Oslo Cargo Bike Party

Imagine this in your own home town:

A big fleet of happy cargo bikers are parading together along the streets, before ending up at the town hall – where test rides and experiences are shared during two full days, among families, enthusiasts and businesses.

Sounds nice, right?

Oslo just did this, and yeah: It was nice indeed!

Vidar Vik (right) built a super nice bench for the kids in his Riese & Müller Packster 80, along with a foldable rain cover (not mounted, but attached to the front bar).

The Oslo Cargo Bike Party happened last weekend – in a city that enjoys the status as the official European Green Capital of 2019.

Oslo has also joined the international City Changer Cargo Bike-project, to further increase the use of cargo bikes. One of the solutions is a «cargo bike library» now on it’s way to the Oslo university campus, where students can loan a cargo bike when they need one.

Mateusz Czermak is a mechanic wizard at the Sørensen Sykler bike shop in Oslo, and prefer his own Omnium Titanium ride. 12 kilos with the right parts!

This is the first big scale, commercial cargo bike party in Oslo – but it follows a grassroots movement that has organized small, informal meetups in city parks over the last seven years.

This year, the business side of the cargo bike movement stepped up and offered a slightly bigger idea.

That’s how this all happened:

The support came all the way from the top: The Vice Mayor for Environment and Transport, Lan Marie Berg (center) showed up and joined the cargo bike parade. Her own private bike is a Riese & Müller Load 75 (ridden by her husband, a bit far behind).

«White is boring, so I just had to make it gold», said Åsmund Høeg – who came with his two sons on his extravagant Urban Arrow XXL.

The Oslo Cargo Bike Party is a cooperation between city officials in the European Green Capital project, and Norway’s biggest cargo bike retailer, EVO Elsykler – who came up with the idea.

The Bullitt Bros: If you are looking for Norway’s fastest cargo bike rider, you’ll probably find him in this bunch of local Bullitteers.

They invited a huge list of fellow bikes shops and competitors, and the city offered a great space at the seaside square right by the town hall.
The result looked like this:

The Town Hall Square right by the Oslo harbor was the perfect venue.

Mostyn Wall and Rachel Sweetman bought a yellow Bullitt to share between them. – I just got addicted, so Mostyn had to buy his own cargo bike, laughs Rachel, and points to his new Surly Big Dummy. At least both are happy!

«Don’t crash!» shouts the nephew of Henriette Sandstå – when she tries out a cargo bike for the very first time, a new Bogbi. She did well, with no crashing!

People showed up to do test rides, check out next years models – and try to decide which cargo bike fits their different needs.

A coffee shop, a bakery, a ice cream sandwich bar and Norway’s biggest pizza chain also showed up – all on their own cargo bikes, of course. The city officials had two information desks in place, both on wheels.

Oslo’s Agency for Urban Environment are using cargo bikes as rolling information desks – super practical for showing up at all kinds of events in the city.

Hans Håvard Kvisle – the man behind the Cargo Bike Party – is running the daily sales operations at EVO Electric Bikes.

Being one of the electric car pioneers in Norway all the way back to the 90s, he knows a thing or two about transport revolutions. So far in 2019, 45% of all new cars sold in Norway, are fully electric, and hence tax free.

The shift towards cargo bikes are not moving that fast, but there is no doubt the electric drivetrain has been crucial for the sales numbers: Downtown Oslo is surrounded by hills.

This one makes all other bikes feel wimpy, says Klara Vatn onboard her Surly Big Fat Dummy. She and her husband Torbjørn loves the huge wheels, especially in the winter.

Of course, it also helps that Oslo is building new bicycle infrastructure at record breaking speeds as we speak – and keeps climbing on international rankings for bike friendly cities.