Howard Draper, who heads up Bikedenton.org, brought his xtracycle down for Cyclesomatic and let us give it a test spin. He purchased the kit from xtracycle.com a few weeks back and attached it to a donor Diamond Back mountain bike that was being thrown away. Now, it’s extremely functional and has been hauling everything from tools and bike equipment, to heavy tube guitar amps. I threw the family on back to give it a test spin and am happy to report that it was a breeze to get in and around on. The total load on back was 75 lbs, and even going up small grades presented little challenge.

We’re going to start profiling utility bikes soon on BFOC, because we’ve noticed that cities with healthy bicycling communities typically have a large number of these on the street, to avoid an oil-based trip if at all possible. Next week, we’ll start working with students at Adamson High School to build a couple Bakfiets (pronounced BOK-FEETS), which are seen throughout the streets of Copenhagen, and are starting to make their arrival to cities like Portland, Washington D.C., and NYC. The below model is from the Dutch Bike Company in Seattle.