @ellenfromnowon introduced an Urban Arrow to South Belfast, the Bosch electric assist was streets ahead of my Sunstar which comes with Nihola, but I was still happy on my stylish reverse trike.

It seems that when it comes to cargo trikes it might take a Dane to beat a Dane and the Butchers and Bicycles MK1 looks like a Nihola inspired success in the making. It seems to be slightly more pitched as off road and maybe subtly -more for Dads.

Now we are a two kid family I had been considering upgrading my bike from the Nihola Family to the Nihola 4.0 on the basis that it's always good to have room for future growth even if never required.

However, I think I would now maybe like to have a test cycle on the MK1 before making my next purchase decision.

My only criticism at this stage is this -if  it's called the MK1, even if I really like it, I might just wait to see the inevitable MK2 before entering the market!

A final word of thanks to @anderspreben for tweeting a picture of the MK1 and bringing it to my attention.

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