Hauling Soap

Celeste uses her Big Dummy to haul soap for her home based business and to hit the beach. Click here to read about her bike adventures.

A sign of things to come?

Spotted on the Surly Blog...a new colour for the Big Dummy?

Joel by the Bow River

Xtracycle Grin

Stairs MKII

Don't try this at home...

Joel's Big Dummy

Joel is the other Calgary Alberta Big Dummy owner. We ran into each other on the bike paths downtown by accident and last night he came out for our weekly Wednesday Night Coffee Ride. He was a really nice guy and his Big Dummy was a sweet ride. It felt a lot faster/lighter than mine when riding it??? I'm not sure if that is cause I always haul a ton of crap in the Freeloader pockets or in my Marathon XR tires are just slow compared to his Big Apples? I'll have to ride his Big Dummy more and figure that out...=-)

Joel rolls with the foder posse.

Joel riding my Big Dummy

Joel checks out my footsies.

Getting the most from Joel's snap deck...=-)

bombing downtown

Joel's Big Dummy

Thumbs up

A tale of two Big Dummies

Got Bike Rubbish?

Bike Rubbish is simply the finest source of Big Dummy & Xtracycle porn I know of. If you don't frequent the site go there now and prepare to drool uncontrollably.

Going XTRA

Another Bike Forums member [Puppy Pilgrim] has made the switch to an Xtracycle. I'm glad to see another Canadian cargo bike rig born and on the road. His compact Brodie MTB looks like the perfect donor bike for an Xtracycle kit.

Gweedough's Big Dummy

Gweedough posted his new Big Dummy on Bike Forums. It's nice to see BD's and Xtracycles popping up everywhere. It seems like the time of the utility/cargo bike is upon us.

On my ride home yesterday evening. I was stopped by a girl who wanted to know where I bought my Big Dummy. Her BF rides an Xtracycle and wanted to make the switch to the integrated longtail frame.

RANS Stratus Xtra

If you thought the Big Dummy was long check out this Xtra-fied RANS Stratus touring bent from Angletech. I'm not sure you can build a more comfortable smoother riding bike. If you love bents and want an Xtracycle as well here is one option.

Big Dummy

Longboard Towing

Big Dummy assisted longboarding

Stairs

YMCA Eau Claire, Calgary, Alberta

Street Surfing

Russ' Bilenky Tour

Russ Roca has posted some great photos from a recent bike tour with his Bilenky cargo bike. He also has a nice blog about his bike enabled photography business that I enjoy reading. His front loading Bilenky is a neat bike and Russ also has an Xtracycle in his fleet that used to be his main work ride.

Riding with Karen & Dwayne

Riding through Mount Royal, Calgary, Alberta

On our way to Planet Organic to restock the cupboards.

Karen's Xtracycle

We had a cold wet weekend here in Calgary Alberta so what better time to build up Karen's Xtracycle. The Xtracycle went on fairly easily. The only snags involved her fairly old 80's drivetrain. Other than the drivetrain her rigid Trek made an ideal Xtracycle donor bike. It's strong, light and wasn't seeing much use as a MTB since she got a full suspension MTB.

The finished product looks awesome and rides great. I am pretty amazed how versatile and complete the Xtracycle kit is. If you were installing it on a newer bike you wouldn't have any issues getting everything working nicely. We added some Planet Bike Cascadia ATB fenders, Super Flash Blinky, Brooks saddle and replaced her cantis with XT v-brakes.


I had some issues getting the really old Gripshifter working with her rear dérailleur. She'll take it to a LBS to see if they can get it working better. If not we'll swap in a new drivetrain. Unfortunately we couldn't install the new BMX platforms she bought as the pedals were seized into the cranks. That will have to wait until we deal with replacing the drivetrain.


