The families were out in full effect today! I wish I had kept count of how many WeeRide bike seats I saw. I even saw one on a beach cruiser with ape hanger handlebars. I also saw lots of trailers, trail-a-bikes, and rear baby seats. So my Cabby was still the coolest thing out there. Our riding today was pretty basic: breakfast run in the morning and playground trip in the afternoon.
Daily distance: 6 miles
Cumulative: 81.1 miles
Yesterday the Cabby was only getting covetous looks by the guys that live under the bridges with their bikes and dogs. Today it was admired by the 20-something beach guys–included a bedredlocked dude called Wiggles on a cute white-with-pink-flowers beach cruiser–who were probably imagining how much beer it could hold. However, we spread the Alternabike love to a few local families who came up to check it out. We also saw several other family biking setups: a couple trailers, an iBert, and a WeeRide. And of course several small doggies in front baskets.
Daily distance: 5.6 miles
Cumulative: 75.1 miles
We’re sitting pretty on a Gazelle Cabby thanks to Alternabike. Early this morning, before getting the bike, we walked a mile and a half along the boardwalk in search of beach toys and coffee and it took soooo long. As soon as we got the bike we took back off down the boardwalk for second breakfast. Much better getting there on two wheels.
Our big adventure of the day was riding to Old Town. The Cabby did great. The only hill was the Mission Bay Drive Bridge which I wasn’t a fan of back in my beach cruiser days, but we muscled up it just fine. It was also my first time on the Ocean Beach Bike Path. It was great being able to travel so much of the way on separated paths.
Unfortunately, we got caught in a rain storm on the way back from Old Town. The baby was miserable as he’s used to being a bit protected from the rain by his Bobike windshield. I was pretty miserable, too. I think if this had happened to me back when I was living in San Diego (not that I would have ventured out given today’s forecast), I would have hidden under a bridge and cried. But it was a brief rain storm and we saw a gorgeous rainbow afterwards.
We stopped for dinner and then swung by the grocery store and I realized my dream of grocery shopping by bike. The kids had to bunch up their legs a bit, but I fit three full grocery bags in front of them.
I might change my opinion of the Cabby a bit over the course of this week, but so far I’m loving it! …As a rental, that is. The kickstand is a beast to disengage and I think that alone is deterrent enough that I wouldn’t want to own one. Of course in Seattle I’d only have to wrestle with said kickstand while wearing flip flops for six weeks of the year. I love sitting at a 90 degree angle on the bike; it’s such a relaxed ride. I also love not worrying about bumping my knees on the seat in front of me, while having not one, but both kids right in front. I still find the handling a bit weird, but I was able to negotiate the crowded boardwalk just fine. I also took the wrong side of the Sunset Cliffs Boulevard Bridge on the way back and ignored the “Narrow bridge, cyclists should dismount” sign and made it across with no scrapes so I guess the handling isn’t that hard.
Daily distance: 17.6 miles
Cumulative: 69.5 miles
Another low-mileage day today. I had high hopes of trying my new longer route along the waterfront to get to the Seattle Center, but between the crappy weather and having to finish packing for an afternoon flight (to San Diego–yay!), I’m happy we got out for a real ride. This round, I’d really like to avoid any solo rides up and down the driveway just to say I got on my bike. Today’s trip was a quick three-stop shopping trip: pet store, mail store, drug store. I would like to point out that this would have been a big hassle with the car (no parking, lots of traffic, unhappy kids) and it was just a fun little jaunt with the bike. It probably took less time this way, too. Granted, I didn’t bother locking the bike at the mail store and we kept our helmets on at each stop so that kept things quick and less cold. We ended up timing things well and were out for a rare rain-free half hour.
The bike also trumps car these days because the poor baby thinks that every time we get in an automobile, we’re going to drive for three hours to Portland. Yesterday’s half-hour trip to Issaquah and today’s half-hour trip to the airport aren’t restoring his memory of short car trips, but I don’t think I can bring myself to drive him somewhere close just for the sake of taking a short drive.
