Review: Yuba Fastrack
My family picked up a Yuba Fastrack cargo bike using the new Bike to Work scheme Cargo bike grant in Ireland, activated in October 2022. As it’s a relatively new bike, and information on the bike with reviews is limited, here’s a short overview now that we’ve had the bike 4 months.
Overall, the bike is a great workhorse and has actively diverted some of our routine driving activities in the city over to the bike. It turns out having an electric motor is a bit of a game changer! The motor is more than capable of towing the (heavy - 30+ kg) bike as well as its driver and whatever passengers are on board, be it children/adults or gear. As you’ll see in a photo below, that’s two bags of bark mulch (20-30kg each?) and a bag of tools/hardware on the front. Moving the bike from the base ‘eco’ mode on the motor up to ‘boost’ mode meant it was trivial to fly home and not notice that I’d potentially an extra 70kg of items on board. This is a true game changer - why drive the car for those type of trips when the bike can do it, taking up less space on the road, and also being quicker!
Overall, the bike has been a true success. I will say that we’ve noticed a few pieces of rust on some of the washers which is slightly disappointing on a bike that cost more than €4,000 (before the grant), however, it’s only on washers and not ‘critical’ items so it’s more of an aesthetic thing than anything else.
Carrying Options
The Fastrack has the capability to also carry two kids on the back on the back although we have it set up just for our one child - she truly appreciates the space on the back, and also not having to sit right up against my ass as on a more traditional bike with a shorter rear pannier. We added the basket after a month or two to the front - I’d recommend adding it immediately if it’s in stock.
One disadvantage of the rear pannier - it has non-standard widths (due to the capability to carry 200kg) which means that normal pannier bags will not work. It’s not a deal breaker as i’ve found that any baggage I have for the work commute fits in the front basket, however, it’s worth keeping in mind if that’s your thing.
The other item is the capability to put stand the bike on its tail for storage. To be honest, we don't use it much - my wife finds the bike way too heavy to do it herself for one thing! However, it is a nice handy bonus to have. Perhaps it’ll fit certain use cases.
Gripes
One notable gripe - noisy chains and derailleurs. This is just the nature of bikes, however, as the bike has so much mass, on bumpy terrain, the chain and derailleur is very noisy, banging away regularly. More of an annoyance than anything, but it really shows that there is innovation potential in bikes to come. I genuinely can’t wait for the new chainless bikes to arrive (see below). Chains and belt drives are nice, however, the revolution in electric motors means we can re-think how we ‘do’ bikes and what it means!
Conclusion
Overall, the bike is great and more than satisfies the needs of our household. It’s sturdy, seems built to last and carries everything (and then some) we need. It’s worth flagging it is not the lightest of bikes by any means so keep that in mind if you have to lift it regularly, however, that’s really the only item I’d flag. I’ll be updating this review after a year and more as I start to see wear and tear on the bike and what servicing is life - e.g. if the bike is that heavy, is there more abuse/wear on the motor and chain, etc? If you’re in the hunt for a cargo bike, keep this one in mind!