The nice thing about being the occasional contributor to the frivolity that is www.nyvelocity.com is the occasional perk.

I get to hang with Christian Vande Velde and make small talk while politely ignoring the fact that he’s slowly inching away or Andy is kind enough to sell me a cross bike that I have yet to pay for.

But Schmalz really outdid himself by asking me to test ride a new bike. Perhaps a Madone or even a Bianchi, one of those sweet rides that I only see underneath the undersized derrieres of the pros. I would bring both my linguistic expertise combined with my keen analytical skills to bear as I offer a positively ‘Shen-like’ review.

The big day came……

Anticipation grew…

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He gave me a bucket bike to test ride:

He gave me a bucket bike to test in December:

It has been the coldest winter on record:

Sigh

Now, I’m not one to look a gift bike in the mouth (technically it’s a loaner) so I happily accepted the new steed and decided to put it through its paces. Well, since December, with the exception of one short ride to take my son to an appointment, its kept a corner of my garage safe.

But today, TODAY!!, as the temperature eeked into the 50’s and the great melting began I backed the bucket bike out of my garage and set off on a typical errand that I might have used a car to complete. I thought of those suckers happily zipping up and down 9W while I got to test this behemoth.

Now, Shen offers all sorts of data and numbers that I can barely comprehend so I’m not going to do that, but I can tell you, kind readers, this. I LOVE THIS BIKE. But let me offer a smidge of data first:

The Madsen is a U.S. manufactured bike that bills itself as a cargo/utility bike. The ‘rider’ part of the bike is what one typically finds on a hybrid bike. wide handlebars, flat platform pedals and an easy shifting SRAM derailleur system are all present. What makes the Madsen different is the ‘bucket’. A 40 gallon rigid plastic cargo carrier that comes with rear removable bench seat and two seatbelts.

For comparison’s sake I took the bike out for multiple trips with the bucket empty, filled with groceries and filled with people. Each time I found the bike easy to handle. The bike isn’t light by any means but anything that is built to carry items (especially with a 40 gallon bucket) is going to be on the larger side.

I enlisted the help of my nine year old son to shoot some video and be a passenger on a typical Sunday trip to the local supermarket about 1.5 miles away.

My able assistant:

For the test ride, I asked him to shoot some video facing backwards so that we can see how other cars react to the Madsen. The bucket, as large as it is, is not overly wide in relation to the handlebars and I felt comfortable passing parked cars.

When we arrived to the store I decided to see if it would fit inside the automatic doors. The bike lists for $1299.00 and I didn’t have a lock and didn’t want to have an awkward conversation with Schmalz about how I lost the bike. Please continue to remember that a 4th grader in age (not in maturity – that’s right, Jammett, I’m looking at you) shot this video. Get your dramamine ready.

We loaded the bike up with about four bags of groceries, plus jumbo sized toilet paper and paper towel packages. It all fit rather well into the bucket and Jimmy, buried amongst the supplies, was rather comfortable.

I took a longer route to get home today as I wanted to test out the bike fully loaded. It still handled well even as I asked Jimmy to rock from side to side. It shifted smoothly, braked nicely and I think that its size is beneficial as it presents a larger item for drivers to note.

This bike would be a great addition to the garage of someone who lives within riding distance of a local downtown area. In the morning he or she could take the children, it can hold as many as four, to school and then stock up on groceries and run errands. If used enough, the money saved on gas would eventually even out the price tag, plus the environmental impact of one less car being driven less than five miles at a clip is worth noting.

Plus Jimmy had a hoot riding it with me.

Now about that Colnago….