Oct 30 2008
Sport Utility Bike
My winter project is build an Xtracycle to haul groceries and who knows what else. I have my donor bike to use for the conversion and with a few upgrades I think it will be a great ride. However I am always open to ideas and suggestions, so today a friend sent me the YouTube video below.
This Madsen Cycles SUB (Sport Utility Bike) looks rather interesting and is now available in Portland. I don’t know how much it costs, but it looks like fun.
It’s an interesting idea, although I think if I was going for something like that, I’d like the kids in front in tha manner of a dutch longbike (http://www.dutchbikeseattle.com/html/bikes/bakfiets.html) where I could see and talk with the kids. This is purely personal though…
I own an Xtracycle and have also used Dutch bakfietsen and have not used the Madsen. I suspect, however, that the Madsen is in many ways somewhere between the other two in use.
I find the Xtracycle excels at transporting oddly shaped things. Bits of lumber, rolled carpet, other bikes etc. The open ended load space is very good for this. However, it’s less good for grocery shopping as things tend to fall out the ends (I’ve been meaning to make some large baskets for mine to accommodate shopping, but have still not done so).
The bakfiets with its big wooden box is much better for transporting children and for shopping, but less good for oddly shaped stuff which doesn’t conveniently fit inside the box. It’s good to be able to see what you’re carrying, too.
So I suspect the Madsen is less good for oversized stuff than the Xtracycle, but perhaps better for kids or shopping.
Thanks for the input. Today I am going to the local bike shop to personally investigate and hopefully come away with a more defined idea about what I want. One of the things which interests me in the Xtracycle is being able to modify it to suit my needs.