Xtracycle for long distance rides?
 

I am looking at options for next season, I am back into longer distance rides again and would like to do a few 200k brevets but I only have a short travel full suspension mtb and my Xtra-cycled surly troll. I am wondering if any of you have done brevets with your xtracycle and how much do you think it limited you?

Another option is to take the xtracycle off the troll to lighten it up a good bit and stiffen it back up but thinking about that makes me sad.

I am thinking the best option is to just HTFU and use my xtracycle and know I am stronger for it but I was currious as to others opinions.

Grip it and rip it!

As someone who owns six bikes, I can appreciate having the right bike for the job, but it won't hold you back much riding the long tail unless you're trying to do a very hilly route. If you're in good shape, you should be able to keep up with the rando crowd on a lightly laden long tail.

Being on a weird bike is more fun anyway. I once rode a tall bike on an SF to LA aids ride. 42 lbs, I was about 9 ft tall riding it. Passed plenty of weight weenies on climbs.

Have fun whatever bike you end up riding.

Xtracycle are great I say go for it.If you need to go really fast buy a car lol My self I am not in a hurry any more.All of the cargo bikes and xtracycle are a blast to ride and own I think.

I've ridden a few brevets and I own a Big Dummy. I'd never take the BD on a brevet personally. I'm not a glutton for punishment.

If you are a strong rider and don't mind riding by yourself for the event and using the whole time allotment it could be feasible. Ultimately you have to decide if riding an Xtra+Troll for 200K sounds like a good idea. If it does go for it. If you fail they won't take away your birthday and if you succeed you will have done something to be proud of.

Your local rando club will have a bunch of 200K routes available to ride anytime you like. Give them a shot and see what happens. Riding actual brevet routes is a better reality check than riding 200K along a highway since brevet routes tend to be quite hilly.

I guess the first thing should be to just do a century on the xtra to decide if I want to stretch the ride length a bit more still. I have done 2k ft of climbing on dirt roads with it a few times, it was comfortable just very slow going.

I am looking to do some 200k's as prep for much grander rides/races so if fitness is what I want this will provide that for sure.

I also own a BD, and I've done some touring with it, in a variety of conditions.
I've done some 80-120 mile jaunts on it, loaded with a fair amount of camping items, and food.
it would seem like if you stripped down a long tail, and thinned out the tires...
then focused on fuel capacity, you could probably manage some interesting results.

with the extra load space on a BD, and you can bring your Guitar Too.

maybe not to knock out high milage days , but to take a tour
that you can enjoy your time out and about.

That is kind of what I was thinking. I would remove the bags and snap deck and throw some skinny (by Xtra standards) slick tires on.

not matter what, it comes down to the motor.
but...
the XtraCycle has the the potential to carry extra nutrition/hydration, and you try to play that to your advantage.

i.e. last year I the solvang double on my hunter 29er with bags that I had used on my attempt at the Tour Divide.
my first and only brake was at mile 170.

my initial experience with longtails was an Xtra convert job using a Cdale F900
I rode it a bunch
set it up with different wheels here and there.
a set of MAVIC SpeedCitys was interesting, I think the widest tyre I used was a CX 37c, but really a tyre like that had a soft durometer, which wasn't the best for pavement.

The bags balloon out when empty and the deck is heavy, good call.

If you can get it into a rando position that's half the battle.

I rock my xtra'd hybrid on 33 mile r/t rides pretty often. I've matched speeds with a buddy on his Guru Tri bike. The trick is a good position, lighter wheels, and the removal of your v-racks, deck, and bags.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...n/Bike/014.jpg

Here it is before I put a rigid fork and decent seat on it.

All due respect, but 33 miles is NOT the same as a 200k brevet. You have to average 13-14 mph or so. If you can do 15-16 mph on your typical 30 mile ride, you can probably make the brevet. I did brevet's on my touring bike which is pretty heavy, but I'd never have tried it on my xtra bike when I had it. That said, its you that will be doing the riding, so if you want to do it, you can find a way to make it happen. 200k isn't that far if you are in good shape and on a comfortable ride.

