I love it as much as I knew I would. My Xtracycle arrived on Sunday afternoon to the bus depot and my husband put it together shortly after it arrived. Now he’s convinced he needs one for his around town bike too. This was Sunday:
Putting it together…
Almost done!
What timing! Falling asleep right before I can try it out. Thankfully my loving husband went from putting the Xtracycle together to holding my sleeping son! Voila!
Bye girls! (don’t mind my too low seat)
Okay, Okay… hop on!
We rode later on Sunday night around town. I can’t get over how smooth and stable it is. I love not feeling like I’m towing. My legs are working a bit harder on the hills but it’s barely noticeable.
Tonight we rode down to the grocery store and bought a weeks worth of groceries and loaded her up. We live uphill from the grocery store so I knew I was in for some work. I was surprised at how even 80lbs of groceries and kid wasn’t hard. My legs were a bit tired on the steeper hills but I could barely tell there was extra weight.
This is me as soon as we got into the yard. Don’t mind the sweat- it’s about 29’C here tonight! (Yes, that’s my birth pool on the trampoline. What better place for it?)
Check out the load. I was semi careful about packing it right in the saddlebags thinking I needed to be smart about the space but it turns out I had more than I needed. There is remarkable storage capabilities on this thing! I’m so so pleased with my purchase.
Wow, that looks like so much fun and such a good substitute for a car! If we weren’t so far away from all our favourite destinations I might be buying one of those instead of new wheel. I hope you get many pleasurable miles and thanks for all the photos!
Thanks for commenting! You guys would so suit Xtracycle travelling. Too bad we both aren’t back in Cranny. What a perfect place for one, eh? Next time you’re here you’ll have to try it out. It’s remarkably easy to forget you even have it on your bike until you’re stopped at the light and the car next to you chats you up about your “rad” bike. :D
Did dd have room for her feet once the groceries were in situ?
She did. She’s actually been putting her feet in front of the snap deck on the seat stays. Her feet don’t reach the footsies without the saddlebags being full so this was a good option. I’m still thinking webbing stirrups may be the way to go when the double seat is made.
Before I forget – those photos make it pretty clear why people would think we were sisters don’t you think?!
I agree the xtracycle would have rocked in Cranny. I can’t help but still want to go back. They’d probably work in most small town BC places so maybe that’s what we’ll have to settle for instead.
I’ve been doing the multi-modal commute with my folding Dahon bike and it’s sure a conversation starter. Too bad the xtracycle doesn’t fold with it:(
:D We do look alike sometimes! I can see what you mean about these pictures!
Maybe you need to take a welding course and figure a way to make the Xtracycle work with the folding bike.
That is so awesome! I really could have used something like that a few years ago, but it probably wouldn’t work for me now that my kids are bigger and my house is so much further out of town. Looks super-cool though!
Looks good. And isn’t it a blast to ride? Here are some pictures of our new xtracycle.
http://www.photoblog.com/Aubreeh/2008/07/03/meet-eliza-our-new-xtracycle.html
I will be interested to see the double seat you make. Eventually I will have two to toss on the back. Details and many photos will be greatly appreciated.
That looks awesome, Aubreeh! Love your daughter in the saddlebags!! My daughter, Lily is sitting here with me and I could see the light bulb going off when she was looking at that shot. Somehow I know this will be the first thing she’ll want to try when we get outside today! :D
I SO want one of these for me and the kids! I’m getting closer because my hubby has been checking them out. I can’t believe how many people I have seen (online) with them though! I could so put it on the busses here in the land of the sun.
It’s so great. You really need one!
Thanks for posting all of the photos. I’m going to show them to Don right now because it just looks so awesome! I’d love to try it out sometime this summer if you don’t mind. How old do you think our boys would have to be to ride on the back? Are there options for little ones?
You can totally try it out. Maybe Cam’s next day off we should ride over your way and let you try it out there. If Don wants to spin his new wheels with someone he should give Cam a shout.
Cam’s going to build a seat like this one: https://annie.paxye.com/?p=36 so I can carry both kids at the same time. I think Lily is a bit young to just hold on to the back at 5 for long distances but just around town she has no trouble with it. There is always the Pea Pod seat http://store.xtracycle.com/product.aspx?pf_id=pp-01 but I didn’t go this direction because I’d still need something for Lily on longer trips.
Annie,
We had our first overnight bike trip and I made a video. Thought you would enjoy. The Xtracycle was awesome.
http://hollimanchronicles.blogspot.com/
Hey thanks! Looking forward to checking that out.
Today was my first day using the double bike seat my dh made for my Xtracycle. I don’t have a belt of sorts for my ds yet so I used my ring sling cinched around him and the seat as a belt. It worked great and looked like an obi. I’m kicking myself for not having my friend snap a shot when we went for a ride.