I managed my first two-bike tow with the Big Dummy!

I set out with [most of] just one bike–I had borrowed the squishy seat from Mr. Family Ride’s beach cruiser in June when I was between Brooks saddles and apparently lost part of it. It seemed like a good day to have it repaired. I got a lot of great comments on my Gimme your ice advice post, including Matt of Tacoma Bike Ranch’s account of riding his beach cruiser on ice. My beach cruiser is much too pretty to subject to dirty ice, but if I can sneak out without the kids to experiment, I’ll try this bike.

It was also fairly exciting because I missed my first opportunity to tow a bike a year ago when retrieving this same beach cruiser from a friend’s house.

Recycled Cycles quickly put the beach cruiser back together, but we weren’t in and out quickly enough for me to resist browsing the used bikes and spotting an 18″ BMX bike. I think a BMX bike is not exactly the same as a regular kid bike so maybe it wasn’t the smartest impulse buy, but it has a hand brake (just rear) and is a bit bigger than my five-year old’s 16″ bike. It’d be nice to get him used to a hand brake before putting him on a 20″ bike with gears (gears!) with which he can hopefully do some major riding around town. They had to change out the seat post for a shorter one (first clue that it’s not sized for tiny guys), but it seems to fit him well enough.

I also have Tacoma Bike Ranch to thank for the tip to get some ratcheting packing straps for loads that are too big for bungee cords (this, after the box spring fiasco). But they were at home in the garage so I made do with a bungee holding the beach cruiser in place.

The bikes traveled well. I had to stop after one tight right turn to separate the wheels, but that was it. Had I traveled on the road and path only, I would have been fine, but there’s a great shortcut to the Burke-Gilman Trail if one crosses Pacific Street and travels 100 feet on the sidewalk, but the sharp right turn onto the narrow sidewalk was a lot to expect of my hastily crammed in load.

I slipped on the ice yesterday. I’m leery of ice, but I realize there’s a lot I don’t know about real winter cycling. Please comment below with any tips!

I knew it would be icy out so I opted to have the five-year old ride his bike to school while I dragged the three-year old in our single trailer behind my cyclocross bike (Raleigh RX Womens–so pretty!). It came with knobby tires, which are apparently not knobby enough for Pacific Northwest cyclocross mud, but I thought their knobbiness might be nice for patches of ice. Don’t worry, Mr. Family Ride has already rolled his eyes and informed me that no regular tires are good on ice. He grew up with seasons, I didn’t. And apparently four years in Seattle haven’t yet changed me.

The four blocks to school were fine and the two miles to meet a friend in Green Lake were fine, but 100 feet from home I met with disaster. Here’s the intersection at 4:30 today:

But yesterday at 2pm it was blanketed by a solid sheet of ice. Someone uphill to the right:

had hosed down their car to melt the ice and their runoff didn’t see sun all day (and I’m not sure it got warm enough that sun would have made a difference).

I’ve ascertained two things in retrospect:
One) I think I may have fared OK if I wasn’t pulling a trailer. I saw the ice and slowed down (one-point-five: maybe I would have fared better going faster, too) before gliding onto it in a nice straight line. When the trailer wheels met the lip of ice, the bike jerked back and I tipped over.
Two) I should have turned around to go around the block and reach home from the other direction. That’s essentially six extra blocks, including extra hills (groan), but next time I’ll do just that.

I should point out that I was clipped in. Pretty new shoes:

but even putting a foot down would have resulted in me flat on my back with my toddler’s grinning face looming over me.

Cascade Bicycle Club’s last News Roundup included this BikeRadar article on Cycling in icy conditions and bad weather, which I admit I didn’t read until just now. I found the comments more entertaining than the actual article, though.

After tweeting about the incident yesterday:

Gah! Slipped on ice 20 feet from home. There were a dozen witnesses: the trailer containing my 3yo+11 stuffed animals I ended laying next to

— familyride (@familyride) January 11, 2013

Elle of Tiny Helmets Big Bikes turned me on to Bike Spikes (and video of their installation). Very cool! But of course overkill for my one patch of ice every ten miles.

