The Gazelle Cabby in 2022

The Gazelle Cabby is a non-powered front loading cargo bike built by Dutch manufacturer Gazelle, from maybe 2007 to maybe 2016. It's hard to find information in English. Does it hold up, and is it a worthwhile purchase in 2022?

tl;dr: Yes, it's worth having a look at.

I think second hand cargo bikes are a great way to dip your toes into the water to see if a cargo bike is for you, and if it really is possible to replace a car with one. This is especially true if you live somewhere without big cycling infrastructure, where cargo bikes aren't a social norm. A new electric cargo bike runs over $10k in Australia, which is just too much as an experiment. So can a Cabby (or something similar) act as a gateway?

Rapid Specs

The Cabby is a front loading cargo bike. The cargo area is a unique folding steel frame with soft tarpaulin walls. The box folds up so the bike takes less space when parked. The cargo area includes a childs seat with 3 seat belts, though you would need quite small kids to have 3 fit comfortably side by side. The box is easily removable.

The rest of the Cabby frame is steel. It has a 26" rear wheel and 20" front. There is no suspension on the bike. The front wheel includes a Shimano Nexus dynamo to power the front light. The drivetrain is a Shimano Nexus 7 speed hub gear. This provides a fairly broad range of gears - in top gear you'll be pedalling at around 30km/h, which is plenty fast enough for this kind of bike, and first gear will get you up most medium-ish gradients you'll find in suburbs.

The brakes are Shimano roller brakes, which are a kind of hub brake common in the Netherlands for their reliability and low maintenance. The braking power is pretty crappy though, but there are upgrade options.

What's it like to ride?

Like I said in my previous post, riding the Cabby is a lot of fun. The bike is reasonably nimble, for something of this type. Children love riding in the cargo bike. It gets a lot of friendly attention just because cargo bikes are so unusual here.

Depending on the terrain where you live, you might find you want more range in the gearing of the Nexus 7. Our area is a bit hilly and first gear is not low enough. You might also find the brakes underpowered. I have found that planned stops are ok, you just need to give yourself plenty of stopping distance. On flat ground, the brakes are also ok. But down steep hills, you will not stop. You will slow down, but you won't come to a stop. It's just really unfortunate that the brakes let the bike down. You can easily upgrade to the Shimano BR-C6000 brakes, which apparently came standard on the later Cabby models, and apparently have a lot more stopping power. There are also people who have modified the frame to support disc brakes, which lets face it should have been standard, even back in 2007.

Whether this is a practical problem really depends on where you live. I will be upgrading the brakes, and then the bike will be really great to ride.

Buying a 10 year old bike

The thing with any purchase like this is that the bike is old, and depending on previous owners may not have been well maintained. Ours was purchased from a family that seemed to cherish the bike, but not put a lot of time into maintenance. I'm fine with this. 10 years old is not an old bike. Bike tech doesn't change that fast that a 10 year old bike is worthless.

That said, here is a list of things I've had to do just to bring the bike up to decent condition:

• Replace the shifter, as for some reason it had a 6 speed shifter instead of a 7 speed
• Replace the seat, as the one on it was cracked and falling apart due to years of sun damage
• Replace the brake cable housings, which were cracked
• Replace a snapped spoke
• Replace the steering stop, which was missing (small rubber piece)
• Replaced the front and rear lights with LED lights
• Grease the centrestand, as it was seized enough that the springs wouldn't bring it up
• Grease the roller brakes, to try and get more braking power
• Usual chain maintenance, lubrication, etc.

Nothing major.

But a bike like this, if in good condition, should be able to just keep going. It's not under any great stress when riding, the steel parts will last forever. Buying a second hand bike like this is a great way to get into cargo bikes on the cheap.

Buying an Unusual Bike

The bigger thing to consider regarding the Cabby is whether you will be able to get replacement parts for it. While the Cabby was sold in Australia, you don't see them around much. A lot of the parts on the Cabby are not things your local bike store will have much experience with, and a lot of the parts are specific to the Cabby.

As an example, one of the poles for the raincover on ours is a bit broken, though till usable, thankfully. However if we needed to replace it we'd be trying our luck with Dutch sellers online or international Ebay purchases. I've read concerns about the steering linkage, since that is specific to the bike, but I'd be more concerned about crashing and tearing the soft cargo area walls.

The Cabby uses an odd press-fit bottom bracket which, according to The Internet is absolutely terrible. Ours was nice and smooth and worked fine. Maybe I just don't ride in enough sand and snow but I have never replaced a bottom bracket on any bike. Plus if you're like me, the bottom bracket won't be staying on the bike for long.

I think you have to think about whether parts difficulty is realistically an issue? How likely are parts like the streering rod going to break? If you take basic care of things, I think you'll be fine.

The Cabby: A good, economic way to get into cargo bikes

I recommend the cabby - it's a well built cargo bike that is fun to ride. It's also a great base for an electric conversion, which makes the bike sooo much more useful. If you're cargo bike-curious, but don't want to or can't commit to $8-13k for a brand new electric model, then my suggestion is to have a look at the second hand market.

Buy a cabby or something like it, and ditch the car.