Happy 12th Birthday, Big Dummy!

I’ve been remiss at posting, but my Big Dummy is still going strong. The two missing anniversary posts could say the same thing as this one: it hasn’t been the most exciting year for the old gal, doing more one-mile grocery store runs than anything else, but that stuff is the jam that holds a bikelife sandwich together.

I had a bright (or silly?) idea shortly before the Big Dummy’s 10th birthday to make it feel lighter and faster. Not necessarily to be lighter and faster, but to feel lighter and faster. I took the Xtracycle Hooptie off (and Pixie and I biked it up from Seattle to Vancouver on a regular bike to deliver it to a friend) and Splendid Cycles replaced it with very small Tern Sidekick Flat Bars. I also swapped the flat pedals for SPD hybrid ones (flat on one side, clipless on the other). I rarely carry kids these days, and would feel too clumsy to clip in with passengers, but clipping in is a great way to feel and look faster. I’d been running a free balloony white tire on the front and having that and the rear tire swapped for Schwalbe Pick-Ups is probably the best speeding-up change. I also had my long-broken front dynamo light replaced…and then recently broke it again so now it’s held in place with duct tape yet again, sigh. More recently than the big tune-up with all the little changes I thought I would need to replace my cargo bags, but Barb at Splendid Cycles was able to repair the holey one! The non-holey one could use some refurbishing, too, so I’ll bring that in at some point this winter.

In non-Big-Dummy-cargo-bike news, and relevant to the birthday day, we are now a two-cargo-bike family! My 14-year old had a brief stint as a unicyclist and wanted to be able to tote his unicycle around by bike since it’s too slow and tiring to go long distances with just the one wheel. First we found an old car bike rack at the thrift store which we disassembled into two pieces and zip tied part of it to his rear rack. It worked pretty well, but when he said he wanted a cargo bike instead my heart leapt! I assumed he’d want a little longtail to be like me–maybe a Bike Friday Haul-a-Day–but he had his heart set on a bakfiets. Oregon doesn’t currently let anyone under 16 ride e-bikes so his Larry vs. Harry Bullitt is not assisted, but it’s pretty zippy! He’s no longer unicycling so I use the Bullitt more often than he does. It feels faster than the Big Dummy so before realizing today was such a special day I’d already planned to ride it for work since I had to carry a lot of stuff and needed to be zippy while leading a How to Grocery Shop by Bike clinic and group ride for our ride-to-own e-bike program.

After work I needed to take my former-unicycler-now-roadie’s indoor trainer and a road bike wheel to River City Bicycles to have the cassettes swapped. I can’t do much more than change a flat (and changed one this morning quite quickly as a matter of fact!) and use my chain tool for craft projects, so I needed a professional with a chain whip for this. I had planned to stick my Xtracycle WideLoader on the Big Dummy to carry the trainer, but as the day wore on I had to admit that the Bullitt would be much more convenient to carry the heavy little trainer.

I’ve never not ridden the Big Dummy on its birthday so I took it out to do what it does best and went to the grocery store this evening. So I ended up riding the Bullitt 42 miles today and the Big Dummy just 2 miles. Maybe I’ll have to belatedly post about a summer camping trip during which the Big Dummy carried 6 tents, dinner and breakfast for 22 campers, 5 camp chairs, and a million snacks.