Someone stole our double bike trailer from the back of our shared car port. Fortunately they didn’t also take the kids’ bikes or our helmets. Or cut the lock and take my bike. I don’t use the trailer often, but I like having it for a variety of reasons. It’s great for cargo, such as when we borrowed the Cascade bike rodeo kit. And I could never have braved Snowmageddon without it. Not to mention, it’s an integral part of the mix-and-match bike. My most common use last school year was to haul it the two miles to preschool, empty, and leave it there so I could swap to my road bike after dropping of at elementary school (which is only two blocks from home) and then not worry about having to factor in a second bike swap before 1pm. It’s an awesome little trick and I’m pissed I can’t do it anymore.

Not one to waste space (and not one to carry stuff into the house), the trailer also served as a storage bin. That means the thief also made off with our trunk bike rack and my snowboard jacket–better known as my four-year old’s “straitjacket” which keeps him warm in the winter while keeping his hands away from his brother’s grabbable hoods and neck. I’m sure there were a few other things in there I’ll soon realize are gone.

If I were to get a new trailer, I’d go for a Wike Moonlight Trailer. I first read about them on Pedal Powered Family. The iBikeuBike family has one and loves it, too. I’ve met both families, but haven’t actually seen their trailers! Not that I need to see one to know I want it.

But Seattle has a robust Craigslist classifieds site–which is how we originally got the trailer and trunk rack–so I started there. I didn’t see another $40 trailer, but I saw a nice, cheap trunk rack. Our Craigslist might be a bit too robust because I also so a nice-looking 20-inch BMX-style kiddie bike. The Danish Mosquito is extremely sturdy, but it doesn’t seem appropriate for my six-year old to use for the free kiddie lap at the cyclocross races. It’s not as light as the 16-inch Sparkle BMX bike, but it’s lighter than the Mosquito.

But the story gets better! While we were loading up the bike and I wondered where I could hide it so Mr. Family Ride wouldn’t notice it, the seller told me about their old trailer they’re soon planning to sell. I expressed interest in it and thought I got “dibs”, but when he called his wife out to see my crazily loaded bike and I realized I know her! I think that sealed the deal. She’s one of the moms from the Walk.Bike.Schools group and I just saw her last week at a meeting! Now I just need to wait for them to upgrade to a real cargo trailer. In the meantime, I might need to learn a little more about trailer attachments. Our cheapie red trailer had the little clamp that cinches to any bar and worked well on my road bike and Big Dummy (though Mr. Family Ride wouldn’t want to use it on his commuter bike with disc brakes). This trailer came with one of those, but they’ve replaced it with the better sort of clamp.

I had planned to put the bike in one pocket and the trunk rack in the other, but we hit the grocery store before our first pickup and I ran out of room. It fared OK in my front basket, though. The truck rack seller delivered it to our meeting spot by bike, by the way :)

The bike was on Phinney Ridge so I got to take a closer look at the Greenwood Phinney Greenways pop-up Greenway. I saw it while heading home from the Ballard Greenways Celebration and thought it was a real Greenway! The signs looked metal and the painted speed humps looked real from half a block away.

The cross streets also had faux speed humps. I hope to see more of these soon. And then real Greenways shortly thereafter.