A Bigga Betta Boda for my Bod

Like my friend Tankwoman, I too have been pedaling instead of driving. Unlike TW, I don't have "a cool urban bicycle with 24 gears, and shocks." The shocks, she says, are for shielding her forty year old body (you meant "forty-plus" didn't you, gurlfriend?) from the slings and arrows of urban streets. Back in the spring sometime, when I read the writing on the wall and realized what would soon be happening to gas prices, I hauled my twenty-five-year-old three-speed Raleigh out of the garage and took it to a bike shop for rehabilitation. I also did this with my partner's Raleigh of the same vintage. It cost about a hundred bucks to have new tires put on, new brakes and chains, a general tune-up for both bikes. They did not remove the cobwebs or rust.

Since then, and with the addition of a super-cushioned seat - my only concession to shielding my sixty-plus body from the urban/rural potholes and bumps - I have been commuting to the college for work, pedaling to library, post office, drug store, etc. I have one wire basket on the handlebars, and an assortment of backpacks. Recently I have begun to cast about for a way to carry more cargo when need arises - extra books to school, bags of groceries, found objects, larger objects of any kind. To use a good old southern Louisiana word, I recently experienced lagniappe in the form of following a train of weblinks to the site of a company called Xtracycle.

The company makes conversion kits for regular bikes, or you can buy one already made into what they call an "S.U.B." Sports Utility Bicycle. This amazing bit of ingenuity will carry massive loads of almost anything, evidently. On their gallery pages you can see bikes carrying everything from Christmas trees to construction materials, bookcases, beer kegs, huge amounts of camping gear, and - my favorite, cats in carriers for a visit to the vet.

This is a company that is in it (pardon the pun) for the long haul - they are using profits to subsidize their not-for-profit company called XAccess (Xtracycle Access Foundation), which is supplying their longtail heavy-load-carrying bikes, or the conversion kits, to Boda Bodas in Africa. Boda Bodas are the taxi and delivery drivers who carry everything from passengers to enormous loads of freight. They call their conversion kit for the bikes in Africa the "Bigga Boda" and it is enabling those who use it to earn a far larger income to support families and communities.

So. A solution to my problem, and practical aid for African communities into the bargain. How could it get any better? Now I just need to decide if I want to try to deal with the conversion kit, or just order a ready-made S.U.B. The latter is not cheap, and right now that matters. Maybe the cute kid who rehabbed the bikes in the spring would like to try his hand at turning them into SUBs. He was already enthralled with what he regarded as antiques, our clunky old three-speeds.

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