Today I rode 30 miles alone on my road bike–much slower than necessary, but I didn’t fall! This is just downhill from my house and was solid ice at 9am, but had melted by this 4:30 picture:

Needless to say, I took to the sidewalk to bypass it. I only saw one icy patch where someone had watered their car on the west side of the Lake Washington Loop. Perhaps it’s primarily a Wallingford phenomenon? [Stop it! Get an ice scraper!]

So please share any pointers you may have. I think if we have any serious snow, I’ll resort to the mountain bike plus double trailer, as I did last year, but ice has me stymied.

For the record, I’m also bewildered that one can scrape an elbow through two layers of clothing while said layers of clothing stay perfectly intact.

I’m an expert on rain. All Seattleites are. I kid! I kind of suck when it comes to preparing for inclement weather: it was dry when I walked out the door at 12:30 and even though I knew it was raining two miles away and my trusty Dark Sky app promised light sleet, I wore jeans and my snowboard jacket. The jacket is fine in rain, but my legs got wet. Despite the photobombing toddler, I think you can see what happened:

But let’s back up three days for a better rainy day story: I met up with Ann DeOtte Kaufman of Iva Jean on Tuesday for coffee and a bike ride. In the most recent issue of the Cascade Courier she refers to herself as a fair-weather biker (Bikenomics, page 5), but I don’t buy it. Tuesday were wetwetwet, but Ann was happy to do some wet weather testing of a next-generation Iva Jean Rain Cape.

I was just happy to be led around Capitol Hill, an area I haven’t explored much (along with any other neighborhood with “Hill” or “Heights” in the name). Here we are, stopped at one of Capitol Hill’s multiple bike corrals (forgot this little bike fits in the right way…oops), right outside Cafe Presse (ooh, where the fixies hang out). New territory!

I think it may not have rained enough for a final verdict on the new rain cape, but Ann stayed nice and dry. Me: not so much. My upper half is still inadequately protected with Mr. Family Ride’s rain jacket, but I recently got some Rainlegs rain chaps at Hub and Bespoke (where one can also get an Iva Jean Rain Cape) and my legs are staying dry for a change!

The Rainlegs are great for a number of reasons. As you can see from the first picture, the only part of my legs that gets wet is the tops of my thighs. I used to occasionally wear a supercheap non-cycling-specific rain pants, but I really dislike them. For one thing, they’ve gotten a little too small (they didn’t shrink–I grew). Rainlegs are forgiving to weight fluctuations.

My cheapie rain pants were a pain to pull on–not to mention that I had to remove shoes before putting them on or taking them off. Rainlegs are just three buckles and two velcros.

I keep the under-the-butt buckets fastened at all times because it’s a bit awkward to reach behind oneself to fasten them. And the buckled strap makes for an easy loop to drape over a door knob.

The main problem for someone coming from rain pants is to remember that it’s not OK to sit on a wet saddle. Yeah, I’ve made this mistake a few times, but I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of it.

Tuesday was the first time I wore the Rainlegs with my road bike (my posture on the Big Dummy is fairly upright) and I wasn’t sure they’d do the trick, but they performed just fine. As a matter of fact, my pants stayed completely dry for the first time. I’ve previously only worn them with jeans and while they would have done great if I’d hopped on the bike, ridden any number of miles to my destination, and then removed them to hang up, all would have been fine. But riding a few miles to preschool and then puttering around, dripping for ten minutes before getting back on the bike to ride a few miles to elementary school resulted in some wicking. But now I realize that was just a quirk of stretch denim. The slacks I wore on Tuesday, while they didn’t look so bikerish with the chaps, fared beautifully during the two-school dropoff.

Now on Wednesday I wore denim and ended up with a random wet spot. But certainly drier than no chaps. Don’t mind the wet socks. I haven’t tackled the problem of leaky footwear yet.

If you’re ready to think ahead to July and dry-weather garb, check out the new offerings from Iva Jean. And get inspired by Ann’s recent article for the Walk Score Blog: 5 Barriers to Women Bicycling More.

Seattle: not just for rain. Especially if one has Rainlegs.

Kidical Mass isn’t the only family-friendly game in this town. We love Kidical Mass rides and look forward to Julian’s plans to get them rolling even more often this year, but Spokespeople Rides are terrific for families (and new riders and/or leisurely riders), too. We attend the Wallingford rides whenever we can–the first Saturday of every month at 2pm, meet at the south end of Wallingford Playfield–but there are also groups in Ballard, NE Seattle, and West Seattle.

