Biking Bison

An xtracycle is a really cool design for biking that extends the frame length of your bike, so that your cargo capacity greatly increases, while the mobility and agility of the bike remains pretty consistent. www.xtracycle.com I have been wanting one of these for quite some time, but the high price tag is pretty steep when I already have 5-6 bikes in the garage. After searching around some internet forums, I discovered a growing population of DIYers who are creating their own versions of this bike design. Here is my attempt at documenting my steps in creating my own.

here is the first look at what the completed bike looks like. still no brakes

its amazing how quickly it looks like it was always built that way

the next step is to add a center kickstand. cheapest one I could find on amazon

mounted the center stand to the rear suspension triangle. seems like having the support under there makes the most sense

bike stand nice with no wobble. pretty excited at we are looking at right here

first attempt at a ride with my girls on board

made the mistake of loading them on the bike with the center stand down. bent it slightly right out of the gate

quickly apparent that they needed somewhere for their feet. I stuck a bar through the frame here

maiden voyage

kids look a little dangerous. good thing they have helmets on

my younger daughter has her face right in my back pocket. less than an ideal design

still looking pretty uncomfortable and unsafe

next step is to add a handlebar for the kids. my seat is rusted in place from the buffalo salt, so taking it off to attach a stem that clamps was not an option

Instead I had an old downtube style stem, and put it in an extra seat clamp. this also pushed the handlebar farther away from my rear end. success.

this aluminum bar works perfectly for a straight bar hand grip for the kids

An xtracycle is a really cool design for biking that extends the frame length of your bike, so that your cargo capacity greatly increases, while the mobility and agility of the bike remains pretty consistent. www.xtracycle.com I have been wanting one of these for quite some time, but the high price tag is pretty steep when I already have 5-6 bikes in the garage. After searching around some internet forums, I discovered a growing population of DIYers who are creating their own versions of this bike design. Here is my attempt at documenting my steps in creating my own.

Adding the chain is the next project. I am combining the chains from the 2 bikes using a simple chain tool

for now I am going to go with a single speed. It eliminates the need for the extra cables, and complicated derrallier setup. Most of my riding in Buffalo is relatively flat

I have installed two bike racks on the standard mounts. One facing forward, one facing the rear. Now I have to determine the best option for a "flight deck" as xtracycle calls it

I found the dimensions from xtracycle's website. A flight deck is 26.5 inches long, 8.5 inches wide at the front, tapering down to 7 inches wide at the rear. I want to build mine to match in case I want to buy accessories later.

I thought this cutting board would be the trick, but it was about 6 inches short, and kinda heavy.

My neighbor down the street threw out this board this week, so I nabbed it from the curb. It is not long enough straight on, but at a diagonal, it is 30 inches.

I am using a chalk line to give me some straight edges to work from. looks like the board will just make it.

the chalk line was straight, but I can't seem to cut straight. hopefully it will router out.

I probably should have drawn this out before I made the other cuts. Now it is obvious my edges wont line up. the old sprocket makes a great 8 inch diameter circle

I don't have a jigsaw, so a hacksaw is the best way I have to cut the rounded edge

Hand cutting the board worked, but its obvious that a machined board looks better in the long run. However, I'm pretty pleased with it overall.

Drilling some pilot holes to mount the flight deck

by cutting the board on the angle, the wood grain has a pretty cool look

here is the upper view of the two bike racks back to back. This is where the flight deck will mount

An xtracycle is a really cool design for biking that extends the frame length of your bike, so that your cargo capacity greatly increases, while the mobility and agility of the bike remains pretty consistent. www.xtracycle.com I have been wanting one of these for quite some time, but the high price tag is pretty steep when I already have 5-6 bikes in the garage. After searching around some internet forums, I discovered a growing population of DIYers who are creating their own versions of this bike design. Here is my attempt at documenting my steps in creating my own.

I cut off an old seat post to length and mounted it in the old brace for the rear suspension bike

the top of the seat post connects to the frame of the standard bike

I ran a large wood screw through the seat post hole, and into the end of the white bikes frame. the frame was capped at this spot, I drilled a small pilot hole

the nice thing about this setup is that there is already a mount for brakes

I simply removed the brakes from the white frame, and moved them back to the rear suspension triangle frame

now that the brakes are out of the way, there is room to get a socket driver in to tighten things up

because of the length of the screw, it took quite a few turns, but it also really snugged everything into place

An xtracycle is a really cool design for biking that extends the frame length of your bike, so that your cargo capacity greatly increases, while the mobility and agility of the bike remains pretty consistent. www.xtracycle.com I have been wanting one of these for quite some time, but the high price tag is pretty steep when I already have 5-6 bikes in the garage. After searching around some internet forums, I discovered a growing population of DIYers who are creating their own versions of this bike design. Here is my attempt at documenting my steps in creating my own.

this is a craigslist find. someone selling frame only, I intend to pull many of the necessary parts off of the full suspension bike

here is the first mockup on what the frame extension might look like

the rear dropouts on the full bike frame will line up with the bottom bracket, (or where the pedals connected) on the full suspension bike

the full frame is on the bike stand, and the rear suspension triangle is being held in place with some large spring clamps

here is a rear view of the mockup. a rear wheel is in the front fork, just to give an idea what the profile will be

this is a topside view of where the connections will happen between the bikes. the frame is a bit wider than the bottom bracket. I will need to add some time of washer or spacer to make up the difference

An xtracycle is a really cool design for biking that extends the frame length of your bike, so that your cargo capacity greatly increases, while the mobility and agility of the bike remains pretty consistent. www.xtracycle.com I have been wanting one of these for quite some time, but the high price tag is pretty steep when I already have 5-6 bikes in the garage. After searching around some internet forums, I discovered a growing population of DIYers who are creating their own versions of this bike design. Here is my attempt at documenting my steps in creating my own.

This is a craigslist find. a 26 inch full suspension bike, with no seat, and no pedals. $20.

the rear half of this bike will function as the xtracycle extension

the suspension rod is connected with a simple Allen screw, easy to remove

hanging the bike off of the bike stand makes it much easier to work on

without a seat post, the bike is really just hanging in the balance

without that one suspension pin, the bike is very quickly floppy and hard to manage

now the connection swivel point needs to be removed. this requires a large Allen wrench

after removing the pin, the bike still doesn't want to come apart

here is the bike unattached. I turned the Allen screw in a couple threads and hammered it out, and the flange popped out the back side