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.
Elaine Nelson just passed the one year mark owning her Xtracycle. We’re happy to report that she’s still in love with her ride:
I love love love being able to carry whatever around town. A change of clothes to work? No problem. A gallon of milk on the way home? Sure! A big bag of library books? But of course, and why not the laptop, too? My personal maneuverability limit is way less than the weight limit, so I’ve gotten nowhere near that so far as I can tell. But that leaves a hell of a lot of stuff that I can carry.
You can read her full recap here. Thanks for taking the chance with our product, Elaine, we’re stoked and glad you’re able to enhance your every day adventure.
As we dial in our lives and rides we find things that work. When said things work smoothly, repeatedly we can sometimes become complacent and think, “That couldn’t/won’t/wouldn’t happen to me.”
Then, like a jealous, vengeful wrath, Murphy swings in and says, “Ah-a-ah… Let’s ground that ego for a bit,” and leaves you sweating, cursing and futzing with your previously perfect setup.
Vik experienced just that with his recent mega load on his Surly Big Dummy Xtracycle cargo bicycle in Victoria, BC.
We’ve always been awed and inspired by the creatives in the cycling world. From Tom Ritchey to Joe the Frame Welder, someone, right now, is out there tinkering on the next new, cool cycling thing.
TerraCycle is one of those inspirational creatives. They design and manufacture a multitude of recumbent parts and accessories. Then they decided to adopt the Longtail Standard to make recumbents more cargo friendly and made a longtail extension that utilizes Xtracycle accessories and gear.
‘BentRider managing editor, Bryan J. Ball, recently installed a CargoMonster on their recumbent and are smitten with what they can do with it:
What cannot be denied is how amazingly useful the Cargo Monster is. It’s a technically brilliant solution that begs to be used. I could always manage to go get groceries on a standard trike but having the Cargo Monster made me WANT to go get groceries. In the cycling world, the only thing more hip right now than a fixed gear is a longtail and in my cycling-centric neighborhood, the Cargo Monster completely removed the TerraTrikes leaper status. It’s just… Cool. And there are so many Xtracycle options available that it’s easy to sit in front of the computer for hours and dream of things that you can carry on your Cargo Monster. (my emphasis)
Oaklanders took to the streets yesterday to celebrate car-free adventures. Walk Oakland Bike Oakland organized Oaklavía, an inaugural event aimed at increasing pedestrian and cycling awareness and to show the city that its citizens want to bring back a human scale to their commons and local environment.
I rolled out after frequenting the farmers market (forgot spinach on my first trip, a must have in my household) with a friend. He on my single speed and me on my Big Dummy. We joined up with the route at Broadway and Grand. Being on the early side of things, it was actually eerie to see so few people out enjoying this rare occurrence: a downtown city street with zero vehicular traffic. A few families were sprinkled here and there, random cyclists, rollerbladers and walkers filling in the gaps.
Prototype Bcycle Station
We made our way down Broadway, stopping by the various vendor booths. Trek Bicycles was displaying their Bcycle bike rent station that they’re trying to launch across the country. Much like Paris’ Vélib’, a city run and organized urban bicycle share program, Bcycle aims to provide urban cyclists with rental stations and useful bikes with internal gearing, 20lbs rated front basket, lights and lock. I raised the saddle to see how much seat tube is provided and it seems to fit up to a 6′6″ person comfortably. Interestingly, while the literature doesn’t mention Trek at all, it was fairly obvious to me that this was a Trek venture. The bikes are Trek manufactured and the Bcycle company is located in Waterloo, Trek’s hometown. I know that most urban cities with bike share programs have their own style, supplier, etc. so I wonder if Trek is the only company trying to corner this potential market. Either way, I’m going to push for Oakland’s next mayor to seriously consider bicycle share programs for our city.
After that stop, we continued peddling down the streets, ringing our bells, saying hi to our neighbors and enjoying the beautiful day (80°+!). We encountered some unicyclists dribbling a basketball between each other (watch the video at the end to see), saw a monster bicycle and Xtracyclist do an impromptu track stand face off.
Monster Bike and Xtracycle Track Stand-off
People were hula hooping on a street corner and circus arts were performed at Kinetic Arts Center. We reached the end of the route, slightly saddened that not every street in Oakland was shut down to vehicle traffic. Turning around, we headed to Liege to catch the Round of 16 fútbol match between Argentina and México. Sadly, North America was officially ousted from the Cup, maybe in the next four years.
After the game, we strolled back into the sunlight and were pleasantly surprised to see more people filling the streets, some listening to a live hip-hop performance, others dancing outside a Latin America restaurant learning a traditional song. All in all a wonderful Sunday afternoon. Wish this happened every month, if not every weekend. Ride on!
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