Elongating Jake

My wife uses our car each day for work as there are no alternatives near enough to her school to do otherwise, I use a combination of train and pedal power. After ditching the convertible and buying a Honda Civic Hybrid, I was looking around to find another way on cutting down the car usage at the weekend, I thought of a trailer for the bike, but didn’t really like the idea of it and having tried one I didn’t like the feel either. During my googling for trailers I came across these people http://www.xtracycle.com and thought it would be the perfect solution to my ‘problem’. I tracked down a supplier in the UK http://www.thisisloadsbetter.co.uk/, and bombarded them with questions

Before

The Free Radical, kit arrived intact and promptly courtesy of Mark Forster at Loads Better, I ordered the 700c kit, as that would mean all Jakes existing components should fit…or so I thought…actually I had to buy a new rear brake as the Free Radical isn’t set up to take cantilevers. If I had read the technical faq on the Xtracycle web sit I would have known this but hey ho!

It also had to be a mini v brake, as STI levers don’t have the cable travel for full size v-brakes. An alternative would have been to use cable actuated disc brakes..but as this would necessitate a new wheel as well I went for the mini v’s. Although in the future I may convert to a 26-inch rear wheel and discs to give a greater tyre choice.

Other extras needed where two nine speed chains, as the supplied extension chain is 8 speed, a longer rear wheel spindle, a new rear mech mine turned out to be on it’s last legs, and a couple of spacers to go onto the hub as is was not quite wide enough to be held securely in the dropouts by the pressure of the quick release. Two spacers were too much one not enough so I sanded one in half and that worked perfectly.

Home made spacer


Mark supplied an extra FAP. The alloy plate here. As the chain stay brace on Jake was too far forward to allow the bolt to pass through the tongue of the free radical.

FAP's!

It’s really not a difficult job if you regularly do your own maintenance
The instructions are easy to follow and concise.

It may look a little odd but it rides really nicely, very stable and utterly brilliant for hauling the groceries and diy stuff.

After