Xtracycle rad-dad, Anthony's customized KickBack legs
Customizing our rides is one of the many things that draws us further into cycling culture. Sometimes it’s the perfect paint job, a well-worn leather saddle or that crazy doll you found in the gutter that now rides with you every where you go to help you identify with your bicycle.
For those rockin’ out KickBack, you can customize your ride some more. Use any tubing with a diameter of 7/8″ to replace the stock legs, but please use high-strength aluminum or steel if you’ll be carrying precious cargo like passengers, children or Fabergé eggs.
In the tutorial video below Nate demonstrates how to achieve a wider stance for your KickBack using steel cruiser handlebars. If you happen to customize your KickBack, please post some photos here or on our Facebook fan page. Ride on!
Xtracycle Dad, Anthony, chopped the ends of his Stoker Kit and used the ends to widen his KickBack stance to carry his two boys with added safety
Jason Jamnik, a 22-year-old college student from Naperville, IL, works as a pizza-delivery boy man. Except he’s not delivering pizza the traditional way (in a beat up Honda Civic blasting teenage-angst rock), he’s using his Surly Big Dummy to get those pies to their final destination.
His customers are given two options for delivery: carbon-consuming-car or carbon-saving-cycle. Choosing the latter option saves them the $3 delivery fee, and helps their keep their community carbon-clean.
We don’t know yet if Jason is using our PizzaLoader design to help him deliver his pies, but we look forward to finding out!
Update: Well, looks like Jason IS using the PizzaLoader on his routes. Check out his comment below to see how he pulls it off. Thanks, Jason!
Jason about to deliver a hot pizza to a hungry customer
Photo: Danielle Gardner/STNG
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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
In the spirit of the Longtail Standard, we happily present you with detailed instructions to build your very own PizzaLoader.
While we’d love to design, prototype and build every idea we sketch out, we’re still a bit grounded in reality and like to choose our products carefully. But don’t get us wrong, we love do-it-together (DIT) approaches to accessories, except the ones involving transportation of wee ones.
With that said we’re pleased to introduce: PizzaLoader! While there are a few bicycle pizza delivery services out there, the costs don’t justify the production on our end. Thank goodness for places like IKEA, where you can find just the right combination of parts to create masterpieces.
Wife and hubby team, Jeremy and Carrie, longed for the ability to carry pizza on their Xtracycle. Unfortunately, the square shape of a pie box leaves too much overhang when using a standard SnapDeck. Combine that factor with greasy, weak cardboard box and you’ll quickly accessorize gravel with your fresh pizza.
Solution? Build a wide-platform SnapDeck with rail to provide proper support and containment for your pizza as it travels from its brick oven womb to your home and, ultimately, belly. Let’s dig in!
Ingredients:
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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 »
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