| Michael
Bullitt KidsBox – in-house development
News: Bullitt KidsBox
Let’s start with the bad news: even Bullitt-drivers are getting older. And as they do, the possibility rises that in the near future they have to transport not only goods but also children.
Hey, you might think, no problem, there are boxes and a seat for the Bullitt which you even find on Bullitt’s website. In fact, if you have only one child, it is no problem getting a seat for your kid. But what happens, if you have more than one?
This is where our new developed KidsBox comes in. And actually, this is where it all started…
At our store in Leipzig, where we present a wide range of cargo-bikes for multiple purposes, more and more „grown up“-Bullitt-drivers asked if there was a box for two kids. And as we couldn’t find one on the market we started creating our own.
Driven by the wishes of our customers, inspired by Riese&Müller and building upon the experience of our Bullitt „Schutzdeck“ we began with the first prototypes. Our goal was to create a box that can be easily removed when it’s not needed. And while it had to be wide enough for two kids, we didn’t want it to be wider than the Bullitt’s handlebar.
For the kids we put in a seat, a backrest and a belt system for safety. We also offer a tarp cover and the canopy is ready soon. The latest pre-series type is just in the final stage of testing and we hope to get it ready for sale by the end of the year.
The production of our KidsBox is completely done in Leipzig. We not only want to support local manufacturers, but also to keep the distances short for ecological reasons and really short feed-back loopes during the development. Our tarp cover and canopy is made by a local sail-maker who is very keen on creating new products with us. The box, the seat and the backrest are manufactured at a workshop for handicapped people not far from our store.
rad3 was founded in 2012. In our beginnings, hardly anyone knew much about cargobikes. We were three cycling enthusiasts who wanted to change that. Since then, quite a few things happened and nowadays cargobikes are quite common on the streets of Leipzig. Our customers are, besides the „grown-up“ Bullitt-drivers ? mainly families who want to transport their kids as well as their shopping bags. But recently we also notice a growing interest from small businesses and different providers like maintenance and concierge services. We also take part in a state-funded programme to promote cargobike use for small businesses, and the city of Leipzig has put up a 3-month-support programme for testing electric vehicles. Thanks to our successful lobbying the programme is now also available for electric cargo-bikes.
We are confident that the market for cargobikes will continue to grow in the coming years. More and more people get rid of their cars and are looking for alternatives. Sure, the ecological and economic advantages are quite obvious. But we believe that it’s mostly about the pleasure and fun why people finally choose to ride a cargobike. This is why everyone who comes back from his or her first test drive on one of our cargobikes has a big smile on his or her face… ?
If you like you can always experience this here. You are very much invited to come around and visit our shop once you are in Leipzig. We are always happy to take part in a growing cargobike community all over Europe.
Please get back to us if you need more information.
All the bestYour team of rad3See our prototyping-video we made just for fun: https://vimeo.com/rad3de/kidsboxbullitt