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The Lift turns your ordinary bicycle into a front-loading cargo bike

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Lift Bike front cargo bicycle conversion kit

After retiring from Salvagetti Bike Shop in Denver, CO, former owner Scott Taylor worked on The Lift for almost four years. His goal? Create a quality cargo bike option for under $1,000 that didn’t require a separate, oversized bike sitting in your garage. The result is a quickly attached front cargo box and steering mechanism that replaces your standard bike’s front wheel that can fit in about the same space as a wheelbarrow. Check it out…

Lift Bike front cargo bicycle conversion kit on Kickstarter

The frame is TIG-welded chromoly steel with weatherproof plywood for the cargo box. Both are made in Colorado (metalwork is done by REEB Cycles’ head welder), keeping all production in the U.S. for speedier delivery times, good karma, etc. Other parts are quality, too, with a sealed cartridge bearing headset, 160mm rotor disc brake and heavy duty thorn-proof tire.

And (presumably after a bit of practice), it takes just 46 seconds to install:

It’ll work with most non-carbon frames. The particular specifications are:

  • Frame should be steel, titanium or aluminum
  • 68mm or 73mm English threaded bottom bracket
  • Cable actuated disk or rim brakes (no drum brakes or hydraulic brakes)
  • Rigid (un-suspended) frames
  • 9mm standard dropout fork with either no suspension or a locked out suspension
  • Used bicycles should be inspected for rust and damage prior to installation

Retail will be $899, but nab one on the Kickstarter Early Bird for as little as $725, or $799 if you procrastinate. Bulk deals are also offered.

LiftBikes.com

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28 Comments
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rubensbelly
rubensbelly
8 years ago

Looks like a great idea

Tman
Tman
8 years ago

A grand!?!?!?!?! $ freaking years to come up with that? WTF? Over. Most fabricators could do better in a weekend or two. Why not make it use your STOCK front wheel to save hassle AND money AND space to store. This is a joke.

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
8 years ago
Reply to  Tman

That’s right, get angry. Effing tool!

Bald Ben
Bald Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  Tman

How many bakfiets do you see with 26″ or 700c or 29″ front wheels? There are center of gravity and handling considerations. Also, making this design to fit with “your stock front wheel” would require limiting it to one wheel size of bike. You really think this design could’ve been thought up, prototyped, tested, modified, and produced in a weekend? Even for an angry internet commenter, that was a poorly thought out brain fart.

Deavman
Deavman
5 years ago
Reply to  Tman

Well Tman…It’s been a year. Did you make your own cargo attachment ??

craig
craig
8 years ago

Wow that is clever

Tman
Tman
8 years ago
Reply to  craig

Helped with testing on at least one and was part of the team that brought another to the market.

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
8 years ago
Reply to  Tman

Unless that one you brought to market has a name you’re completely full of it. I don’t know anyone involved in bicycle R&D that comes off nearly as gauche or has the audacity to write such nonsense as your opening post.

StephenM
StephenM
8 years ago

I wonder how many useful and innovative new products Tman has successfully brought to market.

I think it looks great.

Joe
Joe
8 years ago

I like their logo best.

Fantomphish
Fantomphish
8 years ago

That’s awesome, I’ve been thinking about a cargo bike and now i can use one of my old hardtail a that have been retired..

Johnny
Johnny
8 years ago

I’d be more concerned about unspecified loads that contraption causes on any given frame. Obviously not something bike manufacturers have in mind.

Billion Bob
Billion Bob
8 years ago
Reply to  Johnny

It would seem that the load is more placed on the cargo attachment rather than the cargo attachment placing any huge load on the frame. Obviously there is load transfer to and from each unit but the way it attaches it looks like the load on the frame is a tension load near the BB. The frame should have no problem handling that type of load at that location.

Doug
Doug
8 years ago

Great idea, hope this guy does well!

Ryan
Ryan
8 years ago

As someone who makes a living in the bike business and has some experience in product design, I think I’m as qualified to pass judgement on this as anyone else. I think this is a great idea and I hope these guys do well. This is not a simple device to design by any means and it looks like these guys did a really great job of it. If I needed to carry more than a Bob trailer’s worth of stuff around I’d want this. The only drawback is the price, but relative to what you get, if you CAN afford it, it seems worth it to me.

Peter Herman
8 years ago

The only problem I have with this is that I already spent 3x as much on a cargo bike! Looks like a fantastic solution.

Drew Diller
8 years ago

I also make bike stuff. The solution shown here looks great. Tman, you overreacted – you aren’t required to buy it. It looks like these folks are doing a good job, no need to piss in their corn flakes.

Timothy Guarente
Timothy Guarente
8 years ago

I bet somebody is going to use this with an ExtraCycle.

N
N
8 years ago

Imagine that turning radius! It would be like driving a full length bus on two wheels.

J
J
8 years ago

Best comment ever. I’d love to see it. The Ginger Ninjas (Google…) are going to be all over it.

traildog
traildog
8 years ago
Reply to  J

That would be in the running for best combination with the local guy who has been seen captaining a tandem with two (yes, two) trail-a-bikes attached AND towing a burley trailer.

Also, I like the the Lift!

S. Molnar
S. Molnar
8 years ago

“It’ll work with most non-carbon frames.” Well, it won’t work with any Italian frames, so it’s utterly useless with my 1985 De Rosa. Maybe Tman could build something for me.

S. Molnar
S. Molnar
8 years ago

But, seriously, the attachment details are a bit vague (or am I just not finding them?), and those of us who live in places with weather have fenders to remove, which can be a pain. Great idea, though.

artitectus
8 years ago
Reply to  S. Molnar

Why would you have to remove the fender? There looks to be plenty of clearance for it to stay in place … it’d look a bit odd without the wheel, but odd and cargobikes aren’t exactly enemies 😉

Ryan Johnson
Ryan Johnson
8 years ago

That’s a pretty slick conversion. I like it, and I hope these guys meet their goal, produce their orders, and create happy customers.

eogie
8 years ago
Reply to  Ryan Johnson

My question as well. Seems like a very important detail that they neglect to talk about. I bet that’s what makes the conversion take longer than 60 seconds. I don’t see how you could work around not buying a long section of housing and a brake cable. That said, brake cables aren’t that long…so I have no idea how this works.

Just watched the video again and it looks like it might use a cable splitter like you see with S&S coupled bikes. That would require running two separate housings and cables and linking them together, which takes some time and skill and a hell of a lot longer than 60 seconds.

I’m not bad mouthing this product as I think it’s awesome, but that aspect should be discussed.

Phil
Phil
8 years ago

How does the front brake work?

Stendhal
Stendhal
8 years ago

Do you need a dog pilot to make it work? Other than that, it looks great!

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