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.
