More DIY Rain Covers: Recumbent Tandem Edition!

Back in September we spotted this cool three-person bike parked outside our school. It's a tandem with a front recumbent stoker seat as well as a trail-a-bike. Pretty sweet.

This morning I had a chance to talk with Todd about his super cool bike. Not only has his trail-a-bike rider moved on to her own geared 2-wheeler, but the tandem stoker now has a DIY weather cover made from coroplast campaign signs and a repurposed stroller cover. 

Todd said it's worked great in more than a few heavy rains. On this 35°F morning I'm going to guess his stoker was much warmer than her sister, too!

DIY Madsen Bucket Cover Frames

Folks have been asking, so here's more details.

Our Madsen rain cover frames are made from electrical conduit, specifically 1/2" EMT. It's light, cheap, durable, and very easy to work with. You'll want to use a pipe bender like this. You may be able to rent one from a home store or borrow one from a neighbor. It's a basic lever hand tool that is very easy to use. Measure twice, bend once. And make sure you are bending the conduit in the corrected direction!

The frame has only four pieces: two 10' lengths of 1/2" EMT (conduit) and two 1/2" couplers. Total cost is maybe $5. Ideally, the left and right sides of the frame are mirrors of one another and the couplers line up in the middle of the bucket. The structure sits on the edges of the bench seats; both benches must be used for the cover to stand on its own.

The frame can be covered with anything. I recently discovered that a burlap coffee sack from my local roaster is the perfect size and shape when you rip the side seams open. I added a piece of coroplast to the roof of this one to help dome the roof and take out the slack in the fabric.

To keep the whole thing from tipping out of the bucket, you need some sort of tensioner under the outer lip of the bucket to attach to the cover fabric. For our sewn covers, we used Sunbrella fabric and hemmed in a slot at the front and back to loop through a 1" web belt with some buckles.

In a pinch, the burlap coffee cover was attached with a length of rope and some zip-ties. Total cost of the burlap cover and frame: less than $10 and 2 hours of playing in the garage. This makes for a decent sun shade or windbreak, but wouldn't last long in heavy rain.

Related posts:

DIY Madsen Bucket Covers Revisited

DIY Madsen Bucket Covers Revisited

I am constantly amazed that most of the TBR web traffic is directed to our posts about DIY Rain Covers for our Madsen Cycles Bucket Bike (which we sold over a year ago.)

There was version 1.0 that we used for our bike:

Then we made version 2.0 for some friends in Seattle:

There is apparently a HUGE demand for these things. Maybe not huge, but folks want 'em.  While we made ours to keep out the rain and cold, others are simply trying to keep out the sun. This brilliant shade cover photo was sent to us from Ryan in Sacramento:

Here's another great shade cover by @conanlow: 

(photo used with permission)

Meanwhile, Madsen Cycles is finally testing what appears to be a more finalized prototype of their bucket cover.

Is your bucket covered?  We'll continue to add a few more pics and links here. Leave a link in the comments or email matt (dot) newport (at) gmail.

Until Warmer Days

Our van has been voluntarily parked for over 3 days. We've had 3-7" of snow and daytime temps between 25°F and 34°F.  To my surprise, we've managed to do ~25mi of errands and commuting by foot or bike during that time.  We haven't avoided any trips; getting to school and work on time and even picking up a 40# bag of dogfood when we ran out.  While this isn't a big deal for many local-living families, even I am impressed to keep this streak alive in the coldest, nastiest part of winter.

Perhaps the best part about this little bout of undriving is that the kids see it as completely normal.  Tula's been riding in the Madsen since she was one, and the rain cover is now on it's second winter.  Gwen has adapted to riding the Xtracycle deck in it's many configurations and she expects to see a bike parked outside of the school everyday when I pick her up.

That bucket cover has been key to winter riding with the kids, because of windchills.  Once the temp falls below freezing, one can subtract another degree for each mph of wind.  I stay warm trying to keep a cargobike at 10mph, but the kids just turn into popsicles without the windbreak. This was the result of a fast descent in an uncovered bucket:

Keep everyone safe and warm until spring, but remember, that doesn't always mean you have to take the car!

On Bucket Bikes

The new Madsen bucket bikes debuted today!  It's worth checking out.  There are many improvements and new features, some of which I've hacked or wanted to hack onto my own bucket bike.  One of my biggest issues with our original model has been the kickstand.  Here's my final fix using a piece of 5/16" all-thread and some nylon lock nuts.

The solid rod not only fixed the kickstand so that it stays in place when deployed, but it also keeps it from bouncing around as much on bumpy terrain.  And Madsen has confirmed via Twitter that their new model kickstand is "upgraded and improved, [with] new factory, bolted-on rubber feet, [and a] solid rod stop pin."  Along with the new parking brake feature, this sounds like a rock solid way to load rambunctious cargo.


In other news, TBR fabricated rain cover v2.0 for a neighbor to the north.  Brynnen Ford and her kids use their e-assist Madsen year-round on the hills of Seattle.  (Thanks for sending these photos, Brynnen!)

This one is a bit taller than our original and incorporates hi-viz fabric and a Scotchlite-trimmed porthole on the back. The passengers love it!

Any other thoughts on the new Madsen model and accessories?  I'd like to see that rear rack in my stocking at Christmas!

Playdates

I think this is the first time we've ever had four people in the bucket.  Playdates are easy with the Madsen because you don't have to worry about carseat swapping; just bring your helmet!  There was much laughter and potty jokes coming from under the rain cover on the ride to our house...ah, kids.

We've kept the rain cover on pretty much every day since we made it.  It hasn't seen much rain, but works great when it does.

Bike'n'trike derbys on the patio are becoming part of the daily routine, rain or shine.  I memorialized the occasion with a chalk drawing.  Long live the Bucket Bike!

Dry Run

Today was the first ride with our new DIY rain cover.  It wasn't raining, but 40°F and damp would have to do.  The kids were so excited that they practically tripped over one another running out to the garage.  There was quite a bit of giggling en route to pre-school while they played with the camera and read books.  Compared to our normal ride, I couldn't tell that the cover was on, but the kid noise was slightly muffled. (I'm putting that in the pro column.)  It looks big, but it doesn't have a profile much wider than my body, so any added drag was unnoticeable.

The kids arrived warm and dry, I didn't have to spend five minutes pre-ride finding hats, gloves, scarves, etc. for each one, and the van stayed parked in the garage the whole time.  Win Win Win.

Madsen Rain Cover

This is our first attempt at a rain cover for our MADSEN kg271 bucket bike.  We wanted something simple, inexpensive, light, and hopefully durable (i.e. kid-proof.) that would keep the kids warm and dry for short trips around town on the rainiest of days.

The support frame is made from two pieces of 1/2" electrical conduit coupled together, so it's modular for summer storage.  The frame sits in the bucket on top of the seats.  The cover is primarily Sunbrella fabric, a light awning material, with zippered vinyl windows.  The nylon strap, sewn into the bottom of the cover and fastened under the lip of the bucket, keeps the whole thing in place.



Conception and production was a group effort.  Many thanks to my dad for helping with the pipe bending, and many many thanks to my wife for showing off hew prowess with a sewing machine.  Hat tip to Crow for sending us to Seattle Fabrics - they had everything but the conduit!

Unless the weather is too nice, we'll have a full review soon.  What do you think?