I found Google's Streetview cargobike
Hello everyone and welcome to Issue #16 of cargobike culture.
I’ve just got back from a week in London with my daughter. I’m sorry this week’s newsletter is late, but I’m just scraping under the Friday deadline.
London was great (have you seen the Frozen musical? Wow). When we were visiting the science museum, we came across this intriguing cargobike.
It’s a custom built Google Streetview trike from 2008. And I have thoughts.
It’s big, ugly and looks so unwieldy. But, I think it’s a great demonstration of how far cargobike tech has come in 15 years. Just looking at the equipment in the below photos. You don’t need to be a bike aficionado to recognise what a relic this is.
I really can’t imagine they were fun to ride either. According to the original 2008 Google press release I tracked down, they weighed over 115kg (250lbs) and a lot of that weight was high up on the end of the mast. And I’m not even sure it had electric assistance. I can’t see a control for it on the handlebars, and I don’t think there is a motor underneath. Comment below if you know better!
Honestly, I’m not sure how much the trike was actually used outside of good publicity material. It was brought to the UK as part of a wider partnership with the UK’s tourism board in an effort to add famous British landmarks to the Streetview database. I really can’t imagine it was used more that a few times.
Okay, that’s it for this week, see you all next Friday!