What’s That Funny-Lookin’ Bike On Your Banner?
It goes by various names; a longtail or a Sport Utility Bicycle (SUB). More specifically it’s a Marin Novato with an Xtracycle Freeradical conversion kit. And even more specifically, mine is named Lakshmi, after the Hindu goddess of good fortune.
The Xtracycle combination means you’ll rarely have the excuse of saying, “But I can’t carry…”
Here’s an example of a typical load: 80″ bi-fold door and other miscellaneous stuff from Lowes, plus four bags of groceries from the produce stand and the supermarket; all in one 10-mile round trip.
For more examples of what people carry on SUBs, go here.
Posted in Bicycles & EquipmentTags: Accessories, Adaptation, Bicycle Selection, Carrying Stuff, Saving On Gas
26. November 2007 at 7:10 pm :
funny looking? Heh. I guess I’ve been riding an X long enough now that they don’t look strange anymore. Not like those weird ‘shorty’ bikes
An xtracycle will sure make your bicycling a lot simpler.
Your doing a great job so far with this blog… keep it up!
26. November 2007 at 8:24 pm :
Thanks Murray!
So now “long-tail” riders are calling conventional bikes “shorties,” huh? ;^)
and recumbent riders call uprights “wedgies,” and tandemists call singles “half-bikes.”
So tandem recumbent riders would call single upright bikes “half-wedgies.”
16. April 2009 at 1:06 pm :
Thanks Mighk. I thought I was the only one in Central Florida to discover the xtracycle (on the internet) but was just waiting to have enough money to buy one and then Kyle at Kyle’s Bike told me otherwise. The pictures at xtracycle’s FLICKR site are pretty neat, especially of mom’s picking their chidren up at school (and one carrying a cello on the bike).
Is the bike still functioning or did you experience any malfunctions?