I think I have maxed out at about 10 miles on my Big Dummy, but I blame the Nuvinci hub for that :)

When in shape, I can average 16 MPH on a century on a 35lb Hi-Ten 12 speed with a front rack. Almost no drafting and 4400' climbing.

The r/t commute usually comes out to 15mph, but the last 7 is with a 40+ lb kid on the back.

The bike pictured above has kept up at 21-22 with a triathlete on his way to work on his Guru all the way down the beach. The OP can extrapolate the possibility of doing a brevet from there. I did 40 miles on my 75lb Madsen bucket last weekend...

+1 - The first 50%-70% of any brevet always seems to roll by for me no problem and it only gets tough towards the end. If you extrapolated my 200K - 300K times based on how long it takes me to ride 50K, 100K or 160K you'd end up grossly under estimating how long I'll be on the road.

If you want to ride a cargo bike in a brevet go for it, but be ready for the implications at the back end of the ride.

This is close to how the ride goes for me. About 60-85% are the roughest for me and then about 90% I get very excited to know finishing should not be a problem and forget about the pain. My longest ride to date is only(?) 130 miles, short for randonneurs but long to the rest of us. If things play out like I hope, next week I will be taking the xtracycle on its first century, gonna pull the bags and snap deck. It is between this and the mtb which is a full squish bike with expensive chain rings and cassettes, the xtra has all cheap drivetrain so if it is comfortable for 100 miles I might take it out for a 200k and just expect to be slow.

Money is tight but I am sure I could build a very cheap single speed road bike for these longer road rides, I have a few parts already and have done just shy of 70 miles on a ss cross bike and felt good back in the day so I know I like SS at least.

So how did the LD Xtracycle riding work out?

.. as said earlier ..
I've seen it done.. She brought along her Guitar , in its case, strapped to one side.
but a 1 day / overnight brevet and a multi day cyclo-camping tour
with no timekeeper, but yourself, is different.

The person I was planning on riding with bailed so I just went on a ride with the wife and kid. I will update once I get the chance to give it a go. Hoping for maybe in a week or two.

Oh how life gets in the way of plans for big rides. Today was no century but I feel like I earned calling it a "long distance" ride due to the time in saddle (5hrs rolling) and conditions. It was actually pretty entertaining other than the lightning part... It started off warm and sunny although certainly more wind than was called for. Then I made it to the summit of the big climb in the beginning and could see weather coming in fast.

Shortly after the top it started to snow which was my first May snow since moving to Colorado so that was pretty cool but after that came the lightning and considering I was over 9k feet and no trees around I was starting to get nervous and hoping a truck would come by and offer me a ride to the town I was on my way to so I could hide out the storm but being a dirt road to mostly no where I saw no one. The snow turned to sleet and finally just really cold rain. From there I stopped at a Mcdonalds and ordered a huge hot chocolate and waited out the storm.

Once I got back on the bike I started what is a mostly downhill 18ish miles, the sun came out and other than a few small rises I got to coast longer than I ever have been able to.

The xtra certainly did not help on the climbs with its added weight and the big apples just barely had enough traction on the dirt road climb to keep me from walking but it did take some fineness. They were great though on the winding paved decent at the end when I was cruising at 30-40mph for quite a few miles. Other than that though it was super comfortable and performed well given I was out of its natural habitat. I will certainly be trying some longer rides with it in the future but maybe not with such a long single climb. I really want to do a century on this bike now.

Here is the route I took. http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/93271127

Here is one of the over looks maybe 2/3rds of the way up.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=250883

Well, it may have been delayed, but that was a nice ride, nubcake! I just looked at the map and you definitely earned that summit.

I'm pretty sure you'll do your century, at least.

Being all alone in a thunderstorm above the treeline is really scary -- and really awesome.

Thanks for sharing.

This isn't a "long ride" by some rider's standards,but it's longish for me (I've nver ridden a century,but busted a ouple half's this year,for EG),but a couple weekend ago,I road my Xtracycle'd Trek 6000 36-ish miles down,and back the next morning fully loaded with budget-dept-store-bought (means bulky,if not overly heavy) camping gear. I desperately need a higher stem and bars as well,still (other than a stiff neck,which I always have anyways),no issues,enjoyed the heck ot of it :thumb: