All proponents of cargobikes admit a caveat: cargobikes are heavy and a challenge to pedal up a hill. I bought ours knowing this.
One place I wanted to transport our toddler to is the Green Lake Community Center. It is on a higher elevation than our home in Fremont along the waterway.
Today we set out for Greenlake, and made it fairly easy! The climb in elevation was 155 feet. We did most of the hill climb along 15th Ave NE. I was huffing and puffing at the top, but that was expected. I got the bike in part to get more cardio work anyway.
For Seattlites reading this and considering switching to all-bike transport, I recommend studying the lay of the land of this city to understand a harsh reality for bicyclists: you can't just live anywhere and bike anywhere (with ease) in this city. Especially with a Bakfiets. The good news is there are regions of the city that have flat are doable grades for bikes. The most notable is the Ballard-Fremont-Westlake Avenue-Downtown circuit. Once I moved to Fremont I saw the massive waves of commuters that go from Ballard/Fremont to Downtown. I recommend anyone committed to biking or considering a Bakfiets for family transport look into living/working along this circuit.
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