Having recently had a child myself, I’ve been fully obsessed with the myriad ways bikes and bike makers attempt to haul small people on bikes. Mark came into the Emeryville office last week and asked a few questions and then casually asked if I’d like to see his bike… I was blown away. The bike he showed did not include the cute kids pictured, but it did feature the childseat which Mark fashioned himself from 3/8″ marine plywood, nylon straps, a beautiful padded seat with Koi print fabric, and even a classy Asian style woodcut behind the seat. I ran into Marc on the road with his son yesterday and he told me that he and his son were loading up the Xtracycle and going camping in the Berkeley hills this weekend. Hat’s off to you Mark — an inspiration to parents and cyclists everywhere. –Nate
I think the coolest part of Trish’s adventure is that she sold all of her stuff before leaving! Talk about liberation.
I’m trying to decide how to spin this, because it was partly one of those inspiring loads that makes me feel “hell yeah, that’s why I ride an Xtracycle” and partly I just felt stupid.
The plastic company I use for the polycarbonate in the Down Low Glow had my home address on their file for my shipping address. So there I was with eight feet of polycarbonate tubing, well more like 160 feet, actually, that I had to get to the Rock the Bike workshop across the Bay in Berkeley. A few months ago I would have borrowed my girlfriend’s car. But, umm, I can’t do that anymore. And I need to work with that tubing tomorrow. Hence the Xtracycle.
At first I felt pretty badass. I stuck my messenger bag in the front of the freeloader to separate the box from my pedal stroke, since I didn’t have a longloader handy. I loaded the tubing quick enough. I felt good enough about the whole affair to stop and snap a picture.
Then I realized the tire was flat. And it was getting towards 4:30PM. Which means I wouldn’t be able to get on BART if I patched the thing. So I threw on a wheel from another bike, which worked well enough.
BART was tricky. I used the escalators and rolled into the last car. People weren’t stressed about the wierd bike, but I could tell they were having to think a little harder to get to their seats. At the West Oakland platform I decided to get off. There was no down escalator, so I slid the bike down the stairs, Travois style, on the tubing.
The worst part of the whole thing was that it has happened before! It’s just that before, I had that car as a backup, so I didn’t even take the time to call my salesman at the Plastic Company and get it sorted out. That’s car culture for you!
Well, there’s certainly a lot of competition for the best Xtracycle family of all time but these Santa Barbarians are in the running.
Send us your nominations for others.
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