Expedition Bicycles?

[ckkone]

So I'm looking for an exped bike and stumbled across this site:

http://www.pbase.com/canyonlands/fullyloaded

 

[24HOURSOFNEVADA]

Any updates? I was wondering if you were familiar with the extracycle? or the surly frame with the extracycle built into it. They are very cool. I bought a Surly frame set to build into an extracycle, low and behold, Surly releases a frame with it already. IMO the extracycle is an outstanding idea.


I'm interested in hearing Joaquins thoughts on it as well...


http://www.surlybikes.com/bigdummy.html

http://www.xtracycle.com/

 

[riverfever]

Man...I suppose you could haul a ton of gear with that XTRA cycle. I just wouldn't want to be pulling that much weight. For those that are interested in riding trails (where the XTRA cycle might not be able to get to) check out Jeff Boatmans website. This guy makes really nice bags that are frameless and he does custom work as well. I'm going to have him make the bags I'll use in the Colorado Trail Race as soon as I get the new frame in and refine my gear list. His company is called Carousel Designs and he really knows his stuff.
http://carouseldesignworks.com/CDWpage1.html

-Chris

 

[Christophe Noel]

Any updates? I was wondering if you were familiar with the extracycle? or the surly frame with the extracycle built into it. They are very cool. I bought a Surly frame set to build into an extracycle, low and behold, Surly releases a frame with it already. IMO the extracycle is an outstanding idea.


I'm interested in hearing Joaquins thoughts on it as well...


http://www.surlybikes.com/bigdummy.html

http://www.xtracycle.com/

The Xtracycle widgets are anything but "expedition." They're great for knocking around town and grabbing things from the store, but you wouldn't want to do a long haul on that thing. As for Surly bikes, they're pretty low tech. They just recently started getting away from basic 531 tubing that was one notch above what I have in my house for plumbing. I've owned a couple Surly rigs. Very cool in the sense they're dirt cheap.

With many things, there's always a feeling that certain things need to be re-invented, when really that isn't the case. A good simple bike fitted with quality panniers and racks will fit any and all touring needs.

 

[Guest1111]

Anything but Expedition

You should check out the Riding the Spine website. Those boys are all doing that trip on either Surly Big Dummies (a variation of xtracycle innovation), or similar bikes. None of them are doing their expedition with just racks and panniers. I have a good touring bike with good racks and panniers--but there is no way I would attempt an expedition like theirs on what I have. So when you say those rigs are anything but expedition, you must mean expeditions to the next county, or the next state, or even across one continent--and all on roads or well kept trails at best. If, however, you are doing an on/off-road expedition across multiple continents, you'd be smart to consider one of those "anything-but-expedition" rigs. And all the better that you can kick around town and go to the grocery store with them as well! Keep reinventing, I say. If no one reinvented, we'd all still be riding boneshakers anyway. Kudos to xtracycle and surly.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I have a bunch of Surly components, several forks and few cogs and chain rings. Most of the comments are spot on, super basic, steel, and great... If anyone needs a fork I actually have a Karate Monkey fork that would fit a massive tire I've been meaning to get rid of...

Anyway, for anyone interested an excellent blog from a real expedition biker... This guy is a famous wheel builder as a profession and is a winter expedition biker and competes, mostly using Moots titanium products. He is also an amazing bike photographer and supplied a lot of the photos I am using for the new White Brothers fork manufacturer web site. Earlier in his posts he talks a lot about packing and keeping things light and hauling trailers. Very good information....

http://lacemine29.blogspot.com/
His wheel building company, www.lacemine29.com

 

[Christophe Noel]

You should check out the Riding the Spine website. Those boys are all doing that trip on either Surly Big Dummies ...... So when you say those rigs are anything but expedition, you must mean expeditions to the next county, or the next state, or even across one continent--and all on roads or well kept trails at best. If, however, you are doing an on/off-road expedition across multiple continents, you'd be smart to consider one of those "anything-but-expedition" rigs. And all the better that you can kick around town and go to the grocery store with them as well! Keep reinventing, I say. If no one reinvented, we'd all still be riding boneshakers anyway. Kudos to xtracycle and surly.

I'd still rather not ride one for longer than a grociery run. I've done several longer tours including Prudhoe Bay to Arizona via the Continental Divide on pretty basic mountain bikes. I've ridden from Antwerp, Belgium to Sienna, Italy on my road race bike with a courier bag and from Casa Blanca, Morroco to Dakar on a $500 mountain bike. Anything is possible. That said.....you couldn't pay me to ride an Xtracycle for more than 30 miles. The best tour was on my road race rig with a courier bag. We knocked down multiple 150 mile days.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Related to the gentleman I posted about above, I just completed the new web site for White Brothers http://www.whitebrotherscycling.com - this gentleman took the vast majority of the pictures... White Brothers could easily build you a custom suspension fork for the weight carrying capacity you are looking for. They are also hand built in Colorado. The IMV forks are wonderful and stiff and have strong resitance to bumps even with loads. But their Fluid forks would be wonderful too... Take a look at their tandem forks for example, they are able to take their shock platform and build a variety of weight and resistance capabilities. In the last couple years these guys ahve also become very cutting edge. I own one of their forks and the 29er crowd absolutely loves them. I would be happy to put you in touch with as I am friends with their director of marketing...

I am also now working with a new Mountain Bike manufacturer here in Utah, building bikes a lot like Surly but higher quality steel and lighter, arguably some of the strongest frames in the country and handmade here in Utah. In addition to their web stuff looks like I will be doing some sales and marketing for them as well. If you would like to come up and hand build a frame, as soon as some of the production frames are completed and things slow down, we would be happy to have you come up and build the frame of your choice. Currently we are TIG welding our frames but we could look into lugging. One of the companies that is looking to purchase a number of frames from us to market under their own brand name is also having us look at more retro-lugged frames. In this case it would not be necessary strength-wide but certainly does add a nice asthetic feel. I will send you a PM about this Jonathan... Cheers, Andre

 

[DaveInDenver]

Whether or not the Xtracycle is any good for long distance touring, I dunno. I'm happy with the B.O.B. personally. A friend here at work rides his Xtra'd Cannondale about 15 miles to work and his experience is the extent of my knowledge about them. Well, other than the review of the Big Dummy in the current Dirt Rag.

But I will say this, the Soulblender is friggin' genius. My buddy put one on his Xtra and he's the pimp at the Big Wheel races. Fresh blended margaritas and smoothies are definitely the express elevator to big dog status.

http://www.bikeblender.com/

 

[Jonathan Hanson]

The White Brothers forks look impressive, Andre. And I'm delighted to hear about any new American custom frame builder.

I do have a fondness for lugged frames, but I have to admit that from what I know about modern frames and metallurgy it's mostly an aesthetic preference.

They sure are pretty, though . . .

 

[efuentes]

I am hooked @ http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

... Just can get off the site.

Check this Journey

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=3Tzut&page_id=67898&v=Dy

Saludos

 

[riverfever]

oohhhhhh nice find man. There's some neat stuff on there.