One of the things I like best about Spokespeople Rides is that they start and end at the same spot. It’s a very nice feature for those who are unfamiliar with the neighborhood, need to drive to the start (we had two families of four from the Kirkland Greenways group on Saturday), and I took advantage of this by locking up the two kid bikes so I wouldn’t have to drag them around for an hour and a half during the group ride.

Each ride has a theme and we all found the January ride to Wallingford’s Little Free Libraries particularly enjoyable.

We checked out (ha ha, library pun) four little free libraries, the Poem of the Week, Word of the Week (may as well be hiatus these last few months), and the Poetry Bench. It was a very localized ride, but probably the hilliest Spokespeople Ride I’ve attended. Phew!

We met the keeper of the children’s book little free library on 47th near Wallingford Avenue. We’ll be back to exchange books soon.

All Spokespeople Rides are listed in their Google calendar along with other easy rides and related classes and events.

I don’t write about road safety while biking much (ever?) because it’s not at the forefront of my mind. Sure, I’m cautious, but that’s just a natural part of being on a bike.

I’d say it’s just like driving a car, but it’s not. I feel less safe in the car. I’m much closer to all the distracted drivers–yakking on cell phones, texting on phones pressed against steering wheels, busily looking for parking spots. Not to mention the car isn’t as fun as a family unit: I can’t hear the kids as well; the three-year old complains about the car seat straps; one’s facing forward, one’s facing rearward so we’re not seeing the same things at the same time. I also find I’m able to focus much better on the bike than in the car. Maybe the motion of pedaling opens up the mind to handle processing simultaneous train and puppy conversations while negotiating traffic.

So why write about safety now? Well, I got my first angry blog comment, including a “…get your precious babies OFF THE STREETS!” I referred to her as a troll (in the Internet sense of the word) in my reply, but that’s not accurate. She saw family bikes, freaked out, and Googled her way to an old post on my blog. Many friends suggested ignoring and deleting the comment and maybe I’ll do that in the future, but this first time I felt the need to respond. I don’t expect to change her way of thinking, but I feel better after feeling pretty crappy for a while. And the outpouring of support from both friends and strangers is buoying. Start here and scroll down to feel the love.

Swearing at Motorists–it’s just the shirt I happen to be wearing today (and it’s a band, not an attitude)

I’m not fired up anymore (my published reply is quite toned down from the original), but I’m still feeling a bit defensive. Family biking is safe because biking is safe. There are countless articles out there. I like this recent one: Which really is more deadly: cycling or sitting down watching TV?.

More: as a family biker I have to say I feel even safer than the statistics. It’s not due to a sense of responsibility for my passengers, though that probably adds an innate level of cautiousness I’m unaware of. I contend it’s simply about size, speed, and posture. My bike is BIG and therefore easy to spot. But even more helpful is that I’m very slow–motorists (and pedestrians and other bicyclists) have tons of time to notice me. In fact, I’m so slow going uphill that on Dexter’s separated bike lane I’m slow enough to peer in each parked car as I approach to see if I have to worry about an inhabitant opening a car door into my path. That’s a luxury many bicyclists don’t have. While I’m not bolt upright like a Dutch bike or beach cruiser, the Big Dummy (and my Bianchi Milano city bike before it) is fairly upright so I’m tall and can look around much more easily than on a bike with drop handlebars. Granted, I can’t see behind me, but I can see everything to the front and sides. It’s remarkable how different things feel from my road bike. I’m small and superfast (well, unless I’m lugging 130 pounds of Engine Engine Engine) and feel somewhat at the mercy of my surroundings. Maybe I wouldn’t have this feeling if I only got around by unencumbered road bike, but regardless, I never have this feeling on the family bike.

