We had so much fun last year, we’re doing it again! We’ll ride all the way around Lake Union (about 7.5 miles) with several stops along the way. Feel free to rush ahead or drop out early as naps/meals/football-viewing plans dictate.
10:00 – Start gathering at Gas Works (near the play barn) 10:30 – *Firm* depart 11:00-12:00 – Playground by Daniel’s Broiler 12:30 – Starbucks warm-up stop 1:30 – Back to Gas Works
Here’s the route. There’s one steep section of about half a block:
I had a lot of fun participating in errandonneuring so there was no doubt I’d do the Third Annual Chasing Mailboxes Coffeeneuring Challenge and all ensuing Chasing Mailboxes challenges. I figured it’d be too easy, except for the part where I’d have to narrow it down to just seven coffees. I mean, we got waaaay more than seven days to visit seven coffee shops, I already bike every day, drink coffee, and–hello!–live in Seattle: birthplace of Starbucks, city with highest per capita bicyclists able to ride one-handed while drinking a cup of hot coffee, and home to five million kid-friendly coffee shops. But I nearly didn’t get it done thanks to an unexpected weekend car trip to Salt Spring Island, a Sunday lost to a pulled back muscle, and days where I failed squeezing in a coffee purchase despite being out and about all damn day. I wasn’t even sure until tallying today if I’d coffeeneured seven times–thank goodness I forced an evening stop on Saturday in case my Sunday submission is tossed out for cheating.
Following are my stops with the summary essentials: “1. where you went (address and website, if possible), 2. the date you went there, 3. what you drank 4. a detail or two about your coffeeneuring ride, and 5. total mileage.”
I’ll also throw in any tidbits on kid friendliness of the coffee shop stops.
1 / one / uno / een
Ballard Coffee Works (2060 NW Market St, Ballard, WA 98107)
Kid corner with train table, books, and stuffed animals! We met up with two other biking families and the five collective kids (and their beverage swilling parents) had a great time.
October 5, 2013
French press (Surprisingly bitter. I usually take my coffee black–like my components–but this cup of mud scared me towards fancy coffees for the rest of the challenge.)
Fun detail #1: The bike with the Mike O’Brien campaign poster sharing our bike rack turned out to be The Mike O’Brien’s bike. Talk about truth in advertising.
Fun detail #2: DOGS!
After my kids monopolized the two large stuffed dogs in the Ballard Coffee Works play area and ogled a few dogs tied up outside, we adjourned to Gas Works Park to take advantage of the unexpectedly terrific weather. There we met artist Matt Josef who literally just rolled into town, parked, and took the dogs out to stretch their legs. He has plans to bike cross country with his SO and the dogs, but this visit was by car while he works on a commission. He let me hold little Paco for so long he should have been worried I wouldn’t give him back (but I did. And I later gave him my copy of Elly Blue’s Four Paws, Two Wheels which is awesome despite–because?–my submission didn’t make the cut).
And then our friends from coffee returned to the park with their dog! Their DoggieRide trailer is really nice. I love the pop top.
Miles: 8.5
Our bikes from inside Ballard Coffee Works
Artist Matt Josef and his dogs
Paco!
DoggieRide trailer
2 / two / dos / twee
Milstead & Co (770 N 34th St, Seattle, WA 98103)
No kid-specific area, but the inside is spacious and the cafe connects to the even more spacious History House Sculpture Garden full of neat stuff, like a chunk of the Berlin Wall in the foreground of my photo below. Again, we met up with a couple other biking families. Coffeeneuring is even more fun with company!
Fun detail: We stopped by Fremont Brewing Company a block away to check out the new bike corral. This place is kid-friendly, but no coffee. Twice (April 2011 an November 2011) we’ve had Kidical Mass rides end here. I think we’re due for another big visit!
Miles: 3.4
Theo mocha with house-made vanilla at Milstead & Co.
Inside Milstead & Co.
Ouside (but covered) Milstead & Co.
Fremont Brewing Company
3 / three / tres / drie
Makeda Coffee (153 N 78th St, Seattle, WA 98103)
Toys next to the couch and comfy chair in the back. We biked over with Forrest and his brand-new-to-him folding bike. His other ride is a regular bike to which he connects a trail-a-bike when he rides with his kid.
October 12, 2013
Mocha–with my most favorite Seven Roasters. This would have been the place to get the black coffee.
Fun detail: We chose Makeda so we could hop seven blocks north to visit the new G & O Family Cyclery. My first visit to G & O was the day before, but I think I could happily go there every day.
