Xtracycle: The Original Longtail Company

Xtracycle isn't just another bicycle company. It's a labor of love devoted to the evolution of simple, versatile, and sustainable transportation. A longtime fan of the bicycle as a simple, efficient, fun, affordable, and clean means of transport, Ross Evans set out in the spring of 1995 to fill a gap in its potential. In his travels and work in the developing world, especially Central America, he noted that while bicycles were abundant, they weren't as useful to people as they could be. There was an obvious need for cargo-carrying capacity that the conventional bicycle doesn't offer. A passage from his design journal from that time asks, “What is the cheapest, lightest, simplest, most maneuverable, most adaptable, strongest way to carry cargo with a bicycle?”

During the following four years, while pursuing graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Latin American Studies, Ross worked on answering that question. With grant funding from several organizations, he traveled from Managua to Havana to Johannesburg evolving the Xtracycle design with input from headloaders, paper collectors, farmers and engineers. In 1998, Kipchoge Spencer joined him to launch Xtracycle, a company to bring the product to the world.

Today, Xtracycle, is a company committed to healthy business practices that support our employees, our community, and our earth. It has donated 1% of its profit to Worldbike since its inception, along with many man hours and services. Learn More About Xtracycle.