Time wiles away

This blog thing is kind of hard.  I thought I had a lot to say when I started this gig but it sort of fizzled away.  Funny thing that.  My thoughts turned back to this blog lately because I've been on the bike more than usual.  My office was moved and instead of a casual 1 mile ride downtown I've been "gifted" about double that.  On the plus side I get to ride a nice route but on the negative side it takes me to the east edge of town to the world of office parks.  I haven't worked in a corporate setting for going on 20 years and let me tell you it's a shock.  I've been having to re-dedicate myself to the bike.  Even in sub-zero or heavy snow storms I could muddle the mile to my old office.  I didn't have to ride any major streets and traffic on the neighborhood streets was always light.  Now I have a short half mile jaunt on a major arterial before I can duck off onto a path that runs along what used to be a creek.  I'ts actually a nice ride and I have been welcoming the extra time on the bike.  The cold and snow is harder to navigate now.  We went through a week of below zero weather earlier this month and I ended up driving the whole time.  Part of it was because I was remiss to expose my kids to walking to school in those temperatures but part of it was the realization that the extra distance makes it harder to ride the fringe weather conditions.  I've some remembering to do before I get back to the every day winter riding.

Quite a few years ago I committed to myself to ride to work every day for a year....rain or shine.  Back then I had something like a 6 mile commute one way and I gritted my teeth and did it.  I even continued the habit for a while after.  I was also in my 20's and in considerably better shape than I am now.  Back then I rode my mountain bike and dealt with the bad roads just fine.  Today I ride a cross bike and I have to say I miss the wide tires when the snow starts to pack on the roads.  I've been considering trading in the old cross check for a karate monkey or some such steel 29'er.  A new bike.  A new commute.  Sounds like a match made in heaven to me.  Anyway, here's to renewed commitments and more time on the bike.

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).

Today is a gift

You know, sometimes we need a reminder.  Maybe we need a reminder that being kind creates a wealth we can not measure.  Sometimes we need a reminder of the cruelty of the world.  Today I was reminded that we are given droplets of time that are gifts like gleaming emeralds in the rain.  School has been hard for my son the last bit.  Mama going to work has been hard for him too.  He's been hitting some big growth spurts and it seems like now he's in the middle of a big emotional/intellectual one.  His emotions are close to the surface and they consume him at a moments notice.  Sometime without any notice.  He and I have been working through the school drop off transition with lots of tears and hugs.  I know he'll come through it just like his sister did at this age.  It's still hard.  Probably harder for me since I remember going through the same thing and his fear is contagious.  Today we played a lot before leaving and I talked about what we were going to do.  "We'll get on the bike after we swing a bit", "We'll ride the bike up to the busy street and then up the hill".  Dialogue like that.  It's more background chatter but those in the know always say that kids like to know what's coming.  Makes sense to me.  Today  when I mentioned the bike he perked up.  "Can I ride my bike?".....um.....  I didn't have a good answer.  He's only been riding a pedal bike for a month or so.  The street is kind of busy.  There are four way stops.  As I ran through all this in my head I realized he could really use a confidence boost.  He's never ridden his bike to school.  He rode his scoot bike to the farmer's market once but I walked with him on the sidewalk.  This was kind of a big moment for both of us.  He was actively taking an interest in how we got somewhere.  My idea was that we could tow his bike off the back of the xtracycle until we got past the busy areas.  I wish I had a picture of it.  It was brilliant.  After we unhooked his bike and I was watching him ride the path along the community gardens I realized what a gift this was to me and to him.  I said "Hey, you're bike commuting".  To which he replied "What's commuting?". Silly papa, kids don't care about that kind of stuff.  That's OK.  I care enough for both of us.

