Mar 12 2009
A Tight Bike from Big Dummy
The “Big Dummy” frame is ultra-cool. If you’re familiar with the original XtraCycle gear, you know it as a bolt-on attachment for almost any bike frame. It lengthens the wheel base and adds good hauling capabilities above the rear wheel, and cargo rack mounts on both sides. It’s a well-made unit welded up from CroMoly tube, so it’s light and sturdy. Jim Wilson been promoting this gizmo for years on his website: http://bikerodnkustom.com
He recently reviewed one of their new products.
It’s a whole new bike frame combined with the basic XtraCycle attachment, in a one piece unit, with powdercoat finish in the color of your choice. The list price for a powder-coated Big Dummy frame is $1,099, with a discount for quantity, I’m sure. The idea is to take one of those frames and, in the cargo area, set up a full spoke shield/fender shell using the side rack attachment points, then add a beam mount for a long kiddy saddle on top, sort of an even longer-than-usual banana saddle.
This would be extruded-aluminum channel stock,with drilled holes at intervals, for adding seating aspects. Depending upon the size of the children, there could be up to three padded “sissy bar”
footrest-and-hand-hold units which would be quickly mountable to the beam beneath the long seat pad.
Video of kids riding on the back, without saddles,may be seen here. Stuffing the frame with the usual bike components would be fairly reasonably-priced, as a common 26″X 2.125 single-speed coaster brake rear wheel would be fine for the job, especially with a 24-tooth cog on the hub. That would provide low gearing to handle the extra weight of the kiddy cargo. The included fork comes with caliper mounts for a disc-braked front wheel, which are reasonably priced nowadays. I presume there are mountings for a front fender also, which would be useful for this application. The rear seating/spoke shielding/kiddy- seating unit has a built in rear fender. Other stock bike components would be the driver’s saddle, handlebars and headset, brake lever and cable, bottom bracket bearings and single-speed crankset and pedals.
An option might be a light-metal-framed fabric canopy to shade the passenger area, or maybe a longer one which would also shade the driver. Cuban cyclo cabs have that feature (see below). Supports for this would mount to the cargo-rack mounts, and maybe a V-support clamped to the forward area of the frame’s top tube.
The cost of a finished Big Dummy-based bike,assuming discount pricing on the frame, would probably be about $1,300. A cheaper alternative is to add their Free Radical frame extension to an existing mountain bike frame, to end up with the equivilent to the Big Dummy basic frame, as seen below. The frame extension alone goes for $264. With racks and top deck, the package goes for $484. They also sell an upholstered foam-padded long deck cover for $39, suitable for seating.
Going even further:
(1) The above description is of a longer-than-normal wheelbase bicycle. Some neophyte-biker parents might be timid about carrying their kid(s) on a two-wheeled machine which might fall over if they screw up, somehow. It’s happened with me, with child on board. The traditional trike pedicab form doesn’t have this risk, so much, due to its wider stance. It would be very easy to use the frame’s cargo rack mounts to fit the frame with 20″ outrigger wheels on either side at the rear- sort of like training wheels, only not so dinky and wimpy. There are also reasonably-priced trike conversion kits available; but they add to the overall length of the bike, since they mount to the rear dropouts. Added to an extended-length bike, that would become cumbersome…
(2) It would be simple to add an electric-assist rear motorwheel to the basic machine. Typical price for a complete kit, including battery pack is about $400 or possibly less.
Jim Wilson For more see: http://www.xtracycle.com
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