…when you’ll leave the house empty-handed and come back with a free bookshelf. I saw this on the side of the road on my way back from the post office. I had just run out of space for my poetry books, so it was a serendipitous find.

(Part 2 of an occasional series. Here’s the first installment.)

From The Packet Boat (my Xtracycle)

From The Packet Boat (my Xtracycle)

From Crossing The Brooklyn Bridge By Bicycle

• After a week riding the Dahon Speed D7, getting back on my Xtracycle today felt like riding a sofa bed. On the one hand, it has the most comfortable seat in the world. The Dahon’s isn’t bad, but the seat on the Packet Boat is like a La-Z-Boy recliner. On the other hand, the Dahon weighs 27.6 lbs and my Xtracycle weighs about 60 lbs. The difference is, shall we say, noticeable. On the other other hand (the “Beeblebrox” hand), the Xtracycle is so stable that it feels like you could take a nap on the Snapdeck and it would keep going on autopilot.
• The Dahon performed extremely well during my trip. It fit easily on the bus, unfolded and folded in seconds, handled the Manhattan and Brooklyn streets like a champ, and even did fine on the ridiculously hilly ride I took in State College, PA, over the weekend. Highly recommended.
• This was the first time I’ve gone away from home and taken a bike with me (other than when I first moved to Albany and was commuting back and forth to Rochester to see my family). I was pleasantly surprised by just how darn useful the bike was the whole time I was in NYC. I went to a jazz show on my bike, ran errands, conducted interviews, got from one transportation mode to another — all by bike.

Click for a larger version

Xtracycle just introduced its 2010 Freeloader bags. In addition to looking better than the original bags that I had on The Packet Boat, they also have a waterproof inner pocket, which the old Freeloaders lacked. Now that I’m car free and using my bike to get the mail for myself and my employer every day, having some waterproof storage on my bike is important.

Here’s a slideshow of the new bags. The first few photos were taken last night in my apartment after I installed the bags. Then there are photos from today in Albany of the bike empty and loaded.

Sadly, the fully-loaded shots are from a big-box store (Target) because it’s apparently much easier to buy pot than to buy a sauce pot inside the city limits. So I waited until I had a long list of housewares to buy then trucked out Central Avenue, easily the worst street to bike on in Albany. All it’s lacking are snipers on the rooftops shooting at the cyclists. Or maybe neck-high blades that whip across the street at random intervals.

I also stopped to get furikake at the Asian Supermarket at 1245 Central Ave. Wow. I could live there. Highly recommended.

Anyway, here are the pics:

Steel Wheel Duo Spokesongs Tour from Joel Landis on Vimeo.

Xtracycle … because you never know when you might leave home empty-handed and come back with a ladder.

I guess they’re real now…

George Bliss aboard his trike. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)

The story and the accompanying video are here:

Hauling Cargo, No Car Necessary

An Xtracycle canopy. Learn more.

Love. It.

Click the image to see a larger version, if you dare.

Left to right: My mom, Sally; my younger son, John; and me on The Packet Boat on the way to watch my older son play baseball.

A prospective Xtracycle buyer asked the following on the Roots Radicals group (an email list of Xtracycle owners & fellow travellers):

So I’ve got a bike and I’m thinking of getting the Free Radical extension. I’ve got a seven year old and other kid-carrying options aren’t working that great (outgrew the trailer, trail-a-bike is awfully shaky). This xtracycle thing seems like a pretty great solution. However, I only have the kid and/or cargo about half the time. Is it easy to take off the long tail and make it a regular bike and then back again when you need it? Do you just ride the long tail with nothing in it? Do you have two bikes? — Karen

The responses are great (read them here) — and all in favor of just riding the X all the time. I agree. Well, maybe I’ll do this year’s Livestrong Challenge on something else…