This month’s Spokespeople ride was awesome! For starters the kids were the perfect amount of hungry and complacently tired so they quietly sat and snacked most of the time and I could actually pay attention and learn a thing or two. We rode to the self-service bike stations on campus which I’d been meaning to check out. The two of the three we went by were sheltered from the rain and are full of tools someone only slightly more competant than myself would know how to use.

Bob Edmiston was there with his e-bike, but not the same e-bike we saw last time and featured in this wonderful article: UW staffer zeros out daily commute costs, carbon footprint. I asked him what happened to the old bike and he said his wife took it for herself. I love it!

Scanning the assembled crowd, I noticed Robin of Phinney/Greenwood Greenways was sporting a le Tour de France vest, Cathy of Spokespeople and Wallingford Greenways pulled on the longest, sparkliest gloves I’ve ever seen, and Juliette from Hub and Bespoke is the most stylish of all the stylish Seattle bike riders, even with no pup in her wicker dog basket. Talk about a fashion show. But seriously, I was quite smitten with the clipless shoes on one of the guys. They look less “runnery” in person than on the Pearl Izumi site and he said they’re very comfortable to walk around in, and the metal part can be covered with a plastic plate for long-term comfort. I think for truly stylish clipless shoes, you have to make ’em yourself, but I can’t help but keep an eye out for a turnkey shoe. Not that I’m planning to go clipless on the mamabike. Or replace my 10-year-old Shimano SPD mountain bike shoes since I don’t have occasion to use them often on my road or mountain bikes. I’m not a shoe hoarder, but for some reason I just can’t let go my search for cute SPDs.

Before the ride, I rode the boys and their balance bikes down to Gas Works Park where I thought they’d bomb down some big hills, but they just hit the puddles and sand pit.

While down there I zip tied on the little guy’s replacement 99-cent thrift store basket (which he promptly filled with wet sand, so it probably won’t last too long) and attached his horn. I know you’re wondering why I brought along a Swiss Army Knife when I’ve got a cargo bike that can carry a full-sized screwdriver. I dunno. I brought full-sized scissors…which were extraneous given the Swiss Army Knife.

We swung by home before the group ride to drop off one of the balance bikes. We didn’t end up using the other balance bike on the ride, but it was cool to demonstrate to the riders how much cargo a longtail can accommodate. I took Meridian uphill from Gas Works this time. I’ll have to compare grades, but I think it might be an easier climb than Densmore. But even better, the first several blocks are at the edge of the dropoff and it’s buoying to glance to the right at the end of each block and see how much farther above the water one’s climbed.

Today was windy (so windy, I think I would have been blown off the trail had I been riding a bike of average weight!), but sunny and warmish so it seemed like a good day to experiment with taking the bike and bus 20 miles to Issaquah. I was also feeling a little anti-car after all the driving yesterday and I’m taking part in my Twitter friend, Zak Schwank’s Bike Temecula Challenge, which is open to riders not fortunate enough to reside in sunny Southern California any more :) Also, I let the boys decide if they wanted to take the car or the old mamabike and bus so they’re to blame. I’d like to build a little widget to track mileage in the right column, but for now, I’m logging my miles on a separate page.

The timing worked out perfectly for heading out of town: we arrived at the 4th and Seneca bus stop with five minutes to spare. And just in time to watch the most beautiful gold bike zoom by. The sun glinted off its gold rims and blinded me for a moment before it disappeared from view. So pretty! The bus driver was worried about my windscreen blowing off, but I assured him “It hasn’t blown off yet!” which in retrospect I realize wasn’t the best way to put it. It’s disconcerting to watch it flap around so maybe I’ll start adding one more step to my bus pre-boarding process and remove it. But in the meantime, the kids have solved the matter by choosing the front left seats on the bus so my bike is blocked from view. It’s amazing how much more relaxing a bus ride is when I can’t see my bike bouncing around.

It was too cold to walk around the trains at the Issaquah Depot Museum or climb on the train-themed play structures in adjacent Veterans’ Memorial Field, but we saw this great train mural on the two-block ride from the bus stop to Issaquah Brewhouse. It’s not the greatest food, but there’s a Lego table.

After second lunch, we took a spin through the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. The boys’ love for salmon is fairly new so this was our first time checking it out. A quick ride around didn’t do the place justice so we’ll be back. And we’ll be sure to bring the plush salmon toys with us.

