Lumen Cycles · Ryesgade 19B · Nørrebro
We braze the frames, join the boxes and assemble every bike ourselves in a former blacksmith’s on Ryesgade. A fixed quote, six to eight weeks, and a machine made to carry your life for twenty years.
Test rides Tuesday–Saturday from the workshop door. Free, no obligation.
Three frames, one idea: a bicycle that carries children, cargo and a decade of Danish weather without complaint. Every one brazed, boxed and built here.
Specify the bike. The price you see is the price you pay — a fixed quote, nothing hidden. The €500 deposit books your place on the jig and is refundable until we cut the first tube.
Refundable until we cut the first tube. We confirm the specification together before any payment.
Ryesgade 19B — a blacksmith’s that stopped shoeing horses in 1952 and started building bicycles in 2017.
We started Lumen because the cargo bikes we wanted to ride didn’t exist — too heavy, too noisy, too disposable.
In 2017 we took over a blacksmith’s on Ryesgade, swept the floor, and put a frame jig where the forge had been. Mette Sander brazes the frames. Jonas Kjær joins the boxes and mixes the oil. Between us we have built 214 bikes, each one on the same jig, each one for a person whose name we know.
The bikes you see all over this city are mostly designed for a price. We wanted the opposite: a steel frame we file by hand, a box that can be re-planked in twenty years, parts any shop in Denmark can service, and a shape that follows how you actually live — two children, a trade, a week of shopping, a long flat city with weather in it.
“A cargo bike should disappear under your life, not the other way around.” Mette Sander — framebuilder & co-founder
THE JIG — FRAME No. 215, TUESDAY MORNING
Thirty minutes, at the workshop or on the phone. We listen more than we talk. No deposit, no obligation.
Week 0Geometry, paint, box, gears. You get a fixed quote in writing. The €500 deposit books your place on the jig.
Week 1Tubes cut, mitred, brazed and filed. Alignment checked twice — once on the jig, once on the flat table.
Weeks 2–4Powder coat in the colour you chose, applied two streets away. The box is joined, oiled and signed under the floor.
Weeks 4–6Built, cables stretched, ridden 20 km along the harbour, brakes bedded, saddle set to you. Then it’s yours.
Weeks 6–8The workshop is five minutes from Sankt Hans Torv. Come and see frames on the jig, wood curls on the floor, and ride Last, Fri or Havn from the door. Tuesdays we braze. Saturdays we talk. Ring ahead if you want the tour.
Bring a child if you have one — we have benches and a low box to climb into.
If yours isn’t here, write to hej@lumencycles.dk — a person answers, usually the same day.
Across Denmark, fully assembled, for €90. Across the EU in a crate, 90% assembled, for €140–260 depending on where you live. Further afield: write to us — we’ve sent bikes to Greenland and the Faroes, and the paperwork is less scary than it looks.
Last: 80 kg in the box, rider up to 130. Fri: 50 kg in the box. Havn: 120 kg in the box, 250 kg all told. Two children on benches, a week’s shopping, or a career of flat-pack furniture — we’ve built for all three.
The EP801 is sealed, quiet, and lives at the bottom bracket where the box shelters it. Expect 40–80 km from the 418 Wh battery depending on load — Copenhagen is flat. The bike rides perfectly with the motor off; it adds about 3.5 kg.
Every part on a Lumen is a standard that any shop can service. We stock spares for at least ten years after the last bike of a model leaves the workshop. The first service, at 300 km, is included.
€500 deposit when you book the jig — refundable until we cut tubes. Half the balance when the frame comes back from paint, the rest at handover, once you’ve ridden it. Bank transfer or card. Monthly plans exist; ask.
Five years on frame and fork, two years on components, and a standing invitation to bring it back for a check-up every spring. We have never replaced a frame. Touch wood — birch, usually.
Yes. The child package adds rails and two padded benches, rated for two children up to about six years. We test the setup with our own. Reer and Thule seats fit the rails; we fit them for you.
We moved the steering assembly on Last 4 cm rearwards. The front wheel tucks further under the box, the turning circle drops below three metres, and the bike finally fits the lift at Nørrebro station. Small number, large consequences.
We stopped offering polished rims. Copenhagen’s winter salt finds every seam and sits in it. Powder coat, stainless spokes and a rinse after the cold months — that’s the honest specification.
Our favourite test route from the door: up Ryesgade, around the lakes, back over Queen Louise’s Bridge through the rush hour. Six kilometres. If a cargo bike feels good there, it will feel good anywhere.
Your request is in. We answer everything ourselves, usually the same day. No payment is due until we’ve confirmed the specification together — and you’re always welcome to just turn up on a Saturday.