Have I had any close calls? No (well, maybe one–see below). Have pedestrians or motorists perceived close calls? Yes. This usually happens when crossing an intersection. Intersections are dangerous–I’m hypervigilant in ’em. But it’s second nature so I don’t think about it. I don’t assume motorists won’t run red lights or look for me before turning on green lights. I’ll enter an intersection mindful of all surrounding cars, but if a motorist disregards the law and gets within ten feet of me it sometimes looks scary to nearby pedestrians (or the distracted motorist) evidenced by the “That guy almost hit you!” No, he didn’t–I saw him, don’t worry. But I’m sorry it scared you. Hey, maybe he’ll check for traffic next time.

I used to get angry about distracted drivers. Months after fuming about drivers on cell phones and imagining myself pantomiming “hang up the phone” to them, I did exactly that. I was riding with a family biking friend and the driver in question was talking on her phone while nosing into traffic (and into my bike lane). I skirted around her and made my gesture and immediately felt silly. Not the way to inspire friends to get out there and ride more. So that was the one and only time I did that. Shortly after that incident, I was crossing a street to get to the grocery store. It was a busy street–NE 45th St crossing the freeway and 7th Ave NE in the U-District so I was using the crosswalk. A young woman exiting the freeway barreled into the intersection with no regard for her red light, thinking only of her right turn. I was moving slowly and cautiously and she didn’t hit me, but had I been moving a bit faster–say, had I been a jogger pushing a jogging stroller–that wouldn’t have been the case. She stopped halfway through the intersection, finally heeding her red light and I went mamabear on her and angrily thumped my fist on her trunk. She wasn’t phased (perhaps this happens to her all the time?!), and while it felt right to react in this manner at the time, it didn’t leave me feeling good about things.

Family biking sets a wonderful example for my children, but attacking cars certainly doesn’t. So I’ve changed my tune completely. I used to ignore or give hard looks to inattentive drivers, but now I smile and wave. Really. Not in a sarcastic way, but in a “Hi there, I’m on the road, too, nice to see you and be seen by you” way. Not that I rode around in a perpetually bad mood before, but my rosy outlook was periodically dampened. Now it’s all whiskers on kittens.

I find it fascinating that several family bikers I know have independently arrived at this same behavior. Apparently it’s a thing. Discussing bad drivers isn’t something we family bikers normally do–we’re too busy having fun!–but it came up a while back in a discussion in the Seattle Family Biking Facebook group.

But back to this particular driver. Here’s Terry Avenue North:

I consider it a pretty quiet street. My video is from Sunday, the day after MOHAI’s grand opening and my commenter’s family biker sighting. Saturday was probably a bit busier due to the free museum admission.

It’s a shame MOHAI’s visit us page doesn’t indicate how hard it is to park at South Lake Union Park (I’ve never tried myself, but I hear it’s impossible). It takes a village to get people like my commenter to think outside the car.

Let’s end with something warm and fuzzy: Kidical Mass headed to MOHAI today:

We’ve been out late twice lately and both kids have fallen asleep on the bike on the way home. This wasn’t a big deal with my old bike since they were each ensconced in a seat, but my five-year old is simply sitting on the FlightDeck with feet on pegs and hands on handlebars so it’s not the ideal perch for sleeping. I don’t think he’d fall off if I let him stay asleep–on our first Seattle Kidical Mass ride, three and a half years ago, we met a dad with his son coupled behind him by Trail Gator who told us about their last ride together in which the kid had fallen asleep…who knows for how long before the dad noticed. The dad woke him up, but the kid kept falling back asleep the rest of the long ride home. Perhaps these aren’t typical results, but it’s always comforted me.

During the most recent bike nap, I roused my kindergartener and suggested I fasten a bungee cord around him like a belt (hat tip to Emily Finch of Portland family biking fame for that idea, though she uses thick bungee straps for this purpose). He didn’t like the idea, but he stayed awake for a bit. I looped my jacket around him and tied the sleeves to his handlebars the next time he nodded off and it seemed a bit better than nothing. It’d be nice to find a good solution because it’s certainly nice to bike and bike and bike and bike until they both fall asleep so I can deliver them home straight into bed.

But what to do? Two Yepp seats fit on an Xtracycle FlightDeck, but it seems like overkill just for the sake of an occasional nap, not to mention it would cut down on cargo capacity a bit since the foot pieces cover a bit of the FreeLoader bags.