Summer and Recovery

I realized that it has been months since I posted.  It isn't like there has been a ton going on and I have been too busy to do anything.  Quite the contrary actually!  What with three months of recovery from a collar bone that became disassociated from itself multiple times (i.e. broken to bits and dislocated on one end) and a nice family vacation on the beach there hasn't been much riding going on from my end.  I never imagined it would take so long to get back to things from a broken collar bone but injuries have that way of forcing you to reinvent yourself.  I took the bus a lot.  I wore a fanny pack instead of a backpack.   I walked my daughter to school.  My son and I took the bus to school.  Took a bit longer but we played and talked more.  It was a golden tinged silver lining.  Frustrating at times but a rather wonderful time.  I kind of got out of the habit of riding or maybe I should say I got out of the habit of thinking of riding for everything I can.  It was a strange switch.  I found myself walking or jumping on the bus before getting the bike after I was back on two wheels.  Habits are funny things.  So is a shoulder full of screws and plates.

Now that we're all back riding and summer is full upon us we, as a family, have learned some things.  First and foremost we've learned to hate the tag-a-long and the trailer.  The tag isn't much fun to ride really (from the perspective of the pilot) and the trailer is bouncy (from the passenger's view) and antisocial (from the pilot's view).  The long tail has been more of a revelation that we realized.  So much so that we really "need" a second one.  I'm convinced of this to the extent that I'm willing to sell all but my road bike to get one with the understanding that it will be my daily bike.  Yes, I really just said "sell everything".  It would be rather refreshing actually to just have a long tail and a road bike.  What with the kids having bikes now and my wife riding the xtra or her townie we have a fairly full stable.  replacing a buggy, trailer and tag with a single bike would save some space (which we don't have much of really).  The long tail bike has allowed to feel freer to just jump on and go somewhere and we can talk while we ride.  The communication part is pretty big.  It allows us to share what we see and for the kids to feel like they are a part of the ride and not just baggage.

The other thing we learned is that family vacations are invaluable.  Our two week trip to the beach showed how close our kids are to each other and how resilient we all can be if we want to.  We drove..... for three days....with two kids under 6.  We also did it without movies, video games or computers.  We played games, sang songs and listened to books on tape or read books aloud.  Some would say it was a retro road trip.  I'd take credit if I could but we don't have any of those things in our daily life anyway so it wasn't that hard.  It's more of a reminder that kids don't need all that stuff and neither do adults.  The drive was kind of like while my collar bone was busted up.  We reinvented ourselves.  We compromised.   It's kind of like being a bike-centric family.  It is all a balance with a goal in mind.  For our drive the goal was dipping our toes in the Pacific (or getting home coming the other direction).  For our daily life on the bike the goal is different but it still motivates us and inspires us.

Happy March

In our neck of the woods March came in like a lamb.  More like a summer lamb to be specific.  The crocus are  in full bloom and the trees are budding.  Yesterday was a short sleeve sunny respite from winter.  My wife rode the xtra for the first time with first one kids (morning drop off) and then both kids (afternoon pickup).  My daughter wore a short sleeve dress.  I was working at home all day while we had some tile work done and watched happily as they zoomed down the street all smiles.  My daughter picked out short tights last night to wear.  Spring feels like it is here.

Then we woke up this morning and looked outside.  Spring is most definitely here!  With a vengeance.  30 degrees, foggy and freezing drizzle.  Ah, spring in our neck of the woods has arrived.  So, happy spring.  I'm going to go dig my rain pants back out of the bottom of the backpack before I head to the office.  Oh, and where did I put that down jacket?

As a side note.  The kids remain ecstatic about riding the xtracycle.  It has been pressed into use as much as possible since it was complete.  There are a couple of gremlins to work out still though.  First, the rear derailer  seems a bit weak.  When you back pedal the chain sags and skips off the cogs.  Gotta just go buy a new one or see if the local community bike place has something.  Second, the rear bars are not as solid as I'd like.  I used an old specialized stem I inherited from a friend.  It's this ridiculous 120 or 130mm length and it is titanium.   The metal alone is probably worth more than the stem but it ended up being long enough for a stoker setup.  I tried aluminum can strips but the needed shim size was too big for that.  I ended up cutting strips from a left over length of galvanized heat ducting that was headed to the recycling bin.  Still, three layers just barely made it.  It could use another but the metal is so springy it is hard to get it wrapped and the stem over it before the whole thing comes undone.  a proper shim would be the way to go but the seatpost/stem combo doesn't yield a premanufactured one.  Third, I mucked the headset when I put it in and of course now I'm having issues with that.  Trying to do things on the cheap.  I kind of miss the old stuff that was heavy enough to be put on with a block of wood and a mallet (yea, I know you were never supposed to do that).  Time to source another 1" threadless.

