Belgian man sets cargo bike hour record

A man from Wevelgem has ridden 35.93km in an hour on a cargo bike. Kevin Labeeuw says his effort was an attempt to highlight the usefulness of such vehicles.

Het Nieuwsblad reports that Labeeuw achieved his feat at the Defraeye-Sercu track in Roeslare last Saturday.

First look: Bullitt Cargo bike

"Cargo bikes are not the unwieldy bikes of yesteryear," said Labeeuw. "They are light, have become versatile and are technologically advanced bikes that are a worthy substitute for the car."

Labeeuw rode one of the Bullitt cargo bikes designed by Copenhageners, Larry and Harry. Writing on their website, he says he kept to a pretty strict training regime from October onwards – having at that point found that he wasn’t quite as fit as he thought he was.

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The record was set with a fixed gear of 52x17 and while carrying a 25kg steel plate as cargo, meaning the bike weighed about 45kg in total. “We hope that others will try to, and manage to, break the record,” said Labeeuw.