This machine is so new that it doesn’t yet have a name* – so we feel very honoured indeed to be the very first to give it a proper test. Nijland are a small well established manufacturer based in the small town of Heeten in The Netherlands. They make a large range of bikes and trikes, many of which are niche products such as their awesome Sunny Transporter which is designed to carry a disabled passenger whilst seated in their wheelchair. If you’ve ever helped a person with mobility problems transfer from one mode to another you’ll appreciate what a great idea this is.
The ‘Omnibus’ is a heavy duty child carrying tricycle in a ‘tadpole’ format (ie two wheels at the front, one behind). Nijland aren’t new to this type of machine, they have been making similar trikes for many years. Their current range includes a pedal powered street cleaner’s ‘Dust Cart’ and an old fashioned cargo trike or ‘Transportfietsen’. Cycles such as these are extremely rare in the UK, though they are starting to appear in small numbers in one or two cycling hot-spots around the country. If you are fortunate enough to sight one it’s likely to be the two wheeled variety.
In layout the ‘Omnibus’ is the same as what we know as an ‘Ice Cream Bike’. Thankfully the similarities are superficial. For reasons of cost traditional style heavy cargo trikes have very rudimentary steering (a system abandoned now on every land vehicle except horse drawn carts) where the front wheels are connected to the cargo platform via a rigid axle which all turns about a central pivot to affect a change of direction. Having the load bed and all the cargo on the steered component makes for an inheritently unstable machine. Having to turn the bars right to go left doesn’t help either! The Nijland uses more complex but far superior Ackermann steering geometry where the wheels turn about their own kingpins and are connected to the steering – handlebar in this instance – by track rods. Just like a Ferrari! (and every other road going vehicle you can think of…)
The ‘Omnibus’ is designed to carry four small children in its large front box and can also be equipped with Nijland’s own rear rack which can take two kids seats. Six passengers! Small ones granted but six humans is six humans. I managed to find two little boys (3 and 4) who took to it with great enthusiasm – shooting cars with pretend laser guns all the way (I have taught them well!).
The downsides to such a contraption are many. It’s slow – when compared to a slow bicycle, and painfully slow into the kind of headwinds which are common around here. It categorically does not fit through any of the motorcycle traps which plague the entrances to much of our cycle network, so I had to detour around. It takes up a lot of space in the garage. And it’s expensive. I don’t know how much – this is a prototype after all – but this sort of specialist/low volume machine is always expensive.
That big flat bulkhead which slowed me down so much on the way to work acted as a sail on the way home (so, swings and roundabouts – but it’s pretty slow on anything but a descent). There is very little to compare it to for carrying four (to six) small kids. If you want to shift four rug rats about without a car nothing beats this.
The response from other road users was mixed – ‘held-up’ motorists huff and puff and a few gormless teens look at it as if it’s very existence in the universe is an embarrassment to them. Other more enlightened folks – a large group of small boys waiting to be collected by their mums and dads gave us a cheer and a round of applause and a Sainsbury’s lorry held back a line of traffic to let us through a RH filter with a cheery smile and a wave. It’s not a cargo trike so much as an event!
I’ve mentioned the expense of machines like this. A small European manufacturer producing low volumes of extremely specialist machines has to work hard to deliver – on top of all the features and benefits – Value For Money. Nijland have made some clever manufacturing decisions which might not be immediately apparent in a bid to keep costs down. When it hits production the plan is that the machine may be specced either with the kids compartment pictured or a lockable cargo box. But that’s an obvious bit of modularity – what’s really clever is that the whole rear end can be fitted to a range of different fronts. Picture this bolted on to the front half of a long or short wheel-base cargo bike front end… or that wheelchair carrying truike … clever huh? It paves the way for modular manufacture of a range of bikes and trikes. And to make it even more universal that laid back seat tube angle allows a huge size range of humans to ride the machine: as the seat goes up the seat also moves back – increasing the reach. Clever thoughtful stuff.
I didn’t like the saddle, but I’ve never marked down a bike (trike) for a bad saddle – the easiest component of all to change. And it was geared too high for this road testers knees, not quite as easy to remedy but a fairly simple job of installing a bigger rear sprocket.
The quality of construction throughout is exemplary and the bright – but not too bright – orange powder coat was flawless. But the component I absolutely loved on this thing is the rear hub. A five speed coaster with auto reverse from a resurgent Sturmey Archer. Awesome. So freaking awesome in fact that it deserves a review in its own right. Watch this space.
This is a spectacular machine. Lugging bales of straw, children, shopping. Shopping for an army! It’s not every family that could use such a behemoth but there are precious few machines that can compete with its enormous capacity, versatility and its brilliant ability to go round corners. It achieves things that would otherwise require a car.
I love it.
I want one.
(*When he heard it was nameless, Jim, with his immense multi-language vocabulary said; ‘Omnibus’ (from the Latin for ‘For everyone‘) and that seems, at least around these parts, to have stuck. I hope Nijland go with his suggestion) .
You got a diagram/video of the Ackermann steering system handy?
Hi George, no I don’t, but I’ll see what I can do for you. I’d photgraph it now for you ‘cept I left it @ home today – so you might have to wait a couple days.
Cheers, Mick.
[...] Rohloff 14 spd hub, which is faultless in operation. And then I got to test riding a prototype Nijland Cargo/Kids Box trike with a new Sturmey Archer 5 spd. Get this: it’s a 5 spd in the usual way, controlled by a [...]