On to the next project though.....

All A Matter Of Perspective

So the xtracycle is complete.  We took it to the park over the weekend.  One of those gorgeous winter days that feels like spring.  We had a picnic.  We played without jackets on.

So here's the interesting thing.  The kids were absolutely ecstatic about riding.  Neither the trailer nor the tag-a-long have ever elicited a response like the ride to the park.  They were a chatter the entire way there pointing thing out, commenting on how well they could see around them, how nice it was to be riding...um, we ride all the time kids....a point that seems to be lost on them.  I don't know if it is the novelty of the "new" ride or the ride itself but time will tell on that suit.

I picked my daughter up from school on Monday on the xtra and zoomed to the pool.  Much nicer than the tag-a-long ever was.  A bike-geeky moment ensued.  "look daddy, she has the same bike as us" one of her class mates said as we loaded up.  Our school has a nice representation of utility bikes.  There were three lined up Monday.  In the summer I've seen 5 or 6 at a time.  A sight to warm my heart. As far as I'm concerned we should sell the trailer and tag and get another utility bike.  Weather is the only bugbear.  The trailer for all that I don't like about it does provide a dry (mostly) environment for the kids.  It's also warmer.  What is one to do?  I don't have the capacity for the thought process on that one.  I've always been of a mind to just say "it's raining".....we all know that ain't going to cut it in the long run.

Anyway, the "new" bike is well worth it.  I actually have had the whole thing for quite some time but it's been in the rebuild pile for a couple of years.  My son is still a bit young to ride alone on the back so it hasn't been an issue yet as it were.  Now he keeps asking to ride the xtra.  Maybe we should bag the trailer...

Bicycles Excepted

For all my grumbling about having to drive the car when the roads are too crummy to put the kids in the trailer/tag-a-long train I have to admit that I really don't have anything to complain about.  Despite the few days a year we have to (or choose to) use the car I bet I get to ride the kids around over 90% of the time.  Not bad really.  Today was one of those crummy road days but crummy enough that school was closed.  So was the university, the county offices and a whole host of other stuff.  The snow was brushing the tops of my gaiters when I carried my bike to to the road.  The streets were pretty much mine on the way into the office (hey, don't I get a snow day too?).  It was one of those magical snow storms that come in slowly, dump a ton of fluff and then depart rather quietly.  The temperatures have stayed right about freezing so once the roads and walks are cleared they pretty much stay that way.  It was a day of exceptions.

It is has been a good reminder that the bicycle-centric (or maybe it's better to say low impact or something like that since it's really more than the bike) nature of our life is still an exception.  Even in the bicycle heavy town we live in we're still kind of seen a freaks.  It's heartwarming to me when I drop my daughter at school to see how many other families ride for transportation but then again, when the weather gets crummy the attendance, shall we say, gets light.  There is another family that I see on a pretty regular basis and even on days when we use the car.  They have a nice Kona Ute set up with wooden seat on back and they seem to be on the same wavelength as us.  It's nice to know we're not alone.  I often think of them when I pull the bikes out in the morning.  Sometimes it serves as motivation.

Latest Project

Working on a family cargo bike.  I've had it languishing for quite some time but it's been on the stand for a couple of weeks and I've been picking at it here and there.  Down to the chain and then all the adjustments.  It's  a 1993 Bridgestone MB-3 that's been powder coated international orange.  Reminiscent of the old X0 bikes.  I've had the xtracycle parts laying around waiting for this frame.  It used to be built up on an old Trek frame that was some ridiculously small size.  Wasn't very useful that way so this should give us some more options.  I'd like a porteur rack for it eventually but for now we'll just get it on the road.  This is the older version of the free radical without any fender mounts so I'm kind of trying to figure out how to put that together without buying stuff.  Unfortunately it's sitting in front of another unfinished project.....

