Getting an Xtracycle Home without an Xtracycle

Matt Elias was in the process of fulfilling his ambition to be completely carfree in Tucson. He had just purchased a full Xtracycle setup from Campfire Cycling when he encountered a cart-before-the-horse problem: How do you haul all of this Xtracycle hardware home before you’ve retrofitted your bike as an Xtracyle?

In a car? Of course not.

Contents: FreeRadical Cargo Bike Kit ($199.00), FlightDeck ($75.00), KickBack Kickstand ($150.00), LongLoader Rack ($50.00 ea), Mini MagicCarpet ($15.00), WhatchamaCollars Rack Mounts ($25.00), WideLoader Rack ($55.00 ea), X2 FreeLoader Saddlebag Lids ($25.00 ea), X2 FreeLoader Saddlebags ($100.00 pair), and Pannier Racks ($50.00 pair).

I’ll save you the trouble of doing the math. That’s just shy of $1000 worth of commitment to making the glorious leap to car freedom.

Matt bike commutes to his job at REI in Tucson.

Matt and I discovered that we have something in common. Our biggest challenge to becoming car free is the same thing: our respective skeptical partners. I’m more optimistic for Matt’s success than my own.

He told me he did the retrofit on his Gary Fisher hard-tail mountain bike the very next day.

And he was happy to share photos of his who-needs-a-goddamn-car success.

Note the excess capacity on the WideLoader rack. He has room for, I don’t know, another set of Xtracycle hardware for his girlfriends’s bike.

Congratulations, Matt.

Yeah, I’m jealous.