The new Xtracycle Hooptie would certainly solve the problem. Here it is on an Xtracycle Edgerunner:

It even fits a Yepp seat on the wider of its two settings, as seen on Tom and Jenn’s bike last weekend (and still plenty of cargo room for them to transport Wizard of Oz costumes for a family of four–so cute!):

The Wheelha.us family just installed a Hooptie on their Big Dummy and it doesn’t sound easy. It’s also apparently not easy to move the rails, which is a shame. If I had a Hooptie, I’d like to be able to remove the rails for big cargo loads. I’ve taken the Yepp seat off a few times for large loads, such as this bike box (which never became a bike Halloween costume, sigh). I don’t think that could work with a Hooptie.

I also recently scored a Burley Piccolo trailercycle from a friend I met on a Seattle Cargo Bike Ride to upgrade Engine Engine Engine. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit on any of my bikes! I had no idea my road bike doesn’t have brazons for a rear rack. Nor does my mountain bike. Nor even my beach cruiser! And I’m not ready to take the rear kid seat off the old mamabike. So I lent it to a friend. Maybe I could have wrestled it into the pocket with a Hooptie, but I’m not sure. For the record, I don’t normally take photos in the middle of the street, but this is the Wallingford Neighborhood Greenway so it’s cool.

And before I knew it, I got a bike the Piccolo can fit on! Although in an interesting twist of events, Mr. Family Ride is of the opinion this bike is just for cross racing and not for family biking. WHAT?! So the Piccolo is still with my friend while I wait for him to come to his senses. Could I transport a big bike this easily with a Hooptie? I’ve carried my road bike vertically, with a wheel off before, but it’s simpler to just toss it in and go.

Also, I’m lazy and like to sit on my FlightDeck. It’s a perfect perch. (By the way, this picture is on Cycle Whatever “Ride a bike wearing whatever you’d like”–love it!) Not Hooptie compatible.

I also like to stand on my FlightDeck (note: you should only stand on your FlightDeck if you have the awesome Haulin’ Colin Rolling Jackass centerstand):

That particular FlightDeck stand was to get a lovely shot of the Parking Squid from above:

Shawn of Wheelha.us and I tested to see if adults can fit in a Hooptie. It didn’t go so well:

He’s generously kept the video he took of my attempt offline so far. It wasn’t pretty. This is on the narrow setting and I almost fit, but it wasn’t easy getting in or out. I climbed in from the stairway above and nearly tipped his bike.

And every so often I can talk an adult onto my FlightDeck. Here’s friend/neighbor/fellow family biker/cyclocross racing teammate Kevin who hopped on on the way to school pickup:

I know I wouldn’t regret having a Hooptie, but having been without one for a year now, it’d be a hard adjustment to make. I think some bungee straps are in order…

How quickly a year has passed! Yet at the same time, it’s hard to remember time before the Big Dummy. OK, not really, but a cargo bike is life changing. Riding a bike turns any trip into an adventure for us, but the cargo bike has increased that feeling exponentially. It’s hard to put into words, but it’s much more than this bike making it easier to go farther and carry more than a normal-sized bike. I’m not the only person to feel this way. There’s an amazing network of passionate cargo bike people working on a crowd-sourced cargo bike documentary: Less Car More Go. Watch the trailer and be transformed:

We’ve had some exciting adventures this past year:

• I rode Chilly Hilly with one kid
• We were one of the Three Stories from the Road video shown at the Cascade Bike to Work Breakfast
• I overdid it in the cargo-toting department when I tried and failed to retrieve a free box spring
• I threw a Cargo Bike Roll Call
• We survived our first (and very hilly) bike camping trip
• I hauled extra kids, extra bikes, and even cargo bikes

The small days are big fun, too. My dad has been visiting, so today started out with us all walking to school (we usually bike…do I even need to point that out?) and then the three-year old and I drove him to the airport. I considered hitting the grocery store on the way back home, but it’s really fun shopping by bike so I put it off until kindergarten had let out.

Then it was business as usual on the bike: we interacted with classmates as we rode away from school, oohed and aahed at the unmoving lines of cars from the bridge over the freeway, and I spoke with several people outside the grocery store about my bike.

I had hoped to finally costume my bike for the special day–Halloween was too rainy, as was Cranksgiving–but this afternoon was also too wet for the cardboard and paint getup. Maybe I’ll be able to make it work for one of the two upcoming Critical Lass rides.

