UPDATE: The Tribe Evamos is now available!
We love our Tribe Original 3 wheel cargo bikes, we really love them and so do thousands of Australian families, but we know they’re not for everyone.
If storage is at a premium it can be hard to find somewhere to store your bike and they’re not exactly designed to throw on a car bike rack to take on holidays.
We saw a Longtail style cargo bike as the solution to this problem, and set out to develop a bike that had a similar footprint to a regular bike, could be more simply transported by car whilst retaining all the flexibility of our classic trike style bike.
What’s a longtail cargo bike?
Longtail cargo bikes have their style in their name, with a ‘long tail’, your cargo can be carried behind you. The Evamos Longtail has room for two kids behind you (maybe even 3 if you really squish them in), and a front rack to carry anything else.
Whilst they don’t have the huge amount of storage space as a box style bike like the Tribe Original, they benefit from being much more compact and riding more like a normal bike. Their versatility is what sets them apart.
Fun Fact, whilst the Americans may claim inventing the longtail bike, it is believed that the first ever Longtail bike was actually invented and produced in Australia, in Adelaide. Called the “longbike”, it was produced in the late 1970s as a solution to get the founder’s children to school. Sounds like a familiar problem!
The “Longbike”, produced in Adelaide in the 1970s.
The Evamos Longtail was born
We scanned the market and saw an opportunity for a well designed, functional, high quality and affordable option.
We set out with a list of what our Longtail needed to do, this included:
- Be able to safely carry 2 kids.
- Be ultra flexible. Kid carrier one minute, Grocery hauler the next.
- Have a powerful mid drive motor.
- Have a low centre of gravity.
- Be compact enough to fit on a car e-bike rack.
- Be affordable.
- Look cool!
The Evamos started as a wooden prototype in Steve’s backyard, followed by a bunch of technical drawings that nobody other than a bike engineer can understand, a few rounds of prototypes and where we are today, a bike that will be shipping very soon in time for Spring and Summer adventures!
What cool features can you expect?
We’ve thought long and hard about how to make the Evamos as flexible and comfortable as possible. Some of the features include:
- The same high power Bafang M400 motor as on our hugely popular Tribe Original Electric Plus bike, paired with a long range 14 Amp Hour battery.
- Integration of the innovative MIK (Mounting is Key) mounting system on both front and rear racks, allowing quick and easy transformation from kid carrier to cargo carrier, and prroviding hundreds of configuration options with the ever growing range of MIK compatible accessories.
- 24″ front and 20″ rear wheels, keeping the wheel base short and centre of gravity low whilst retaining a comfortable and manouverable ride.
- A range of accessories like deck boards, child safety bars and child foot rests as well as all the MIK compatible accessories!
- Four colour options: Aqua, Coral, Black & White.
MIK (Mounting is Key) – A genuine Game Changer
When we came across the then only recently launched MIK system, we knew we were onto a winner.
MIK is an open source mounting system developed by Dutch company Basil. Known to produce bags and accessories for bikes, Basil saw a problem that there was no standard for mounting things onto racks on bikes. This resulted in proprietary systems or complex mounting methods.
Basil set our to develop MIK, which is a super quick way to connect and attach bags, crates, child seats, you name it. Speed means flexibility, as with almost no effort you can swap out the accessories for your bike, depending on your need at the time.
As the system is open source, we’re starting to see more and more companies adopt it, meaning an ever growing accessory range, including the recently launched Polisport Child seat with MIK attachments, available in our store for launch.
The Tribe Evamos has room for 3 MIK mounts. Two on the rear which are rated to accept child seats, and one on the front rack. We’re super excited about the flexibility this will bring to the bike!
Evamos Longtail E-Bike coming soon!
We expect to launch the Evamos in early Spring. Pricing is still to be determined, but like the Tribe Original, expect a high quality product at an affordable price! See a sneak peak picture of our final prototype below.