We didn’t have time to stop in at the Cut Loose Caboose barber shop which resides next to our dentist (our reason for the trip here, by the way), but we’ve pestered Maurice many times in the past. And the boys both barked in hopes that little Daisy could hear them from inside.

The way home wasn’t quite as easy. I decided to change the plan and catch the bus from the Transit Center instead of downtown so we’d have a better waiting spot. We missed the 554 by a few seconds–it was leaving the curb as we arrived. I guess I could have blocked its path and finagled my way on board, but I just muttered and let it go. Waiting 30 minutes for a bus isn’t so bad, but the kids were a little cold and a little tired (and I was getting tired and crabby). I hadn’t checked out the Transit Center buses ahead of time and it didn’t occur to me another feasible bus might come by. Too late to make a difference, I noticed a bus bound for Northgate pull away from a different bay (that may have worked!) and then a bus bound for University District (that would have been even better than the 554!). I’m too worn out from the whole ordeal to check out the other buses now, but I’ll have things better figured out for next time. And the extra waiting time allowed me the time to decide I didn’t want to ride home from downtown so we waited 10 minutes and transferred from the 554 to the 510. My main reason for the extra bus was because I knew the kids would get very cold during that last 45 minutes of riding, but the half hour of time saved and no big hill sounded mighty nice, too.

After scoring two less-than-road-ready free kid bikes (one by trailer and one by Big Dummy, I might add), I’ve promised Mr. Family Ride I’ll stop claiming freebies. And since we were already in the car for our Wednesday afternoon class (I haven’t figured any other method to get from Lower Queen Anne to Lake City in 30 minutes, unfortunately), I shoved the two bikes in the trunk for our first foray to the Bike Works Bicycle Shop.

I called yesterday to see if they have a 16-inch kid bike in stock and they do, but it’s “a very bright and unnatural shade of pink.” Too bad because we’re looking for “a light blue bike with light blue handlebars and even light blue pedals.” Maybe it wasn’t such a great idea to powdercoat my new bike–now the kids think they get to customize their rides, too. But the prospect of a new, working bike was too exciting for the color to matter so we got it anyway. The color is even more garrish than I’d imagined. I love it! And Bike Works is just wonderful. They had tons of adult bikes in great shape for low low prices. The shop is worth a visit, but to get even more bang for your bike buck, their annual warehouse sale is just around the corner:

Bike Works Annual Warehouse Sale
January 29th, 12-4pm
Just east of Rainier on Hudson St
Come one, come all, for the annual Bike Works Warehouse Sale! As usual, the warehouse sale will be jam packed with ridiculously low-priced bikes and bike parts! You might even find a book or two at this year’s sale. To speed up the check out process, we request that purchases be made in cash. We’ll see you there!

According to the Facebook event page, there will be pedicab service between the shop and the warehouse. Fun! If we go we’ll bike to downtown and catch the light rail to the Columbia City station, just a couple blocks from the shop. And I’ll be very clear with my passengers ahead of time that we’re going to Bike Works and not Gas Works Park. I almost had a mutiny on my hands when the littles realized there was no sand pit waiting for them.

In other news, I finally put a one less minivan bumper sticker on the new bike. The back of the Yepp seat isn’t sticker conducive so it’s not quite as visible on this bike as the old one. I’m not opposed to sticking it on my frame, by the way, but was just too hurried to clean off a spot for it. I wanted to have it onboard for a trip to University Village shopping center because the mall is where one takes her minivan or minivan alternative.

I’ve probably biked to U Village half a dozen times and until today hadn’t realized I’m going a half mile out of the way. I guess it’s easier to see the big picture without a toddler and windscreen blocking part of my forward view. I hit the mall by using my old method of staying on the Burke-Gilman Trail until intersecting 25th Ave. NE and then negotiating two busy sidewalk blocks to the busy car ramp that enters the parking lots. Coming home was much better by exiting at the southwest corner and riding 300 feet along the sidewalk to little Pend Oreille Rd to get back to the Burke-Gilman. It’s a steep little road so I may experiment with more sidewalk and pedestrian bridge crossing if there’s no heavy student traffic at the time.

50 degrees and sunny made for a great Opening Day of Bicycling Cargo Bike Ride. I loaded up the boys and their balance bikes and Mr. Family Ride secured my sweet new Marlin’s motorcycle clock to my handlebars. As you can see, I was only half an hour late for the ride (meet at noon, ride at 1).

