How we choose which bikes get listed on OpenCargo

I work at Larry vs Harry. I ride a Bullitt every day. I built OpenCargo on my own time, with Harry's blessing, as an independent project.

That's the disclosure. Now here's the editorial line.

Not every cargo bike belongs here

OpenCargo isn't a catalog of every cargo bike ever made. It's a directory of independent makers building for cargo bike platforms. The platforms we list need to meet three criteria, and none of them are about sales numbers or market share.

The brand must be independent.

That means founder-owned, privately held, not a subsidiary of a multinational holding company. If a private equity group or a conglomerate owns the brand, it doesn't fit our editorial line.

Why? Because OpenCargo exists to give visibility to independent craftsmanship. Listing brands owned by groups that could buy their way into every retail channel and marketing platform on earth would miss the point entirely. Those brands have resources. The makers we index often don't.

Larry vs Harry is independent. Omnium is independent. Muli Cycles is independent. Riese & Müller is still founder-owned. These are the companies we want to celebrate.

I know this means some popular bikes won't appear here. That's a feature, not a bug.

The bike must have an independent maker community.

A cargo bike with great accessories made entirely by the manufacturer isn't what we're looking for. We're looking for platforms where other people are building things for it. Independently. Without a license deal or an official partnership.

Someone in Bremen hand-sewing Cordura covers. A workshop in Berlin making super-light recycled plastic boxes. A tinkerer in Melbourne designing a hidden AirTag mount and sharing the files for free on Printables. A team in the UK crafting bespoke bags from their own workshop and entering them in bike shows.

That's the ecosystem we index. If nobody outside the manufacturer is building for a platform, there's nothing for OpenCargo to list.

The platform must be open enough to build on.

Some cargo bikes are designed as closed systems. Every accessory is proprietary. Every mounting point is exclusive. The manufacturer controls the entire experience from the frame to the rain cover.

That's a legitimate product strategy. It's just not one that creates an independent maker community.

The platforms we list tend to share certain traits: open rack systems, standard mounting interfaces, available framesets, modular designs that invite modification. They're platforms in the real sense of the word. A base that other people can build on top of.

The Bullitt's flat rail invites 30 makers across 12 countries to build boxes, bags, seats, and mounts for it. The Omnium's open rack lets owners strap, bolt, and customize whatever they need. That's what an open platform looks like.

What this means in practice

We started with the Bullitt because that's what I know. I ride one. I work with the people who make them. I know the maker community personally. I can verify products, confirm links, and tell you from experience which things actually work.

This week we added Omnium. Copenhagen-born, same open platform philosophy. Their founder Jimmi still works as a courier every Wednesday. They sell framesets so people can build their own bikes. The community on Printables already has over 20 designs for it. That's the kind of brand that belongs here.

Next we're looking at Muli and Riese & Müller. Each has independent makers building for it. We'll launch each platform when we have enough real products to make the page genuinely useful. Not when we have a logo and a "coming soon" banner.

Some brands you might expect to see here won't appear. Not because the bikes are bad. Some of them are excellent. But if the brand is owned by a holding company, if the accessory ecosystem is entirely first-party, or if the platform isn't open enough for independent makers to build on, it doesn't fit what we're doing.

The uncomfortable part

I'll say it plainly: I have a conflict of interest. I work for one of the brands listed on OpenCargo. That will never change. It's how this project was born, it's what gives me the knowledge to run it, and I've been transparent about it from day one.

What I can promise is this: we won't list brands based on how much I like them personally. We won't exclude brands because they compete with the Bullitt. The three criteria above are the filter, and they apply equally to Larry vs Harry as they do to everyone else. If LvH gets acquired by a holding company tomorrow, the Bullitt gets delisted by the same rules.

The cargo bike world is small enough that everyone knows everyone. Independence matters more here than in most industries. When a one-person workshop in the Netherlands starts making seat cushions for your bike, that's not a supply chain. That's a community. OpenCargo is built for that community.

If you're a maker

If you build things for an independent cargo bike platform, we want to know about you. It doesn't matter if you're a registered company or someone with a 3D printer and a good idea. If the product is real and the platform fits our criteria, we'll list it.

There are no fees. No affiliate links. No sponsored placements. Every maker gets the same page, the same visibility, the same link to their own shop.

We send people to you. That's it.

— Vince