Miles: 8.6
New folding bike and Makeda Coffee
Toys at Makeda Coffee
4 / four / quatro / vier
Wheelhouse (2113 Westlake Ave Seattle, WA 98121)
A rare kid-free outing! I was out for a hair appointment and intended to grab a coffee at The Crumpet Shop in nearby Pike Place Market, but as soon as I walked in the door, the barista shouted “We’re out!” at me. I’m assuming she meant they were out of crumpets, not coffee, but that gave me the opportunity to make my first visit to Wheelhouse on the way home. We bike by Wheelhouse often and it makes me happily remember Santa Barbara’s shuttered WheelHouse Bikes. No kid stuff, but outdoor seating is always a good thing for littles.
Solsticio (1100 N Northlake Way, Seattle, WA 98103)
No kid stuff, but we love Solsticio. It’s right along the Burke-Gilman Trail with great food (smoothies!) and big glass garage door that’s open in the summer. It was a perfect place to stop after our Kidical Mass ride to fall colors in the Arboretum.
11/3
Pumpkin spice latte and allspice cake
Fun detail: We stopped by the Rent-a-Ruminant goats on our way home. They’re so sweet!
Miles: 9.3
Trail-adjacent Solsticio
Solsticio, and Kidical Mass fall helmet craft
Rent-a-Ruminant sweethearts
6 / six / seis / zes
Swansons Nursery (9701 15th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98117)
I thought we’d hit a coffee shop in the afternoon, but we got sidetracked at a playground while parading with our friends on their new bikes. Thank goodness the Reindeer Festival in the morning had complimentary hot apple cider. I didn’t snap a picture of it so I’m including pictures of the rest of the reindeer games.
11/9
Hot apple cider (free!)
Fun detail: A love story! As we were getting ready to leave the park with our parade of friends, a very curious squirrel ran up to our bikes and scurried quickly away several times. I was starting to get a little worried he would jump into/onto one of the bikes and bite a child, but on his third trip in, he grabbed my friend’s brand new Bullitt cargo bike and hugged (humped?) the front tire. Of course in the back of my mind I wondered why he hadn’t chosen my bike, but I’ll admit the Bullitt is a sexy bike.
Miles: 15.9
Swansons Reindeer Festival
Swansons Reindeer Festival
Bow cheeka bow bow
7 / seven / siete / zeven
Black Coffee Co-op (501 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122)
No play area, but very spacious. I noticed a bookshelf full of games, but I don’t know if any were kid games. I led a group ride here, Critical Lass rides to the Broadway cycle track and goes Coffeeneuring to celebrate the last day of the Coffeeneuring Challenge which is explicitly against Rule 8: “You may not combine your coffeeneuring ride with any other ride such as an organized century, populaire, or brevet.” Oops.
11/17
Mocha
Fun detail: I got to carry an extra kid (80+ pounds!) 10 feet. I had hoped to carry him half a mile the
rest of the way to the coffee shop, but in an amazing display of teamwork, an extra bolt was located and used to repair his trailer bike on the spot at the mid-point of our ride.
Miles: 11.7
Coffee and company at Black Coffee Co-op
Quiet kids at Black Coffee Co-op
Temporary extra load–woo hoo!
Critical Lasses fix a bike
alternate / suplemento / extratje
Uptown Espresso (500 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109)
I popped out solo in the afternoon to see my friend’s work in a pottery show (hers were the best, by the way), hoping “Wine, snacks, and live music!” meant “Wine, snacks, live music, and coffee” but no such luck. So afterwards I went around the corner to the closest coffee shop.
11/16
Latte. I haven’t been to “Home of the Velvet Foam” since having a dairy-free nursling so this was to be my first exposure to Velvet Foam. I figured latte was the way to go with Velvet Foam, but I didn’t like it. However, I don’t think I’ve ever had a latte before so it’s probably me. I’m back to black coffee now that the challenge is over.
Fun detail: while I love (not) sitting on the side of the street swapping my bike shoes for fancier shoes, I’m tempted to once again search for normal-looking shoes with SPD cleats. I’m not very DIY-inclined or I’d try Instructables: High-heel, clipless bike shoes. And there’s Retrofitz who will turn regular shoes into bike shoes. Of course I could just change the pedals. That’s not nearly as exciting, but unless Mr. Family Ride tossed his old pedals when switching back to Speedplay, there should be a perfectly good pair of SPD pedals with a big plastic flat thingy clipped to one side of them somewhere in the basement. Hey, thanks Coffeeneuring Challenge for all allowing me to puzzle this one out!