I meant to leave the house at 11 and take the scenic route along the ship canal trail and by the train yard, but we left at 11:45 and braved Eastlake. It turned out to be a good thing because we ran into Claudia on her Xtracycle as she and her son headed west from Capitol Hill. What are the odds? Unfortunately, neither of us had plotted a route to the waterfront, but we did OK with my Seattle Center route.

I have to admit I was a little worried about the ride–especially after a guy with a big trailer on his bike examined my rig and said, “Where’s your Stokemonkey? How are you going to make it up Yesler?” He’d decided to skip the ride and go eat soup. The ride climbed Jackson and it was hard, but thanks to my granny ring I was able to stay in the saddle. I haven’t had to push this heavy beast up a hill on foot yet and hope I never have to. I was by far the slowest up the hill, but I just take that as proof that I was the cargo-bikey-est one there.

Pratt Park was great, with a nice water park come summertime. I’m not sure I’ll make it back up the hill again to see it in action, though. I checked the specs on the balance bikes and they weigh in at 8.9 and 9.5 pounds. So maybe with 20 pounds less crap it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately, the restrooms aren’t open in the off-season–two cargo bike rides in a row with no bathrooms. Quite different from a Kidical Mass ride which takes two-year-old bladders into account.

Jasper’s bike was U-locked to a picnic table at the park, but the key went missing somewhere on the ride over. All that talent and no one could bust the lock. But after much trying, someone had the brilliant idea to take the picnic table apart instead. The bike was freed and while I don’t think I’ll start travelling with table-disassembling tools, a couple zip ties would have come in handy at that point–to pin the lock to the frame and render it rideable.

The party was still in full swing when we hit the road around 4. Actually, we didn’t hang at the potluck much with such an enticing play structure and sand pit on the other side of the park. The ride home included a scenic winding through Interlaken Park. I hadn’t planned a route from looking at the map, but got great directions from the cargo bike crew.

We didn’t leave quite early enough to beat the evening cold so I pulled over in Interlaken Park to throw my jacket over my cold little guy. Even with the downhill coasting, there was enough uphill to keep me too warm to need it myself.

If it hadn’t been so warm (for Seattle) earlier in the day, I would have brought along the little guy’s new Slanket. It’s made a world of difference for him. He’d really been missing his fairing on the old bike. It shielded him from wind and rain and he could even get by without wearing mittens, but since the Slanket he’s stopped requesting we take the old mama bike when we head to the garage. Here’s a picture of the miracle garment from yesterday:

One last great bit of the ride was in north Capitol Hill (by Hamlin and Broadway) where I discovered a bunch of great bike markings. Circles and arrows easily led the way to the University Bridge. If only all routes could have this!

Two kids and two balance bikes on the Big Dummy is a breeze! Much better than two kids on the city bike with two balance bikes towed by trailer. We met Biking with Brad and kids for a University of Washington parking garage tour. We had planned for rain and with the college virtually shut down for the holiday break, it seemed like a good dry and empty place to bike up and down ramps.

The kids all had a blast on the ramps, but it never rained so after biking around a bit outside, checking out the cool rocks in the Geology Department, and lunching in Eastlake, we headed to the I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park for more technical terrain. We got to Franklin by turning left on Hamlin so now I know the best route! Of course I was paced by a four-year old (on his sweet new 20″ six-gear bike) so I’ll have to try it alone to verify that it’s flat enough.

The littles loved the mountain bike park, too, and I couldn’t believe how much my two-year old rode after riding up and down the ramps in the garage. Brad took his Big Dummy (with huge new Schwalbe Fat Frank tires) on the switchbacks, but I got a bit of rest and talked the two-year old out of hopping down a few black diamond jumps.

I think I could come here every day! It even rained a bit while we were there, but it was almost impossible to tell since we were shielded by the freeway. It’s educational, too. Many pillars sport wildlife posters with animal and mountain biking information.

While we were eating lunch I noticed a cyclist stop to take a picture of Brad’s bike parked outside. Apparently I’m still a little bothered by my bike getting short shrift. But then he took a picture of my bike, too, and I let it go. However, Brad did show me up when his wife took the bus over to the colonnade after work and he carried his whole family home.

