We bypassed the impressive line at the Bike Works Kids Bike Swap to deliver my old mamabike (Bianchi Milano city bike with front Bobike mini and rear Bobike maxi kid seats) to the Family Bike Expo. Morgan had an impressive array of bikes available for test ride including a Big Dummy, a Madsen bucket bike with electric assist, an Xtracycle, a tandem bike with electric assist, and her recumbant multi-passenger trike with electric assist. My bike provided an example of a normal, bus-eligible bike that carries two kids. I worried it wasn’t special enough for the expo when I saw she’d also attached a trailer to it, but then I remembered I’ve [grudgingly] towed a trailer behind it before, too.
I took the tandem out for a test ride. Morgan suggested I hook up the recumbent trailer trike behind it for one kid and stick the other on the stoker seat, but they wanted to ride their balance bikes alongside me. Halfway around, the toddler (not the one I envisioned as my ghost stoker) decided he was too tired to go on so I strapped his balance bike to the rear rack and perched him on the stoker seat. It all seemed stable enough, but he decided he was reenergized and had me put him back on his little bike.
We never checked in and entered the bike swap since these guys are set with balance bikes and a pedal bike each if they ever decide to give pedaling a try, but we had a great time hanging out in the playground, listening to the bands (Smalltime String Band was great!) and watching families cruise by on Family Bike Expo bikes. While I wasn’t able to volunteer at the booth, I was able to talk to several test riders out in the field.
As things wound down at the end of the day, the test rides took a turn for the inane. Here’s Tom of Seattle Bike Blog as ballast in the Madsen:
And Garth with a screwdriver in his mouth adjusting the gearing on the recumbent trike–and also trying to get a wheel off the ground while turning corners with Haulin’ Colin and Sarah in the back seat.
Another exciting bike we encountered was Full Tilt Ice Cream’s brand new Icicle Tricycle (made in Portland, naturally).
Home from the bike swap, we rode to Trader Joe’s and discovered the Neighborhood Greenways bike waiting boxes have been painted green. Looking good!
Today’s miles: 1.9
May cumulative: 155.9 miles
Family Ride 
The family bike expo sounds brilliant! I wish we’d had one to visit when we started planning our transition to bikes.
It’s so cool and just a single-handed volunteer project! Morgan’s blog (Familybike.org) is down at the moment, but is awesome. Did I ever mention that I never rode a Big Dummy before mine? I just knew I had to have one :)
Looks like it was a lot of fun!
You’re specifically talking about the antics with Morgan’s trike, aren’t you? :) The line for the free helmets was insane. Forgot to mention that. Such a wonderful event.