Xtracycle — the sport utility bicycle

Xtracycle, a small California company, makes SUBs, or bikes that haul. Company president, Kipchoge Spencer, talks about the bikes designed to replace car-trips in an interview with Grist magazine. How does he describe the bike?

“Acts like a bike but works like a truck.”

Founded in 1998, Xtracycle makes a system that is essentially a retrofit frame attachment that stretches the wheelbase of a bicycle. Xtracycle sells bicycles with the retrofit already attached to an Electra Coaster 7 or Marin Novato; it also sells the FreeRadical hitchless trailer attachment by itself for installation at your local bike shop.

The designers say stretching the wheelbase enables the rider to carry an extra load between the front and rear wheels, instead of over the rear wheel or pulling a trailer.

Spencer talks about his background, about how bikes should be used more in everday life, and the fulfillment of his dream:

“Mission accomplished is when mass pop culture realizes riding your bike to work is the coolest way to get there. The next step in this mission will be me giving Cameron Diaz a ride to the Oscars on the back of my bike and passing Leo in his Prius, stuck in traffic behind a fustercluck of limos.”