Haley Tricycles|Design

"what's in the box?"

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Nathan riding through Center City

Haley Tricycles are designed for moving all types of cargo through typical American urban streets, and then into your destination. They were designed for replacing, not minimizing, the use of a car (a yellow 1974 Super Beetle with a luggage rack, to be specific), and we assume our customers will be using their trikes for all kinds of real life, from daily errands to moving furniture to running their businesses completely with pedals, in sunshine, rain, ice and snow.

Haleys are relatively short for a cargo bicycle, especially when compared to Northern European-style bakfiets. Standard Haleys are 6' 7" long, or about 10-14" longer than a standard bicycle, with a wheelbase of 50". This permits the trikes to fit in medians, in most elevators, and in the space between crosswalks and moving traffic.

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Haleys are fairly narrow tricycles at 31 3/4" wide, allowing you to ride inside most modern buildings and on sidewalks, and through 36" doorways (an ADA standard for commercial and new residential buildings). Coupled with their shortness, they can be moved through and turned around inside crowded rooms by lifting the tail. This can save a lot of time, as you can usually get your dj equipment right to the stage. They are only 24" wide above the front wheels, and 20" at the handlebars. As cars are widest at their mirrors, Haleys can fit through traffic with about 26" of space, and sometimes even less when besides commercial trucks.

Stephen moving a claw foot tub

Tricycles are especially well suited for cargo transport in tough city conditions (at least in our opinion!) for a few reasons:

The inherent stability of three wheels allows you to get within a fraction of an inch of stuck traffic, going as slow as you want or as fast as you dare, either loaded or empty, straight or through turns, over rough streets, trolley tracks, ice, snow, slush, or any combination thereof.

Haleys, like all tricycles, don't need to be balanced or pushed hard at takeoff, so you can move a heavy load easier by starting slow and adding speed one pedal stroke at a time. You can also, with the right gears, ride up fairly steep inclines by going slow but using no energy for balance at all.

Haleys' boxes aren't responsive to the rider like two-wheeled cargo systems, but this is ideal when moving cargo that's your weight or more as it won't push you around either. Wide, sideways loads (couches, for example) won't dip their edge to the ground and catch, but move and turn as predictably when loaded as when not.

Once inside a building or on a sidewalk, a loaded or empty tricycle is easy to push while walking besides, so you can get where you're going without awkwardness, or breaking rules.

They're very easy to reverse if needed. Just put a foot down, push back and steer out of a tight spot.

You can relax when stopped, not using energy to keep your cargo upright at a red light, and there's no kickstand to lift your new refrigerator up onto when you're home, just a parking brake.

Sara on wine|black tall box Model 2

All of our trikes have hinged or removable lids, so your cargo stays relatively dry if you're caught in a storm, nasty puddles won't get your stuff dirty, and individual things won't be lost. Also, people on the street can't see what you're moving, so you can move anything inside the box without extra attention to your dirty laundry, figuratively or literally.

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