Extendo Bikes

Posted on by Thomas Renck
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  • Back in the day we made some crazy bikes out of other bikes. At first we did it just for fun but after it caught on we started making them so that we could ride manathons with them. I think so far we have done three marathons, first the Los Angeles Marathon in 2004, then the 2004 Long Beach Marathon, and finally the 2005 Long Beach Marathon. We had a great time at all of them but the Long Beach Marathon is way more fun course wise. So here is a quick look at the crazy X-INfERNO.com Exteno Bikes.

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ExtendoBike XRThis is the very first ExtendoBike we build. Alex and I were bored one day in the shop and decided to cut up an old bike that was lying around and make it comically long. It turned out pretty neat. We just put really long main tubes in it and then for the first try we had cable steering. The cables didn’t work very long so then we upgraded to this stronger linkage system.
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ExtendoBike XLThis is the second of the ExtendoBikes. We decided that the ExtendoBike XR needed a buddy. And since we had already made a bike that extends out the front, why not go towards the rear this time? The chain drive system was tricky to design and get working on this bike but it ended up working pretty well. This bike has gained the affectionate nickname of Junk in the Trunk.
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ExtendoBike XTWhen we decided we wanted to go on a bike marathon, we knew that we should have at least one more ExtendoBike to make it a real gang. Since we had already gone out the front and out the back, the only way left to go was up! This bike was made from one old street bike that was cut up and extended out the bottom. The big question everyone asks is, “How do you get on that thing” to which I reply, “All I need is a running start!”.
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LA MarathonHere we are at the Los Angeles Marathon. That’s me on the tall bike and Steve Melton up ahead on the ExtendoBike XR. This is at the very beginning with 26 miles to go. I didn’t finish this one due to technical problems, the bike exploded. But it was still a great time!
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JasonthonJason Schueller also came with us, here he is on the ExtendoBike XL, he is sporting our X-INfERNO.com banner, which got quite a bit of attention, and someone even came to the site and emailed us asking some questions about the bikes.
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Long BeachI don’t remember seeing anyone snap this photo but it made it into the Long Beach paper! This was quite the honor, they even wrote a little tiny story about me and the bike calling me a crazy bike inventor which really, that’s pretty acurate.

So there’s the X-INfERNO ExtendoBikes. We had a blast making them and even more fun riding them. They have taken us far and wide on many adventures for many miles and they may live to see more miles yet.  As always, if you want to talk about it leave a comment!

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