History

Somewhen in the depths of the unknown time, the frame for this abomination was forged. Then, many years later, bad things happened. The frame was mutilated, tortured, cut and then affixed with more steel. It became longer.

It developed slowly into the shape of a Long Andre cargo bike.

(Small interjection: If a regular frame is extended its a Long Andre, if the frame is constructed as a cargo bike from scratch, its a Long John)

Exchangd Sachs Pentasport with Shimano Alfine 8 Speed

8 is greater than 5, right? Well its not just that. but the Alfine gear hub can also be switched while under load, and has a greater gear range.

The two wires with which one switches gears on the Pentasport gear hub is quite the hassle to set up instead of the one wire thats found on the Alfine.

Sadly, the coaster brake is gone too. But the new hub can be outfitted with a disc. So somewhen in the future I might weld some disc brake mount too the frame and then the rear at least will have a disc brake.

Samum before Lindenfels castle with old Pentasport hub, snowy landscape Samum rear hub detail image

// Accident and broken frame

Images of the broken frame

Broken frame

First endurance test: Beverage haul

Cargo bike with a filled box.

Endurance test #2: Transporting 25kg of lithium ion batteries and a human entity!

Endurance test #2. Transporting lithium ion batteries and a human from one university building to another on TU Darmstadt campus.

Cranksets are a thing that get me cranked up. The old crankset had a chainring grouted to the crankarm. So if the chainring is worn down, the crankarms get replaced too, although they are perfectly fine. Back then Gunter and I changed the chainring to a smaller one, to make it easier to climb with cargo. Unfortunately this 38T chainring was made of aluminum. So, not so long as a year and the teeth looked horrible and I decided to switch to a new standard altogether. So instead of square tapered bottom bracket, the bike now runs with a Hollowtech 2 BB and a crankset, that allows to switch chainrings easily. Also, the new chainring has a narrow-wide design and is made of steel. So hopefully it gets a better mileage, then the aluminium one.

Cargo bike Samum with a new crankset in blue. Partially disassembled.