Xtracycle Sport Utility Bicycles -- Related Posts

New BART car design allows long bikes to fit without blocking doors
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

Heading home last night I spotted a new blue print of a bicycle on the wall of one of the BART cars. I wheeled my Xtracycle

Jacob Kramer 1 year hence, confirmed bicycle lifestylist

Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

Jacob bought and installed his Xtracycle at Rock the Bike. ( www.flickr.com/photos/rockthebike/372539035/ ) Now he's tearing up the town and using his bike on dates (with Down Low Glow of course). Note the flowers (not on Valentines day).

After helping Myles install the Xtracycle FreeRadical on his Cruz Bike recumbent, it got me thinking once again about the passenger experience. On most long bikes such as the Xtracycle and the Mundo, the passenger's eyes line up roughly with the middle of the back of the rider. This limits the front visibility of the passenger and leaves them to simply trust that the rider knows what they're doing.

By serendipity, Myles' Xtracycle build offered a much different passenger experience.

Our commute home.
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

When your new assembly and shipping employee has a hernia, and he's carrying a heavy messenger style backpack with the used mountain bike frame you gave him strapped on it, and he's on the cell phone with his father as you ride home to West Oakland BART together, telling his dad he has back pain that shoots down his left leg, and you know he doesn't have health insurance and is fighting the system to schedule his surgery, you don't just keep riding. You stop, take his pack, and strap it to your Xtracycle, even though you're already carrying your own stuffed messenger bag, 8 DLG's, and a box of Schwalbe tires that the Ginger Ninjas need for their tour. Because you can.

Do you plan every day in advance? Do you always know exactly what trips you'll need to make at the beginning of each day? With the always-there capacity of your Sport Utility Bicycle, you'll have the freedom to structure your day (or night) on the fly. You can decide as you're running out the door for class that today is the day to return those 20 overdue library books. You can decide to host a barbeque after a great group ride or a softball game, pick up four bags of groceries on your way home, and still have room for a passenger (or your softball gear.) After night falls, you can meet up with a friend at a café or bar, and bring them comfortably to a restaurant a mile away. With a bike trailer, you'll leave it at home because you prefer the way your bike rides without it, then later wish you had brought it along.

Shipping DLG to Burners
Originally uploaded by Rock The Bike

One evening I dropped off a DLG to a customer on 18th St. in San Francisco. As he opened his door and walked down his steps towards my glowing bike, he said "You guys really eat your own dog food."

We are a bicycle based business. We do not have a company car. We use public transportation and bike to work. We ship our products on our Xtracycle SUB's.

Being a bike based business has been a conscious choice. We've had chances to buy and use cars that were very affordable. And we do borrow vehicles occasionally for distant or especially awkward tasks, perhaps 4-5 times per year.

Test riding an Xtracycle is a great way to convince yourself that it feels fun, sporty, nimble, and solid, even with the extra frame weight and wheelbase. On any given day in our Berkeley workshop, there might be 3-4 Xtracycle SUB's parked in our parking area. So come by and test one out!

"I feel like I've started this dance - dancing one foot in the redrock and rivers and biking and meeting rural folks and everyday folks everywhere, and one foot in the urban land, on the computer, paying the cell phone bill, updating the blog...

I want to get more and more on the first foot, less on the last"

Using a Human-Powered Amplifier sponsored and engineered by Rock The Bike, Shake Your Peace is rocking shows this month in Utah. The band's 700 mile bicycle-based tour began April 2nd in Salt Lake City, and includes stops at college towns, cities, and mountain towns, not to mention hot springs. Lead singer and guitarist Gabe Dominguez grew up in Utah and feels an ongoing connection to the youth in the state. He tours by bicycle to inspire a new generation about their environmental choices, and to increase the magic of his tour.

Does that thing fit on the bike shuttle?
Originally uploaded to Flickr by Rock The Bike.

We often get this question from peope who use BART and the bike shuttle. And I'm happy to say, yes. An Xtracycle fits on both BART elevators (tipped up) and on the bike shuttle. It takes a little finesse to go on Caltrain with an Xtracycle, because it exceeds the 80 inch length limit, and many conductors are strict. City buses can work if you remove the front wheel, and place the hook over the top tube of the bike.