I forgot grocery bags so three cloth shopping bags (fancy ones–$3.99 a pop) ended up being the bike’s birthday present. I had planned to buy a few of the 99-cent Trader Joes bags with nylon handles that tie so nicely once they’re on the bike, but I like these bags even better. They’re as wide as a bag and a half and therefore fit even better in the FreeLoader bags. While it’s possible to fit three normal-sized grocery bags on each side, the middle clip makes it a bit awkward so I generally only pack two a side. These bigger bags solve the problem and their handles are long enough to tie together for keeping contents securely inside, too. Now, if only I can remember to store them on the bike for next time…

I wasn’t going to bother recapping yesterday’s Family Bike Ride to Holiday Lights at Lake Union Park so soon after the very similar Thanksgiving Family Group Ride, but it was just so picturesque out there today!

We convened at Gas Works Park again: three Surly Big Dummies (including another new Xtracycle Hooptie!), one Madsen bucket bike, one BULLITT, one regular bike plus rear kid seat, and one regular bike. And Barbara met us with her Kona MinUte later at the festival. Lots of family bikes!

We took a bit of a round-about route to be extra family-friendly. I might consider letting my five-year old pedal the sidewalk of the non-trail portions of this route, but today both kids rode on the FlightDeck:

The bike counter was fairly low due to the holiday: we were numbers 342-348 at 12:45.

The Holiday Lights Festival was great. We sailed model boats in the pond, decorated boat-shaped cookies in The Center for Wooden Boats, made our own wooden boats, boat fruit from the Farm Boat, and made cards and necklaces aboard the Virginia V.

The Wheelha.us family left early to pick up a Christmas tree. And then swung back through the park so we could all admire it in the Madsen’s bucket. Amazing!

It was very cold by the time we headed home–“Even my hair is cold!” conditions, according to my three-year old. I tried to put a spare shirt over his helmet for a makeshift balaclava, but he didn’t like it, with or without mouth and nose coverage. I still think it’s a pretty snazzy solution–classier than the time I stuck his feet in a shopping bag to keep them warm, anyway.

22 people on 11 bikes (including a family we met and absorbed along the way) took part in a wonderful Seattle Family Biking Thanksgiving Day ride yesterday. I’m really impressed by the power of a Facebook group to bring people together for events and facilitate the sharing of information. If you’re in Seattle, our group is here. One slight problem: there’s no admin so I think you need to be friends with someone already in the group to be added. I’m trying to fix that, but in the meantime, contact me and we’ll find one another on Facebook so I can add you.

Any member can initiate an event and this was Barbara’s brilliant idea. We met at Gas Works Park: three Surly Big Dummies, one Kona MinUte, two bikes + trailer bikes, one bakfiets, one BULLITT, one bike with rear kid seat, and two regular bikes.

We traveled clockwise around Lake Union and took a route that didn’t include any riding on horrid Eastlake, but that meant a steep half-block hill at Hamlin (marked with point B on the map below):

Some riders needed to walk a bit; I made it up the hill, but felt ready to take a nap afterwards. Fortunately, our play structure pitstop was less than a flat mile away, at the little nameless park at the southeast tip of the lake.

There was playing, resting, bike test riding, and Xtracycle Hooptie admiring. This one is Tom and Jenn’s and at the wider setting fits around the Yepp kid seat.

Here it is in action:

So fun!

If just seeing photos doesn’t make you want one, watch this adorable video by Shane MacRhodes of Eugene:

And there was kid swapping! I traded my 39-pounder to Jennifer of Loop-Frame Love/Ballard Greenways so he could try the Burley Piccolo trailercycle. I just got my hands on a Burley Piccolo without realizing I don’t have a bike to put it on. It connects to a rear rack and is therefore more stable than seat-post-connecting trailer bike models, but that means it the adult bike needs brazons. I had no idea my road bike wasn’t equipped for this. Nor my mountain bike. Nor my beach cruiser. And my old mamabike still has a rear seat taking up that spot. So I need another bike! :)

Note: it didn’t rain at all yesterday–that’s just residual wet street. It was warm and dry enough to stay outside all day long–47 degrees F when I checked around 3pm. We even saw the sun for a few minutes.

