Longtail fun

I ride an xtracycle, which is a bike plus an extension, a most-convenient way to carry many things. It looks like long bikes are becoming more popular.

See, also, the xtracycle gallery and the cargo bike gallery.

My (now old) xtracycle -enhanced bike (towing another bike), and some groceries. Tired driver of little bike not shown, but she rode on the deck in front of her bike. I’ve since upgraded to a (somewhat customized; dynamo hub, IGH, chaincase, funny handlebars, homemade lights) Big Dummy.

Spencer Wright’s Chupacabra. I think the crazy interim chain wheel is supposed to cut the chain flop, and keep it out of the underbrush, but I don’t really know. Turns out it also allows a normal-width bottom bracket with those fat tires; otherwise, to keep the chain out of the tire, you’d need an uncomfortably wide bottom bracket.

Surly’s Big Dummy . Quien es mas macho? (The giant tires and electric motor assist are not standard.)

A longtail “Vanilla ” (via CleverChimp). This bike is just plain beautful.

Clever Chimp’s Xtravois

Here’s a couple of pretty bikes from Fraser Cycles (The link went dead.). These are custom, non-Xtracycle beasts. Notice the chain guide below; this is a good thing, because otherwise the long bouncing chain can (sometimes) shift gears for you.

And this is one heck of a rack.

Clever Chimp deserves all the credit for finding most of these or pointing them out, but he’s got them scattered all over his blog. I wanted a bunch of photos so I could point to them and say “these are longtails, aren’t they cool?”

And now there’s more!
The Yuba Mundo:

and the Kona Ute:

and the Madsen ( bucketless version ):

(With bucket)

Xtracycle now sells the Radish. The picture is last year’s model; the new one has a better stepover. It’s an xtracycle extension, but they picked the bike and parts, matched the color, amd made it all right from the get-go.

The Burrows Freight 8 looks like a lot of fun but it is hard to find pictures of it. You can read about it

The Big Dumb Pug, a custom bike made by Banjo Cycles:

The Coffee Bike at Project Rwanda

Sun Bicycles had a “$550 Longtail” on display at Interbike 2010:

Still haven’t seen it listed as a product for sale. Now listed on their web site (as of 2011-02-24).

Onyacycles (an interesting looking place) has proposed a 20″ wheel e-bike longtail called “The Mule”: