We are having such a good time with our Xtracycle- between the rides and the mods- it's definitely family fun! The Dearest and I finally fixed up with snapdeck with more comfortable seats for the small men.
As I posted before, we had cut out a new snapdeck from 1" pine. The new snapdeck is wider and longer than the stock deck, which gave us enough room for two seats to be securely attached.
Last Saturday, while the Dearest was out playing hockey, I spent some quality time with a drill, screwdrivers and assorted hardware. Four 3/4" wood screws were used for each seat, going through the nylon/plastic/foam of each seat and directly into the snapdeck.
I used washers around the screws to lessen the chances of the screws pulling through the seat bottom. Four screws per seat held the seats on the snapdeck just right. The two seats fit nicely on the bigger deck- now the second kid has more room for their legs, and the second seat isn't hanging off the back.
Since I had extra straps, I also made seatbelts for each seat. I threaded the straps under the snapdeck and screwed them into place with a small steel plate (to spread the force) and three little wood screws. The only difficult part was making sure the straps could fit through the Freeloader where it connects to the V-rack.
The seatbelts are nice- they prevent passengers from sliding forward if I stop abruptly. The whole setup has been working great. When no one is using the seats, it's simple to fold them down and snap the seatbelts over the top to keep the straps out of the way.
Our final mod was a set of DIY footrests for the front passenger. Xtracycle sells cute Footsies, but they install too low to be usable for the small men. So we found some cheap bar ends and slid them onto the v-racks.
They fit perfectly and make a good platform for Little Man's feet.
He's much happier now that his feet aren't dangling!
BTW I got some emails asking about the seats...I got them at Sport Chalet. They were called "kids' campseats", and are very similar to these Kelty seats being sold on the website. They were $12 each IIRC.
ETA- I found the seats HERE, if you want to purchase them and can't find them locally. More info on the seats: they are padded with foam on the bottom and back and have rigid stays running all along the edges. When I was drilling, I tried to drill through one of the stays but it kept slipping sideways (I think it's made of plastic). So I ended up just drilling through the padding instead. Not too worried about it ripping through at the screw points as the weight of the kids pretty much hold the seats in place- the screws are just to keep the seats from shifting too much.
The bar ends were from Performance Bike- about $10.
The new snapdeck is made from 1"x12" pine that we cut with a jigsaw. I coated it with a few coats of polyurethane for protection from the elements, and we used new snapdeck clips to hold it onto the bike.
We've gotten lots of ideas from the online community for modifications, but it's been hard to find good photos and details. Hopefully this helps other X-users who are trying to mod their bikes.
That really is impressive. And it looks like the boys enjoy the ride.
Posted by: sprite | October 05, 2008 at 03:03 PM
Is there anything besides the snapdeck pieces holding on the snapdeck? I can't zoom in on your flickr photos to take a closer look.
Posted by: Jason | October 06, 2008 at 01:23 PM
Very nice! I've been thinking about doing this same thing on my Big Dummy. My son is almost old enough to move out of the PeaPod and for the rides where he won't be in the piccolo, this seems like a economical and EASY snapdeck mod. Out of curiosity: any reason you chose to lag screw instead of through bolt the seats? My concern is rip out of the screws...
BTW, I found your site through the xtracycle twitter stream!
Posted by: Ian Hopper | October 09, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Very cool work! Love the bar ends as Footsies! Great ingenuity.
If you'd ever like to add all your mods, you can do so here: http://xtracycle.com/longtailtech . Create an account (recommended) or just post anonymously (not really recommended.
Keep up the awesome work!
Posted by: Rick Pickett | October 24, 2008 at 01:07 PM
Hi,
Nice work. I just want to air a quick reservation about using seatbelts to retain your kids. Although a good idea for abrupt stopping, retaining anyone to a bike, especially a passive passenger, is a horrible idea. Children are flexible in fast, in the unfortunate event of an accident, they would be far safer being ejected from the bike rather than being strapped to it. Imagine what could happen if the bike just tipped over at a stop with your kids strapped in!
Posted by: Eric | February 19, 2009 at 06:42 AM
Very cool!
Posted by: Julie White | July 25, 2009 at 05:53 PM