We lost a couple riders to naps and lunch plans along the way, but many of us made it to stop two: Starbucks on Westlake.

And then we got to stop three: the Seattle Bike Counter.

Kids love the bike counter. Numbers! Bright dots to count!

But today I discovered it’s also a good stop to throw gloves off the bridge while one’s parent is distracted. Here’s Barbara retrieving my toddler’s discarded gloves from the Burke-Gilman Trail. This is after she already generously went down to fetch a shoe. And he had yet to throw gloves into the street.

Really, this is a hug (well, “Hug walk!”) and not restraining the tiny terror.

We hung out for a while and saw a couple curious things, like a counted jogging stroller and an uncounted bike when two crossed in opposite directions on the same side.

At one point we were all standing in a line when a man on a road bike went by so we spontaneously applauded him. He seemed to like it. Family bikers get applauded here and there, but regular cyclists miss out on this.

And one last thing! Sometimes you just don’t want the party to end (or don’t want to return home to a frantic Thanksgiving kitchen too early) so Barbara stopped by our garage with us to fetch kid bikes. I hate to give up cargo, but I let her carry the Kinderbike mini balance bike–she only needed one bungee cord to fit it to the side of her MinUte, but noted it was heavier than her usual wooden Skuut balance bike.

The kids bike paraded around Wallingford Playfield for over an hour and I have a feeling I’m going to have to make time for a kid group ride after every family bike group ride now.

Happy Thanksgiving!

p.s. I had so much fun, we’re doing it again tomorrow! Family Bike Ride to Holiday Lights at Lake Union Park: Gas Works Park at noon.

A year after our first foray into cyclocross, we’re back at it: MFG Woodland Park GP! Having the Big Dummy made this time easier–no car involved to transport kid bikes. The maracas are their “cowbells”, by the way.

Even so, I ended up making two trips to bring the kid bikes in the end. The three-year old has been a bit shy about racing and was adamant I not bring his bike along, insisting he wouldn’t change his mind and he definitely wouldn’t want to ride around just for fun between races. Guess what: he changed his mind. I don’t have a cyclocross bike (yet? yet!), but I think I could have hauled both kid bikes and my cyclocross bike there.

I didn’t have to race on the Big Dummy–FOCUS bikes provided demo bikes, just bring pedals.

Three weeks ago I raced in the MFG Magnuson Park GP and arrived by mountain bike (to race with in case I couldn’t score a demo bike) with empty trailer (so I could bring the little kid home early to host a preschool potluck which Mr. Family Ride, big kid, and car arrived and stayed later). At the time I was struck by how many people said, “What a great idea!” to my trailer. A lot of racers drive to cyclocross events and spend a lot of time looking for parking and some have to bike a bit of a ways in from their parking spots. I think there was a run on Craigslist trailers after my example. But mtb + trailer day was nothing compared to arriving with the cargo bike. We were met with cheers upon arrival–twice, on account of our second arrival after fetching the balance bike.

There were other cargo- and family bikes there, too. I spotted a cycletruck while I raced. Probably not the best practice to slow down and look over one’s shoulder to check out bikes in the middle of the race, but oh well. And the Big Dummy with custom kid setup I first saw at Fremont Solstice (better picture of custom kid stuff at the bottom of this post) was there:

And a Kona MinUte with one kid on the back, and a tandem with kidback for the little stoker. But best of all was Alyssa’s Xtracycled Breezer. I didn’t even notice it at first. We were watching the race five feet from this gorgeous rig and our two five-year olds befriended one another over their common age and common interest in sharks. Kismet. [Alyssa, contact me! Facebook won’t let me friend or message you.]

Here’s their sweet homegrown kid seating with hinge for bigger deck or separated kids:

She brought her “couch” in her first run to the races (she had to go home to fetch kid bikes, too). I LOVE BIG CARGO LIKE THIS!

