DIY Longtail Projects

Back in the Paleocargobike Era of five or six years ago, US cargo bike riders had to fend for themselves if they wanted to haul a passenger too young to be trusted to keep hold of a pair of stoker bars and not fall into a nap while riding. If a Pedal Parent wanted to use a cargo bike to haul their kids and they wanted to use something off the shelf to do it, they kinda needed to be a Dutch person, a Dane. or a mom in Japan. Even our friends at Xtracycle took a while to really warm up to the notion of manufacturing and marketing tools to help their customers haul kids on these things.

Undeterred, creative Pedal Parents prevailed, finding artful ways to adapt these wonderful longtail bikes to their kid-hauling needs!

Nowadays, most cargo bike manufacturers marketing to the US including Xtracycle, Yuba, Kinn and Kona have embraced kid-hauling as a vital function of the American cargo bike.

However, the DIY spirit remains strong in the Xtracycle community. To celebrate these intrepid bike-hackers, Xtracycle put together a nice Flikr gallery of DIY kid seats. Here are a couple of my favorites:

This guy's called "Mr M," he made that lovely front rack, too!

This pedal family traveled very far with these seats. Read about their experiences at their blog.

The other day I was at Bicycle Sunday, (the totally amazing open street event that has been held on most Summer Sundays in Seattle for almost two decades) and I spotted this beauty:

I chased this nice family down, waving my arms and yelling like an idiot, in order to get you this picture. They told me all about the maker of this fine seat, but I remember none of it. Anybody out there got any info?

I've already enthused about my friend Alyssa's rad foldable seats.

and the one in the front folds away!!

My internet friend Matt, from the blog Tacoma Bike Ranch, made these awesome DIY running boards:

I think future designs used old skis, rather than wood.

This guy just went ahead and DIYed the whole longtail shebang:

and with absolutely zero welding!

The DIY Xtracycle mom who really blows my mind is Nicolle, from Nicole's Originals. Her two kid seat combines "DIY" and "hot new thing" beautifully. She uses a milk crate and foam, as well as an Xtracycle Hooptie accessory and mounts it all on a new EdgeRunner! Check it out!

great print pattern, too!

Cool, huh? Let's hear it for all the creative and inventive DIY Pedal Parents out there!

Do you know of a cool DIY Xtracycle or cargo bike project? Share it in the comments below!