Karen threw her heavy backpack into one side of the Freeloaders and was concerned it would throw off her balance, but after a few pedal strokes she was off without any issues and a huge smile on her face. Welcome to the longtail revolution Karen...=-)


We do have a few tweaks to make to get her Xtracycle rig fully dialed:

• adjust the rear dérailleur shifting better [LBS?]
• replace drivetrain and build up heavy duty rear wheel [end of season if she can get by with stock setup]
• de-squeal her front v-brake
  
• fabricate a mount to lower her front fender so it doesn't interfere with the V-brake and so it looks nicer
• install BMX platforms whenever new cranks go on
• add some Egron Grips
  

Aaron's Bicycle Repair Xtracycle Page

Photo: Forrest's Big Dummy from Aaron's Bicycle Repair

I was poking around Aaron's Bicycle Repair's Xtracycle page and found some really fun photos of all the Xtracycles they have sold. Just click here and scroll towards the bottom of the page. It's great to see all the Xtracycle rigs that people are riding as well as the proud owners. These photos really demonstrate how versatile the Xtracycle is.

Val Kleitz's Center Stand

I've been looking for a good kickstand solution for my Big Dummy. Val Kleitz's center stand looks bombproof and is available from Aaron's Bicycle Repair for the not inconsiderable sum of $374.99. It looks nice, but I am going to try a lighter & very inexpensive kickstand to see what I think. I thought I would post it in case someone out there was interested.

If you have one of these stands I'd love to hear your impressions of it.

Commute by Bike's Big Dummy

Photo: Commute by Bike

Tim Grahl from Commute by Bike just came back from a Big Dummy camping trip and has written some interesting posts about the Big Dummy:

First Impressions

How it handles

Carrying Loads and Living by Bike

Beth's Xtracycle

Photo: Beth [bikelovejones]

Beth has posted a step by step of her Xtracycle installation on her blog. This was useful and very timely as I'm going to be helping Karen build up her Xtra this weekend. It's great to see another longtail on the road - congrats Beth...=-)

Beth's Posts:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Bow Valley Bike Tour

I set out with my friends Anna & Kurt for some bike camping fun this past holiday weekend. Since Kurt was a novice cycle tourist and Anna always complains I climb like a goat I rode the Big Dummy loaded with all the group gear. Normally I tour on a lightly loaded Long Haul Trucker so the extra gear and heavy duty bike would be quite a change. I'm not sure how much I ended up carrying exactly, bicycle weigh scales being absent on the highways we traveled, but I'm guessing it was in excess of 100lbs with our car camping tent, tools/spares, double set of stoves and cookware, food, more food and snacks! Did I mention all the water, beer, more beer and wine???...=-)


By keeping the mileage low and choosing a beautiful route along the Bow Valley Parkway we ensured everyone had a lot of fun. Riding a heavily loaded Big Dummy evened out the pace nicely and meant I always had a welcoming committee at the top of the steepest climbs...=-) We had intended to take a jaunt up the Icefield's Parkway, but heavy rain in Lake Louise and a grim forecast persuaded us that riding to higher elevations was not a great idea. As it turned out the worst rain fell when we were outside the bakery in Lake Louise. A clear sign that we were in the good graces of the Cycle Gods!...=-)

Although I had checked on campground status with the Banff Park Office on the Wednesday prior to leaving for the tour only one of the campgrounds I had confirmed would be open was actually open. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were able to ride around the locked gates and have some prime camping spots all to ourselves on a long weekend...=-) We took a primo spot by a partially frozen creek in sight of a small waterfall. The sound of running water was very peaceful in our empty campground.


The Big Dummy handled the load with aplomb. After about a block I was able to get a handle on the slower steering due to the heavily loaded front panniers. The BD proved to be completely stable and the long wheelbase made fast descents super fun. It was a bit like riding in a softly sprung Cadillac. Riding with all that gear and 2" wide Marathon XR expedition tires made climbs slow & challenging. I had a 40T chainring installed with a 16T cog on the Rohloff. This provided a reasonable gear range on all, but the most ridiculous pitches. I will probably use the 38T chainring for any future heavily loaded mountain tours, but around town the 40T is perfect. The Titec H-Bar provided several hand positions, but I didn't find them as comfortable for touring as drop bars. They are great for hauling heavy loads around town so I'll play with the bar height a bit to see if I can adapt to them for long days in the saddle. Interestingly I was getting numb hands with a pair of old gloves on that have served me well for thousands of KMs, but the combo of these gloves and the H-bars was not a happy one. As soon as I removed the gloves the numbness disappeared.

