Well, the Surly Big Dummy has been around for a little while now, and people have started really going to town on them. Mike’s Orange Yuba is a splendid thing, but there’s a lovely crop of re-sprayed Dummies out there too suddenly. 🙂

Stock Olive Drab (mine):

Daring Blue and Orange:

All Black (The Goat):

Cream (Big Woody)

And a lot more stock colour ones in Xtracycle Gallery:

Xtracycle Gallery

So far, I’ve seen Sheffy’s, Mocha’s and mine on here. Are there any more lurking? 🙂

Nice. I especially like the cream one at the bottom.

I’m thinking quite strongly about a Yuba (rather than an Xtracycle conversion), with a view to obtaining it through the B2W scheme that will be open again here sometime next month. A BD would be too much money, and the complexity of trying to buy a bike + Freeradical for the £1000 strikes me as being the wrong way to do it if a fully integrated cargo bike is where I want to get to.

Of course, I want a CX bike, too, but reckon a cargo bike will be more acceptable to Mrs North (as it doesn’t represent more weekend time spent away from her, unlike a CX bike..!).

Cream and wood one is beautiful isn’t it? It’s a huge jump away from the military utilitarian styling of the stock bike.

I’m seeing a few Yubas in London, mostly carrying kids rather than cargo.

🙂

ORange and blue one floats my boat.

It is.

Just been working out the monthly cost to me of a 6 speed Deluxe Mundo on the B2W (assuming it’s re-introduced).

Mind you, I’d also need to factor in building it some external storage in the back yard, as there’s no way that thing will be coming in and out of the house very often…. 😯

the question, for those now considering such a machine, is whether it is better to go for the full-blooded big dummy/yuba as the start point or whether to just pick up an inbred frame and a conversion…

The cream and wood one is fab. I think you’ve got to aim for a town-bike or cruiser style with them, really.

Just been working out the monthly cost to me of a 6 speed Deluxe Mundo on the B2W (assuming it’s re-introduced).

It’s costing me £50 a month net, for the deluxe, plus a big front rack and the Go Getter bag (85l courier-style pannier). Came to £1038ish, with some cam straps and inner tubes, but he knocked it down to get it to £999.99 (they normally add 10% handling charge to cover the cyclescheme fee, but Zaynan knocked that down for me).

the question, for those now considering such a machine, is whether it is better to go for the full-blooded big dummy/yuba as the start point or whether to just pick up an inbred frame and a conversion…

From everything I’ve read, the conversions are great, but a bit flexy.

Mike – I have to say I didnt notice any dramatic flexing on my first outing with a laden xtracycle build.

The lack of flex on the Big Dummy by comparison to the conversion is very noticeable, but I agree that the flex on the conversion is not a problem.

This is a very big, and very heavily ovalised, tube:

🙂

Maybe I was only reading things that would convince me to get a full bike 🙂

WTF is going on with the brake levers on the blue one?

Ed-O/GreatRock pointed me towards this Ute mod, via Twitter: http://konaworld.com/aussieute.htm and Xtracycle linked to these cool custom topdecks: http://www.brandnameboards.com/Boards_In_Stock.html