Winter

Well, it's not exactly winter yet.  Or, I should say, it's fall by the calendar but it's winter by the weather.  Our second snow of the year was a 15" tree snapping cold spell that drove us to the car for a week of commuting.  Kind of a rude awakening to the change of seasons.  The good news is I actually got my new tires mounted and won't be repeating last year's slog through the deep stuff in semi-bald semi-slicks.  I put the knobbiest widest cross tires I could find on the old surly and now I can ride down and up the hill by the house in the snow (they are Kenda Kross Supremes).  I've taken a hit on rolling resistance and I may change the gearing out because of that but it's nice to be more sure footed.  I've missed the mountain bike tires I used to run on my old commuter since switching to the cross bike and these new ones make a nice replacement.  Unfortunately I think they have been discontinued which will pose an issue when they wear out.  I'm thinking I may need to mount up a second set of wheels because once winter is over I'm not sure I want to run these.  Only catch is I had to muck with the fenders to get them to fit but there haven't been any issues otherwise.


Oh, so a couple of comments on the front rack.  It's awesome.  I've used it 2-3 times a week since I put it on.  I don't miss the basket at all.  The cam strap holds anything on I can carry and stows fine for everyday riding.  I've been putting a 20 lb box of apples on every Saturday at the farmer's market and have not had a single problem.  No sway or flex and handling is normal for a loaded bike.  I can't imagine a commuter without a porteur rack now.  I put my pack on it this morning after dropping my son at school and was reminded how nice it is to have the weight off my back.  I usually just throw my pack on after taking it out of the trailer but this morning it was cold and having my puffy jacket still puffy across my back and shoulders was awfully nice.  It's all about staying warm this time of year!

Staying warm has actually been our new challenge.  Last winter we just didn't ride when the temps dropped but this year we're trying to push that boundary a bit.  Yesterday was 19 and this morning was 22.  Hats under the helmets have not been accepted very well.  The discomfort has been the leading complaint.  I think my daughter's helmet is actually too small now for any extra layers.  Problem is that regular hats are so bulky.  The second problem is that the fancy thin and warm skull caps that the bike world has to offer are adult sized (and cost cycling world prices).  I'm on a quest to find decent under-helmet hats for the kids.  Might have to make them ourselves in the end but I'll look for a bit first.  Sewing hats isn't high on my list right now and I don't think a knit hat will do the trick.  My wife suggested just buying adult caps and altering them for the kids.  Not a bad idea except I'm not sure we can do it elegantly and in the end with the little ones that is sometimes more important.  If it fits them well and doesn't produce the "it's uncomfortable" comment that's worth more than you can imagine.

Pressure

OK, so Occam's razor slapped me in the face this morning.  For a few days I've been feeling like I'm peddling in mud.  I wrote it off to being tired and the family cold going around.  Um, did you check your tire pressure lately?  15lbs in the trailer, 25 in the bike.  Fixed that and it feels like I just shed 20 pounds.  Arg, sometimes the obvious stuff kind of creeps up on you.  Bike maintenance has never been my strong suit.  Or, I should say, the regularity of it is not my strong suit.  I'm really pretty decent at it when I actually do it.  This spring it took my wife commenting that someone needed to bomb my bike with some tri-flow.  Today it took actually checking the tires.  You'd think I'd learn.  Guess this is a reminder to me and to others that when your car turns into a bike you really should spend a little more attention on maintaining those two wheels and a seat.

About a month and a half in...

