One of our owners, Rees, put it better than we could:
So happy we have our new trike. We have 3 Goldie’s and not only did they love the bike from the first ride they actually try and push each other out of the way to get another ride.
That is the part people do not expect. The worry beforehand is always whether the dog will tolerate it. The reality, more often than not, is a dog that works out very quickly that the box means going somewhere good.
How you carry a dog depends almost entirely on its size, and the two answers are genuinely different bikes.
Big dogs ride in the box
For anything above about a spaniel, you want a cargo bike for dogs with a box up front, and you want it on three wheels.
A dog is not cargo that sits still. It stands up, turns around, leans over the side to smell something and shifts its weight without warning. On a two wheel bike all of that goes straight into your handlebars. On three wheels it goes nowhere, because the bike is not relying on you for balance. You can stop, put the parking brake on, and sort out whatever needs sorting while the bike simply stands there.
That same stability is what makes loading possible on your own, which matters more than it sounds.
Getting a big dog in and out
This is the practical problem nobody mentions until they own the bike.
A 35 kilo Golden Retriever is not something you lift into a box twice a trip, and asking a dog to jump into a container it cannot see the bottom of goes badly the first few times. The answer is a front door: the panel at the front of the box opens, the dog walks in at ground level, and the door closes behind them. No lifting, no persuading, no wrestling.
If you are carrying a dog of any real size, treat the door as part of the bike rather than an optional extra. Everything else below is comfort. That one is the difference between using the bike and not.
The gear that earns its place
We put the dog-specific bits together as the Doggo Accessory Bundle, which is $400 and saves $82 against buying the pieces separately. What is in it, and why:
- Front door, for the reason above.
- Doggo securing ring, a fixed point inside the box to clip a lead to. A dog that can leap out at a magpie is a dog that will, once.
- Rubber floor mat, because claws, wet fur and sand are the three things a plywood box does not love.
- Rain cover and sun shade, with the poles to mount them. Dogs overheat faster than kids do, and shade on an Australian summer afternoon is not decoration.
- Spare tubes, front and rear, which is just sensible on any bike.
You do not need all of it on day one. You do need the door and the ring.
Small dogs ride up front
If your dog is a terrier, a cavoodle, a mini dachshund or anything in that range, a cargo box is far more bike than you need. The better answer is a basket on the front of a Tribe Evamos Longtail, where they are in front of you, at your eye level, and getting the view.
Two parts make it work:
- The Evamos frame mount front rack, $99. Frame mounted rather than fork mounted, so the weight sits on the bike instead of on your steering. With a live animal shifting about up there, that distinction is the whole point.
- The Basil Buddy pet basket, $299. It is 45 by 33 by 22 centimetres, which is the number worth measuring your dog against before you buy anything. It comes with a pillow, has reflective detailing, and is made of a hard-wearing plastic that copes with a wet dog better than wicker ever has.
The basket uses the MIK system, which means it clips onto the rack and off again without tools. That sounds like a small thing until you are using the same bike for the shops on Saturday and the dog on Sunday.
We do not keep the Basil Buddy on the shelf, but we order them in. Email us at hello@tribebikes.com.au and we will sort it out.
How dogs actually take to it
Kathryn, a few weeks in:
I’ve only been out on my Tribe Bike once with my dogs mainly due to the weather we’ve been having. It was great fun and the dogs seem to really enjoy it too.
John, more briefly:
Got the Tribe Bike Plus. Great for carting the dogs around. Really well built and fun to ride.
The pattern across our owners is that the first ride is the test and there usually is not a second one. Dogs read the box as the place where the good outings start, in the way they read a lead coming off the hook.
So which one
Measure the dog first, then pick.
If they fit comfortably in 45 by 33 by 22 centimetres, the Tribe Evamos Longtail with a front rack and a Buddy basket is the lighter, cheaper and more manoeuvrable answer. The Evamos starts at $3,990 and rides like a normal bike.
If they do not, you want the box, which means the Tribe Original at $5,490. It is our three wheel cargo bike, the same one most Tribe families use for kids, and the box is big enough that two large dogs is a normal load rather than a squeeze.
If you would rather hear it from people who are not us, every Tribe Original page carries owner reviews and a fair few of them are about dogs. Our bike shop partners around the country can talk it through in person too.
