Every Day Adventurers

LongTail Technology’s (LT) modular system allows for creativity on many levels. Some users are fine with using our production model products and trim, but others see those tubes and imagination sparks go flyin’.

Galen (flickr: Muleteer) is just one of many creative tinkerers taking his Xtracycle to new levels. He recently wrote us, and posted photos on his flickr page of a rear trailer hitch for towing a bicycle behind your Xtracycle (as opposed to using a TrayBien, which mounts on the side). We’re calling it QuickHitch, for short.

Here’s Galen’s feedback on towing a bike using a QuickHitch:

“The bike in tow can pitch on the hub, and yawl on its own headset. Works great until the bike is at a right angle, and then, with no bike behind the fork anymore, the entire thing falls less than gracefully to the ground behind the big dummy. So, for those of you looking to replicate, make sure you don’t turn too slow too tight.”

Carting a second bike happens for a variety of reasons: A friend arrives on public transit, tow a spare bike on the way to greet them. A riding buddy flats or has mechanical breakdown, tow the crippled steed home with owner riding too! Or, you buy/sell/trade/barter/find a bicycle and need to transport it to its new home. Sure there’s more reasons, but that covers the usual fair.

Front View

How to get yourself setup with a QuickHitch

Top View

1. Installing Lamp Mount

Your QuickHitch attaches to the rear bridge of your Xtracycle. Clean the horizontal bridge before installing the Nitto lamp holder. Make sure the clamp plates on the bridge end of the clamp are on top, this keeps the hub end closer to the ground reducing wobble effects of the trailing bicycle. Use the 4mm Allen key to tighten the clamp bolts. Clamp should be horizontal to the ground, you can dip it a bit more if wobble is a factor in your test run. But, note that the lower the lamp holder is angled toward the ground, the more likely you’ll drag it when lifting the front wheel.

Side View

2. Prep towing bicycle and mount

Undo the front brake (ignore for disk brakes), remove the front wheel and stow in your FreeLoader. If you are using Adventure Racks or the Adventure Kit, snug to the side or your deck wheel using a CamStrap.

Insert fork onto QuitchHitch, be sure it’s just as snug as when you install your front wheel.

Turn on a blinky on the towing bike or tie a red flag on the saddle rails and roll!

Sal carries Sir Issac Newton (bike lovers give good names)

Post any photos/videos of your DIT QuickHitch here or on our Facebook fan page. Ride on!

P.S. Some people like having a larger footrest than the pegs KickBack has built in. Galen solves this with a simple solution: folding footpegs!

UPDATECarl followed the tutorial and fashioned his own tow-hitch setup. He also suggested something that we forgot to mention, using CamStraps or some other lashing device (Joel mentioned bungees in the comments section) to keep the sway of the towed bicycle to a minimum.

UPDATEJnyyz commented with his HitchBack rear fork mount, check it:

HitchBack: Won't rotate down like Nitto clamp might

SurfLoader and Radish - perfect accessories for the beach

With summer fast approaching, playing in water takes on new precedent. We know these are thrifty times, so we wanted to share a low-cost alternative to using our LongLoader and WideLoader for your surfing adventures.

Before jumping into the details, watch this brief video to get a good understanding of what the finished product will look like.

[kml_flashembed fversion="8.0.0" movie="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4907935&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=f4b941&fullscreen=1" targetclass="flashmovie" publishmethod="static" width="500" height="288"]

You’re missing the fun! Click the image below to download Flash Player now!

[/kml_flashembed]

1. Measure & Chop

The beauty of LongLoader is that it safely offsets long loads to be out of your pedaling zone. Since we’re on a budget here, we need to make our surfboard sit outside our pedaling zone without LongLoader’s help.

Be sure to cut the stick upfront longer than the rear one

First, saw your handle into two pieces: one 16″ section and one 24″ section. The longer stick will sit in your forward bridge with the smaller one in the rear bridge. Both sticks should be inserted the full length of the bridges.

The rear of your board will sit ~5-6″ away from your rack. The front of your board will sit a bit further from the racks to keep it from interfering with your pedal stroke. Use a friend to hold the surfboard over the pegs and move the tip out far enough to allow for a clear pedal stroke.