It was only two blocks, but I towed a bike with my bike! A neighborhood mom posted that she was giving away a 16″ boys bikes and while I still intend to use my Bike Works voucher, I just can’t pass up a free bike! Again, I assumed it would be blue like last time (which turned out to be pink and covered in princesses), but he seems cool with red. And if he ever starts pedaling, maybe he’ll get to pick out his own bike.

While I was loading the bike, a guy walked by and asked if I was going to seat a third kid on it. It was fairly stable with it’s front wheel secured in the FreeLoader, but not stable enough to take a passenger. Although now that I’m thinking about it, I’m sure there are riders who’ve tried.

The bike’s in really good condition and just needs some handlebar rust steel-wooled off and the seat could use a patch. I told my husband that I ordered a kiddie Brooks saddle for it and he just rolled his eyes. After tilting up my new saddle a teensy bit, it’s perfectly comfortable, but he hasn’t stopped grumbling about it.

We’ve had such a long dry spell, I didn’t heed the slight chance of rain in today’s forecast. I didn’t pack rain gear for any of us and haven’t even thought about keeping our three seats dry while parked. Things started getting grey and misty while the bike was parked for a couple hours in a friend’s garage during a playdate, but the kids were game to stay out and kill time until the library opened.

We rode around Green Lake looking for a coffee shop with covered bike parking, but ended up exposed at Starbucks. I sort of covered the Yepp seat with a shopping bag and draped a blanket over the rest of the FlightDeck. It didn’t do any good and everything got wet when the rain kicked in. Fortunately, I have my BikeCap secured to my seat post so that was along for the ride and kept the most important seat dry (important because it’s fragile Brooks leather, not because it’s mine).

I wanted to go home and hide indoors, but the kids convinced me to stay true to my word and take them to the library. We circled the building looking for covered parking and decided the clump of trees in front of the building was the best bet. I’ve noticed bikes and dogs parked there in the past and now I know why. It didn’t keep the bike completely dry, but it was much better than being parked at the bike rack.

Again, I wanted to call it a day and head home, but we kept to our original plan and made a stop at Trader Joe’s. I’ve noticed sheltered bike racks deep in the parking garage, but the railing was somewhat covered by the overhang and there were way fewer bikes than normal parked there. I guess I’m not the only Seattleite turned off by today’s rain. And I still haven’t done any real plotting to deal with future rain.

I went on a Christmas lights ride with Jen of Loop-Frame Love last night and learned the most amazing thing: the little T’s painted near where bikes wait at intersections are sensors that trigger stop lights to change for bikes. Here’s the older style T we biked by in Ballard:

And here’s a newer style bike icon in Wallingford (N 34th St at Stone Way N):

Read all about the triggers on Loop-Frame Love: The Magic Stoplight and Seattle Bike Blog: The magic little biker near the stop light.

A couple salient points: from SBB commenter JRF: if a sensor doesn’t work, report it and SDOT will adjust it within a few days. And from Jen’s update after meeting with a traffic engineer: placing the crank over the trigger will have best results, especially if you don’t have a steel frame.

The holiday lights were great. My four-year old wisely opted to stay home and warm, but my two-year old fared OK for a while under a blanket. Jen’s six-year old is on a trail-a-bike so he was able to keep warm pedaling. I can’t wait to have help pedaling!

We didn’t make it all the way to Olympic Manor, but we saw some great Ballard lights. The best house had Santa, Frosty, a helicopter, and a firetruck:

I was very impressed by Jen’s USB-rechargeable Expelion 250 CygoLite. Of course, I was more into it when I thought she said it was called “psycho light,” but no matter the name it’s extremely bright. I’m still loving my dynamo lighting, but the Expelion is a great alternative for battery-resenting riders who want a very bright light and don’t want to wait (or pay) to have a dynamo hub installed.

Second day in a row visiting the Space Needle. We used to have a discounted season pass, but this year we’re just going once (well, twice) as part of the cheap Winter Special CityPASS. I didn’t realize Space Santa wasn’t Earthside yesterday so it was necessary to utilize our visit-twice-within-two-days coupon today. But first we stopped at South Lake Union Park to take a closer look at the empty model boat test pond. Yesterday we circled it per our usual routine and saw a guy taking a photo of a model sailboat laying in the empty pond. My picture isn’t nearly as poignant, but much more fun…until the kids finally ran back over with green slime all over their gloves. They declared it algae, but I’m pretty sure it was fermented goose poo. So no gloves for the rest of the day.

