Riese & Müller Load 75 Review: The Cargo Bike That Replaced the Family Car
If you’ve ever tried to get two or three kids, book bags, PE kits, snacks and your own sanity out of the house on a weekday morning, you’ll know the feeling: it can be chaos. For some families, the Riese & Müller Load 75 has turned that chaos into something they actually look forward to.
In our latest video, we spend the morning with Misty and her three children, plus Ben and his two, to show what the Riese & Müller Load5 75 is really like when it’s part of your everyday life – not just something you test-ride once on a sunny Saturday.
A School Run That Feels Like an Adventure
The video opens on a typical London morning: it’s “red day” at school (anti-racism day), everyone’s in fancy dress, and there’s the usual background hum of kids, cereal and last-minute costume tweaks.
Instead of bundling everyone into a car or arguing about scooters, the kids hop into the front of his Riese & Müller Load ready for action.
The bike in the video is the latest Load5 75, set up with:
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Three-seat configuration in the box
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Weatherproof rain cover
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Rear rack for extra carrying capacity
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Panniers for school bags and kit
Sometimes they run it with three seats, sometimes with a two-seat setup so the kids can face each other. Either way, everyone’s got space, and the bags disappear neatly into the panniers and onto the rack.
The school run becomes:
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Quicker – what used to be a 20-minute faff is now a 5-minute roll
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Calmer – no parking stress, no traffic jams, no late-to-the-gate panic
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More fun – to the point where the kids ask to go the “long way”
Real Mums, Real Miles
The heart of this piece is Misty.
She’s had her Load 75 for around six years. In that time, it’s:
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Carried three kids from toddlerhood to late primary school
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Moved house and literally gone around the world
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Lived outside, locked up in the front garden, and just kept going
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Doubled as a workhorse for her forest school business
She’s completely honest about how big a role it plays:
“I genuinely don’t know how I would have parented three kids without this bike.”
On a day-to-day level it means:
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One child can cycle independently while the others sit in the box
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She can throw in scooters, bikes, logs for forest school, picnic gear, swimming kit, spare clothes – and still have space
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She can say “yes” to a day out in a park at the other side of town, because the journey is part of the fun rather than the stressful bit in between
In lockdown, she spent her entire two hours of daily outdoor time on the bike with the kids. Through mud, sun, rain – with the rain cover up and the kids snug in the box.
The way she describes it is telling: she talks about freedom far more than “transport”.
Exploring the City Properly
One of the things cargo bikes quietly do best is change how you experience your own city.
On the Load 75, Misty has:
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Used new cycle routes to ride the length of London without touching busy roads
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Visited “every single park” during the summer holidays with the kids
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Found pockets of the city – canals, harbours, green corners – she’d never have discovered by car
That’s boosted massively by improvements to London’s cycling network over the last five to ten years. Her commute is about 11 miles and roughly 85% of that is now off main roads.
The e-assist means you’re never put off exploring because you’re worried you’ll be too tired to get home. Get lost in a good way, and the bike will quietly get you back.
What’s New on the Load 5 75?
In the video, we swap Misty from her older Load 75 onto the latest Load5 75 so she can feel the difference. The headline changes:
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Bosch Smart System
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Bigger 725Wh battery (around 25% more capacity than the older 500Wh unit)
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More powerful motor with up to 100Nm of torque
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Integrated app, tracking and navigation
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Ability to lock the bike from your phone and get tamper alerts
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Belt Drive & Enviolo CVT
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Low-maintenance belt rated for tens of thousands of kilometres
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Twist-grip Enviolo hub for stepless shifting – no clunking through cogs, just twist to where you want the resistance
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Refined Comfort & Control
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Front suspension with air fork for better tuning and comfort
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Rear suspension as standard on the Load platform, with a performance package coming that upgrades this further
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Dropper seatpost so you can have full leg extension while riding, then drop the saddle at the lights to get both feet planted – ideal when you’ve got kids in the front
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Safety & Braking
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Optional IBS (Riese & Müller’s linked braking system): pull one brake lever and the system balances braking across both wheels via a small reservoir near the fork
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More even pad wear and extra stability in emergency stops
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Family-First Details
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Adjustable, removable seats that can recline for naps
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Configurable box for three kids, two kids plus dog, or two kids plus serious cargo
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Improved rain cover system that’s easy to remove when you want open-top riding
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Colour options have expanded too. Misty’s older bike is in a classic white; the new one she rides in the video is a fresh Arctic Blue, with other shades like peanut, tundra grey and charcoal available depending on model year.
The important bit? When she steps onto the new model, the first words out of her mouth are:
“Smooth. Very fast.”
Car-Level Utility, Without the Car Bits
Is a Riese & Müller Load 75 / Load 5 75 a big investment? Yes.
Is it car money? Also yes.
And that’s exactly the point.
Misty made the decision to buy the Load instead of owning a car in London. When you factor in:
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Fuel
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Insurance
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Road tax
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Congestion and clean-air charges
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Parking (and parking tickets)
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Servicing and MOTs
…suddenly a high-quality eCargo bike begins to look a lot more rational.
She’s blunt about it:
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She doesn’t pay for parking
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She doesn’t sit in traffic
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She doesn’t get speed camera letters through the post
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She gets to ride at 20mph in a 20mph city and arrive less stressed than if she’d driven
On top of that, Riese & Müller cargo bikes hold their value extremely well. Even after 5–6 years and close to 10,000 miles, a well-looked-after Load can still be worth several thousand pounds in part-exchange.
Smarter Ways to Buy a Load 75
Ben touches on two clever purchase routes we help a lot of customers with:
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Cycle to Work schemes
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If your employer offers a scheme without artificial caps, you can spread the cost monthly via salary sacrifice
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Higher-rate taxpayers can save up to around 45% off the headline price
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Buying Through Your Business
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For limited company directors, an eCargo bike like the Load 75 can qualify as plant and machinery
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You can reclaim the VAT if you’re VAT-registered and offset the cost against Corporation Tax over time
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And if neither route works for you, it’s still a product with unusually strong resale value and very low running costs.
Fully Charged Support & Where to Test Ride
One of the reasons we’re so confident recommending Riese & Müller is that we live with these bikes ourselves. Ben’s had a Load for the same length of time as Misty, and many of the team have them as daily riders.
For customers, that means:
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We know the quirks, not just the spec sheet
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We stock the right accessories – from child seats and rain covers to serious locks and panniers
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Our mechanics are trained specifically on Bosch e-systems and Riese & Müller frames
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We understand how to keep a heavily-used family cargo bike running sweetly, not just “working”
You can try a Load 75 / Load 5 75 at:
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London Bridge (our flagship store)
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Guildford
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Silverstone
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New Forest
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Cornwall
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And soon, Brighton, with more locations in the pipeline
In London we also now offer a mobile call-out service for punctures and basic issues, with our partner stores offering similar local support in their regions.
