Xtracylce Hooptie on the Yuba Mundo

Kludged the Hooptie onto the Yuba.

Lots of changes- no blogging. Now can blog from smartphone so lets see!

Current Yuba setup:
Fat Franks
Disc Brakes
Bread Platform
Kona Ute Bags
Rolling Jackass Stand
Xtracycle Hooptie

I love it!

Step Ladder by Bike

Lots of bikey activity of late. Mostly with the kids in the Bakfiets. We have been harvesting wild blackberries from a remote hedgerow. Works great- ride along the trail til you see a good spot. Stop, let the kids play, and pick a few litres of berries. I noticed, however, that there were SO many good berries just out of reach. I think some people thought it a bit odd, but it worked really well to take the step ladder by bike. Actually much more efficient than driving, parking, and carrying the ladder 3 or 4 hundred metres down the trail on foot. Just ride up and pick! As for riding with the ladder- easy.

Front Racks

In a previous post here I went over the Gamoh front rack instalation on the Mundo. The rack worked flawlessly and was very convenient. (including the bottle opener) Long and short- It made the steering feel "heavy" and took away from one of the Mundo's strong points. The Mundo IS a heavy bike, but doesn't feel that way. Perhaps I will try the Dutch style like Yuba reccomends here.

Level Ground

I took the Yuba Mundo over to Level Ground Trading (the fair trade coffee folks) and let them take it for a spin. We loaded it up with 2-60kg sacks of Tanzanian coffee beans. So that is likely a total load of at least 122 kg. Approaching 270 pounds! Here is a short video- amazing how easy it is to roll up and dismount! One can see why a bike is such a great alternative to walking for a farmer working a small plot in Africa.

Family Mundo

Here is a very short clip of the whole family on the Mundo. The kids would need Peanut Shells or some such to ride the Mundo- but we had to try a lap around the driveway! This bike continues to impress me- it feels so good, even with 4 humans on it. (albeit a couple of small humans!)

113 kilos of cargo in the summer heat.

Summer is here, the clear blue skies that high pressure systems bring to the west coast. Some would call it a boring sky, not a cloud to be seen for days on end......

Gave me a chance to haul some freight on the Mundo and get out with the kids in the chariot.

Zipped over to the feed distributor yesterday- made it home with 5 sacks of chicken feed and a bag of dog food. 113 kilos (250 pounds) of freight on the wideloaders and rear deck. No problem. I read some posts where people pooo-poohed the Mundo hauling 330 pounds at the San Francisco food bank race- they said it couldn't be done without all of Ben's "handlers". Well, I am here to tell you that if I had a front rack I could have easily taken another 80 pounds on the front. I rode home solo with the 250 without a blink. Of course terrain would be a factor!
On the other front, getting tired of the Chariot, don't like dragging the kids behind. Working on a home-made bakfiets in the shop. Next post, perhaps.

Self Propelled Egg Ranching

Well, got the first really good load on the Mundo today. 4 sacks of chicken feed and one bag of dog food. 205 pounds and the Mundo was awesome. Changing the perception of what a bicycle can do indeed! Love the wideloaders. Here's a pic of the chickens checking out their feed delivery. The bike is very stable- even on the grass- on the Rolling Jackass stand.
All of this craziness started a year or two ago when I was listening to a radio program where they were interviewing a CEO of a national organic dairy producer. The host asked the gentleman about it being better to buy local- the 100 mile diet and so on. The CEO's reply was that their transportation network was very efficient and that the most inefficient link in the chain was the end consumer driving to the supermarket to buy a tub of yoghurt. I gave that some thought- and now take to the bike much more. We are fortunate to have a farm feed distributor a few miles away- they bring in truckloads of feed- and I pick it up there on my bike. (Previously the Ute, and now the Mundo)
I still believe in local, but also now see that the big dairy CEO knew what he was talking about. Check out this post from Joe George's Urban Simplicity blog- the amount of fuel burned by Pickups, SUV's, and sedans is over the top.

http://citysimplicity.blogspot.com/2010/06/im-gonna-be-honest-here.html


Ohh, the feed is "whole earth", but not organic.(yet) The hen scratch is non-gmo. They have lots of room to roam in green grass and eat bugs and worms, great eggs, stop by and pick up a dozen.