And showed me her preferred method for towing her 20-inch kiddie bike, strap behind the wheel, with bungee for extra support:

The races were great. The grown up racing is really hard! But it’s really fun. I think I would like it more if I practiced beforehand. But in my book, the FREE!!! kiddie race is where it’s at. Every cyclocross race has one, I think. This is it for the MFG season and nearby races, but the Seattle Cyclocross Series has two more races. Things didn’t go quite according to plan for us today, though. Right before race start, the three-year old needed to hit the bathroom. A very kind woman let us cut in front of her when she heard me ask him, “Do you think you can hold it a couple minutes?” but even so, we was in there long enough that we missed the bulk of the race. He tends to freeze and drop his bike if someone makes eye contact with him at the start so it wasn’t too big a deal. And a friend got the five-year old started so he was able to do his first cyclocross race on pedals! Two laps! These are much smaller laps than we big folks do, by the way.

Don’t feel bad for him, the little dude got to do a lot of riding around. Also, he’s not pouting in the photo above–I think he’s remedying a runny nose (eww). But it’s still my favorite picture of the day. Proof balance bike was used and nice shot of some of the booths. It’s quite the party there with stuff to sample and stuff to buy–of both the food and bicycle variety (including caffeinated gummies from Clif–brilliant!):

I saw a couple women wearing insulated skirts that zip up the sides. I talked to one woman who said it’s not specifically for biking, but she’s able to ride her bike with the sides unzipped a much as possible. Hers is a Skhoop and she got it at REI. She told me about the cross-country skiing version that’s “like a mullet” which would be useful to wear backwards on a bike in the rain. Or I could just buy some rain pants that fit. Or do more cyclocross so I shrink down and fit in my current rain pants.

I feel I haven’t adequately described the scene…my limited exposure to it, anyway. Cyclocross (watching, riding, and bringing the kids) is AWESOME. Everyone there seemed to be in a good mood, and not only because of the guy passing out cups of beer to racers (yes, during the race). We stood near a downhill corner for a while and saw A LOT of crashes, but I only noticed a few people at the medical booth with impressive scrapes. Fun! I’ll admit I felt like a bit of an outsider, not being affiliated with one of the teams, but I saw friends there, was invited to leave gear and hang out in team tents, and made new friends. I’m determined to do some practicing before racing again and hopefully complete all the laps…though I’ve been assured it’s just fine to run out of time and end up a lap down. Today was extra special because Tyler Farrar, local boy gone big, was racing. I saw him ride by and saw the picture of him my friend took with her phone, but did not get the opportunity to tell him he was in the presence of his biggest fan.

One damper on the day to report: heading home along sharrowed N 45th Street, the handlebars of the balance bike in my left FreeLoader bag bumped against an enormous truck. The driver stopped his truck and started honking and angrily gesturing at me. I stopped, too, but a bit in front of him by now. I’m not sure what he wanted, but he really didn’t want to pull up next to me. He kept honking and waving his arms around while I smiled and gestured at him to move up next to me. Finally he pulled up alongside me so he could say I was too wide for the road (he was right! I hadn’t packed things in well–the balance bike was hanging out to the side, on the outside of two bags of gear when I should have tucked it under them). While I couldn’t go into the whole “I agree I shouldn’t be sharing the road with you; I should have safe, protected areas to ride” thing, so instead I tried to tell him that I didn’t see a scratch on his truck, but would he like to pull over so we could look at it together? But he just wanted to yell about “you people.” He finally pulled away, only to stop next to my friend, Kevin, who had stopped several car lengths up to wait for me. More yelling! I rode up tried again to offer to look for a scratch with him to give him something to focus on other than yelling, but of course that went nowhere. Blech. The kids were unphased, thank goodness, but I’m still bothered by the whole thing. It’s ironic that we were two blocks away from the Neighborhood Greenway, but if I go downhill Stone to get to the start of the Greenway, I can’t make it up the first hill of the Greenway. 45th Street is a slight incline at this point and while I would happily take the lane and wait in the line of cars on flat and downhill sections, I’m just too slow at this part of the road and I can easily imagine how a horn-happy older man in an oversized truck would react to a bike crawling along at a few miles an hour in front of him. So I don’t know what the immediate answer is. I’m planning to attend the last of the three Seattle Bicycle Master Plan Update Public Meetings on Tuesday and I hope to see promises of changes that will happen soon, but that won’t help me tomorrow and next week. However, I do know I’ll take care to pack up the bike more carefully. So hey, I have learned something.