Step 1: receive a big box from UPS
Step 2: strap the box to your bike
Step 3: ride home
Step 4: stop making such a big deal out of it
How to carry big boxes home without a car
My tow truck
It’s not quite towing a truck, like these guys (see below), but it’s handy to have a tow truck when you need one. Pictured here, my Xtracycle, which I usually refer to as my pick-up truck, doubles as a tow truck when I need to tow another bike to the shop.
Tow trucks towing a truck.
new handlebars make a bike new
This is just a quick post to thank Kevin at the Freewheeler Bicycle Center in Davis, who just today turned my couple-years-long experiment with drop-bars — which required me to lean too far forward — into a comfortable ride.
Dropped it off this morning looking like this
And picked it up after work looking like this
And already, the feeling is new.
zipping around by bike, again
I noticed today that the only time I make a point of sharing a transportation experience via social media is when I drive a car. At least twice now I have posted updates on Twitter (I really can’t bring myself to say I “tweeted”) about using a Zipcar. And for good reason. Zipcar is a magical program where, with the wave of a card over a windshield, I unlock a car — and so far, a different car each time — find the keys inside, and drive off. To paraphrase their motto, I use a car when I want to. The autonomy that Zipcar reinforces is palpable whenever I pick up a car and use it to run errands that are otherwise unmanageable by bike. And the fact that I have to reserve the car ahead of time means that I use a car only when I want to, not just when it’s convenient to do so.
Which brings me to what I was noticing. It is that I post updates about using a car, which has become an increasingly rare experience for me. In other words, I don’t post updates about how I get to work every day, how I buy groceries, or how I go pick up dinner. And, well, maybe the way I do those things is more interesting, since I’m doing all of that by bike.
Long time readers of this blog may not see anything odd about this. But just a few months ago, things would have been the other way around. That is, if I am inclined to post updates about what is novel, then I would have posted updates about biking, since that would have been more novel at the time.
After a 2008 mountain bike accident, the full effects of which on my bicycling lifestyle I won’t go into here, left me unsure of myself on two wheels, I started taking the bus to work. But after months of daily walking more than an hour to get to and from the closest bus stop, I reached the point of frustration. While I did enjoy catching up on This American Life and PennSound podcasts, I was spending so much time getting to and from work that I joked that I might as well move in to my office. Later, I worked out a routine catching rides with a friend, which in turn made my daily walk-bus-walk to the office seem epic by comparison. So when my friend’s fellowship year at the Center ended, I started driving myself to work.
A year after the accident, I still was not comfortable riding. And while I rationalized driving as necessary at first, I soon felt indolent, especially compared to my past self. Driving, however, remained my routine through the end of August.
Moving to Davis, California this summer has inverted my paradigm, restoring my sense of independence from the gas pedal. Moving here car-free has reinforced the pattern in my life that bike-reliance is itself cyclical. I’m delighted to be on the side of the cycle in which once again driving is the aberration.
Davis, by design, makes it so easy to bike, I’m not missing a car. The bike paths are plenty, the lanes are wide, and the drivers expect cyclists to be on the road. I’ve seen countless Xtracycles, tandems, recumbents, and other “odd” bikes that would turn heads in any other town. But here in Davis, where on Saturday they set a new bikes-in-a-line record for Guiness’ book, it takes something extraordinary to turn heads. Biking to work, carrying groceries in panniers — these are not extraordinary things. Which I guess is why I didn’t even notice.
uses of the Xtracycle
Carrying equipment for work, hauling groceries, registering voters…
Try VoteForChange.com to check your voter registration. This is a great website, especially for those in states/counties that can’t/don’t confirm voter registration via the web. NB — Be sure to spell out your street suffix (e.g. Ave would be Avenue).
winterizing the bike
Down here in North Carolina, we don’t get much snow. Hell, this year we haven’t even gotten much rain. Gone are my college days of putting snow tires on the bike for the winter. For the most part, I keep the same tires, much of the same gear on the bike, and just throw on a few extra layers of clothing as we head into the cooler months.
But darkness here is the same as it is anywhere. As the days get shorter, I will be riding to and from work in the dark, so lighting up my ride is the biggest change I make in preparation for winter.
In years past, I have used a helmet-mounted headlight (a 15W spotlight to help me see where I’m going), a flashing white LED mounted on the handlebars (something to help drivers see me), and a red blinkie light clipped to the back of my helmet. Even though I’ve not had an accident (nor even a close call) at night, I am always thinking of ways to improve my visibility — by that I mean the ability of drivers to see me.
Last winter, I strapped a day glow orange construction vest to the back my bike. While ugly, it catches drivers’ attention both day and night, since it has reflective yellow stripes across it. But after seeing the Down Low Glow at a Cruiser Tuesday ride and thinking more about how doing something unique often calls the right sort of attention to you, I have been thinking about adding their neon to my pick-up truck. But the cost… $100 for one neon stick and battery; $130 for two? C’mon.
So, I went to the local Advance Auto parts yesterday and for $30 bought 5ft of neon wire, 4 bright blue LEDs, and a 6V battery. I took it all home, soldered the wires together, added a switch, and voila… a glowing snap deck.
I ran out of liquid nails about halfway around the snap deck, so I’ve got electrical tape temporarily holding it in place. But I will clean that up soon. I’ll test ride it and let y’all know the reaction.
who needs a car?
Not me. I’ve got a truck. A two-wheeled pick-up truck.
I sold my car this spring after realizing that I’d put gas in the tank a handful of times within the previous year. Then a friend reminded me of the Xtracycle — a bolt-on rear triangle that moves your rear-wheel back about 15 inches and supports their proprietary huge panniers. I remembered seeing one in action in Massachusetts and that I had wanted to try it out just to see how it handles.
In June, I added the free radical to my 1980′s (very first) mountain bike, and its carrying capacity has convinced me that I really don’t need a car.
Three months into riding it, here are some thoughts –
First, since I mounted the free radical to a chromoly frame, I expected a lot of frame flex. While it does flex, it’s not as much as I had anticipated. In fact, it’s hard to tell precisely whether some of the fluidity of movement is frame-flex or the front suspension. Either way, it makes for a comfortable ride.
Second, the bike “tracks” like nothing I’ve ridden before. Maybe it’s due to the length of the wheel-base or maybe there’s some frame flex/sag in the middle that causes it. Whatever the cause, the bike likes to ride in a straight line. Turning requires a little more effort than the bike did before the extension. The “tracking” is great for commuting — I hop on the rail-trail I take to work and cruise.
I’ve even ridden it off-road and, as long as you get lined up right, riding over skinnies and teeter-totters is pretty easy. You have to be conscious of the new front-to-back center or gravity for teeters, but other than that, the bike handles singletrack real well. Over all, it’s a lot easier to control than I originally thought it would be.
Third, (and probably most obvious) the turning radius is increased. This makes it difficult to turn around in driveways without putting a foot down. It also requires you to be a little more conscious of the rear when taking corners. I’ve clipped the panniers more than once on rocks and curbs by leaning too soon into curves.
Fourth, since the seat and cranks are closer to the middle of the wheel-base than a regular upright bike (on which the seat and cranks are closer to the rear wheel), the rider’s weight is more evenly distributed throughout the frame. For a bike with a suspension fork, this means that the fork carries more of the rider’s weight at all times than would a “normal” bike. If you have a sophisticated fork, just crank down the pre-load and it all evens out. If you have a crappy one like me, then just learn to accept more squish in the fork. So far, the additional squish hasn’t affected handling. It’s just something to be aware of.
Even when I’m not carrying a giant package or cases of bulk-ordered groceries, the bike attracts attention. Patrons of bars, seated outdoors, have called out how much they like the look of the bike as I ride past. While walking through the local farmers’ market, more than a few people have stopped me to ask about it. I feel like it attracts even drivers’ attention while I’m on the road, though I still ride assuming that drivers are blind and I’m invisible — aggressively defensive.
There’s no denying that the Xtracycle is well thought-out. It performs as well loaded down as when the panniers are empty, the free radical is strong and lightweight, and it’s even elegantly designed.
I’ll say one more thing about the Xtracycle. The founders recognize that privileged, pro-bike activists like myself are not the only market of need for their creations.
On the Xtracycle website, the owners state that profits from sales of Xtracycle products “support Worldbike Foundation (formerly X-Access Foundation), a non-profit organization that seeks to make our technology available to all who need it. We are committed to creating a new model of business that adds to the natural wealth of humanity and the planet.” Rock on; that’s the kind of business I want to support.
Edit: This 2006 post was my first about the Xtracycle, and I stand by my original review. Readers may be curious to know that I still ride the same Free Radical and frame combo as a daily commuter, and I love the bike only more each day. Read here for more posts and photos of my Xtracycle setup.
return of the pedal
I’m back on the fixie for the first time in a couple of months. 
I’ve been riding a multi-geared mountain bike which I’ve outfitted for commuting with 1.5in inverted-tread tires, fenders (for the non-existent rain), and an Xtracycle Free Radical. I’d gotten used to having gears again.
So, I fix up the fixie last night and hop on it this morning. I crest the first hill in my neighborhood and have one of those classic fixed-gear moments. My mountain-bike-bred instinct is to coast, now that I’ve reached the top of the hill. But my cranks disagree, and the egg beater pedals ignore my feet’s inertia. I do a little gallup to stay on the bike and remember there’s no coasting allowed.
The Outspokin’ Cyclist
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