Oh, and it’s a nice shot of a stroller in the FreeLoader. I remember the days I thought I could only bring the stroller if I used the double trailer…and more recently carefully bungeed to the OG mamafiets. It’s quite nice to just toss it in the bag and know it’ll stay there. And the hole in the FlightDeck provides a perfect perch for Sockeye Salmon.

Space Needle Santa was a partial bust (poor baby!):

But I got closer to finding the perfect bike-and-Space-Needle shot by laying on the ground a couple steps below the bike in front of the box office. My usual Space Needle bike rack has been torn out and replaced by a construction zone so I locked up to the railing right out front. It wasn’t crowded enough for me to feel too guilty about parking illegally. And yesterday as we located the bike on the 40-second ride down, the elevator operator mentioned she’d been admiring it from her post.

I normally take Westlake heading south of Lake Union, but with the construction lately, we either take Dexter and miss the lake altogether or brave the sidewalk of the Broad Street tunnel under Aurora. I’ve even contemplated biking on the east side of Lake Union more often, but I just don’t like it over there–too crowded on Eastlake, too hilly on Fairview. Today we took 9th on the way south, but heading home discovered that Terry is open to bikes and peds. The BICYCLISTS SLOW DOWN DANGER AHEAD sign didn’t phase me–those signs should be placed at every intersection in SLU. It’s all dangerous down here if you go too fast. So our new route takes us only a block out of the way and allows us a great view of construction equipment and up-close encounters with construction men. Win-win.

We paid a quick visit to a cool bike rack on 11th in the U-District (Health Alliance International, 4534 11th Ave NE). One either has to lift his/her bike over the curb or wheel through the dirt to get to the rack so that’s not ideal, but it sure looks nice. I didn’t think to check out its pedigree, but will in future. It’s always fun to browse bike rack manufacturer sites.

Finally, we made it to Ride Bicycles where Edward put foot pegs on the Big Dummy so the big kid can climb aboard on his own and ride more comfortably. They’re just bar ends and Edward found a spare pair of grips to trim down to size to make them extra fancy and foot-friendly.

Speaking of Edward and Big Dummies, here is his Big Dummy, sporting waterproof covers he custom made for his FreeLoaders:

And he’s got a sweet trailer hitch for pulling bikes around. I’m not planning on anything so burly for my bike, but maybe some day I’ll be a big-time bike hauler.

I also joined the cult of Brooks and swapped out my slightly uncomfortable saddle for a more uncomfortable B17S. But it’s so cool! I hear they wear in. It’s mostly just slippery and I slid off a couple times on the way home. But it’s so cool!

I wish someone had reminded me I own a cargo bike today. Rather than utilize it, I bused from Wallingford to Lower Queen Anne to Phinney to retrieve Mr. Family Ride’s beach cruiser. I’d lent it to a friend’s visiting brother months ago and the time came to bring it back home.

A bit after noon, the little one and I took the 31 from Wallingford to Lower Queen Anne to retrieve the big kid from preschool. The three of us caught the 26 south a bit down Dexter and walked up a flight of stairs to Aurora to grab the 5 back north to Phinney. We take the bus occasionally, but Thanksgiving was the first time we’d transferred from bus to bus (to get to West Seattle–and just one way, since Mr. Family Ride met us out and drove us all home) so today was pretty big.

We hung out and played for a couple hours and then hit the long road home. OK, OK, it’s just 3 miles by bike, but it felt long given we were two-thirds into our adventure. I had hoped to wear the little kid on my back and perch the big kid on the handlebars for the two-block uphill walk to the bus stop, but the big kid wanted to walk and I didn’t have the patience for an extra half hour (at least!) tacked onto our trip. I finally talked him into a seat on the top tube once my friend wrapped it in bubble wrap. It wasn’t too comfortable for either of us, but I didn’t relish the walk uphill–or two more buses–so we headed downhill to see how much of a pain it’d be to walk all the way home. Turns out it was a really big pain so we bagged the plan after two miles and caught the 44 at the edge of Wallingford for the final mile home.

It wasn’t until this evening that I realized what I should have done is tow the cruiser home with the Big Dummy. Duh! There’s even a Flikr gallery of Xtracycle Bikes in Tow. No photo of an Xtracycle with kiddie seat in the rear position towing a bike, but I think with a couple bungee cords, it’d work OK. I should probably practice so I’m prepared for next time, though I feel like I wasted my one opportunity for a one-way, all-downhill bike tow.