One of the great things about having a motor on your bike is that it takes the strain for you. And since it does that, it's useful to be able to pile lots of stuff on your bike. There are a range of cargo bikes out there, and this newcomer is the Tern GSD. They call it a compact cargo bike.

You might be thinking, "That doesn't look very compact. Look at the size of those bags!". But in reality, thanks to its 20" wheels, the Tern GSD is no longer than a regulat city bike. The compact cockpit means there's plenty of space at the back for lots of luggage space. And ver versatile luggage space it is too.

The bike we've got at ebiketips is set up with Tern's full-length panniers: they're very spacious and you can easily get a week's worth of shopping in them. On top of that (literally) there's a single bench seat: the saddle has a grab handle and there are two footrests by the front of the panniers, so you can give a friend a lift. 

That's not the only configuration though. You can get a full-length bench and footrests, to take two kids on the back, or if they're smaller you can fit two Yepp child seats. And a cargo platform is available too for bigger loads, if you don't need to ferry people about. You can configure the bike according to your needs. You can have a porteur rack on the front too, like we have.

The GSD uses Bosch's Performance Line mid motor. That's a powerful unit, and Tern have designed the bike to be DualBattery ready. Ours is fitted with two 400Wh PowerPack batteries for an 800Wh total capacity. That should be enough to drag some loads up some hills.

Lights are intergrated; the rear is in the rack and the front is part of the clever adjustable stem that allows you to tweak your position on the bike. The steerer has a folding mechanism borrowed from Tern's folding bikes: You can fold the bars down and also the seatpost, which has a double quick release. Doing that substantially reduces the bike's height and width, meaning it's not in the way so much in a hallway, for example. The GSD has another trick too: the rear rack has four feet at the back, meaning you can stand the bike on its end to take up even less space.

We've already had a go on the GSD: at the Eurobike show we took a couple of the bikes out for a spin. Here's a video we made of our riding experiences that day...

Now we've got a bike for a longer period we'll be posting a full review: stay tuned for that.