Categories
Luggage and Bags

Upcart lets you wheel your heavy stuff up the stairs with ease

Wheels and stairs are mortal enemies. Always have been, always will be. Many places conveniently come with ramps to accommodate those using wheelchairs or rolling suitcases, but there are still lots of stairs for rollers to contend with. While carting something upstairs, the constant jolting can damage your cargo. While going down, you run the risk of turning into stair-kill.

UpCart is, as its campaign says, up for anything! This cart is essentially, well, a cart, much like a delivery person would use. Stack up cargo for ease of transporting. However, instead of a pair of wheels, this fancy cart features six wheels. Each side has three in a tripod position. This way, the cart can glide up stairs easily. The campaign does a good job of showing the car in motion and how these wheels work together for a smoother ride. UpCart can hold up to 150 pounds and folds up for maximum portability. One will cost backers $75 or only $70 if they’re early enough. UpCart has a rather large Kickstarter campaign goal of $100,000.

UpCart is an innovative design, working towards fixing a common problem. While this is a great idea, it seems like it would be useful to those aforementioned delivery people, but not many others. The typical civilian doesn’t really use these types of carts much. The campaign also fails to mention how heavy the cart itself is, which definitely has an influence on its convenience. Also, it’s unclear how steady the cart is going downstairs and if these wheels do much if anything to steady a cargo-filled descent. All in all, UpCart is well-designed, but needs to market itself to businesses that deliver in order to find success.

Categories
Cycling Personal Transportation

Electric Urban Nomad bike cart will push Europeans around

Urban NomadMany people use bicycles as their main mode of transportation. The one thing that bikes seriously lack, however, is the power and cargo space that a car can provide. Introducing the Urban Nomad, a detachable cart for the back of your bike complete with a motor. It provides lots of extra space to cart around groceries and other purchases or cargo. With this extra boost, cyclists can travel up to 25 kph. One of these Belgian products will cost backers living in the EU $900 USD, which isn’t bad for the equivalent of an e-bike conversion kit that comes with a bit of storage. Urban Nomad hopes to raise $20,000 USD on Indiegogo.