As you can see, we have a new bike rack and cargo box. This is significantly larger than our old one. We made a quick trip to Quebec a couple of weeks ago to pick it up.
There's a bit of story here. About two years ago, we wanted a better bike rack. It had to be able to be moved out of the way in order to access the rear storage compartment. The best alternative we knew of was the Stowaway swing-away rack, but we didn't want a hanging rack and it would be nice to be able have a cargo box as well. I figured I could build something so we got a Stowaway frame and added a platform and bike rack. That worked pretty well on our first trip to Gaspé. When we were at Safari Condo looking at their vans, we spied the box we now have but figured that since we had the swing-away frame already, we could build something similar, which we did using the frame, an aluminum truck box and roll-on bike racks on top, ending up with our old box and rack. It served us well for a couple of years.
Moving forward to this year...as we were making plans for the Alaska trip with Harry & Sally, they expressed an interest in building a box like ours. As an example, I pointed them to the nicoVA Combo box (the one in the picture), pointing out that it was rather pricey and ours was much less expensive to build. Unexpectedly, they decided to go with the Combo box and went up to the builder in Quebec to pick it up.
When they came back with it, Ellen took one look at it and fell hard for it. Who was I to argue? It is much larger than my home-built box and the swing out mechanism allows the box to clear the van, something to old box didn't do with new Speedy, this meant we couldn't open one of the back doors all the way. So it was our turn to call the guys at nicoVA and order one. We also got to drive to Quebec and back overnight (in the rain) to pick it up.
This was an interesting trip. It is about six hours from Cohasset to Saint-Pie-de-Guire, Quebec, the location of nicoVA. They are located in the middle of a farm which is also a sculpture park, Mouvement ESSARTS The company is run by two young men. Their parents are artists, the father is a sculptor, the mother a stained glass artist. Over the past 15 years, they have collected and created about 40 large outdoor sculptures in a wooded garden. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty steadily while we were there and only had a quick glance at the sculptures.
We left Cohasset in the morning and got to nicoVA by mid-afternoon, so by the time they completed and installed our box it was a bit too late to head back. They were kind enough to let us stay across the road by a private aircraft hanger. They also have a grass landing strip between the farm fields. We started back early the next morning and were back in Cohasset by mid-afternoon...with our new cargo box and bike rack, which is now filled and ready to go.
I was able to sell the old one to a young couple from New Jersey, who also drove up to pick it up.
Moving forward to this year...as we were making plans for the Alaska trip with Harry & Sally, they expressed an interest in building a box like ours. As an example, I pointed them to the nicoVA Combo box (the one in the picture), pointing out that it was rather pricey and ours was much less expensive to build. Unexpectedly, they decided to go with the Combo box and went up to the builder in Quebec to pick it up.
When they came back with it, Ellen took one look at it and fell hard for it. Who was I to argue? It is much larger than my home-built box and the swing out mechanism allows the box to clear the van, something to old box didn't do with new Speedy, this meant we couldn't open one of the back doors all the way. So it was our turn to call the guys at nicoVA and order one. We also got to drive to Quebec and back overnight (in the rain) to pick it up.
This was an interesting trip. It is about six hours from Cohasset to Saint-Pie-de-Guire, Quebec, the location of nicoVA. They are located in the middle of a farm which is also a sculpture park, Mouvement ESSARTS The company is run by two young men. Their parents are artists, the father is a sculptor, the mother a stained glass artist. Over the past 15 years, they have collected and created about 40 large outdoor sculptures in a wooded garden. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty steadily while we were there and only had a quick glance at the sculptures.
We left Cohasset in the morning and got to nicoVA by mid-afternoon, so by the time they completed and installed our box it was a bit too late to head back. They were kind enough to let us stay across the road by a private aircraft hanger. They also have a grass landing strip between the farm fields. We started back early the next morning and were back in Cohasset by mid-afternoon...with our new cargo box and bike rack, which is now filled and ready to go.
I was able to sell the old one to a young couple from New Jersey, who also drove up to pick it up.
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