As expected I received a lot of attention riding the Big Dummy. Many double takes and several astonished comments about how much gear I had on my bike. Every time we stopped and bought more supplies the Big Dummy had no trouble finding space for a few more bottles of beer or some extra snacks! Tour with a Big Dummy and your traveling companions will love you...=-)

I have to admit I had a hard time mentally adjusting to the loaded Big Dummy. I'm used to being pretty fast on tour and zipping up climbs. Gearing down and slowly grinding my way uphill was a change of pace for me that took some getting used to. Watching my companions zoom away when the road turned skyward made me yearn for my Long Haul Trucker and ultralight camping gear.

All in all it was a wonderful trip filled with lots of laughs and it reminded me I live in spectacular spot on the planet. I'll definitely be hitting the road with my bike and my tent a lot this summer!

For my Flickr photos of the trip click here - for Anna's Flickr photos click here.

If anyone wants help planning a bike tour in the Canadian Rockies around Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper - feel free to contact me. I can help you with super fun routes from 2 days to 2 weeks long through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on.

Ursula's Townie

I ran into Joel [the other Big Dummy owner in Calgary & a Bike Forums member] on my way back from Bow Cycle with Ursula's Electra Townie. I was amazed anyone even knew what a Big Dummy or Xtracycle was let alone be the owner of the other Big Dummy in town. I'm looking forward to checking out his rig and going for some longtail coffee rides....=-)

Hauling things like a bike are so easy with the Big Dummy my truck is going to sit idle even more than usual this summer.

Anna's Banff Park Tour Report

Photo: Biker Annie

Hauling all our gear, food, water, wine and beer across the Rocky Mountains has made me really, really, really tired so I didn't get around to sorting/editing/posting my photos. That will have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy Anna's post about the trip.

Towing Kurt Uphill

Testing out the gearing on my Rohloff - this was much steeper/harder than it looks!

Hauling a Chariot from Bow Cycle

This trip would have required my truck before my Dummy arrived. Now it's an easy cycle 30kms round trip to grab a kid's trailer/jogger for Jeff & Jo-Ann.

Big Dummy Info Cards

I made up these cards so instead of answering a billion questions I can just point folks at this blog when they want to learn about the Big Dummy.

Free Radical Load Limits

Josh's Paint Magic

I'm not really sure what to say about Josh's Longtail kit painting wizardry - wow! FREAKing amazing....great work Josh...=-) Click on the pic to see more of his Big Dummy porn.

I particularly like the powder coated V-racks and Wide Loaders. I may strip mine in the winter and get them powder coated - if I'm not too lazy!

Xtracycle Unboxed

Resistance was futile. I had to see what was in Karen's Xtracycle box...=-) The kit looks straight forward and quite complete. I had a read through the manual and the installation should be reasonably easy.

The contents include:

• Free Radical sub-frame
• V-racks
• Free Loader bags
• Snap Deck
• Kickstand
• long shift & brake cables + housing
• extra chain links
• all necessary hardware
• manual
• some cryptic business cards to promote Xtracycle with

Karen also bought some Footsies, but these are not part of the stock Xtracycle kit.

Since Karen wants to do most of the installation herself I really do have to show some restraint and just put all the Xtracycle goodies in the closet until next week.

Karen's Xtracycle is here...

I picked up Karen's Xtracycle today...=-) She ordered it from Rarified and they were nice enough to arrange for Xtracycle Canada to drop ship it to me. The only trouble is Karen is away on a work trip so we won't be able to install it until next week.

I'm sure she won't mind if I just open the box and admire her new Xtracycle! It will be fun to see how it installs on her mountain bike and compare her Xtra-fied rig to my Big Dummy.

One more biker has joined the longtail revolution...=-)

Hauling a Chariot Bike Trailer

Gearing Choices

The mail man brought me a 38T & 40T chain ring for my BD. I think I'll try the 40T out first and see what the gear range is like. Ideally you want to spend a lot of time in the Rohloff's direct drive gear [#11] as it is the most efficient.

Prohibit this!

Giving Karen a Lift

Espresso Stop

The Big Dummy waits patiently while we run inside for a quick double espresso refueling mission. Yes - we stopped for coffee not to visit the sex shop next door!