While much of the world is checking out what’s new in bicycling at Interbike, I’m getting giddy about something old–a mamachari, the typical Japanese mamabike.

I know of one mamachari in Seattle, brought from Japan when a family moved and then sold to a lucky friend cheaply when they outgrew it. This seems to be the most common way to obtain a mamachari in America as they’re hard to ship affordably.

But this mamachari (red!) that has me giddy is the latest and greatest.

Mama Bicycle blog author and mamachari evangelist, Shuichi, has shipped a Bridgestone Angelino to us! The bike will reside with FamilyBike Seattle (of which I’m on the board) and be available for test rides and short-term rental.

G & O Family Cyclery has generously volunteering to assemble the bike, but due to a shipping snafu, the three boxes ended up the Ballard post office instead of G & O, enabling today’s adventure! Davey Oil (the “O” of G & O Family Cyclery) and I biked to the Ballard post office only to be told it was at the other Ballard post office yesterday (What?! There are two post offices in Ballard? Yes: there’s also the Ballard Carrier Annex post office on 9th. Huh.)…

…but had since been shipped back to Japan. They probably weren’t on the boat just yet and we could try to fill out a shop shipment form, but that would cost $11 and it probably wouldn’t work. (Again: What?! And of course we’d pay a mere $11 to save our boxes!) But before the clerk could further dismay us, the neighboring clerk leaned over and said we’d have to go to the annex and figure it out there.

So Davey and I left the wrong post office, flabbergasted, and trudged (well, the pedaling equivalent of trudged, anyway) our way a mile to the carrier annex. We were greeted at the door by a cheerful clerk who said of course the boxes were there! She’d been expecting us! Thank. Goodness. I’m completely confused about whom the first clerk spoke to on the phone at the annex, but whatever. The boxes were here!

It seems either of us could have fit all three boxes on one of our bikes–I was rolling completely cargo-ready: left the Yepp seat at preschool, left the first grader’s helmet fastened to his school’s bike rack, outfitted my bike with one Xtracycle WideLoader and one friend-made running board, but I merely secured one box to my FlightDeck. Davey pulled more weight with a box on either side. He’ll want me to point out his bike has electric assist.

Then it was just a straightforward 2.5-mile gradual uphill pedal to the shop, where we met Tyler, the “G” of G & O Family Cyclery. He happily posed on my bike.

And I got my first peek inside the shop. It’s going to be great! And so is the mamachari! I’ll have a mamachari update in a week or so.