Daily distance: 1.9 mile
Cumulative: 51.9 miles
Today was the first 30 Days of Biking “Solo Local” ride:
Every Wednesday in April is the Solo Local ride, where you venture off on your own to your favorite local establishment–by bike! This week, route your way to your local bike shop. Huzzah for local business! Use the hashtag #sololocal in addition to #30daysofbiking.
Most of today was cold and clear, but by the time we got out to the bike this afternoon, the rain drops had started. We rode up to Ride Bicycles to check out Endura rain jackets and talk about Xtracycles. And they’ve got an S.U.Velo in the shop now so the boys sat in the cargo box and on the back rack.
I was tempted to ride somewhere else afterwards, just to make the outing a little more interesting, but it was getting cold and dark so we kept it simple. Halfway home it started snowing! Or hailing…I’m not sure what to call it–it had the consistency of shave ice. Sleet?
Daily distance: 3.2 mile
Cumulative: 50.0 miles
A bike shop with a play area and a toddler potty seat insert, does it get any better than this??
We carpooled with my friend and her two little boys to Clever Cycles in Portland today so she could get a new two-kid-carrying bike. She had her eye on a Gazelle Bloom with Yepp seats front and back. The bike was too big, but they had a great little Breezer Uptown 8. It’s got a Yepp on the front and Bobike Maxi (same as me!) on the back. They had to swap out handlebars and stem and also added a Brooks saddle and double kickstand. They didn’t have all the parts to attach a front rack so the eventual front basket is still being worked out. So keep in mind it will soon be even cuter than it is now:
While she was shopping I test rode a couple bikes. First I took out an Xtracycle. It’s funny–I know I want an Xtracycle in a year or two, but I’ve never been on one. I had planned to put the baby in the Yepp bike seat and have the big kid hang on behind, but the baby wouldn’t leave the play area. The play area’s puppy came along so I could still get the feel for carrying two beings. Naturally, the verdict is that I loved it!
I also took out a Nihola cargo bike. I thought it would feel just like the Christiania, but its handling is quite different…though also tricky at first. I should have taken a Christiania out again to compare, but I didn’t want to overdo it. Based on my recollection of my WheelHouse Santa Barbara test ride, I think I prefer the Christiania to the Nihola. But they’re both freaky. I think I’m just better suited to two wheels. Clever Cycles has a Gazelle Cabby hung from the ceiling so I pointed it out to the boys and reminded them of our LA Cabby adventure and told them we’d be using one in a few days, too.
Not much mileage to add to my 30 Days of Cycling tally, but it still counts!
Daily distance: 0.5 mile
Cumulative: 46.8 miles
I need a new messenger bag. I’ve been looking at various “real” messenger bags online, but they just don’t have a lot of compartments and I love compartments. I had hoped not to replace my Kalencom Urban Sling with another diaper bag, but they sure are compartment-y. Today’s plan was to ride to University Village to check out the diaper bags at Village Maternity and play on the covered play structure and indoor train tables.
A few minutes into our ride, a woman on a mountain bike asked me directions to U-Village. I invited her to ride with us. She lives on a sailboat in Ballard and only recently got a bike again. In fact, this was her first ride in a long while. I tried to talk her into getting fenders and then into getting a folding bike, but she claimed to be a fair-weather cyclist and was planning to take the bus home. I don’t need to point out this nice exchange never would have happened by car. And in my case, it wouldn’t have happened on the bus, either, due to the constant commentary of my copilots (“Look, Mama! Space Needle! Airplane!” etc etc etc). There’s still the occasional “Double bus with wires!” on the bike, but I discovered today that the three-year old is totally cool with me talking to someone else for a lengthy period of time. At Dutch Bike Co last week I was trying to talk to Fritz about an internal hub to make the hills easier (can’t wait for it to arrive and be installed!!!) and the 3yo head butted my leg over and over and over until I ended the conversation. Ah, toddlers.