Secure the sticks in place by installing screws through the spring button holes on the horizontal bridges. This is to keep the sticks from sliding out of the bridges when in use.

2. Chop some more

Remember: always cut away from vital organs/digits

Cut your squeegee in half. Using one half, cut a rough profile of your board’s edge into the rubber section of the squeegee. You can either slice out the entire section of the squeegee or cut two vertical slices and fold over the middle flap. Repeat for other half.

3. Measure & Chop

Position cut squeegee vertically with cut end facing up. The center of the rear squeegee, where your board will rest, should be about 6-8″ from your V-racks. The front squeegee needs to sit about 4 more inches further away from the bicycle to offset and avoid your pedal zone.

Wrap tape around the squeegee and the stick a number of times depending on the strength of the tape used. If you kept a flap in your squeegee, fold that over the stick and begin to wrap tape around the squeegee. You can also add screws through the squeegee body, but you shouldn’t need to.

Note distance of forward squeegee

4. Wrapping Time

With your sticks secured with screws and your squeegee taped firmly to said sticks, you can put your board in place. Make any adjustments as needed to keep your board out of your pedal zone.

FreeLoader straps secure your board nicely

Secure your board by unbuckling all three straps on the FreeLoader facing your board. Also undo the mesh draw string for maximum wrap-ability. Pass the buckles under the board and over to meet up with the top buckle. Depending on your setup, you may need to use the opposite FreeLoader straps to complete the buckle. Tighten down and take a test spin.

5. Fine Tune

Depending on your taste for pain, you will want to cover any protruding sharp ends. You don’t want a core sample of your shin, so tape those exposed bits well.

Radish, SurfLoader and Bali... Good times

Let us know how it goes!

If you decide to craft your own SurfLoader, send us some picts at info at xtracycle.com! Happy riding, both on land and on water!

Reason number 411 for owning an Xtracycle: curb sales.

Peter and Rick, on their way home from work yesterday, stumbled across a frequent site these days: piles of furniture and other abandoned belongings on the curb.

We parked our Xtracycles and began checking out what we may want/need/etc. Peter snagged a collection of kids bikes to harvest prototype parts from. Here’s how that load looked:

Peter scored this collection of bikes for prototyping efforts

Rick poked around a bit and found a tall, unbroken mirror and a small Radio Flyer tricycle. His neighbor’s daughter had a birthday recently (as evidence of the piñata in the recycling bin) and thought she’d love a trike. Turns out, her birthday was that exact day. It’s these magical moments that make our jobs worthwhile.

An unbroken mirror and a tricycle for a 2-year-old birthday girl

A number of Big Dummy customers have expressed concern about whether or not the Big Dummy will allow the Pea Pod to be attached. Indeed, the Pod is designed to fit the struts to the seatstays of your bike. The Big Dummy doesn’t exactly have seat stays in the same place as a regular bike. As a result, you must attach the Pea Pod to the Xtracycle V-racks. The struts on the Pea Pod are set such that you must either run them on the inside of the Xtracycle V-racks, forcing the V-racks out…or you can run them on the outside of the V-racks pushing them in. The snap deck works in the former situation, though isn’t perhaps as secure as it could be.¬† When running the struts outside, the V-rack decidedly will not fit.¬† As you will see in the photos, our 2nd Prototype TekDeck will work with the PeaPod struts running outside. But the length of the TekDeck doesn’t accommodate another passenger behind the PeaPod. *TekDecks, by the way, will be available later this year.

I’ve probably set up and ridden 10 different Xtracycle rigs over the last 5 years. It’s been a bit of an obsession, finding the perfect pairing of bike and Freerad, the right gearing arrangement, the right riding position. I’ve moved away from mountain bike style handlebars, even on my mountain bikes. The purported handling benefits of traditional mountain bike bars seem to be at the expense of your visibility, comfort, ease and style. Sipping a coffee while riding the Big Dummy is easy, so is snapping a photo. In fact, you Read the rest of this entry »