The fine folks at Xtracycle have just sent us the prototype of our dreams. It seems that inspired partially by our trip (rumor is that they showed our Arizona Trail Video to the design team to illustrate the level of strength and performance they were looking for. They are currently in the preproduction design/testing phase of aptly named Heavy Duty Freeradical. And we get to test one of the first.
As you can see, they did it right. Huge thick dropout plates, truss supported rear end. Reinforced tongue, wide tire clearance, etc…
Unfortunately for us this first prototype is (was) disk only. We run V-brakes for a variety of reasons, mostly because they are simple and more reliable — more 3rd world compatible you might say. Though as excited as we were about the chance to get our hands on one of these things, we weren’t sure we could use it.
Miraculously, Joshua Thayer of Myles Bicycles came through with less than a days notice and did a beautiful job of braising on some brake posts.
Thanks to miscommunication on my part (unclear instructions to my wonderful sister Arla who was running around the bay area trying to satisfy all of our obscure bike part and gear needs before flying down to visit) Joshua wasn´t sure if we ran v-brakes (we do) or cantilever brakes. So out of the goodness of his heart, he spent the extra time to add a cable hanger, just in case.
Any way thanks to his beautiful and timely work and Xtracycle, we have a HD Freerad on the spine. And Jacob is stoked to try and ride it into the ground.
Can you fit a 29er tire in the Heavy Duty Freeradical? Please, I hope so!
Can you fit a 29er tire in the Heavy Duty Freeradical? Please, I hope so!
Can you fit a 29er tire in the Heavy Duty Freeradical? Please, I hope so!
If you check out the rear end of the Xtracycle, it has a little extra room…just enough for a 29er.
Goat was mentioning last night a way for the brake posts to be set up so that you could also run Vbrakes for both 26 and 29er.
As is, the prototype should work now with 29er and disc brakes.
If you check out the rear end of the Xtracycle, it has a little extra room…just enough for a 29er.
Goat was mentioning last night a way for the brake posts to be set up so that you could also run Vbrakes for both 26 and 29er.
As is, the prototype should work now with 29er and disc brakes.
If you check out the rear end of the Xtracycle, it has a little extra room…just enough for a 29er.
Goat was mentioning last night a way for the brake posts to be set up so that you could also run Vbrakes for both 26 and 29er.
As is, the prototype should work now with 29er and disc brakes.