Last Sunday was an epic kid-and-bike-hauling day: two kids plus three bikes on the Surly Big Dummy:
Photo courtesy DBC Photo
20-inch kid bike in the left FreeLoader bag, 16-inch kid bike and my grownup cyclocross bike on the WideLoader on the right. FreeLoader buckles pulled as tight as possible, a few bungee cords, and one toe strap holding my cross bike snugly to the Yepp FlightDeck adapter made things work. The ride was only a mile and a half, but all uphill. It was much easier than the ensuing cyclocross race and I think that was easier than riding back home alongside the kids (blog post on riding with kids coming soon).
The picture above is from two months ago, the day before the Ballard Greenway celebration when we tested the route. That was my first time dragging two bikes and I had them on the wrong sides–the hand brake from the bigger bike poked my Yepp seat passenger in the back at every bounce. Oops. So this is how we roll now, 20-inch bike on the left, 16-inch bike on the right:
I’m careful about making tight turns and this means I sometimes have to do a bit of route adjusting, but it works surprisingly well. I don’t think I’d tip over if the wheels touched one another during a turn, but I’d have to park and straighten things out. Bikes with wheels smaller than 16 inches fit completely in the pocket (and even the 16-inch bike fits in the pocket if it has to) so here are a couple pictures of our journey to this point…
Two balance bikes, one in each pocket with other gear (snacks, extra layers) shoved in where space allowed:
Or Two balance bikes on the same side, using the WideLoader for days with lots of other gear:
Our next two configurations were…
– 16-inch pedal bike plus small balance bike (Kinderbike Mini)
– 16-inch pedal bike plus 12-inch balance bike
Both of these were most easily done by dragging the 16-inch pedal bike rear wheel from one pocket and putting the smaller bike completely in the other pocket.
I didn’t use the WideLoader for any of the above unless I also needed to carry a couple big bags of stuff, but it came in handy for 16-inch pedal bike on one side and two little bikes on the other. Three bikes!
I had intended to have some sort of hitch built back when we were at the dragging-one-bike stage, but didn’t get around to it. Apparently the Xtracycle rear crossbar is the perfect width for a fork mount from a bike rack. Here’s the one on Edward’s (the mechanic who built my bike) Big Dummy:
Perhaps I could stick one out to either side. That would keep the bikes very stable, but it adds a bit of time to the whole process and stowing the front wheels separately will probably end up taking up just as much room.
But back to dragging from the FreeLoaders…
I’ve dragged a tiny bike out the back–once with our 10-inch-wheeled Kinderbike Mini during an on-the-bike-off-the-bike-back-and-forth-dance along the Alki Beach boardwalk, but I prefer having the weight completely in the bag with no drag if possible. However there’s more cargo room with less bike in the bag. Our 16-inch wheel takes up about half the bag:
And our 20-inch wheel fills enough of the bag that I can only fit something small in front of it:
Things would be a bit easier if I didn’t have the Yepp seat’s leg supports pushing front wheels out at an angle, and every bike is a bit different, but following are some pictures of how our specific bikes fit. Reinforcing with bungee cords or cinch straps (non-stretchy, like a toe clip or Yuba Cargo Straps) is great, but I’m lazy and if I can make it work without extra effort, that’s what I do. For our 16-inch Sparkle BMX-style bike, threading the buckle of FreeLoader bag through the fork works best for keeping it straight:
However, I just had a front brake put on the Sparkle so now I’m worried about messing that up if I try to squeeze the strap through. So far just going over the top is working OK.
Notice three pictures up that I’ve fastened the buckle through the spokes. I used to be scared of doing so, but saw a friend securing her bikes thusly so I’ve been doing the same…until I noticed a couple bent spokes. Doh! The bike should fine, but I don’t want to bend even more. Despite all the weight I put on my bikes, I have never broken a spoke and I don’t want to start now. Fortunately, whether through the spokes or not, two snugly fastened FreeLoader buckles keep the 20-inch Danish Mosquito in place without extra help.
This isn’t the case with our other 20-inch kid bike, the impulse-purchase Trek Jet from replacing stolen items day. This bike’s different shape requires a bungee cord from frame to Yepp adapter to keep it from flopping to the side. Although I hurriedly buckled through the spokes on the way to cyclocross last weekend and it sat fine sans bungee.