I’m hoping to accomplish some “firsts” this 30 Days of Biking. Today’s first was biking in heels. I felt pretty fancy and I didn’t trip–big win because I’m pretty klutzy and haven’t worn anything with a heel in five years. I’m glad I got a chance to break out my $11 thrift store Via Spigas, but I think they’ll go live in the back of the closet again just to be safe.
I tried taking 5th up from the Burke-Gilman this time, but it was also too steep and I had to walk most of the block. 7th, though on the wrong side of the freeway, looks promising so I might give that a try next time I’m coming from the east. Hopefully these hills will be a non issue once I get my fancy new internal hub.
Daily distance: 4.6 miles
Cumulative: 46.3 miles
I knew I shouldn’t have called yesterday “epic ride” because I rode even more today. I had so much fun on the Wallingford Spokespeople ride yesterday that I decided to do the West Seattle one today. I’ve heard that there is a lower bridge under the West Seattle Bridge that people bike over, but didn’t want to go looking for it on my own. The bummer of the timing is that the West Seattle Water Taxi begins weekend service next weekend. So I figured I could cross one additional item off my to-do list and take my first bus-on-bike trip. I didn’t want to also deal with my first transferring buses experience so we rode downtown to catch the 55. I used a practice bus bike rack a while back and re-watched the Metro Loading your bike on a bus video, but it didn’t go seamlessly. The baby hung out on my back just fine, but the big kid stood on the curb wailing as I tried to get the bike up on the rack. Fortunately a passerby ran up and helped me get its heavy backend lifted and we were on our way. It was nerve-racking watching the bike bouncing around. Maybe I should take the fairing off if we do it again. I’m glad we did it, but I think I won’t make a habit of putting the bike on the bus.
We made it to Alki Bike and Board in one piece and rode with the Spokespeople to Pioneer Square. I am so glad I planned ahead to only do half the ride because we had to drop down a huge hill to get to the bridge. We made it to Pioneer Square pretty quickly and no one was ready to stop for a snack (well one guy grumbled a bit about having to skip the bakery we paused next to) and I had mentioned I needed to continue north along the Elliott Bay Trail so the whole group came with me along the waterfront. I love Spokespeople! I think they headed back to Pioneer Square for snacks once we parted ways. I pushed on through the locks–and got the Fort to 27th to Commodore part right for the first time, woo hoo!
In Ballard I dropped the kids off at Dutch Bike Co to hang out with my husband and my bike-shopping friend and then headed up the road for a haircut. Afterwards, I rode home alone and it felt very weird–the bike was way too light and much too responsive. I was eager to see what it’d be like to ride up Densmore solo after yesterday, but I mistakenly turned up 34th so I missed the steepest first block. However, I discovered a cool fish-shaped bike corral at 34th and Woodlawn. I made it up Densmore just fine, but still think it’d be too hard with my 60 usual pounds of kids and toys on board.
Daily distance: 21.2 miles
Huge day today! We started the day with a trip to Pike Place Market. I don’t know what possessed me to visit the place on the weekend, but it seemed like a good idea this morning. We haven’t biked to PPM before since it’s easily accessible by bus, but I want to do more riding downtown so I was excited for the challenge. Next time I’ll take the extra long route through the Ballard Locks and along the Elliott Bay Trail to avoid navigating downtown, but I thought we might visit the locks this afternoon and wanted to mix it up.
Our route yielded a lot of bonuses we would have missed driving or busing. First off, the Fremont drawbridge was up for a sailboat. We always get a great view right up front by bike. Just across the Fremont bridge we took a detour down the access roadway to explore the “secret traintracks” we spied a couple weeks ago from up on Westlake Ave. I thought the road would be a broken-glass-strewn mess, but it wasn’t bad, just a little gritty. And it turns out the road goes through and reconnects with Westlake Ave parking lots so it wasn’t a detour after all. Plus it avoids the sharp turn at the bottom of the Westlake hill. Double win!
Other excitement included a quick swing through South Lake Union Park to check the status of the construction (still tons of exciting construction vehicles with lots of work to do, the Virginia V is still missing, and the model boat test pond has been drained) and we discovered a Rachel the Pig twin at Serious Pie with a bucket of chalk for drawing.
