Description
Carries a passenger. Fits in your hallway.
The Tern HSD P5i is a compact electric cargo bike designed around one job: carrying another person on the back. Its rear rack is rated to 80kg and the complete bike to 190kg, so the passenger can be a toddler in a seat, a nine-year-old with a school bag, or a grown adult.
It manages that on 20-inch wheels and a frame about the length of an ordinary bicycle. It goes through a front door, lives in a hallway or a narrow shed, and parks standing upright on its own rear rack. Most of the reason people talk themselves out of a cargo bike is that they can’t work out where to put it. This one solves that.
From toddler seat to teenager to adult
Tern build seats, handrails, footrests and cushions that fit the HSD at every stage and swap over as your child grows. A bike bought for a two-year-old is still the right bike when they’re ten, heavy, and wanting a lift to football. Fit the adult-rated setup and your partner can sit on the back on the way to dinner.
That is a long useful life for something bought when your child is small, and it’s the main reason an HSD ends up taking over most of your car journeys.
Steady with weight on the back, quick without it
The load sits low down and between the wheels, so a child on the rack settles the bike and makes it feel planted. The Bosch Performance Line motor puts out 75Nm, which is plenty to get you and a passenger up Crouch Hill without much effort.
Take the seat off and it becomes a nimble, upright bike for the ride to work or the shops. This matters more than people expect. A cargo bike that’s a chore to ride solo gets left in the shed on the days you’re not carrying anyone, and then it stops earning its money.
Belt drive, hub gears, nothing to maintain
Every HSD sold in the UK runs a Gates carbon belt. No chain means no oil, no grease on your trousers, no stretching, and it lasts years. The P5i pairs that with a Shimano Nexus five-speed hub, sealed against the weather and simple enough that there’s nothing to adjust or fettle.
Five gears covers North London comfortably, and a hub gear changes at a standstill, which is worth having when you’ve stopped halfway up a hill with a child on the back.
One frame size, and it fits almost everybody
The HSD takes riders from about 4’11" to 6’9" and up to 130kg, on one frame, with a seatpost and handlebar that adjust without tools. That range is unusual. Plenty of cargo bikes quietly stop fitting somewhere around six foot, and plenty more have a rider weight limit that rules people out before you add a passenger. This one covers a couple of very different-sized adults sharing the same bike, with about thirty seconds of adjustment between them.
An accessory system that grows with the family
Tern have built a genuinely good ecosystem around the HSD, and it’s a large part of why the bike lasts. The Captain’s Chair and Clubhouse Mini rails turn the rear rack into a proper seat with something to hold onto. A Storm Shield Mini keeps your passenger dry through February. The Storm Box Mini takes the shopping, the Transporteur carries a bag up front, the Hauler Rack handles awkward loads, and the Duostand holds the whole thing steady while you lift a child on board.
Working out which of those you need is the fiddly part, so come and ask. We’ll talk you through what suits your journeys, fit it properly, and we keep the lot in stock in Crouch End.
Book a test ride
We keep an HSD built up and ready to go, so there’s always a bike here to try. Bring whoever is going to sit on the back, because it feels different loaded and that’s the version you want to ride. We’ll fit a seat, set it to your height and send you up a hill. Half an hour on one tells you more than a fortnight of reading.
Book a test ride or just come down to the shop in Crouch End and talk to us.
Cycle to Work and ordering
Most of our HSDs go out on Cycle to Work, which takes a serious chunk off the price. We handle the vouchers for all the main schemes and we’ll walk you through it, including the bit about how the limits work. Come and see us and we’ll sort it.
You can also order online in Sky Mist or Basalt. We normally keep Terns in stock, and anything not on the floor is usually a day away from the distributor. Gen 3 is the exception at the moment. The first P5i bikes are due into the country in September, and every dealer in the country is waiting on that same shipment whatever their website says. Order or reserve one now and yours comes off it.
