Quiet Streets

The ride in today was nice...quiet streets for most of the commute. Why? The K-12 public schools finished up the school year yesterday! My ride in to work takes me near the elementary and high schools. What a difference in the amount of traffic with no school. Hard to imagine how may parents there were driving their kids to school! Oh well, I will enjoy the summer commuting while I can.

Financial Woes Trump the Cycling Whimsy

Financial woes have forced corporate to pool all money together, so the cycling whimsies will be put on hold. It is time to go extreme ghetto. Instead of an Xtracycle, we're now going to have a go at bucket panniers. It's a far cry from the load carrying capacity of the Xtracycle, plus you cannot give other people a ride on buckets, but at least it should allow for trips to the grocery store. There are plenty of ideas and designs on the internet about converting buckets into panniers. Here are a few...
IBIKETO - http://www.ibiketo.ca/guide/how-tos/how-make-panniers-out-buckets
Crazy Guy on a Bike - http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Buckets
Instructables - http://www.instructables.com/id/Best_Cat_Litter_Bike_Buckets/
Wheel Revolution - http://wheelrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/05/bike-bucket-diy.html

Carrying the Load - The Answer

Just checking on the Xtracycle site, and I believe this confirms the answer - the Xtracycle is the way to go to haul musical equipment.
Ben Sollee is on a 330 mile tour through Kentucky and Tennessee to raise awareness for poverty, carrying his cello on an Xtracycle. The tour is documented with some great video, complete with some of his performance at each stop. If he can carry that huge cello for 330 miles, I think one can carry just about anything on an Xtracycle. Way to go Ben! Best of luck to you.