Subject to the tiresome demands of clients and the CRC/Parcelforce time-space event horizon being aligned so I can get some tyres, I shall be spending this morning turning this pile of bits, into, well, an assembled pile of bits.

Dont need Rolf Harris for this one:
🙂

enjoy the build – one of life’s great pleasures – cycling enthusiast building new bike with new bits and then the first ride 🙂

might not be quite better than sex, but it’s a very close run thing 🙂

post up a pic of the finished product

Is that a new pair of Jones forks in front of the frame?

trailer, frame and rim colour don’t match!!! 😯

have fun!

That’s a trailer??? I don’t get how it works!

nice 🙂

Is that frame pink? 😉

Someone left their scaffolding in your garden

looks like a bad bike crash.

not really a trailer, but couldn’t think how else to describe it

Ah, the FT ‘bred comes out of retirement. They can’t stay wall ornaments for long, can they? 😉

indeed they cannot mamadirt 🙂
I now have a space on my wall to fill 🙁

“FT Pink” strato 🙂

All going pretty smoothly (except for the inappropriately named On-One Smoothie headset which has always had apalling tolerances. It’s coming out when Ive found a cheap s/h replacement, ‘orrible thing)

The karmic gods smile upon me. Parcelforce have come up trumps at 10am with tyres and a rear brake lever, and it’s coffee time.

that xtracycle thing’s most peculiar.

The only word I can come up with is ‘interesting’.

Bet that single front doesn’t last long. Fully loaded round Malvern… 🙂

For a new headset – onone knocking out fsa XL2s cheap in their sale. Get one of them.

Will that thing go round corners at all?

Looking good!

Deadly serious point. You’ll manage with the single front ring, but you need something to hold the chain on. If it falls off outboard, the length of the chain is so ridiculous that it can actually get tangled on the wrong side of the rear wheel. I am not sure how, but it happened to me, and I trashed a rear mech.

🙂

might not be quite better than sex, but it’s a very close run thing

You’re doing it wrong.

Stoner in ugly bike shocker!

Its an interesting concept, but I can’t help thinking that biting the bullet and getting a Kona Ute or similar would be better.

How much do the Xtracycles cost?

Now I’m interested.

I thought it was a trailer……

How much are those things then?
🙂

Get those pansies planted too.

Xtracycle have been doing this for a decade, it works. It is arguably a better cargo system than the Ute, and not chillingly expensive if you’ve a spare frame. 🙂

might not be quite better than sex, but it’s a very close run thing

You’re doing it wrong.

Yep, Zinn is much better than the Park Tools manual.

Rear cable routing looks a bit odd, why not run it through just the top guide on the seat stay, that way it will follow a route similar to the disc hose/cable on the other side.

Looks good tho. Im toying with the idea of one for my pompino but not sure i have the need for it.

The Xtracycle kit is £450, and you can haul a heck of a lot with one – way more than a Ute.

http://www.practicalcycles.com/userimages/procart8.htm

Will that thing go round corners at all?

Yes, they handle fine. It isn’t the nippiest thing, obviously. You have to time corners a little bit differently, but it’s not a problem.

For those familiar with the place, I took mine around the skills loop and the “black” trail at Hamsterley Forest last year. I couldn’t get round the circular board section of the skills loop without dropping the back wheel off the boards, but it was good apart from that. Off-road, the length gives a lot of stability descending steep sections because you can’t really go over the front. It is also very easy to do see-saws. 🙂

Welcome to the load lugging Xtracycle club Stoner!

They are a hoot and extremely useful. Admit it, when you got the frame, it suddenly looked alarmingly big didn’t it!

Looking forward to seeing the finished bike and tales of heavy hauling!

Ta daaaaa.
Built almost without incident and vitrually no bodging.
Had to nick Mrs Stoner’s inner tubes from her 456 since I could only find dozens of 29″s in the spares box. D’oh!

First job this afternoon will be a trip to the tip with all the boxes Ive collected.

Nick – 30T front ring, 32/11 cassette. Im hoping its enough. If I need to I will put a granny on.

Cheers BD – I will go and dig out a spare front mech and lash it on.

Sheldon – it’s still better looking than your maverick.

Strato – routing tidied up – it was flailing around as I hadnt bled the rear brake. Just done it. And if anyone is curious a standard hose from Shimano is long enough to get all the way back there.

According to my spreadsheet (natch) it cost me £140 in parts that I didnt have:
Forks ebay – £11
Wheels classifieds – £35
Tyres & rear lever CRC – £36
Front lever eBay – £10
LX Calipers, Oury Grips On-One – £15
MEch and shifiter eBay – £10
Cassette Classifieds – £14

and £450 for the xtracycle.

that is actually strangely nice

would a subtle chain device be a neater solution than a front mech? it’s help avoid trouser/oil interface as well.

Sheldon – it’s still better looking than your maverick.

agreed but then so was Jade Goody

Been for a spin ’round the block’ yet? The first time out is quite an experience!

the words ‘barge like’ spring to mind 😉

How does it stop from pivioting around the original axel? other than that i can see huge benifits to a bike like that.

How does it stop from pivioting around the original axel? other than that i can see huge benifits to a bike like that.

It’s like this (this is mine)

The Xtracycle clamps onto the chainstays to stop it pivoting. This pic is ‘upside down’ so the bit of the Xtracycle pushes down on the donor frame chainstay bridge. It doesn’t move once installed

LOL @ MrMW 🙂 Yeah yeah!!

i quite want one of those crazy bikes now! don’t know where i think i’d put it…

just been out and its a hoot.

Ive bodged (it wouldnt be a stonerbike if it didnt have at least one bodge) an old D-Lock bracket to act as a chainguide until I can find something a bit better.

Got a quick video of my neighbour on it, just going to stick it on youtube, bear with me…

Looks much nicer now Stoner, well done.

mine goes in here:

built a couple of weeks ago specifically for the Xtracycle for when it arrived 🙂