Category Archives: xtracycle

Xtracycle Date Night #8

Posted on November 4, 2007 by Tim K | 1 comment

It was a lovely Friday night for some Xtracycle errands followed by drinks and dinner at Flowers on the Ave. The combination of my captive subject, our bikelights, and the camera’s second-curtain flash settings were hard to resist.

-Tim

1 Comment

Posted in dates, extravehicular activities, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged car-free, carfreedates, date night, dates, seattle, U-district, xtracycle

Xtra-spooky? Halloween, Xtracycle Style

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Tim K | 2 comments

Little Red Riding Hood (the six-year old) needed a ride to her Halloween party after school today. Xtracycles to the rescue. Here she is joined in the ~~car~~bikepool by a ferocious dinosaur (our four-year old), and a friendly cowgirl from the bikepool.

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Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, kids, longbikes, School, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged bikepool, bikes, carpool, costumes, dinosaurs, dragon, halloween, kids, seattle, xtracycle

Xtracycle Build Details: Stoker Bar

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Tim K | 3 comments

This is part of an ongoing series of posts (ok, it’s the first–we’ll see how it goes) on the building of our Xtracycles. We get lots of questions about putting them together so I thought I better start documenting. Normal people would do it in order, starting with the actual kit, but me, I gotta start with the stoker bars. Maybe I just like saying Stoker….

Interested in the build? Read on, then see the blurb at the bottom and watch the “Buildin’…” category.

For our stoker bar setups we used some cheap ebay tandem stems and beer-can shims to mount bars for our passengers. I’ll get to the stems in another post but for now, here’s the scoop on these sylish Nitto “Swept-Back” bars.

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3 Comments

Posted in bikes, buildin' the xtracycle, wrenchin', xtracycle

Tagged bikes, build, cork, diy, grips, howto, parts, passengers, seattle, stoker, wrenchin', xtracycle

Trader Joes: $187.93

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Tim K | 9 comments

…contrary to our cashier’s expectations, we got the whole mammoth cart on the bikes with room to spare. The first time we did this we spent as much time packing the bikes as we did shopping. But as the weeks go by, we’re getting faster and finding we have room for more. Once the sideloaders reach a certain “fullness” I can’t resist stuffing them to make it all worthwhile (twice I’ve sent Anne back for more beer). We’re learning some tricks on that front. (A bakfiets would would be the ultimate in easy packing, but talking to Todd at Clever Cycles it’s probably too darn hilly here.)

And who would have thought the Wald basket, while cool in an old-fashioned-paperboy way, would represent a packing revelation? This little 14x9x9 beauty holds cameras, beer, wine, coffee cups, sweaters, gloves, hats, lunch, stuffed pink piggies, American Girl dolls, and the occasional U-lock. Once again, those guys at Rivendell are onto something simple that works fantastically. When Anne gets the rigid fork on her Xtra, she’s getting a Wald, too.

Check the the thumbnail image for some packing details.

-Tim

9 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, BIG Loads, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged baskets, bigloads, bikes, groceries, packing, seattle, shopping, trader joes, xtracycle

Seattle Mayor Nichols Wants to Show You His Rack(s)

Posted on October 26, 2007 by Tim K | 6 comments

SDOT Photo

As we ride more (and more and more) around our fair city, I’m struck by how little the city does to accommodate the parking of our two-wheeled steeds. Racks are few and far between, but cars are welcomed on nearly every curb. It used to be, back in the day, this didn’t matter much because you could count on a nearby, sturdy, parking meter…

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6 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, neighborhoods, Rack that Bike, seattle, sustainability, xtracycle

Tagged bikeracks, bikes, governement, local, racks, seattle, transportation, xtracycle

Free Beer at Clever Cycles, Portland ?!?!

Posted on October 21, 2007 by Tim K | 4 comments

Sure, it’s not enough that they’ve got the coolest city-bike shop anywhere, or that they’ve managed to double the size of the shop in five or so months. No, they have to give away free beer, too.

