Every Day Adventurers

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/noel-wiggins-bike.php

Seems like every time I pick up the phone these days- I get to talking to someone about electrified Xtracycles. I’ve been a purist in this regard for years- which was fairly easy when my whole world was within about a 1 mi radius, living in Berkeley. After my recent relocation to Tucson AZ, where my bike commute to daughter’s pre-schools is 7 miles, with a pretty swell climb on the way home, I’ve been seriously thinking about how electric assist would mean that my family drives less, rides more. The cost of many assist systems, while high in the bike world, is so vastly less than it would cost to 1) buy an electric car, 2) charge an electric car, 3) repair an electric car, the economics of it start to make some sense. But I can’t help but feel a little goofy increasing the weight of my bike 20 lbs so I can throttle my way aronud town – feels like I should just sell my bike and invest in a motorcycle, or better yet, this. Don’t think they make a child seat for that crotch rocket… Besides, my wife is an ER Nurse, and she’s not letting me on a motorcycle, let alone my daughter.

Over the next few months, I’ll be evaluating at two systems that come well recommended from Xtracycle riders, the Stokemonkey, and E-BikeKit (the founder of from E-BikeKit is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow, check it out). My hope is to not only resolve whether or not I too could be an electric bike rider, but if in fact I can come to terms with my bike needing to be plugged in at night.

This guy (pictured above) seems pretty smug about his ride – just found this post about his electrified X on TreeHugger. This MadMax beast is the creation of some electric vehicle entrepreneurs out of Texas. They used to make electric assist kits for military use, now they’re selling vehicles to peaceful backpack hauling folk like you and me. Now go fig’re.

I’m very curious about your thoughts on e-assist bikes – are they the wave of the future? Or merely a bastardization of the simplicity of the bike?

Notorious Xtracycle aficianado, father of the Stokemonkey, patron of CleverCycles – Todd Fahrner offers some advice on Townies, Xtracycles, Suspension Forks, etc. Thanks Todd, and CleverCycles.

A discussion over info@xtracycle.com email this morning. Thanks Brian.

Brian:
As a Radish-owner (and pea pod pilot) I wanted to send along this article from The Seattle Times that has nothing to do with either. The article’s photo, however, includes a shot of a passing Xtracycle. I love to see these things getting numerous enough to show up in random shots of bike paths…

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011474918_montlake30m.html

Have a good one.

Xtracycle:
Thanks for the photo – funny how the article is all about cost/complexity of light rail, with the simple elegance of the bikes on the bike path in the foreground. Guess it’s all part of the solution, but sometimes, it seems, we humans like to make things more complex than they need to be.

Brian:
I completely agree about the complexity. Light rail is definitely part of the solution up here, creating non-car transportation options for people. But it is a fabulously expensive and inflexible (i.e., only goes to points A, B, and C) option. The bicycle can frequently cut through that complexity like a hot knife through butter.
Brian

Xtracycle:
Yeah – they really have to work together. Go Portland MAX! Wow, what a great system.

Outside Magazine names Big Dummy among it’s 51 most “…Overlooked mountain ranges, river beer, running album, gear of all time…big ideas, accidental winners, and awesome things about the world outside we’ve come to love over the past 33 years.”

http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/201003/editors-choice-24-20.html

I’m excited to announce Xtracycle’s official release of our flagship chromoly LongTail, Radish, new for 2010. We want to send a special shout out to legendary bike designer and kindred sprit Grant Petersen from Rivendell, who played a key role in helping us nail the “sweet spot” cargo bike handling for what we believe may just be the perfect family cargo bicycle.

This post will attempt to unveil some of the thinking, rationale, and motivation behind choices we made to upate Radish for 2010. Special mention needs to be made to those who have played a hand in Radish’s re-creation: Ross Evans, Peter Kinne, Madeline Gradillas, Rick Pickett.

Materials

Just like its younger cousin, the FreeRadical, 2010 Radish is 100% Chromoly. A number of other longtails on the market are built from high tensile steel. What’s the difference?

Chromoly steel, also known as 4130 steel, is 60% stronger than high tensile steel, also known as low-carbon steel, or low-alloy steel. While there is no weight difference per unit volume between these two alloys, because of the strength difference, it takes more high tensile steel to yield the same strength of Chromoly. The result? High tensile bikes are heavier, for no good reason (generally only to save cost). Chromoly is used for automobile roll cages, aircraft construction, and other structural applications. Chromoly is the choice for many bicycle handbuilders and fewer and fewer larger production companies, including our friends at Surly. Why the demise of Chromoly in the mainstream marketplace? Mainly cost, but also, the level of skill required to weld – see next section.

