Jennifer Dederich, co-owner of Portland Pedal Power, talks about using the Xtracycle Heavy Duty (HD) FreeRadical for her bicycle powered delivery service and business promotion.
The HD can handle 350 lbs of cargo, mounts to most 26″ mountain bicycle frames, accepts rim or disc brakes and can fit a 29er rear wheel.
We’re looking forward to more tests from PPP and our other Heavy Duty FreeRadical cargo bike testers, the Stomparillaz!
*|VIMEO:20768840|*
Video and Editing done by Jon Garcia of Lake Productions with camera work by Lauren Pollock.
Check out some prototype photos on XtracycleGallery.com
Read the Riding the Spine review of their HD FreeRad.
Electra Townie Xtracycle Cargo Bicycle Conversion
A year of researching, dreaming and reading about Xtracycles finally came to a head: Urbancommuter’s family just joined the Xtracycle family! Welcome to the fold.
I rode the electracycle the next morning. Hauled my 3 kids to school. They absolutely loved it. That to me, seeing them having a blast is worth more than anything. I have never stopped riding the bike since I installed the conversion kit. It was really a great choice for having to invest in one. I get to ride my bike more and get a good quick heart rate boost. I love it. Emphasis mine
Read their whole Xtracycle cargo bicycle buying and installing experience at Go Bike Trip.
Sean, a Big Dummy owner, sent us some helpful advice regarding roof racks that work well with long wheelbases. His rack is ATOC’s BT-63 (BT = Bike Topper; 63 = 63″ tray length). Sean was looking at other options on the market, including DIY hacks, but found the price and fit of the BT-63 to match his needs perfectly.
Sean's Big Dummy on his BT-63 roof rack
ATOC Bike Topper Carriers for Roof Racks.
My wife and I have been riding cargo bikes in New York City for the past three years . Typically we are shopping for groceries and transporting our children to/from school or the gym and carrying all of our miscellaneous bags. We do not own a car and we ride year round unless there is ice on the street. We own two cargo bikes, a Kona Ute and a Yuba Mundo. The Kona came with two grocery type bags and we had each been using one of those. The Kona bags are not great, but are basically functional with limited capacity. I have been searching for a bag that would fit these over-size racks and that could be left attached, so the idea of being able to take an Xtracycle bag and use it on our bikes was welcome. Since the Freeloader bags are not designed specifically for use on these frames it required a little trial and error to make it work. But I am happy to report that the bags can fit on both frames and have increased our carrying capacity tremendously.
Yuba Mundo with Freeloader
Kona Ute with Freeloader
The installation on both frames was similar, with the Kona requiring a little more work. I had to loosen the screws that hold the Kona deck to the frame in order to position and install the bag. Initially I had the bag installed in a more forward position, but I quickly found that I was kicking it with every revolution of the pedals. I moved each frame clip back one space and that has worked well. Tighten the screws holding the deck when you are happy with the position of the bag. The deck I built on the Yuba does not cover the entire width of the rack so this did not interfere with installation of the bag. There are four remaining clips and brackets that are designed to attach onto the Xrtracycle frame. Here I used heavy duty wire ties. On both bikes the front most clip is extended and attached to the seat tube.
On the Kona the two bottom clips are tied to the chain stay, On the Yuba I attached one clip to the chain stay and the second to the sideloader bars. The rear clip on both frames is wrapped around the rear rack stay and clipped back into the bag.
Using wire ties will prevent easy removal of the bags. This is not a problem for us since we leave our bikes locked on the street and it prevents someone from walking off with the bag. If you anticipate having to remove the bags I think you could fashion some additional clips and velcro them to the frame.
One note of caution that does not really have anything to do with the use of the bags on these specific frames: The straps that tighten the bag around your payload tend to hang out and flop around a lot. My wife actually got caught on a loop of metal sticking out from a barricade when the flapping strap got stuck. We have been trying to tuck the straps in since that happened. The bags have not interfered with our ability to carry a passenger comfortably. My wife frequently carries both children on the Yuba and they report having adequate space for their feet. In general we have found the use of the Freeloader bag to have made it much easier to carry our stuff on a daily basis. They are well designed, easy to clean, and made to last. We have been using our baskets less and started carrying heavy bags in the back. They carry the weight lower on the frame which makes the bike easier to ride.
The snobbiest cyclist out there lashes Surly’s Big Dummy Xtracycle cargo bicycle after a 6-month ownership:
I do, however, want and need to carry crap, and the Big Dummy immediately proved to be very capable in this regard. In fact, I was surprised to discover that it soon seemed indispensable to me.
Of course, the only thing that makes this decadent orgy of cycling smugness possible is that I have a relatively safe place to store this bicycle at street level, which is not the case for many people in big cities (unless you’re a wealthy person with a hyphenated name–even in 21st century bike-friendly New York, smugness is a luxury). Also, while I’m comfortable trawling the streets of Brooklyn with it and even locking it up occasionally, the stock Big Dummy is an expensive bicycle, and it’s too lavishly-appointed to leave unattended in a place like Manhattan for long periods of time. For the same functionality (assuming you have the room), you can obviously bolt an Xtracycle to a crappy old mountain bike, or just get the Big Dummy frame if you’re one of those people with a bunch of spare parts, since it’s got provisions and braze-ons for pretty much everything.
Read the full review atBike Snob NYC.
Snag your Big Dummy here.
Recent Comments