I didn’t notice any bike racks right at PPM so we parked a bit up the hill on Pine. I like this fine because it allows for great photos with the Public Market sign in the background and it’s partially up the too-steep hill so it was easy to unlock and walk the bike up to 1st Avenue before sticking the kids on. Later I noticed a lot of bikes parked at the bottom of Pike Street. I don’t know if it’s just a Seattle phenomenon, but I see bikes parked in elevated positions all the time. Here it was just the top wheel up over the fence. I don’t know if the balloon clown was guarding the bikes or just happened to be working the same spot. Either way, I like it and will try to park there next time.
On the way home I rode up Stone in order to meet up with Spokespeople at Wallingford Playfield at 2. I turned off Stone at 43rd so I could check out our possible future bike boulevard. Unfortunately, it was too steep and I had to walk the bike the first block. I think it would have been too steep even if I hadn’t had the good fortune of making all the lights on the way up Stone. I didn’t feel so bad because there was a bearded hipster (is that redundant?) walking his bike up ahead of me…though it turned out he was just wheeling it over to his truck. Interestingly, his right pant-leg was rolled up even though he wasn’t riding.
It took me 38 minutes to reach the park which put me 11 minutes late, but the Spokespeople were still there so I joined them for the first time. It started raining as soon as we set out and I entertained thoughts of ditching the ride, but the rain let up and we had a lovely trek over to the Ballard Locks. We headed down Densmore, which is a great mellow street. We took Densmore on the way home, too, and I was able to pedal all the way up…but I think that was only due to Michael and another rider pacing me up the hill. I’m pretty sure I won’t make it when I try alone. The whole ride was a bit faster than my normal pace, but it was all fun. The boys both fell asleep on the way up Densmore. I don’t know why they were so tired!
Cathy mentioned they need a less bike-centric name for the new bike boulevard (which will hopefully start on 44th so it’s not too steep for me!) and I suggested sharroad. It’s not quite as awesome as sharrow, but I like it. Of course I was giddy with exhaustion from the hill so I might realize it’s a ridiculous name after a good night’s sleep.
Daily distance: 19.3 miles
Welcome to 30 Days of Biking: Year 2! It’s the third round of the event, but only my second time participating. Last time was big fun and I expect this round to follow suit. In addition to biking each day, I’m going to keep track of my [paltry] mileage. I’ll also time how long it takes me to get places so as I transition from a fair-weather cyclist to a proper Seattle urban cyclist, I’ll have a playbook.
I had a great itinerary planned for today: we were going to ride four miles to a playdate in Crown Hill. I know this goes against my rule of avoiding destinations with “Hill” and “Heights” in their names and I have no idea if I would have made it there without walking the bike. Now that I have my new zoo route, this is what I had planned:
Note: I don’t live at Rancho Bravo. I just wish I did! And it makes a nice impersonal “home” coordinate.
But it was raining like crazy and the kids were both coughing and had no interest in getting on the bike. I was ready to do the whole ride just to see if we could make it and then come straight home, rather than expose our little friends to their germies. Instead I eventually rallied the troops to drive to Ikea. I didn’t see any bikes at the Ikea bike rack (but maybe the employees can bring their bikes inside). My most exciting purchases were a 59-cent big blue shopping bag and 99-cent small blue shopping bag that I’ll use to protect our seats when we have to park in the rain. I lost my last set of three mismatched plastic bags so I’m looking forward to our snazzy new uniform look.
I finally got us out on the bike in the afternoon. We just rode a half mile to the Wallingford Center to meet a couple buddies at the Izilla Toys marble track. The bags worked great–first for keeping my messenger bag dry on the way over and then for keeping the seats dry while we were inside. Of course it wasn’t all perfect–after a couple hours indoors I realized I hadn’t turned the bike lights off, and I forgot gloves for the baby (his Newt Suit doesn’t have pockets) and me so our hands got really cold on the short ride home.
Daily distance: 1.2 miles
Ride time: Oops, forgot to time it (I’m not off to a great start)
Family Ride 