Why get a family cargo bike?

By Gav Hudson, Big Butternut at Butternut Bikes. 3 November 2026.

One of the things I talk about all the time is, why do you get a cargo bike? We talk about these bikes, the functionality, the newton metres, the gears, all that sort of stuff. But really, what it does is let you do so much more.

Henry Ford supposedly said that if he'd asked people what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse. I think that has a parallel with the family cargo bikes we sell. Often parents think, I'm going to get this bike and do the journey to school or nursery and then on to work, because that's what I'm doing at the moment and it's a hassle. But you're only thinking about the thing you already do. You're not thinking about the extra stuff you can do, and how much happier your life will be because you have this bike.

I'd pick my daughter up from nursery, and instead of coming straight home on a bus, or in the car, or pushing a pram for half an hour each way, we'd go and feed the ducks. We'd go to the park. I can go to the park for 20 minutes, because getting there isn't a problem. Finsbury Park playground, an example I use a lot, is a 10 or 15 minute walk from the nearest road when you've got a small child with you. That's a mission. For us it's 10 minutes from Crouch End, there and back. So if you've got half an hour to kill, you can do stuff like that. I ask parents whether they ever go up to the top of Alexandra Palace, where the duck pond is. That's a world away. How would you get there without a bike?

So it's not about doing the same things you do now, on a bike. It's about doing so much more. I had a mum this week who'd bought a bike the week before, with her two lovely kids. They came in a few days later to pick something up, and they were all emotional about how brilliant their first week with the bike had been. They were having the best half term. They'd found all sorts of parks they'd never been to. A family cargo bike really widens your range. Instead of going to the same old park, Priory Park again, you can go to lots of others.

The other day I took my daughter to six playgrounds in one morning, a little playground crawl. Apparently that's what I do with my life now. But it was brilliant. None of them were destination parks, it was just a fun thing to do. Getting to the birthday party, getting to football training, all become so much easier, and you never have to park. The BMX track at Lordship Rec seems like a schlep from Crouch End, but with one of these bikes it's easy.

I've never sold a family cargo bike to anyone who regrets it. Some people haven't used them as much as they expected, but they still really like the bike, and as I've said before, they don't lose value. So even if you don't use it, and you will, it's a very low risk thing to buy, particularly if you can do it through Cycle to Work.

I'm evangelising, I know. It's not so much about the bike, it's that I see how happy people are with it. If you don't believe me, find anyone who's got one. Pick someone with a Tern GSD at the school gates and ask them: do you like having the bike? Can I borrow it for a week? (If they say no, we rent one out.) They'll probably want to lend it to you, but they also won't want to be without it for a week.

Think about how much time a day it saves. We had a parent who was walking 35 to 40 minutes each way to nursery, twice a day. I said, hang on, that's two and a half hours a day walking with a pram. We can cut that right down. We can save you two hours a day to do whatever you want with, work or anything else. How much is that worth? £100 a day? £20 a day? It was worth more than that, it saved that time instantly, and it's been brilliant.

More reading

If you want the detail: which Tern GSD to choose, belt drive or chain, how to keep the kids dry and how Cycle to Work works.

The GSD is the bike we sell most, but it is not the only one. Have a look at Bike43, Muli and Veloe too, and the Tern Quick Haul Long if you want to spend less. All of them are in our cargo and family section.