[Knoblauch]

Do any other people use their bikes for haulage/gardening-related tasks?  I got an Xtracycle a couple of years ago and it's amazingly useful for taking rubbish to the tip, fetching long lumber or sacks of sand from Wickes etc.  Would also be great for horse manure and other things that would soil a car interior.

It will take 90kg but practically 50kg is all I can cycle with for any distance, that's 2 sacks of sand.  It has 2 versatile side flaps which will wrap around anything, I also have a Wideloader attachment which extends the rack out to the side with a stand-off bar to keep lumber away from the pedals, see the surfboard illustration.

I can imagine a lot of people would prefer a trailer though, it's cheaper (Xtracycle rack around £400) and you can keep your normal bike as such, I can't have a mountain bike now as I got 3 others too!  But for anyone determined to go car-free it would be invaluable, could also take the kids to school on it.

[Gwiz]

I have a trailer that fits behind my old bike. It's not like one of these trailers that you see that fixes to the rear wheel mounting, this one fixes to a "proper" ball type of arangment under the seat ( I don't have to bend over to get unhitch it)
It's been a very useful little tool for going to the garden centre, and for taking garden rubbish to our green waste skip in the residents car park.
i would like to get a spare hitch for our tandem, we could take a picnic basket with us for a "grand day out"!

[Bigbadfrankie]

I have a hack I use for around town shopping, visiting, pub ect. It has panniers and dynamo lighting, but nothing like yours knoblauch. Mine is like a small van, yours is a truck.

[shaun]

bikes are for climbing mountains  :roll: and flying back down again  

[Browser]

I like the look of that Xtracycle! I ten dto use my car for visiting garden centres, DIY stores etc on my way to/from work, as I don't like making lone trips to these places due to trying to keep fuel usage low/trying to be green etc, but always found the conventional bike panniers were limited in their load carrying capacity. I had been considering a trailer but this looks like a much better proposition.
Do you tend to use this all of the time, or keep a 'conventional' bike for family cycling trips out? I'm just thinking about going on holiday with the family and not wanting to take an Xtracycle-equipped bike but having the aggro of taking it off to return the bike to 'normal' mode.
My only wince-inducing point, as usual with me, is the initial cost of buying one of these :?
Mind you, I've said to SWMBO more than once when fuel gets to £150 a litre we will have to look at getting rid of our second car, which for the aforementioned reasons of me lugging stuff around with it a lot would present some problems r.e. havong to use the remaining car more. With this system, however, that would be negated!

[Knoblauch]

bikes are for climbing mountains  :roll: and flying back down again  

I was doing plenty of that yesterday - 200 miles, 5,200m of climbing from Sutton Coldfied round the Peak District to Holmfirth and back.  On one of my recumbents.

[Knoblauch]

I like the look of that Xtracycle! I ten dto use my car for visiting garden centres, DIY stores etc on my way to/from work, as I don't like making lone trips to these places due to trying to keep fuel usage low/trying to be green etc, but always found the conventional bike panniers were limited in their load carrying capacity. I had been considering a trailer but this looks like a much better proposition.
Do you tend to use this all of the time, or keep a 'conventional' bike for family cycling trips out? I'm just thinking about going on holiday with the family and not wanting to take an Xtracycle-equipped bike but having the aggro of taking it off to return the bike to 'normal' mode.
My only wince-inducing point, as usual with me, is the initial cost of buying one of these :?
Mind you, I've said to SWMBO more than once when fuel gets to £150 a litre we will have to look at getting rid of our second car, which for the aforementioned reasons of me lugging stuff around with it a lot would present some problems r.e. havong to use the remaining car more. With this system, however, that would be negated!

