Every Day Adventurers

Many thanks to Paul B. who shared this with us.

Chris Jones, 28, carries all his tools, pipework, ladder and vacuum cleaner on his purpose-built bike around Weymouth, Dorset, as the town prepares for the Olympic sailing events in 2012.

Mr Jones, who runs Jones The Pipe, said: ‘I can carry up to 50kg of equipment on the bike and it gets me through any traffic blockages.

‘I get to my customers on time and my fitness rate is going up.’

Read more here: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/843583-plumber-creates-bicycle-made-for-tools-to-beat-olympic-road-works.

The Full Hands family was pumped to learn that it had been chosen by the Xtracycle folks to test out their 2010 Freeloaders on our new orange Yuba Mundo.  For full disclosure, we should share that we are already familiar with Xtracycle products, given that we are the very happy owners and riders of a 2009 Xtra Radish.  The Yuba is our *cough* third cargo bike and we were looking for a bag system that would work well hauling our considerable stuff daily while still allowing passengers’ legs to hang over the sides comfortably.  Yuba has a messenger bag system called the Go Getter, which we do own. However, while these oversized bags would work great for us for a trip to the grocery store sans kids (and really, who actually wants to go to the grocery store with kids?), we found them too bulky for everyday use as we have other cargo competing for space on the bike– namely two sets of legs belonging to one set of eight-year-old twins.

The 2010 Freeloaders were easy to attach to the Yuba. We simply removed our seat pads and unscrewed our Utility Deck, looped the Freeloader straps over our sideloader bars and clipped them.   While the Freeloaders have a d-ring that attach the lower straps to the FreeRadicals, we simply looped the bottom straps to the bottom of our sideloaders and were able to thread them through the d-ring and pull them relatively tightly.  This may not sound like the most secure system,  but the straps have remained threaded in the d-rings for the past three weeks with no problems– and we stuff our Freeloaders daily.

The Freeloaders work well for us because they can either lay flat or expand depending on what stuff one needs to haul.  For our weekly commute, we pack the Freeloaders with my bag, which is big enough for dragging my laptop around, and the boys’ backpacks. On the weekends, the Freeloaders haul all sorts of stuff.  For our crazy Saturday mornings, they carry a 1/2 sized violin, a 1/4 sized cello, reading material, a water bottle, a pair of soccer cleats, shin guards, and a snack.   The ‘open’ sides, really’ the gusseted drawstring flaps’ on the sides, allow us to pack the cello securely with the end hanging out a bit, something we couldn’t do with a fully contained bag.  The Freeloaders live up to their description of “minimal bulk” because even stuffed with our music and sports gear, the boys can still comfortably drape their legs over the sides and off we can ride.

The only issue that we’ve had with the compatibility between the Freeloaders and the Yuba is that Freeloader straps sometimes push our second Yuba seat pad so it extends beyond the longtail frame ever-so-slightly.  The seat pad has remained attached securely with its velcro, but before mounting the bike, we check the seat pad and push it forward if necessary because we don’t like the idea of one of my fella’s ‘tails’ sitting out over the back of the bike’s longtail.

A huge bonus of the Freeloaders on the Yuba is that they also act as wheel skirts, keeping little boy feet from getting caught up in spinning spokes.   And we must also put in a word for the quality of the 2010 Freeloaders.  The upgrade to the material is a huge plus.  The Freeloaders on our Xtra Radish have served us well, but they’re starting to show their age.  It didn’t help that we managed to melt part of the older Freeloaders with a too-hot iron while adhering our very cool Zero Per Gallon patch to the side, but we’ve also managed to rip the mesh drawstring flaps.  The 2010 Freeloader material is definitely sturdier and we predict that it will withstand the everyday adventures our crew finds itself enjoying.

The 2010 FreeLoaders are a great product, and what’s greater, is that they were designed to work on more than just the Xtracycle FreeRadical, Surly Big Dummy, and Xtracycle Radish.

Their ability to clip to your frame allows them to work with any number of long bikes on the market, including the Kona Ute, the Yuba Mundo, and the new long(ish) bike by Gary Fisher.

Prompted by a few customer emails, I tried to install the FreeLoaders on a Ute this morning, and though I was not sure it would work, it appears as though there is some possibility for inter-compatibility. Some pictures provided below.

If you would like to receive a free set of 2010 FreeLoaders (blue or brown only) to test on your Ute, Mundo, or other LongTail, and document your findings thoroughly in words and writing, such that we can share your discoveries with others here on our blog and elsewhere, please send a 250 word (or less) email to us describing why you think you should be a designated tester. You should own the bike that your testing, and not be affiliated with a bicycle company to participate.

And no – the super-blue pictured above not available for sale.

Seems like every month we get a picture of another happy couple riding off into matrimonial bliss on the Xtracycle, which leads me to believe (okay, so I am a little biased) that Xtracycle is the definitive bike of choice for married couples, on that special day.

Why, I then ask myself, is it not tandems, that fill that special niche?

I suspect it is because tandems fail as the ideal vehicle for the following reasons:

1. Tandems force a true hierarchy by design – there’s the person that leads and then, there’s the stoker. The leader gets to steer and see the road. They get a boost from behind, and some extra mass when flying downhill. The stoker is an energy source but not much more – makes me think of the saying: “behind every great man is a great woman.” I don’t think this is a fun way to kick off a marriage – especially as we have come to understand marriage as a democratic union of two people, rather than ‘her’ obeying ‘him.’

2. Tandems are not that romantic – I once heard a man say that “my tandem bike saved my marriage” — as touching as that statement was, it wasn’t romantic. It conjured images in my mind of working through the greatest challenges in one’s relationship on lonely roads with brutal headwinds. Healthy? yes. Romantic? No. Not what you want to evoke on that oh-so romantic of days.

3. Tandems are too ‘equal.’ While we have given up on the hierarchical pretext of marriage – we have not yet given up on the notion that in marriage – each person is in service of the other. As such, shepherding your spouse-to-be on the back of your Xtracycle to/from/around the wedding ceremony does bring that proverbial tear to one’s eye. The lady (or the guy) seated casually, always sidesaddle (no straddling…ahem…yet), all makes for great photo-ops, and a good statement to those conservative wedding guests about your feelings about the global oil oligarchy wreaking havoc on our communities and our environment. What would a wedding be without a little drama – a little family politics?

No, the Bakfiets will never work as a wedding vehicle, though it’s alright for the photographer. Steering your bride or groom away in the front of a Bakfiets is not that far a stretch from to hauling them off in a wheelbarrow with “Just Married” chalked on the side and cans a-trailing. Just doesn’t have that elegant charm of the side-saddled steed.

If you like bike weddings, you’ll love this video posted to TucsonVelo’s blog. Mazel Tov!

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?