Back in 1993 I bought a Specialized StumpJumper FS. As long as I had the bike it rarely saw duty on the single track as much as I would have liked. Rather, it spent a majority of its life on short trips on the street. I even used this bike twice on the Death Ride. The first time on off road tires and the second time on slicks.Fast forward 2007. While on vacation in Hawaii, I noticed that people liked getting around on bikes on the island. There was this one bike I saw at a rental shop hauling of all things, a surf board! I thought that was one of the coolest things to see. I found out it was an Xtracycle conversion. Turns out, you can get these conversion kits called FreeRadical Hitchless Trailer online or from a LBS that carries them.
The kit has everything you need to convert your bike to a longtail. I found a new one on eBay for less $$ that some guy decided not use and ended snatching it up.
If you do your own wrenching, you can convert a bike in about 1 1/2 hours. Since the conversion, my mountain bike is getting alot more miles now. Its just plain fun to ride! This conversion is completely reversible.
After a while, I wanted to put full fenders on the bike, but there are no eyelets on my front fork or on the FreeRadical. I hear that the new FreeRadicals have eyelets on them now. A visit to my local hardware store electrical department I found GB Electrical Cushion Clamps, 1" diameter (P/N PPR-1600) and 5/8" diameter (P/N 1558) that would do the job. So now the longtail is rain ready.
Here are pics of the clamps installed on the bike.
8 comments:
B, there's gotta be a way to hide that cable. A cable housing maybe?
it you are still looking for the shim, I found this one on ebay
You talking about the rear brake cable? You know how these older bikes are with cantilever brake system. I was contemplating getting some v-brake system for the back, but my problem is that on the rear end of the top tube, there is no cable housing guide. I have to find some sort of bolt on cable housing stop. As you can see from the pic, the just below the seat post is a built in brake cable guide, not a housing guide. Know of any?
The rear brake cable runs along the top tube in a cable sleeve, not a housing. Maybe if I find some of that, I can use it on the rear part of the brake cable too. What do you think?
I will check out the shim on ebay. Thanks!
I wonder if you can use a rear brake cable hanger. It hangs on the bolt between the seat clamp and acts as a cable housing stop. But then I'm not sure if you can add the rest of the cable housing from that stop to the brake calipers.
I have an extra one if you want to give it a try.
Uh-ohh, the link didn't come out.
rear brake cable hanger
http://www.jagwireusa.com/oem/frameparts.html
pics are near the bottom of the page.
I don't know if that will work. The biggest problem that I have is the rear portion of the cable routing. Here is a link on Flickr that has pics of the cable route.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47151400@N00/sets/72157603251049162/
Look at the three pics closely and see if you can image a possible solution.
Nokon cable housing is the only thing that I can think of right now.
Interesting article, added his blog to Favorites
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