by Gwendal Castellan

July 22, 2012

Cetma Margo

Photo courtesy of Cetma Cargo

Price $2,850 USD (complete) / $1,850 frame only

Find it at cetmacargo.com US online, will ship to Canada

The CETMA Margo is a front-loading, Long John style, chromoly-steel-framed cargo bicycle built in Eugene, OR. The Margo comes equipped with swept-back FSA Metropolis handlebars, a Brooks B17 leather saddle and disc brakes. With a SRAM nine-speed derailleur, a Paul Component stem cap light mount, the bike weighs 40 pounds (18.2 kilograms) and has a load capacity of 300 pounds (136 kilograms). CETMA offers a marine-grade plywood box as an available accessory if you want carry children and or small items. The model tested with box is $3150 USD.

Tell Your Friends

The Margo has a unique frame design that can separate in the middle for shipping, travel, or storage. A complete bike can be separated and loaded into a car in a few minutes. It is one of the lighter front-loading cargo bikes that I have tested to date.

Wish List

Since this bike can be customized when you order it, I would choose to install a triple-ring so I don’t have to feel the steeper hills. Fenders would be a nice addition as well, as it can be difficult to find a pair of fenders for two different-sized wheels

Ideal Rider

The CETMA Margo has a sloping top tube that matches the angle of a mixte-frame. This makes the bicycle easy to step over and adaptable to many sizes of riders. This might be a clincher in families with a large height difference between the two parents.

Overall

A linkage arm with a ball joint connects the steering from the handlebars to the front 20” wheel. Learning to ride with the front wheel offset by a linkage in the front is a matter of 15-20 minutes in a parking lot. My best tip is don’t look down, focus on the horizon and trust you inner balance, if you look down your eyes seem to trick you and it can take a little longer to master. 

The elliptical bottom bracket was not necessary on the model tested with a SRAM X7 derailleur. However the elliptical bottom bracket allows the bicycle to be easily fitted with an internally geared hub. The advantage is that the vertical drop outs for the back wheel make it easy to attach while keeping the disc brakes aligned. And the elliptical bottom bracket takes care of maintaining proper chain tension.

The frame has a simple coupling mechanism that allows the rear section of the frame to be detached from the front flatbed. This is not something that you will want to do every day, but it does allow for easier shipping and transportation if you need to take the cargo bicycle with you in a vehicle or on a train.

Carrying children can work well, but the box provided with the bicycle does not include seat belts, leaving it to the owner to make these on their own or order them custom built. The current design of the box has the seat included but we ended up removing the seat all together as it brought the childrens’ heads pretty close to the handlebars. Purpose built bakfiets style front cargo box bicycles tend to have a more swept steering column, which reduces this problem.

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by Gwendal Castellan

July 22, 2012

Latest Comments

  • CETMA Cargo Bike

    My Wife and I own a CETMA "Margo" and we are really happy with it. Some things we like about the design: 1)The bike can separate into two halves which makes putting it in our hatchback possible. This wouldn't be possible with a Bullitt. I didn't expect to be separating the bike ever, but it really comes in handy for bike camping trips where riding all the way there with a kid is not practical. 2) The design is safer than a Longtail or a regular bike with a kid's seat. The flatbed and box of the CETMA is low to the ground, so if you take a spill, the box will only tip over about 25 degrees. Compare that to a Longtail, which is essentially a normal bike, but longer. If you fell over on on one of those, you and your passenger would be sideways, on the ground. The disc brakes on our bike certainly make the ride safer also.

    One other feature which really sold me on the CETMA was the cromoly frame. Since cromoly is far more durable a metal than aluminum, we decided on it instead of the Bullitt(which has an aluminum frame) The steel frame also has a great bump absorbing effect on rough roads or dirt. This benefit is particularly important for our 2 year old, not so much for us, but love the ride quality too.

    As far as safety is concerned, the CETMA is nimble, stops on a dime, and if you were to be cut off by a car or SUV, the box and flatbed of the frame would provide extra protection to the passenger.

    The box of our Margo is the smaller version that CETMA offers, but we can still fit our daughter and an adult passenger in it comfortably! A kid's bike could be put in the box and bungeed in place.

    Posted by Clint November 17, 2012 01:07:43

  • cargo bikes

    hi. I see you also reviewed the bullitt, and own it according to the editorial note. How does the CETMA compare to the bullitt?

    For my cargo bike I'm debating between these bikes and a Yuba Mundo. ( some issues I'm debating include: price; the front cargo area of the longbikes seems a tight fit for combining a 4 to 6 yr old plus a weeks worth of groceries for a family, etc.; with the Yuba Mundo I can easily stow/tow a kids bike once little legs get tired, but this seems more difficult with the long bikes; I wonder if the low, front child sitting area puts kids more exposed to cars cutting in front of the bike, or doors opening from parked cars. Any thoughts?)

    Thanks. j

    Posted by jamie November 12, 2012 11:47:05

  • cetma review

    I pointed the stem backwards to avoid the handlebars hanging over the box and also 'cause I wanted a very upright riding position.

    I have a review of the CETMA Largo on my blog @ http://arideaday.blogspot.com/2011/12/cetma-cargo-bike-review.html

    Posted by jeff August 11, 2012 11:18:51

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