How buying the ‘ugly duckling’ of cargo bikes flattened a bridge and led to a festival

Tony posing on his new Urban Arrow Shorty on the Spirit Trail not long after he bought it.

I kinda remember meeting Tony Valente years and years ago in a soulless corner meeting room of steel and glass at the City Library. Back then, he was the local HUB (cycling advocacy) Chairman and sat at the centre of an extensive arrangement of tables wading his way through the agenda. He remembers me from that time, and once when I wore my magnificent kilt on a guided ride of the city HUB had organised!!!!! 

Since then, quite by chance, we connected on Instagram, where I noticed he had purchased an Urban Arrow Shorty. To me, this was interesting, because IMHO it’s not an obvious consumer choice. It’s a clumsy-looking commercial bike. So I asked if I could interview him about his purchasing decision. 

We met to discuss this article at a local Craft Brewery. One with plenty of shade because we are suffering another ‘heat event’. Not quite as horrid as the record breaker from a few weeks ago when it hit 40+ Celsius! We have 33-35 degrees day after day right now. 
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I was ordering a tasty adult beverage from the waitress when Tony rolled up on his Shorty wearing jeans and a blue shirt straight from the office. Before going out after work, he used to have to shower and change when he rode a regular bike. Not any more. Since he went full-time electric, he’s experiencing not only the freedom and ease of power-assisted cycling but also the freedom of not having to carry extra clothes every day to work.

Tony has a car-centric background. As a kid, his dad sold cars and still does. For a while, he also used to commute 300kms from Milan to Varese every week. That’s a 30km/20mile drive one way. So like me, he has a little bit of CO2 emissions guilt, having chosen to drive so much ‘back in the day’, even tho we didn’t realise the consequences at the time. 

After thankfully being able to give up a daily drive into deepest Burnaby, his commute in more recent years has been by SeaBus. Then SeaBus and electric bicycle, and now SeaBus and e-Cargo Bike. 

He first tried an electric-assisted bicycle in winter 2016 by borrowing an Opus from the Momentum Magazine/MOBI e-Bike Library. This turned his commute on its head. As so many people say, the motor flattens the city, and you get to ride to work sweat-free. For Tony specifically, it flattened the big long bridge he had to cross twice a day. 

After the revelation of a borrowed e-bike, he eventually went out and bought a MEC Ghost Road e-bike in 2019, but it didn’t really fit his life. So he traded that in on a previously loved Gazelle Arroyo C8.
Now he works much closer to home, across the harbour in downtown Vancouver. This meant he was able to use Transit to commute and was delighted to do so. 

However, on certain weekdays he needs to go further up the mountain to City Hall to carry out his duties as a City of North Vancouver Councillor. But waiting for Transit was tedious, especially when trying to get home late at night after council meetings when the busses are less frequent. So he ended up walking home, which took about 20mins, which is frustrating when you know you can roll down in about 3mins with zero effort and have a lot more fun in the process.

This year (2021), Tony decided the flexibility of a cargo bike was what he wanted to try next. It helped that his new day job downtown location had shifted his requirements. The other reason Tony got the Shorty was because he wanted to be part of the ‘cargo bike movement’. He thinks cargo bikes are the future for a lot of people and businesses (Germany cargo bikes are now a status symbol, the UK is calling the 2020s the decade of the cargo bike. Ed.) 

Another reason was the simple practicality. He considered several brands and models during his shopping around for a cargo bike, including the now-infamous Tern GSD. Then he discovered the Urban Arrow Shorty, with its super practical locking box. That was the deal maker. He reached out to a local store and was delighted to discover they had one in storage, and he just knew this was the vehicle for him. A solid brand running the Bosch drivetrain was a ‘no brainier’.

When he’s not e-cargo bike commuting, Tony likes to go for a ride with his wife. She has a Gazelle with a similar Bosch motor, so she has no problems keeping up. When the weather’s nice, like it has been this year, they throw all their beach paraphernalia in the Shorty and ride out to the sand of Ambleside and enjoy the West Coast Experience! He also does all his local ‘chores running about’ on the Shorty. It’s Eco and simply a more enjoyable way to get stuff done.

The Shorty in action during the inaugural Northshore Cargobike Festival September 2021

​There were quite a few features on this bike Tony likes a lot. 

• The cargo being upfront over a 20-inch wheel lowers the centre of gravity quite a bit. (It’s a modern take on the Bakers Boy style I ride. Ed.). 
• The box locks so he can walk away from the bike at his second/third/fourth stop of the day.
• A single-seat fits in the box, so Tony can now take his blind niece for a ride, which was impossible before.
• The box is a very thick, tough polystyrene like material, so it’s essentially a big cooler. He throws a bag of ice in there and rides 8km over the bridge to his favourite Italian food market Bosa, (or Cioffi’s, anyone?), and his groceries stay cool all day, so no need to rush home. This feature also makes multiple stops possible.
• The fact that the Shorty is different, distinctive, and makes a statement about electric urban mobility.

So what are the highlights of owning an Urban Arrow Shorty? 
After nearly six months riding the bike, most days, Tony particularly likes the upright riding position. The other bikes he has owned put his weight forward too much, causing wrist and back pain. The Shorty has excellent civilised swing back handlebars allowing for a straighter back while riding. 

A surprise was the frame/café lock. It’s super easy and convenient combined with the locking box to quickly dash into a store or leave outside a coffee shop patio. Tony swears by the cafe lock chain add-on to tie the bike to a post during the quick stop. 

What’s quite fun for Tony is that the Shorty initiates many conversations, especially on the SeaBus. Questions like, “what is it?”, “Is it electric?”. A particularly amusing moment happened riding along the Causeway through Stanley Park. Tony is often able to keep pace with car traffic as it trickles along towards the bridge. A driver once asked if the big box up front was the battery!!!! Another time, while riding along the Spirit Trail, he overheard a little girl ask, “Mommy, mommy, why does that bike have a garbage can on it?” And there’s the ongoing comment, “did you make it yourself?”

As mentioned above, the Shorty allows Tony to be part of the Cargo Bike Movement. He also likes being the City of North Vancouver Council’s unofficial Cargo Bike Guy. Recently he got a ‘wrap’ put on the box, which I think makes him the official cargo bike city official!

Of the e-bikes Tony has used, this is the one that’s been best at Car Replacement Therapy. A large part of that goes to the delightful Bosch motor system. He used to own a Smart Car and feels like the cargo bike box can hold at least as much, if not more, than a Smart Car trunk can. Probably because of the bucket style front box.

And Finally
If it weren’t for the Shorty, Tony and myself would not have reconnected. I would not have had great conversations and discovered that we both held the same desire to host a Cargo Bike Championship of some kind. Tony had the idea to host a Parade, and I want to run races. So together with our mutual friend Sam Starr, who wants to showcase cargo bikes for business, we put together the Northshore Cargobike Festival. The inaugural event was a ride around the city last 26th September in the pouring rain, with 30 other enthusiasts riding cargo-carrying bicycles of all different shapes and sizes. I didn’t wear my kilt that day, I can tell you!

Gotta love cargo bikes, eh?
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Facebook.com/groups/northshorecargobikefestival
https://www.urbanarrow.com/en/shorty
https://www.tonyvalente.ca
twitter: @tonyvalente_ca

Because the Shorty is a ‘for business’ machine, there is plenty of space for branding. As a CNV Councillor, Tony is declaring his/city’s intention/mission of ‘shifting gears to an inclusive, liveable and prosperous North Vancouver.’