Carrying a bike with a full-sized wheel works pretty much the same way. The bigger wheel leans out to the side more so I usually need a bungee cord to hold it in.
It looks floppy in the close-up, but it tracks nice and straight.
Adult bikes are much easier to carry without the Yepp seat–or at least, without the Yepp seat at the rear of the FlightDeck. Here’s my road bike on Davey Oil’s Xtracycle EdgeRunner. It has the same Xtracycle FreeLoader bags as my Big Dummy and I can buckle the middle strap up and over across the FlightDeck from one bag to the other.
If I’m towing a big bike and no kids, I’ll often remove the Yepp seat to stow in the non-bike FreeLoader pocket.
Added November 18:
Here’s a picture of my friend Tom towing a balance bike and 16-inch pedal bike by putting the back wheels in each pocket and keeping the front wheels up off the ground with bungee cords so there’s no drag and still cargo space in front of the bikes! Notice is also has a hitch on his bike for towing a full-sized bike. Little does he know I’ve been working on a post with pictures of some of his cool stuff :)
There are a lot of new cargo bikes in town! G & O Family Cyclery just opened in Greenwood (our first visited blogged here) and is responsible for two friends’ new family rigs. Today we met with Elisabeth on her one-day-old Bullitt and Sara on her three-day-old Xtracycle EdgeRunner (and her husband, Dave, on his not-new, but awesome Dutch bike).
We met at G & O and headed a couple blocks south to catch bike-friendly N 83rd (which is also called the Interurban just to make things confusing because it’s not the main Interurban we rode today) a couple blocks east and hop on the new Fremont Avenue Greenway. A bit over a mile later and we connected to the Interurban Trail.
My original plan was to ride into Shoreline, but we decided to stop at Bitter Lake. This meant we only took one block of Linden cycle track (map of our route).
The five kids had fun at the Bitter Lake playground, even when the drizzle started. Elisabeth hung out in her Bullitt box to stay warm, but eventually we adults got too cold and urged the kids to call it a day.
This was just a practice parade as we’re waiting on a new bike addition to the Wheelha.us stable and one other family bike that’s on the way. But for a parade planned the night before, this was great! And I like the route so I think we’ll do it again…with an indoor destination–Sky Nursery was my original plan, though we’ve never been.
I’m going to declare the current incarnation of The Old Mamabike (Bianchi Milano with Bobike Mini and Bobike Maxi) officially outgrown. Here we are six months ago, living the multi-modal high life:
The weight limit of the Bobike Mini front seat is 33 pounds and my four-year old is a little bit heavier than that fully clothed. And there’s a comfort issue. Little kids fit great in front, but I’ve replaced my stem twice to accommodate longer legs (each kid hit a point where his knees bumped against the handlebars uncomfortably) and my extended reach has me leaning forward into the kid helmet a bit. This wasn’t such a big deal with the Nutcase in the photo above (note: helmets with rounded backs, like Nutcase and Bern, are most comfortable both in trailers and if you have a kid rammed against your chest), but his pointy-backed Giro pokes me in the sternum. If he wasn’t over the weight limit, it’d be worth looking into more swept-back handlebars. It’s fascinating how replacing small pieces can totally change a bike.
Removing the seat (and windscreen) is easy–just pull out a pin and yank it out of the bracket thingy. I haven’t removed the mounting bracket yet–I’m not sure which kind of stem I have (though I suspect it’s the easier one)–so I guess I’m not fully committed to a change yet.
I started phase one of old mamabike conversion the other day by removing the front seat and windscreen…though it was really just so I could bring them to the Wheelha.us house and see if they’ll fit on a Madsen bucket bike for another family biker who is looking into front seats. It looks like it’ll fit!
I want to get the bracket off so we can really test it, though. And in the commitment department, I left my front seat and windscreen in the Wheelha.us garage so I’m motivated to move on my next steps. And also because we don’t have a garage or much storage space. It’s not the first thing I’ve snuck into there, hee hee.
Another comfort item with the old mamabike is the seat height. We had a good five-year run with the low seat, but ever since I raised the Big Dummy’s saddle, I don’t find the old mamabike as comfortable. Now that there’s no front seat and I can slide safely off my saddle if need be, I’ve raised it up to proper height–looks like an inch and a half or so:
I still have some heel strike in the back, but now that I’m using it for the four-year old, rather than the six-year old, I think I can raise the foot rests up. Or I could hide his favorite yellow shoes that are three sizes too big. So here’s the current look. It’s so odd to see it unencumbered by front seat. I always stare open-mouthed at people who ride by on Milanos with no kid seats and whisper, “The future!” I imagine this as my around-town bike someday (unless you’re in contact with my husband, whom I’ve promised I’ll sell the Milano when we get a used tandem to attach kidback and Burley Piccolo as one of our other next steps).