Well, we're about a month and a half into our "new" commuting schedule.  Whew.  Overall I have to say it's going well.  It's been a little bit of a test of my resolve as the weather has started to change.  We've had some blips and I drove the car once so I could drop it at the shop for annual maintenance after dropping my daughter at school.  It wasn't the best transition and the route from the shop to school was a bit dicey.  We had to run a few blocks on the sidewalk to avoid some traffic that was too heavy for a trailer with a 2 year old in it.  The whole time my son kept asking me "why are we on the sidewalk?".  Oh well, we worked it out and my son had a fun morning taking a new route and getting to see an auto shop.  Something that was pretty much a standard for me as a kid and which will be a much smaller part of his life if we continue on this path we're going down.

We've found that while my daughter is a great bike rider she isn't so great when there is a bunch of traffic around.  We've had some attention span issues and so we've settled on riding on the sidewalk for a bit.  Not the easiest solution when I have the trailer as well but it works.  The funny thing is she used to refuse to ride in the trailer anymore but now she like it.  The two of them squeezed into the little buggy is endearing and really heavy!  It's kind of fun having them in one place.  I can hear both of them talk and they can play together (mostly :). 

The bike discussions are weaving back towards a box bike though.  The constant hooking-up and un-hooking wears on you after a while.  My wife was the first to bring it up and I had to concur.  I'm convinced there isn't a perfect solution short of both parents riding box bikes.  The kids and the right bike are always in different places.  In reality I don't know that spending the money on a box bike is in our future (let alone 2).  We have the money from our second vehicle stashed away but it would just barely cover a new box bike (like used ones are available anyway around here!).  It's a hard balance.  Do you save the money and just deal with what you have or do you make the jump to a family bike?  I'd say it's worth getting a family bike is the way to go if you have the money.  If not, the used trailer and tag-a-long is such an affordable option it's hard to pass up.  That said, as the kids grow the need changes.  I've been doing well with the trailer, panniers and front rack for heavy hauling with one kid in back.  There are easier solutions but it's what I'm doing now.  We'll just keep at it and look to our creativity as the situation changes.  The real need right now is bike storage.

We've never had a garage.  Never really needed or wanted one.  It always seems that our friend's garages don't store cars.  They store stuff.  No one needs to store that much stuff in my opinion.  Then again, we don't tend to have that much anyway so maybe I'm biased.  We do know one family who is the exception.  Their garage has bikes in it.  Bikes and trailers and such.  It's rather grand.  They have two big bikes at work trailers they use for their business and all the other various bike stuff.  At this point in our lives if we had a garage something tells me that is what ours would look like.  Problem is we can't build one because there isn't space.  We've thought about a shed attached to the side of the house, renovating our garden shed to be weather tight and secure enough to store bikes in and we've talked about bike lockers in the driveway.  The bike lockers are the best idea but then I looked at how much they cost!  Yikes.  I'd like to just build a bike sized shed at the end of our driveway but I need to talk to the building permit people first.  The city might not like the idea even thought they should.  I mean, it's a billboard for sustainability.  The craziest idea I've had is to get an enclosed trailer and just park it on the street or in the driveway and store the bikes in that.  Simple, cheap if you can find a used one and about as weather tight and secure as anything I can build.  That and we could use it for car trips.  Just throw in the camping gear and hey, you've got your bike along too!

Somehow we need to solve the storage issue before long.  With two commuters, two kid's bikes, a tag-a-long and a trailer the little area we have for bikes is getting crowded.  I won't mention the other bikes lying around.

A week of transportation

School is upon us!  For us this is a new deal.  Our daughter started kindergarten on Wednesday and we walked down in a big group from the neighborhood.  Friday we met three other kids/dads on the corner and rode the bikes down.  It's an unbelievably refreshing thing to ride in a pack kids.  More exhilarating and in many ways more tiring than a 8 man group ride on the racing bikes.  This was my daughter's first group ride I guess :).  She did great.  I took her backpack to make the whole thing easier but in hindsight I don't think it was necessary.  However, it gave me a chance to use my new rack (courtesy of a generous deal from Rack n Roll).  It has taken me a little time to get it on the bike but I've been using it for a couple of days now and this is the first real bulky item to have graced it.  School bag strapped on awfully nicely.  Wrap the straps around the front, cinch it down with a cam strap and away we go.  I've been contemplating mounting the old Wald basket to it but I'm not convinced as yet.  Having a narrower platform on the front is nice especially when taking the front wheel on and off.  Anyway, the rack was great, the weight was un-noticed, and the ride went great all around.  On the way home I stacked my bag under hers and it was perfect. Can't do that with a basket for sure.

