Description
Room for two on the back, every day
The Veloe Multi Lungo is an Italian electric cargo bike built around carrying two children on the rear rack with proper space between them, on a low step-through steel frame you can get a leg over in work clothes.
Who are Veloe?
Veloe are a small Italian company who design, weld, paint and assemble their bikes at a factory near Milan. Doing all of that in Italy is unusual at this price, and you can see where the money went as soon as you look at the welds and the paint.
They build one idea in two lengths. The idea is a family cargo bike you would still choose to ride on a Sunday: a low step-through frame in chromoly steel, hub gears and a belt drive so there is nothing to maintain, ordinary wheels you can get tyres for anywhere, and a long rear rack that takes child seats, footrests, panniers or a grown-up passenger.
The two lengths are the Multi and the Multi Lungo. They share a front end. The Multi runs 24 inch wheels front and rear and comes in at about 1.8 m, which is roughly the length of an ordinary town bike. The Lungo keeps that same front end, stretches the rear and drops to a 20 inch rear wheel, which lengthens the rack and sits the load lower down.
What the Lungo is like to live with
It is a calm thing to ride. The 20 inch rear wheel keeps the weight low, the steel frame settles down over bad tarmac, and it handles well once you are moving. The hub gears and belt drive mean you can leave it locked outside the school all winter and it still works properly in March.
We own one of these ourselves. Ours is the shorter Multi, with 24 inch wheels front and rear, so it is fair to say we ride the other half of the range. Same frame design, same factory, same motors and gears. What we can tell you about living with a Veloe comes from doing it every day rather than from reading the brochure.
The extra length goes where it is useful. The 77 cm rack takes two child seats, or two sets of footrests for children who have grown out of seats, with room for a bag as well. Nobody rides with their knees around their ears.
How many children fit
Two on the back is what this bike is for, and it gives them space the shorter Multi cannot. Add a front seat and you are carrying three.
If your two passengers are still small and storage at home is tight, look at the Multi instead, which fits inside a council bike hangar.
Someone up front
Both Veloes will carry a passenger on the front. Veloe sell a jump seat for an older child, which is the part kids ask for by name, and a front baby seat takes a passenger from around six months old.
Having them in front of you changes the ride completely. You can talk to them, you can see what they are up to, and they get the view instead of the back of your coat. For a small child it is a far nicer way to get around town.
Carrying three every day?
The Lungo will do it, with two on the rack and one on the front seat. If three on board is your everyday rather than an occasional squeeze, it is worth looking at the Bike43 Long as well, which was designed around exactly that job. We stock both, so come and ride them back to back before you decide.
Why we sell them
It gets ridden at weekends
A Veloe reads as an ordinary bike with a long rack, so it comes to the pub and the park as well as the school gates. Plenty of cargo bikes do the school run and then live in the shed until Monday.
It survives a London winter
Hub gears and a belt drive have almost nothing exposed to the weather. Locked up outside all winter, it still shifts properly in March.
We look after it here
We are a Veloe dealer and we service what we sell, in our own workshop on Crouch Hill. Parts come from Italy and we order them regularly.
It grows with you
Child seats front and rear, footrests, feet covers, rain covers, loadspaces, panniers, safety bars and family packs. Start with a bare bike and add as the family changes.
Builds and prices
Hub gears need almost no maintenance. The Gates belt runs in place of a chain, so there is no oil, no rust and nothing on your trousers. Every build costs the same on the Multi and the Lungo.
| Motor | Gears | Drive | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shimano EP5 | Nexus 5E hub | Chain | £3,299 |
| Shimano EP5 | Nexus 5E hub | Gates belt | £3,599 |
| Shimano EP5 | Nexus Di2 electronic | Gates belt | £3,849 |
| Bosch Cargo Line | Nexus 5E hub | Chain | £4,499 |
| Bosch Cargo Line | Nexus 5E hub | Gates belt | £4,799 |
| Bosch Cargo Line | Enviolo HD stepless | Chain | £4,699 |
| Bosch Cargo Line | Enviolo HD stepless | Gates belt | £4,999 |
| Bosch Cargo Line | Enviolo AutomatiQ | Gates belt | £5,499 |
Swipe the table sideways for the full list.
Which motor? The Shimano EP5 is what most people go home with, and it saves around £1,200 over the Bosch. It has the power for a loaded bike on our hills. Choose Bosch Cargo Line for the bigger battery, the Bosch app and the wider service network behind you, and if you are carrying a full load up a hill every single day.
Which gears? Nexus 5E is the low-maintenance default. Enviolo is stepless, so you slide through the range with no gear steps at all. AutomatiQ changes gear by itself, which is genuinely lovely on a loaded bike in stop-start traffic.
Can you actually get one?
We normally keep a bike or two in stock in the popular colour and motor combinations, so there is often one in the shop you can ride away on the day.
If you want a particular build, or a colour of your own, we order it from the factory and it takes two to three weeks to arrive. That covers the custom paint as well, so choosing your own colour costs you the £100 and no extra waiting.
Any colour you like, for £100
This is the bit people fall for. Veloe will paint your frame in any RAL colour you choose, at the factory near Milan, for £100. It is a proper factory paint job. We won’t have your colour sitting in the shop, so it is ordered from Italy with the bike, and it adds no extra waiting.
Bring us a colour, a Pantone, or a photo of your front door.
A Lungo one of our customers had painted pink. Nobody has ever lost this bike in a bike rack.
Come and ride one up the hill
There is a hill directly outside the shop. Ten minutes on a loaded bike going up it tells you more than any spec sheet, and far more than a lap of a flat car park. We keep a Veloe in for test rides, and we own one ourselves, so we can tell you how it lives day to day.
143 Crouch Hill, Crouch End, N8 9QH. Available on all the usual Cycle to Work schemes.
