Every Day Adventurers

One of our custom Big Dummy customers, Scott of Washington D.C., recently wrote to RootsRadicals about his experience riding his longtail in the icy, slick and packed down snow. Take it away, Scott!

Another Xtracycle rider on a Radish embarking on a grocery store run

So if you haven’t heard, we have been suffering through the Snowpocalypse. Washington DC has had something like 30 to 50 inches of snow during the past week. I haven’t had much of a chance to take the BD out (no snow tires), but have gotten out twice and can give everyone a testimonial of winter longtail riding.

I can say with confidence that the longer wheelbase of my Big Dummy really, really helped in the slippery stuff. I rode once with about three fresh inches on the street and again a couple of days later after the streets had been plowed under much worse road conditions. On the second trip, I carried a small load back from my local package store (two sixers and a half case of wine). The extra weight in the back really locked down the rear end despite the ice, snow and slush. I had next to no tire slippage as I carefully tread my way back home (with bottles cheerfully clinking along the way).

I’m looking forward to getting back on the streets after this round of snow finishes. I think we’ll end up with only eight inches this time.

Scott
Washington, DC

FreeRadical + Surly Endomorph Tires = Fun in the Snow

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Editor Update: This is a semi-permanent solution for getting Footsies to work with KickBack. If you want to use WideLoaders, you’ll have to remove the bolts holding the Footsies on, so only do this mod if a) you’re fine voiding your warranty and b) don’t use WideLoaders.

KickBack is all the rage these days regarding our DIT tutorials. Our most recent tutorial focused on extending the peg platform of KickBack by using the handles off a Razor scooter. You can read up on that post here.

Taking passenger appeasement a step further, I wanted to explore a fast, simple solution to get your Footsies to play nice with KickBack. This mod will void your Footsie warranty, so proceed with caution (and if not installed properly, may void your KickBack warranty, too). Let’s begin!

Footsies modified to play nice with KickBack

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Hanging out in Japan this weekend? Join our Japanase distributor for a weekend filled of Longtail partying.

Our friends and Motocross International, are hosting a test ride party and picnic featuring Surly’s Big Dummy and Xtracycle’s FreeRadical as well as the Radish longtail.  We sure wish we could ride with Ross as he hangs with our East Coast amigos!

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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

Read the entire article here

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A long time Xtracycler wrote to RootsRadicals recently asking for help on getting his Whatchamacollars (WMC) fitted over his Big Dummy uprights. We mention in the WMC instructions to use a liberal amount of grease on the contact faces for installation, and also suggest using a large flat head screwdriver to gently pry the bottom clamp open. The reason the WMC is such a tight fit on the Big Dummy is due to Surly’s use of a slightly larger upright tube diameter, roughly 1mm larger than the FreeRadical uprights.

Unfortunately, using the screwdriver method has the chance to mar the WMC faces and can cause scratching of the Big Dummy uprights when installing. We asked around to see if people have found a solution to this problem and Nick Sande, product control at Surly Bicycles, sent us these photos.

Using a nickle between the lower clamp you can screw in the bolt, start on the threaded side of the WMC, and slowly screw the bolt into the nickle. This allows the clamp to expand as you tighten, thus opening the clamp the extra millimeter or two. You can also use this technique with the upperclamp if fitting the V-racks into the WMC proves difficult. And we still suggest using grease to ensure a smooth installation.

Sorry, again, for the hassle, hope this fix works for you and your Big Dummy.

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