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