So the week went by and we survived the car-light beginning to school.  This is why we moved into town and paid a premium for our house.  The ability to, as a community, walk or bike to school as a group is worth quite a bit to me.  It was an experience that I hope the kids remember as they get older.  My daughter is very adamant now that she wants to ride her bike and not the tag-a-long to school.  Now that she's been initiated into riding on the road with cars around we may be able to move my son to the tag-a-long next summer and not need the trailer.  I'm sure there will still be times when she uses the tag but most of our trips are under 2 miles so going to the park or a friend's house is all possible on bikes now in a way that wasn't with the tag or trailer because she's the one doing it.

Of Bakfeits, Xtracycles, tag-a-longs and trailers (oh my!)

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage.  Then what do you do?  I'm not speaking metaphorically.  I'm talking transportation and I'm not one to drive much if I can help it.  So, does one sell a car and buy an expensive cargo bike?  Well, we wanted to.  Haven't managed that one yet.  Well, selling the car part happened but it seems like a luxury to spend thousands on a family bike.  So, I've read reviews, dreamed of bakfiets and own an xtracycle (which is still in pieces as part of a rebuilt.....) but funny thing is for a few years now the trailer and tag-a-long has been the family car.  Personally, I don't much like it.  It's heavy, unwieldy and just plain goofy.  Although it is nice to get a cheer once in a while from someone who appreciates seeing the family bike effort (at least I hope it's a cheer and not a jeer!).  Lately though my opinion has been changing.  Here's why.  Our daughter is starting Kindergarten in the fall (yikes, that's less than a month off!!!) and until now brother and sister have been going to the same school.  Now they won't for a couple of years.  So, we have a 1.6 mile commute right now and it's mostly on paths or back streets.  Very nice.  Next month we add a stop that just happens to be in the other direction.  We'll drop off at kindergarten first, then preschool.  At the end of the day it's kindergarten and then preschool again for pick up.  Seems simple right?  Well, if we were riding a bakfiets then it actually gets complicated.  The end destination (preschool) is where the family bike would be left but it's the second stop on pick up and the farthest point from my or my wife's place of work.  With the big train of tag-a-long and trailer we can leave the respective parts with the respective kids.  It actually works out better in the end.  It's still heavy and unwieldy but it's easy to organize.  Of course, as a friend of mine in CA would say, we could just buy two bakfiets!  Elegant solution for sure but at the current going price for something like a CETMA that would be roughly $6,000 all told.  Two xtracycles start to make more sense.  Anyway, enough rambling.  Based on practice and cash we'll just keep doing what we're doing.  Still, it's fun to figure other ways.

One Less Car

Sometimes it's hard to put your money where your mouth is.  We've been a two car family since before there were kids in that spare bedroom.  It started when my wife was in graduate school and started taking a class three nights a week.  We lived outside town a little bit and I got kind of tired of not having a vehicle.  Funny thing is if we'd lived in town where we do now it would have never crossed my mind since we don't drive much anyway these days.  Anyway, that second car turned into a beat up old pickup after we bought the house.  That was truly a useful choice other than the rattle and leak that was that old Chevy.  When some friends moved away and offered to sell us their big Ford that could seat 6 for a more than reasonable price we decided it would be nice to have some extra room since we kept a truck as our second car anyway.  Geez that thing got terrible gas mileage!  We drove it out of town once and used something on the order of 5 times as much fuel as our little diesel wagon.  Maybe extra room isn't so important.  Well, for all the convenience of having a truck (and we really did use it for truck type stuff) we've finally plunged back into being a single car family.  It was actually harder than I thought it would be to make that final decision.  It was also completely worth it.  We joined the local car share so we can still use a truck if we really need one or if we need two cars every once in a while.  So, here's to one less car!  If your on the edge, dive in.  It's surprising how much lighter you feel without that second car sitting there.

