The Dutch cargo bike manufacturer Babboe has been ordered by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) to stop selling its cargo bikes for the time being. The regulator says it has received “hundreds of reports” of bicycle frames that broke while cycling, the ANP news agency reported on Wednesday. Babboe is said to have failed to conduct proper investigations and to have taken no action after the company received such worrying signals. Now the company has to recall most models.
The NVWA decided last week to investigate Babboe once RTL News reported that some models of the brand often have problems with the frame. The Babboe City in particular – according to the manufacturer an “an agile and narrow cargo bike with two wheels that feels like a fish in water in the city” – breaks “with great regularity”, according to former Babboe employees. to RTL News. The Babboe Curve, a model with three wheels, is also unsafe, according to the news channel.
Babboe spoke up in a comment to RTL’s investigative story “not recognizable in the picture painted”. The cargo bike company stated that in the past two years it had had “less than twenty” reports of a hairline crack or frame breakage on “more than 50,000” Curve model bicycles sold. Babboe acknowledges that it recalled City model two-wheelers in 2019 due to a manufacturing defect in the frame. Babboe is said to have also informed the NVWA about this “as usual”.
The NVWA blames Babboe for not reporting defects. “They broke the law by doing so,” a spokesperson for the regulator told ANP. “The bad thing is that they have run great risks with the safety, not only of adults but also of children. This could have led to serious accidents, especially in big cities.” Babboe may only sell cargo bikes again if it has demonstrably taken steps to improve safety.