It’s just not fair, I tell ya! Seattle needs some of this two-wheeled excess!
Seriously, if you get the chance, check out Clever Cycles, right across the street from the Lucky Lab in PDX …

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4 Comments

Posted in bikes, Blogroll, longbikes, PDX, shops, xtracycle

Tagged beer, bikes, bikeshops, citybikes, clevercycles, portland, retail, stokemonkey, xtracycle

It’s Fall

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Anne | 2 comments

Seattle fall weather has officially arrived. It’s windy, wet and on the downward spiral toward darkness. In a couple of weeks cars will start turning their headlights on @ 3:00 pm. This is the time of year Tim and I talk longingly of moving to San Diego. This morning I met my sister for coffee and I didn’t even think about driving. I just put on my favorite wool base layer and a shell and got on the bike and rode the 8 miles. So maybe I’m over the hump? Last fall I would have sheepishly gotten into my car and driven because I didn’t feel like getting wet. We’ll see how I do in a couple of months.

– Anne

2 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, weather, xtracycle

Tagged , bikes, rain, seattle, weather

Woody with the Xtracycle

Posted on September 16, 2007 by Tim K | 1 comment

Lest everyone think all Xtracycle owners are hipsters, earth muffins, or born-again yuppies, allow me to introduce Woody. We met Woody last week on one of our car-free errand days. I pedaled past his massively loaded rig on our way from downtown and just had to go back to talk to him.

His xtracycle is mated to a Giant electric-assist bike. He said he loves the Xtracycle because it carries everything he needs and gets him where he needs to go. He had 1507 miles on it since moving to Seattle. To me, Woody seemed happy, healthy, and suitably mobile. Evidence of the power of two wheels (combined with lots of cargo space).

Keep ridin’, Woody!

-Tim

1 Comment

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, sustainability, xtracycle

How many passengers can you fit on your xtracycle?

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Tim K | 1 comment

The folks at Bike Hugger ask “What do you use your SUB for.” Our main uses are mega Trader Joes’ runs and hauling kids around instead of driving. We’re up to three youngins’ and one adult at one time. With two Xtras in the fleet that gives us a capacity of 8. That’s Chevy Suburban territory!

We’re not going to do any long rides like this but it does work for quick, carbon- and traffic- free play date transportation.

(yes, Mom was not happy with the standing boy. That kind of throws off the balance!)

-Tim

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Posted in bikes, kids, xtracycle

Errand Day: Make it an Xtracycle day!

Posted on September 10, 2007 by Tim K | 2 comments

On Thursday, we took advantage of the kids being in school to run some needed errands. I had to pay a fine/buy a book (anyone need a copy of Ricks Steve’s Amsterdam, Brussels & Brugge?) in Wallingford, had to get the boy some new rain boots at REI, had to return some mis-sized but wedding-appropriate shoes to Nordstrom rack, and we both wanted to go on a ride together. Combine all of this with some super nice weather and you have the perfect Xtracycle date and errand day. If you want the details, here’s how it went down:

We dropped the kids off at school on foot, stopped at home for the Xtracycles and fancy footware, and then boogied up to the Wallingford branch of SPL. There I got the bad news that they wouldn’t take the book I bought to replace the book I lost. So much for my MLIS degree carrying any weight in the library world.

We leisurely spun over to to REI. Of course I had to try on shoes, browse the returns and contemplate lantern mantels. What can I say, it’s what I do.

Next stop was a two minute ride away: Nordstrom Rack. Despite the name, there’s only one bike rack anywhere near the front of the store and that was occupied by a partially stripped Huffy. The adjacent 2″ thick urban sapling wasn’t a confidence inspiring alternative so I waited with the bikes while the spillover crowd from the market gawked at the two Xtracycles.

By then we (OK, Anne) were totally starving so we popped down to the market and Michou. Michou is takeout ~~sandwich~~ ~~Mediterranean~~ eclectic place where you can get amazing fresh panini, salads, olives, pizza, and more. All at very reasonable prices. I hesitate to tell people about it because I don’t want them to get all big and fancy, but I want to keep the place in business. So there. I did it. Go. It’s good. And fast. And reasonable. And if it’s a nice day you can watch the tourist crowd stumble around in the sunshine.

Sated (though I really wanted to either grab a beer at the Pike Pub or a cookie at the Dahlia Bakery, we had room for neither), it was back on bikes to get the kids from school. Anne got our son from preschool while I swung by the grocery store for a gallon of milk, etc… I still met her at the elementary school in time for us all to ride home together.

Not a bad way to spend a day.