Sobering Morning

I've no idea the details of what happened but my morning ride was brought down a few notches.  There was an accident and a fire truck was blocking off half the intersection with cones put out to direct traffic.  It looked like they had been there a while.  I had seen an ambulance come up the street.  Normal driving, no lights, etc. so either no one was in it or they weren't hurt bad.....I don't want to think of the alternative.  As I rode by I saw the accident investigation people picking up a bike and trailer to load into the van.  I'm hoping there wasn't a kid in that trailer when the accident happened or that the child was not involved.  Either way my exuberance for my daughter starting to get the hang of riding is a bit on hold.  She's getting good but maybe not as good as I thought.  While her use of the brakes is getting more predictable she still puts both feet down before coming to a complete stop.  In surprise situations she target fixates pretty bad.  All in all she's not ready for riding outside of the protected area we create on our street.  It will be a bit before she rides downtown or to school.

Accidents with or without cars are of course an always present danger.  That doesn't mean I like seeing them.  I'd like seeing them even less if I am involved.  Like any rider I've had my share of accidents and a couple involved cars.  As for car related ones, one was OK but could have been really bad (broadsided by someone rolling through a red light while turning right) and the other was a non-issue (someone pulled out in front of me at a path crossing and I t-boned their back door at slow enough speed I didn't go over the bars).  The others were solo accidents so to speak.  That said, other then the normal crashes kids end up in when doing anything physical we've been very fortunate.  We stick to the side roads and paths where possible.  I'm far more careful when pulling the trailer than when I ride solo.  Well, maybe not more careful but we ride slower and take more time at stop signs.

What does it all mean?  I'm not sure.  Accidents happen.  Should that stop me riding or my kids riding?  No.  Should it reinforce careful habits?  For sure.  I hope everyone in the accident this morning is OK and I hope it was truly and accident and not some bonehead move on someone's part.  I still hope they are OK if that's the case.

Why Ride?

I was able to combine the free time (lunch hour) and the motivation (70 degrees and sunny) together today to get out for a "real" ride.  Haven't been on the road bike for a few months and it's been grating on me.  I've been itching to get out and today I realized why.  There is no real substitute for the head space found 10 miles down the road.  Any road.  Being an early season ride there was the normal discomfort and pain.  It felt like there is lead in my wheels.  Overall it was a perfect ride.  As the season wears on it won't feel any different but that doesn't matter either.  If I can get out once a week I'm pretty happy.

So, part of what I garnered from today was a reminder of why I ride a bike.  The other was perspective on something that has bugged me for some time.  Not like it's a big deal but it's one of those niggling things like why people put handlebars barely wide enough to fit their hands on their fixie.....but never on any other bike.  Anyway, I realized there are two broad categories of cyclists.  Those that love to ride and those that love to compete.  In my town with the high concentration of cyclists, and a good part of them professional, I've met a few that have hung up the cleats so to speak and sold everything and walked away from riding.  I've never understood that.  I kind of thought that if you were a competitive cyclist then you loved to ride and the competition was secondary.  From my perspective this makes complete sense......warped though my perspective may be.  I have an easier time relating to those that simply love to ride and can't do without it.  I don't get the competitive angle anyway so I'm at a disadvantage there to start with.

And then it clicked

Sometimes the biggest lesson we can learn from our kids is to step back.  When it comes to skiing and cycling I've been a bit ahead of the curve with the kids.  At least with my first one.  I put her on skis earlier than I was on them.  Point of pride?  Probably.  We bought a run bike for her.  It was a big moment for me.  Her legs were a bit too short but withing a few months she grew into it.  And then took off on it.  She rode it until she was so scrunched up I couldn't figure out how she could be comfortable.  She had a pedal bike; she just didn't get into it like the run bike.  She actually grew out of that bike before she stopped riding the run bike.  Testament to their popularity.  She never had training wheels and never needed them.  She's on a 16" wheel bike now.  Classic kids bike.  It's 1/4 the size of my daily ride and weighs twice a much (OK, maybe an exaggeration).  She's been into the "razor" scooter thing since last fall when a neighbor passed one down to us.  I'm relatively terrified by them.  I've seen far too many close misses and full crashes on those things.  Kids do love them.  My youngest is big on it now.  He's been trying the run bike for a couple of months but his legs a just a bit short.  Just like big sis :)

