Every Day Adventurers

I’ve been wanting to find a great rear light for my PeaPodLT for months now. Unfortunately, nothing seems to clip well to the various openings on the back of the seat, so I’ve come to terms with the need to modify.

This post details the modification process, but I’ve only just put it on, so I can’t necessarily recommend this product for the long haul, yet. Will add to this post as I learn more about the light itself. My main concerns are, as with all LED lights, battery life, and then with this particular install, gradual rattling of hardware such that the light becomes loose or falls off.

The light is a German rear seatpost light made by Sigma.

First, you need to disassemble the light mount probably intended for the seat post and rescue the two plastic parts - one of which accepts the light, the other as a kind of wedge to orient the light more or less perpendicular to the ground (very nice on the sloped back of the PeaPod).


Using a 3/8″5/32″ bit, drill a hole through the PeaPod shell that emerges below the level of the seat pad on the other side (to cushion your little rider’s back from the minimal hardware we will use to attach the light to the seat.


After a good while of searching for a nut that would work on the existing screw that held the seatpost mount assembly together, I finally just switched to a slightly larger diameter screw and nut combo I had in my hardware bin. The nice thing about this, is that the screw bound a little to the plastic of the light mount and the seat, acting as a kind of built in loctite to prevent excessive rattling. Additionally, the nut I found was very flat, and the overall length of the hardware was such that there was no sharp screw end poking through the nut. Screw + nut were flush (well, pretty much) under the pad.


The light has a nice feature that it can be mounted horizontally, for that KnightRider effect, or vertically. This light has a few different patterns, some of which are intermittent enough that they won’t likely draw down the two AAA batteries too fast.


More to come!

Tweet This Post 

Here’s where to get replacement SpringPins for your WideLoaders, or any other Xtracycle DIT project you’re working on:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#pins/=6397fh

But wait, that link doesn’t get you all the way there - here’s the exact part number: 92988A730

Enter this number in the “Find” search bar - and it will take you right to the part you need!

Tweet This Post 

AUTHORS NOTE: As of 3/5/10, Xtracycle.com is out of stock of WideLoaders.  Our dealers can source them through our US distributor.  Check out a dealer in your area (and many will likely ship these to you) here.

Many folks have called in wondering what happened to the TrayBien. It’s no longer listed in our online catalog of products. We love the Tray Bien. We use it, and it works great to do this:

However, as a product, it wasn’t performing as well as we would have liked. It was a hybrid of the three parts from three different suppliers, and when we moved to a distribution facility, TrayBien didn’t make the cut.

As a result, for the near future, the TrayBien will officially become a DIT project designed to rescue old roof rack trays with the help of a little scrap garden hose or PVC shim.

Here’s how to make your own:

What you’ll need:

1. Xtracycle Wideloader (or a couple 7/8″ tubes,rods,dowels)
2. A bicycle tray for a car roof rack (old school kind, that has the clamps to go around ~1″ crossbars). Thule, Yakima, and Rocky Mounts make them. We used to sell this one from Rocky Mounts.
3. Some old garden hose (about 6″ will be fine)

OR

3. Some 3/4″ PVC tubing (this mod courtesy of Jason Eddy)

How to make your own TrayBien

Essentially the WideLoader or tubing sections you substitute act as the cross bars you would find on your car roof rack. Now, the only challenge is to attach the tray to your bicycle based cross bars. Most cross bars are 1″ or more in diameter. The WideLoader rack is 7/8″. Use sections of garden hose, cut lengthwise, to act as shims to increase the effective diameter of your cross bar, then clamp the tray to the shimmed sections.

Simple, easy, cheap, and a way to rescue defunct stuff into useful tools for Every Day Adventure.

Now, check this out. Thanks again Mr. Eddy!

1. I have chosen to use 3/4 PVC slit down the middle to attach the 1″ Yakima carrier to the wide loader.

2. I acquired a 12″ piece of 3/4″ PVC from my local hardware store. The PVC was a free scrap piece.

3. I cut the width needed for the front Yakima SLR mount (3″)and the rear Boa tray(2″).

4. Then I cleaned the ends and slip length wise with a hacksaw. I cleaned up the rough edges with a file.

5. I put the 2 cut and slit pieces in boiling water for 3-5 minutes to open the pipe to roughly 3/4 ID.

6. Then I let them cool and snapped them around the wide loader bar and attached my Yakima bike rack.

Tweet This Post 

Editor Update: This is a semi-permanent solution for getting Footsies to work with KickBack. If you want to use WideLoaders, you’ll have to remove the bolts holding the Footsies on, so only do this mod if a) you’re fine voiding your warranty and b) don’t use WideLoaders.

KickBack is all the rage these days regarding our DIT tutorials. Our most recent tutorial focused on extending the peg platform of KickBack by using the handles off a Razor scooter. You can read up on that post here.

Taking passenger appeasement a step further, I wanted to explore a fast, simple solution to get your Footsies to play nice with KickBack. This mod will void your Footsie warranty, so proceed with caution (and if not installed properly, may void your KickBack warranty, too). Let’s begin!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This Post 

In a recent How-To post about carrying passengers on your Xtracycle, Don tossed a tip our way about using Razor scooter handlebars to get an ‘xtra 2″ of peg space. Intrigued, and always excited for new mini-projects, I started scouring the local 2nd hand stores and re-use depots looking for forlorn Razors.

Sadly, working scooters, let alone busted, broke-down ones were either in happy use or languishing under 10-years of other fads. Figuring that one would land in my lap at some point, I decided to leave the pot to boil on its own.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This Post