My family live abroad unfortunately - I have another 'hack' bike over there that is more than adequate, I can also attach the littl'un's bike to it for longer trips.  But the Xtracycle is fine for general riding and errands and I've ridden it on low-pace group rides, it weighs around 24kg so if you're fit then no problem.  I wouldn't dream of taking the rack off but this would be relatively simple using SRAM powerlinks to split and shorten the chain quickly, if you needed to transport it.  I should think if you gave up your second car you could afford to invest in a folding bike or similar which is much more versatile for where you don't need to lug stuff around!

I'm in Stourbridge if you or anyone else would like to take a look.  And there are some 'cheaper alternatives' around I believe with a similar design but only as an integrated bike I think.

[Paul Plots]

I've just registered with the forum and have enjoyed reading your postings about cycling.

My family don't own a car by choice yet have managed carless to move massive loads over the years (shopping, junk to the local tip and everything to and fro from the allotment).

We have three different cycle trailers including a light-weight one-wheeler. The biggest is Danish - a Columbus - that holds 100kg, folds flat for storage and is easy to tow once you get used to it. It has tons of space.

It is great for the allotment as I can trundle right up to my plot and use the trailer like a wheel-barrow. Recently brought home two sacks of spuds and more than enough courgettes. to make soup for a life time (if you like that sort of thing!). Cycling is the way forward for short journeys especially with a decent trailer.

Best of luck cyclists amongst you!
Regards,
Learner

[Larkshall]

I don't have to go to the allotment, I have a 1/4 acre with my bungalow. I made a two wheeled cycle trailer for camping some years ago (1/2" square tube frame and alloy cladding, 20" wheels). A cycling friend who also has an allotment, asked if he could have it and I said yes. He now uses it to take his tools etc. to the allotment and has also used it to collect a re-cycled computer. He has installed Ubuntu on the computer, that's the way to save money.

[Paul Plots]

Thanks for the tip, Larkshall... Ubuntu looks interesting especially as I am frequently having to up-date my software to keep in line with my job.

It might also be useful to help me keep tracking of my planting plans!
Regards,
Learner.

[peapod]

Learner?

Do you have a link to a decent trailer for a bike? The xtracycle looks ok but out of our price range. OH just wants something to bring back spoils from plot (heres hoping), maybe a couple of cement bags, manure bags etc

the ones you use sound ideal for us :-)

Thanks :-)
Paula

[Larkshall]

Thanks for the tip, Larkshall... Ubuntu looks interesting especially as I am frequently having to up-date my software to keep in line with my job.

It might also be useful to help me keep tracking of my planting plans!
Regards,
Learner.

Full details available at Ubuntu. Download the ISO file and burn to a CD. You can try it (running slower than normal) by putting the CD into your drive then close down and restart, it runs from the CD. If it's for you, you can then install it if you wish (or revert to Windows by taking the CD out and restarting).

I should warn you that if you have to use Windows software for your job it will not work under Linux unless "Wine" or "VMWare" is used to emulate Windows. Not all Windows software works under an emulator. Having said that, Open Office can read and write files from a large number of office type software programs from different systems. The Gimp is a very extensive photo application but requires a lot of learning (I have used it for some years and still don't know all of it).

[Knoblauch]

peapod, you could try Bikefix, they have a range

[Paul Plots]

peapod wrote:

Do you have a link to a decent trailer for a bike? The xtracycle looks ok but out of our price range. OH just wants something to bring back spoils from plot (heres hoping), maybe a couple of cement bags, manure bags etc

There are several trailers around although they only take smaller loads. Unfortunately I'm not sure you'd get a Columbus in the UK anymore. I imported one of mine. I have two - one for shopping and the other for the allotment (not so clean jobs). They were expensive but we don't use a car so over the years they have proved to be a good buy.

If you are still interested I will try to find the Danish web-site for you.
Regards,
Learner

[Paul Plots]

peapod I've just found a link for Columbus trailers - on sale in UK again - the same price I paid to buy mine direct from Denmark a few years back.

http://www.blackcurrentcentre.org.uk/content/index.php

If the link doesn't work let me know (I've not tried posting one before) or you could try the following search string: black current centre trailer

Hope this helps