Longtail bikes are long, regular bikes are short, midtails – well we think they are just right. Goldilocks would have loved them too.
The first modern longtails appeared 1998 when Xtracycle introduced thier attachment which extends a bike by about 1 1/2 feet. For a decade or so it that was the only choice, then in 2007/8/9 Yuba, Kona, Surly and Xtracycle themselves all produced dedicated longtail bikes and the boom began.
The name midtail was coined for the Kinn design by Joseph Ahearne, master framebuilder, no less. I’d just finished the first prototype (with the help of Tom le Bounty) and was arranging for Joseph to build version II. The Bikes project name was the “Midtail Flyer“. Back then there were no such bikes on the the US market*. It was later that year when Kona introduced the Mini Ute and this summer Yuba introduce thier midtail.So with Kinn that makes three. I’d say the midtails have arrived.
* Of course the Dutch had always had such bikes
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