dobber

https://bikehugger.com/2006/09/surly_...onfirmed_1.htm

I so want to build the ultimate commutin & haulin machine now

And I hope that's a new color for the Cross-Check, if it is a Cross next to it.

moxfyre

That's awesome!! I thought Xtracycle already made a preassembled frame with the Xtracycle platform on it, but another product in this line is great news

GTcommuter

Ah Surly, once again proving themselves as the coolest company around. I've been looking for an old mountain bike frame to dedicate to an Xtracycle, but I'll probably hold off until the Big Dummy (Surly's working title) comes out. Not to mention until I move out of a second floor apartment.

CastIron

Nice. $800 Surly frame built for the XtraCycle. I'm guessing about $2k for a build-up. At that rate I'd almost rather rent the Home Despot truck 100 times to haul stuff. Still nice, though.

MacG

I'm planning to build one up this spring and will be gathering parts between then and now. Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of info available that I could locate. Here's the scoop straight from Andy at Surly:

headset: 1-1/8" threadless
bottom bracket shell: 68mm wide
rear dropouts: 135mm spacing
seatpost diameter: 27.2mm
front derailleur clamp diameter: 28.6mm

It will be compatable with common disc brake setups but also has cantilever bosses. I specifically asked if the Big Dummy will have any disc oddities like the Xtracycle FreeRadical does (you have to use an extra large disc with a normal caliper spacer on the FreeRad because of the way it is made), and he said that there should be no such issues with the Big Dummy; it should work with disc brakes just as well as other Surly frames do.

ItsJustMe

I saw a very cool bike on a BBC special a couple of days ago. Michael Palin was in Copenhagen, and when the camera was in some apparently independent hippie-type commune, someone was riding a bike that had been chopped just behind the front wheel, and about a 2-foot-wide, 3-foot-long cargo platform had been inserted. It looked very cool, and could probably carry a whole lot of stuff.

ahpook

You mean like Bakfiets?



One of my neighbors has one of these, I see her pedalling her 3 year old to daycare every morning. Awesome.

MacG

Bakfiets are a very common sight in the Netherlands (apparently). I'd say they are a close cousin to the Xtracycle/Big Dummy type of bike. Todd at CleverChimp has even adapted one to use his Stokemonkey power assist kit:

https://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/?p=160

donnamb 

We've got exactly 3 Bakfiets roaming around Portland. They're really cool. I understand someone is getting a Bakfiets dealer business going in the area shortly.

UCSDbikeAnarchy

I lived in the netherlands for a year, and indeed, bakfiets are a common sight. my all time favorite site was seeing a flat bed trike (two wheels and a platform in front), with a 2-meter loveseat on it. I also once saw a groupd of three teenage girls each with 3-4 little ones in the front box heading from the park to the daycare center. Seeing a bike without a rack of somesort is a rarety in the netherlands, and for the first 6 months i lived there i saw always amused with the amount of stuff people could load on, after a while it jsut became normal.

props to surely for expanding the utilty bike segment in america, and props to whoever is starting the bakfiets dealership. Portland has a pretty good utility bike culture from what I've seen, but nothing compared to Amsterdam.

UCSDbikeAnarchy

see https://www.bakfiets.nl/eng/models_cargo_trike.php

bmike

can't wait for mine to arrive in a few weeks...
absolutely sold on the idea, and confident they will adapt well to N.A. commuters, cargo haulers, kid haulers, etc.

i'm jealous of the portland scene... tried to move there in the late 90's, sad it didn't work out.
we'll have to start our own scene here in VT. (see my sig! - but thats a whole 'nother project!)