wildergeek

I have a 1993 Cadec CFM-2 hardtail mountain bike converted into a commuter. It's old but 2,300 of the total 3,000 miles have only been in the last year.

I am toying with the idea of adding a Xtracycle Free Radical Kit to this frame. Am I crazy? Can the lugged CF/Aluminum frame handle the loading? Note that all attachment points would be to aluminum.

I'd love to build up a Big Dummy. Just can't afford it. The Free Radical Kit seems like a good idea from the standpoint that I can always move it to another frame in the future.

I'm not sure there's anyone on this forum with a strong opinion but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.

Greg

KNEEL

My vote is to ride it, I currently run one on an old cannodale beast of the east frame with those goofy aluminum flatbar rear dropouts that stick straight out the back like three inches, i've kind of been waiting for them to snap off but they seem to be holding up ok.
For you I think if anything was to fail it would be the epoxy joint at the seatstay yoke if during manufacture they didn't stuff enough epoxy up against the seat tube. If it did fail it would be more of a comedic type of failure as you slowly pedaled into the ground, not the dangerous sudden fork snapping type of failure. So, one vote for do it!

NoReg

I don't think the drops are all that likely to blow, but the rest of the loads are going to the chain stays, and will be compression loads that carbon doesn't like, so how strong that area is on your particular bike would be critical.

I think a better bet would be an ad in Craigs for a cheap or free donner frame of steel.