V3 Mundo Cargo Bike

The beefy steel tubing and integrated rack design of the Mundo makes it easy to carry friends, kids, and spouses.

The top surface of the Mundo requires some padding before it’s passenger-ready. A trail blanket would do nicely.

It’s easy to customize a Mundo. We used a jig saw to attach bamboo running boards for a dad in San Francisco. The oval holes allow straps to pass through for securing loads.

See the full How-To documentation on Flickr. Please note it is no longer necessary to use self-drilling screws into the Side Loaders of the Mundo, as the Mundo now has threaded customization points.

Here’s the finished product, with a child seat for his daughter:

The creators of the Mundo have made the current model 13 pounds lighter. The new model is noticeably sportier on hills, and easier to carry down a flight of stairs.

The weight savings is related to the narrower gauge tubing in the Mundo’s carrier. The carrier also has fewer tubes.

All Mundos sold by Rock The Bike as of June 2009 have this improvement.

Down Low Glow as a rear taillight. Photo: Rob Arnaud

For years we’ve been selling the Down Low Glow as a Side Visibilty and Ground Effects light for bicycles. Some of our customers have been trying it out as rear light, and I finally set it up that way for myself. The results are in. Never has it been this much fun to take the lane.

The Down Low Glow makes a killer taillight on any bike with a rear rack. The complete sweep of visibily of the Down Low Glow outdoes anything else on the market, and the bright red light around your bike communicates to drivers what part of the road is theirs and what part of the road is yours.

You can rotate the DLG’s light tube so its brightest light hits the eyes of drivers. The DLG is brightest at the extreme angles of its light tube, as you can see by the hard transition to from the Plush Red on the ground near the rear wheel to the Royale Purple from the DLG system mounted on the downtube and chainstay of this Mundo. The other bright band from this rear-mounted tube is the one aiming right at the camera. Stand your bike up near a wall and rotate the light tube until the brightest band of light come up the wall light. Angle it up at eye level of drivers approaching you from the rear in cars and trucks.

Speaking of trucks, have any of you driven at night on a highway with decent truck traffic lately? It’s obvious when you see a trucker who cares about their rig and their own safety, because they illuminate it with large bright lights and reflective tape. Why do they do it? Because driving probably feels a little better, a little less stressful with all that safety gear, and because they probably have pride in their rig and don’t mind communicating that pride. You can do the same with your bicycle. Make a bold statement about bike culture and your own safety at the same time. And with the Down Low Glow, you won’t need a CB radio to talk to other bike people. You can just say “Hi.”

One last point. I have yet to verify this with an neurobiologist, but anecdotal and visual evidence suggests to me that the Down Low Glow could be an inherently more effective bike light because of its size. My theory is that our brains are wired to think that bigger is more important. Therefore, a point source of light, like a strobe or an ultrabright blinky, even if it gives off as  many lumens, can’t catch the eye of drivers like the Down Low Glow. The Down Low Glow has a 1-foot-long, 1-inch wide light tube. My theory is that this longer, wider source of light simply trumps the importance of smaller ones in the brains of drivers.

Try the Down Low Glow risk free for 30 days. We look forward to getting you Glowing.

Gian welding mouning tabs to a Mundo frame.

If you have a specific idea for a
bike-based business that requires customizing a bike, you’ll find Rock the Bike
to be a valuable resource. We’ve been adapting bikes to specific applications for years, including food-delivery and preparation, music events, education, and more. We’ll take a thorough listen to your unique project idea. It may require the services of our next door neighbor Gian, a metal fabricator, machinist, and welder. Or it may be a woodworking task that we take on in our workshop.

Leif cutting honeycomb

When you schedule an appointment at Rock the Bike, you’ll not only get to test ride bikes like the Mundo and Xtracycle, you’ll be talking to a team of people who have come up with creative, simple solutions for musicians, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and families.

Janaysa and the LiveOnBike rig

The Mundo’s frame accepts standard kickstands, including the Hebie BiPod kickstand. We recommend the BiPod, because it provides the right combination of strength and simplicity needed for utility bike.

The BiPod is not a true cargo kickstand. If it were, it would be much wider. Therefore you cannot expect the BiPod to keep your bike upright when loading heavy loads on one side of the bike. With this limitation in mind, the BiPod does improve the experience of everyday loading enormously. Over the course of a single shopping trip to a farmer’s market, you may use it 10 or 20 times.

We use the Mundo to carry heavy boxes to the FEDEX depot. We use basic cam straps to secure the loads.

Carrying kids on a bike safely doesn’t have to mean enclosing them in a trailer. Some child trailers are built like rally cars, creating a safety cage around your child. But a bike towing a trailer is also much longer than a normal bike, which means that you and your child are more exposed when crossing streets, turning in an intersection, etc.

Why not keep your child closer to you, on a long-wheelbase bicycle that’s built to carry heavy loads to begin with?

Standard childseats can be attached to the Mundo platform. The Bobike maxi, maxi+, junior work, the Hamax line too. The childseat attaches on the seat-tube like on any regular bike. Note that it’s necessary to help the plastic spread a bit around the carrier. No longer blot required. If you already have a childseat great, if not I would recommend to select the bike once you have the seat.

If you find yourself driving short distances to deliver your most recent EBAY sales to the post office, you’ll love the flexibility provided by the Mundo. Its heavy duty rear rack carries plenty of weight, and the large surfaces make it easy to tie loads down. Large boxes can either rest on the top rack, or on the lower load-carrying racks. With a cam strap, you’ll be able to cinch these loads to the frame.

Many people wonder whether carrying heavy loads on a bike is tiring. The answer isn’t a simple yes or no. It depends on the terrain, distance, and on the complexity of strapping loads down. Another important factor is the ability to immobilize your load. If your loads wiggle and shift while you ride, those movements can make your journey more tiring. As you gain experience with a product like the Mundo or the Xtracycle, you’ll be able to reduce your loading times and better immobilize your loads.

The Mundo’s rear rack was designed to make it easy for you to customize to your needs. The surfaces and tubes are mostly orthogonal (i.e. parallel), making mods easy.

Spend less time in the workshop and more time riding.

The picture above is a simple modification that attaches large Rubbermaid waterproof bins to the Mundo using sturdy hooks. The parts need to attach the bins to the rack cost approximately $12, and included:

- Stainless steel, nuts, washers, and bolts.
- Hooks.

Tools used:
- Drill
- Screwdriver.

Parallel lines and right angles may seem like a small thing, but when you have only an here and there to spare on customizing your utility bike, you’ll appreciate the simplicity of an easy to customize rack.

Heading to Berkeley with Ben last week, I observed that he was able to squeeze into the BART elevator without picking up his front wheel. This can only mean that the Mundo is shorter overall than my Xtracycle. I’m not sure customers will notice the difference on the road, but for the occasional tight elevator, it’s a nice bonus.

The Mundo’s long wheelbase and low top tube allow riders of all sizes to enjoy the ride. Most mountain bikes can’t accomodate a wide range of riders, because they tip backwards on hills when a tall rider extends the seatpost. However, the Mundo’s long wheelbase allows tall riders to set the seat height where they like it. When you ride this bike hard, even on steep hills, you can’t pull the front wheel off the pavement, because the rider’s weight is distributed between the wheels. This also makes the Mundo a safer bike, as your front wheel, the steering wheel, always has enough weight on it to make safe turns.

Smaller riders, down to 5 feet, will appreciate the low standover height on the Mundo’s frame.