What about aluminum? Aluminum is generally regarded as a light, stiff, but often brittle and unforgiving material for bicycle construction. As a bicycle is lengthened to increaese it’s usability and ride quality, the stresses placed on the frame increase. Aluminum is less suited to perform for the long run, under a wide variety of loading conditions. The benefits of aluminum, aside from weight considerations alone, include cost – Chinese aluminum frame production has reached economies of scale, and the training process for aluminum welders is less costly than that of steel welders. All of these combine to offer a potentially lower cost on aluminum bicycles, but it is unclear if the lower cost also translates into lower performance. Because of the need for aluminum bicycle frames to be heat treated (brought to a certain temperature, and then cooled at a specific rate), they generally cannot be repaired. Any failure means the life of the entire product has ended. Radish, by contrast, is built of modular parts, the most costly of which are built to be durable, and built to be repairable.

Xtracycle builds several modular parts that are not under as great a stress, like V-racks, TekDecks, Whatchamacollars, out of weight saving, cost saving aluminum.

Construction

Radish frames are tig-welded in small batches (usually 50 – 100 units at a time). Tig-welders are some of the most skilled workers in our Taiwan factories – they get paid the (in US currency) around $15 – $20/hour and enjoy excellent job security. The same woman, Ah Huey pictured below, has been welding Xtracycle FreeRadicals, and now Radish frames, nearly since their invention 10 years ago.

Ah Huey humors us for a photo. Ross humors himself in a helmet.

Handling/Geometry

By way of comparison, I find the 2009 Radish to handle remarkably well under loads of 50lbs or more on the SnapDeck or in the FreeLoader bags. When the deck/bags were unloaded the handling becomes noticeably more ‘floppy,’ which appealed to some riders, not so much to others.

The 2010 Radish nails the sweet spot where handling unloaded is crisp and sporty, yet remains responsive and stable under load.

What’s more, the longer effective top tube length on Radish yields a roomier cockpit enabling riders like myself, pushing 6’1″ with my Keens on, to feel totally at home behind the wheel. My wife, pushing 5’1″ in her clogs, feels no loss of comfort. The Radish pictured below is piloted by Madeline Gradillas, an architect turned product designer who played a large role in bringing 2010 Radish to market.

Madeline is 5’4″ and likes the 2010 Radish just as much as her 2009. She’s particularly happy with the increased ease in getting her leg over the top tube. The 2010 Radish frame is more than 2″ lower, where it counts, easing transitions on and off the bike.

Components

Across the board, components have been upgraded while we have kept the overall cost of Radish down.  Here are the highlights.  A full list of components can be found under the “Specs” tab here.

• Cranks: The new alloy crankset (34t) features an  dual-sided aluminum chainring guard to both protect the rider’s clothing from the chain, and to protect the chain from dismounting unexpectedly from the chainring. Owners of 2010 Radish will have the option of installing the included full-protection chain guard (a la Radish 2009) as well for total coverage.
• Brakes: Xtracycle upgraded brakes and levers on 2010 Radish to entry level performance Avid FR-5/SD-3.  To accommodate numerous upgrades and cut costs, we decided to jettison the rear disc-brake.  In conversation with customers, we found that few felt this to be a critical component, and internally, we agreed that V-brakes worked well for 90% of practical applications.
• Drivetrain: Rear 8-sp cluster remains the same (11-32t), but we’ve upgraded to a SRAM X-5 rear derailleur, and SRAM 3.0 twist shifter.  SRAM X-5 rear derailleurs are found on $1000 mountain bikes and we found, has the necessary spring tension to provide crisp clear shifting on Radish.
• Handlebar: Xtracycle worked closely with handlebar manufacturer Zoom, in Taiwan, to develop a bar that provided a comfortable yet nimble, upright riding position, for a riders ranging from 5’0 – 6’2″.  This alloy bar is not found anywhere else than on Radish 2010.
• Grips: Grips on the 2010 Radish are made by industry leader Velo.  We opted for round grips, with plenty of length, and a bolt-on feature that would allow customers to easily move/remove/replace them with no damage to the grip.
• Quick-Releases: All quick-releases have been updated on 2010 Radish for improved look and feel, but most importantly, function.

Kits

2010 Radish will become available with a host of new and existing Xtracycle Accessory Kits.  My next post will cover our new kits in depth.

Subscribe to our blog here, and be alerted about our next posts.

Presale

2010 Radish are in production, and are currently available for pre-order.  You may learn more about Xtracycle’s pre-order process here.

We only have 50 available at this time for pre-order, if you decide to be one of the few new Radish riders, you may place your order here.