Skills

My son and I had a day off together a bit ago.  The weather was nice and I was organized enough to have everything in the bike in time to drop sissy off at school and stop by a cafe to get a snack for him and coffee for me.  We tried out Boxcar since it was close to our route and a friend mentioned that he's had some good coffee there (and yes, we're both coffee snobs of sorts so good really does mean good).  They've improved since they first opened their storefront.  They still have a bit more fluff to their preparation than is truly necessary but if you're into the vest and bow tie with waxed mustache kind of place then check them out.  Probably the only place that makes cowboy coffee a technical affair.  On my son's side of the table the snack was good but his opinion is that they don't know how to steam milk.  If you can't put a swirl of honey on top it's not foamy enough!  Espresso is decent.  Not the best but far from the worst.  We parked in front next to another Xtra built up with Albatros bars.  First time I've seen another with them.  We had a fun chat, good food and headed to the bike park to the chorus of "when can I ride my bike?".  I always trailer his bike until we are in the neighborhoods or on the path.  Call me paranoid but traffic in this town and a 4 year old don't match in my book.

My boy is more into the bike park than I am but it's a great place to work on riding skills.  He's still not willing to ride up or down anything taller than a foot or so.  Today would show some progress with that but he still just likes to cruise.  Maybe he's just a cross country rider like I used to prefer.  His favorite ride at the park points to this but then again he isn't old enough for the DJ part of the park.  When (and I'm hoping IF) he is old enough for that I think I may elect to stay home.  He freaks me out enough with the way he rides what he does.

The one thing he doesn't worry me about anymore is his ability to keep to his side of the path or road.  He sort of just got it the other day I guess.  He still wanders once in a while but he seems to know it and self corrects most of the time.  Not that I'm going to start running him through the traffic circles yet.  We did a fun ride with his sister's school and part of it was on the road.  He did better than a lot of the kids twice his age.  The result is that we can ride the paths an look around a bit now.  I don't feel like I have to constantly monitor his line and worry about the oncoming bikes.  I think this has helped him on the single track as well or maybe it's the other way around.  Doesn't matter much.  It's just fun to see him making progress.  He's a pretty amazing rider for a 4 year old anyway so I'm not complaining.

Into Every Season A Little Rain Must Fall

We're into our spring cycle of rain now.  April was the snowiest we've had in something like 100 years and May started out with a foot as well.  Safe to say we're done with commuting in the snow for this season.  That said, the rain is here for a bit.  I pushed the envelope the other day with my son on the way to school and suited up halfway there in full rain gear (for him, not me.  I foolishly left my rain pants at home).  The funny thing is I don't think he would have minded getting wet if he could have gotten his face out of the rain.  He was tucked in behind me but ended up miserable and cold when we got there.  I felt bad but at the same time it left me wondering how and when can I get the kids to just deal with the wet and not worry about it.  I kind of feel like it isn't about getting out of the wet and cold but more getting them to endure it.  My daughter won't get on the bike if there is the slightest rumble of thunder (not a bad thing really but a couple of times we could have dashed home between showers if she was willing) and my son just doesn't like to get his face wet.  It's a conundrum I'm sure not to solve any time soon if ever.  I know they will outgrow it either by time or from repetition but the weather seems to be the biggest hurdle in bike living and it's something I never thought about before we started this journey.

How I learned to love my Xtracycle

Two things.  1. I love cargo bikes.  I think they are the answer to much in urban cycling and family car lite living.  2. Xtracycles are my least favorite cargo bike after the Kona Ute/Minute.  There, I said it.  I really don't like the whole Free Radical conversion system.  So, why do I own two?  Dinero!  That is about the only reason in today's world.  I bought my first one used back when the Free Radical was pretty radical and represented the only option I'd ever seen or found for sale.  I got it built on a very small Trek 980 for $250.  The second one I bought a few months ago as the Free Radical only for $250 because we kind of need two cargo bikes now.  Kids are growing up (read, getting heavier) and we are doing more and more on the bike that requires bringing stuff.  Because I work on my own bikes and because I have a few boxes of random and old parts (not old enough to be vintage the vintage bike folks tell me.....which means they aren't worth squat) I have not had to put much if any extra money into building things up.  Bars, tires, chains and cables constitute about the only outlay I've had to contend with.  So, in all reality I've spent less than half and almost a quarter of the cost of a Mundo.  But, if I had it all to do over.........  well, I'd be on my way to the local spot that sells Yuba Mundos.  I I had it to do over AND I had an unlimited budget I'd have bought or built a box bike but that's another story.

But this isn't a post about how I did it but rather about why I love my second to least favorite cargo bike option.  I'll leave off bashing the Ute.  I have my reasons.  No point in that.  With the Xtracycle build we have on our old Bridgestone MB we are able to take the kids everywhere we want in town.  We've gone to only driving when the weather is too nasty or cold to put 2 kids on the back of the bike, out of town trips and the grocery store once a week (true, we could bike that trip too.  We do often but for some reason most of the time we drive).  When we lived 10 minutes outside of town before we had kids we filled our tank with diesel once a week.  Now we fill it once a month.  That 75% reduction is with two kids under 10.  I'm pretty happy about that and that's why I have learned to stop looking at cargo bike options and just ride the Xtracycle I have.  It works quite well for what it is.  Has proved more than durable and carries a combined weight of 100 lbs of kids and cargo adequately.  I used to urge folks who asked me to get the Mundo or at least the Big Dummy but now I always follow that up with a caveat about cost.  The less than $1,000 we have into our cargo bike solution has saved us 40 tanks of diesel in a year.  We've been using the bikes exclusively with the kids for almost 3 years now (before a year and a half ago it was the trailer for the kid over 1 but too young to sit the back of the bike hooked to the back of the Xtra or the "big train" of tag-a-long with trailer).  If I use a conservative figure of $3/gallon, which is $1 less than we pay today, and the 40 tank/year savings I come up with a bit over $4,000 savings (12 gallons per tank, 40 tanks saved per year for 3 years).  That comes out to $120 a month, which aint chump change.  Funny, that would pay for two Mundo bikes with bags and stuff.  Even if I subtract the cost of the Xtracycles and stuff I still come out way ahead.  If that isn't enough to motivate me to keep on the car lite path, nothing will (the nice parts like getting to ride my bike more and being outside are kind of gratis reasons really).