A Special Thanks To Our Title Sponsor: Xtracycle

The evolution of the bicycle can be likened to the evolution of our world: it seems to get more and more subdivided each passing year and the more we progress, the more options we have at our disposal in every realm of our lives. Bicycles, like most inventions, have evolved to become so specified that we have different bicycles to handle different roads, different rides, different positions, and different jobs. These days a person must choose wisely because a road bike can no longer carry a heavy load, and a cargo bike might not handle as well as one would like; we are now faced with a question of choice and it gets more and more limiting with each coming season. Thanks to Xtracycle, though, we now have the happy opportunity to enjoy a bicycle that covers all bases at once. Their products allow a person to have a single bicycle to use for a multitude of different tasks and in this new world of too-many-choices their philosophy is a breath of fresh air.

While bike trailers have been around for decades, Xtracycle has completely re-thought the process from the standpoint of a bicycle rider and this seems to make all the difference because their systems work flawlessly with a variety of bicycle types, are capable of carrying people or heavy cargo without any special changes, and perhaps the most important part is that they have done all of this without sacrificing the handling of the bicycle. Their system is simple: extend the rear wheel and carry the load in the middle, which is a huge departure from the trailers of yesteryear that needed to be hitched and pulled behind the bicycle itself creating a problem of handling as well as taking up time to hitch and unhitch. Thanks to Xtracycle, a simple attachment with just three bolts is all that is needed to turn any road bike, commuter bike, hybrid bike, mountain bike or beach bike into a fully integrated hauler, complete with bottomless bags and a place to sit should you decide to tow a passenger or two.

Yes, the engineering and the design merge seamlessly and the outcome is a simple, but exceptionally effective system that gives the rider exactly what has been lacking for a long time: a useful bike for any situation. There is no need to unhitch the system when not in use so even when unloaded the bicycle will perform perfectly with absolutely no compromise made to the ride or handling. Its capacity is unmatched in the industry; an Xtracycle is fully capable of carrying several hundred pounds gracefully and without much added effort on the part of the rider.

It is often the simplest things that change the entire world, and it is plain to see that the products made by Xtracycle are doing just that. It is a rare and special thing to have such a utility without the usual heft, and even rarer to have it work invisibly - as if it were not there at all. They’ve made the impossible happen: hundreds of pounds of cumbersome cargo vanishes entirely thanks to their product.