I've been wondering when and if the bike bug would bite the kids but it seems like it's either a long time coming or has passed us by.  Then three or four evenings ago the strangest thing happened.  My daughter out of the blue looked at me and said "I want to ride my bike".  I paused and asked her if she meant her scooter or run bike but no, she reiterated "BIKE".  Great news for me.  We got on shoes and helmet and dragged the bike out of it's spot, aired up the tires and went out front.  She kind of looked at me as if to say "How do you do this again?" and asked for help starting up and then something magical happened.  She went from wobble to spin and for the last few evenings riding is all she wants to do.  She's getting pretty good.  She's working on the brakes right now.  She still uses her feet like it's a run bike but that's more than OK.  The only important thing is she gets back up when she falls and she is having fun.  The later is probably the single most important thing.  Last fall I pushed the bike and she lost interest.  This spring I never said a word and she initiated it herself and is loving it.

The second evening of riding my son asked to try the run bike.  Knowing his legs are too short I went and got it but didn't say much else.  It seems he went through a growth spurt because last month he could barely tiptoe on it.  Now he's zooming around the street with his sister.  Still a bit tip-toe but he's figured it out and like his sister something clicked for him.  My personal moment of reflection and the one I take out and polish off a couple times a day is when he said "Ride Papa's bike with me?".

Faster than you can imagine I was helmeted up and on the road with both my kids riding down the street.  Next stop.....time will tell.  I do know I'll let them lead the way.

New Bike!

So we bought some new bikes this week.  I added somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 bikes to the stable.  Parking is a problem so I leave them locked up all around town :)  Seriously.  Boulder Bcycle is here.   Now what is a guy like me with as many bikes as I have doing buying membership into a community bike system?  Well, I really believe in it even if I'm rarely without a bike.  I'm impressed with the system.  It's easy.  It's pretty foolproof.  It's neat to have bikes all around that you can use on the spur of the moment.  Today at lunch I was out for a walk/hike and 45 minutes in I walked past a station and figured it was a heck of  a nice day for a ride so out came the card and away I went for a nice spin.  I dropped the bike at another station and walked back through downtown to the office and heck if I didn't have a good time.  Interestingly enough I've had a chance to test out a new porteur rack as part of the deal.  Every Bcycle has a sturdy basket/rack on the front rated to 20lbs.  I throw 20 lbs into my Wald wire basket (not quite a stable as I'd like but I do it) so I'm sure you could put quite a bit more in these but I doubt most people would be used to that weight up front.  I carried a can of paint home yesterday in one.  The first day I used on I threw the backpack in like I do on my bike.  Besides being more stable it rode about the same which I find interesting.  At lunch today I threw in my shirt and phone which is probably more like they intend.
Lessons learned?  My Wald needs some stabilizers.  The paint can would have thrown it for a loop like the flat of cat food did.  The problem with the Wald is that 1) it's wire and inherently flexy and 2) the connection to the bike is really in three independent places.  The two stays that go to the front fork just hold it up and the handlebar straps keep it somewhat in place.  I think a simple U shaped brace that attaches to the brake/fender bolt that then attached to the front underside corners of the basket would make it far more stable.  I'll have to try it sometime.  For now I'm having fun leaving the bike at home and snagging a Bcycle as needed.  There is a station three blocks from my house and one from my office.  Pretty darn convenient.  On days I need to grab the bus at the end of the day I ride a Bcycle to work and then don't have to worry about space on the bus rack!  Nice.  Join up and enjoy the bikes!  Boulder B-Cycle