Rolling Orange

We had the chance recently to visit Rolling Orange Bikes in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NYC. They have a big, bright space full of De Fietsfabriek, Onderwater, Gazelle, Batavus and Golden Lion bikes, with a few bits and pieces of other things. Kids' bikes, cargo bikes, classic Omafiets, wheelchair and preschool cargo bikes, even a bike garage for your apartment building. They were very friendly and patient with our many questions (and the kids frantically exploring the biggest bikes).  If you are far from Chicago but closer to New York, this shop is worth a look. 

This huge cargo bike holds up to 8 kids for a kindergarten
but think of the stuff you could lug! The kids' bikes behind
have lights and fenders.

A bike security garage like this holds 6 bikes, opens and locks easily,
and goes for about $6000. I think I'd still lock my bike inside it though.

There is a wonderful Bakfiets for children built to the same standards as
the other bikes, the kids were crazy to try it, but unfortunately it exceeds our budget at $800.

This is a cargo trike with a ramp and a place to park a wheelchair,
but you could use it for dogs, lawnmowers or other things just as well.
For other and more specialized adaptive bikes see JC Lind and the links on our About Cargobikes page.

We enjoyed our visit and are glad that there is such a wide selection of cargo bike options now available in the northeast. I had thought that De Fietsfabriek had disappeared, but it has been resurrected by a new management and the bikes remain well made and no more expensive than others. Like most Dutch bike places we've seen, though European bikes are expensive, there doesn't seem to be an unreasonable markup. Together with Adeline Adeline in Manhattan, another shop we visited last year and liked that concentrates more on city bikes and Workcycles brands but which can get Bakfiets.nl cargo bikes too, this store makes New York (like Chicago) a great destination for anyone interested in biking with kids. 

We have enjoyed riding on the many new bike paths there, too. New York shows a lot of lessons that Chicago could implement as we move forward with cycling infrastructure in the Windy City. Now that there is strong political support in Chicago for creating a better cycling infrastructure, a visit to New York can be really informative. If you are from Chicago and go to New York bring or rent a bike and try it out, then tell your alderman!  But that's a whole other conversation...