Why bother with the next step for the old mamabike? Because I like having a bus-able, two-kid-carrying bike. So what to do? One option might be a different front seat, many of which are highlighted in Hum of the City’s A front child seat for older kids. I saw one recently at the Ballard Bikes to School Kick-Off Event. It’s mounted on the seat post, but it’s really a front seat.
And soon to the market is the Mac Ride front seat. It launched a Kickstarter campaign yesterday and I’m really tempted to get one while they’re cheap.
Though with any front seat I’ll most likely have to move my seat back down, though maybe not the full inch and a half. A lower profile seat will be more comfortable with a bigger kid–and I won’t have to keep my feet at the edges of the pedals and aim my knees out to the sides. And it will keep the old mamabike the same size for busing.
My original idea for the old mamabike, long before the idea of upgrading to a cargo bike, was to move the little kid to the rear seat and put the big kid on his own bike, attached behind with a FollowMe Tandem coupling system–now available locally at G & O Family Cyclery. In an interesting parallel, my friend who previously rode a Kona MinUte midtail cargo bike with her son, has just upgraded to a new regular bike with FollowMe Tandem. Note the bikes are connected at the hubs so it’s nice and stable–and doesn’t interfere with the part of the bike where a rear kid seat would sit.
I think maybe I still want to do this. I like having the front of the bike all to myself. And I could fit a basket up there! Maybe something little and awesome like the Portland Design Works Takeout Basket or big and awesome like the Gamoh King Carrier.
But do I really want to lug around our heavy Danish Mosquito? The above photo is a week out of date–the trailing kid just upgraded, too, to an Isla Bike. I’m eager to get some feedback about the FollowMe with both the heavy and light kid bikes on our hilly terrain.
The not-so-simple parts are that I’ll need two open slots on the bus bike rack…though we usually travel at non-peak times and get the three-bike rack all to ourselves. And I’m not sure how long it takes to uncouple the kid bike. I’m not very adept at showing up to a bus stop with lots of time to spare.
If you’ve been reading closely, you might suspect there’s a Kona MinUte that will soon need a new home. Now that could work! Holds two kids and fits on the bus! But even if Kona hadn’t discontinued the MinUte, it’s not fair to use such a cool bike as a backup bike. Not to mention that during the sole two-mile ride we took on a MinUte, the kids were happy as clams for the first mile and then pummeled each other nonstop for the second. Although…they happily rode a horse together at a birthday party this summer which momentarily made me think they’re ready to share a small cargo bike deck.
Until five minutes later when they couldn’t share a tractor.
So what should I do? I’m going to ride the old mamabike around a bit to make sure I still love it as much as always (I’m pretty sure I do). It won’t work for the two-kid morning school run right now, but I can easily do preschool pickups and use it on non-preschool Thursdays and Fridays as long as I don’t want to carry anything big and impressive. If you’re so inclined, please weigh in because I’m awfully indecisive.
If money were no object, it’d sure be nice to get:
FollowMe Tandem coupler
Small 20″ Isla Bike
16″ Isla Bike (not needed for the old mamabike conversion, but while we’re dreaming here…)
Mac Ride–overkill if I’m getting the other stuff, but why not? Maybe just for fun on my mountain bike.
A funny thing happened on the way to the bike shop today. We were waiting at a red light to cross Aurora (here, if you’re curious) when a guy in a big truck hung a U-turn to pull up behind us. He opened his car door to lean out and address me.
“Can I give you five dollars?”
I figured I must have misheard him, but couldn’t reconcile the words into something expected like “Do you realize your kid’s backpack is dangling off your bike?” or “Is there a troll nearby?” (as happened earlier today, in Fremont).
At my puzzled, “Uh, what?” he spelled it out for me.
“You’re homeless, right?”
I was mystified and replied, “Sorry, I’m confused. Why do you think that?”
He explained it was the kids on the bike and he didn’t mean to embarrass me. Though, ya know, he didn’t have his glasses on. But really, were we OK?
I assured him we were OK, thanked him for checking in on us, and no, I wasn’t embarrassed. At this point I was starting to freak out about this guy in a big truck driving around without his glasses, but my husband is trying to convince me he was just trying to put my mind at ease. Hopefully I’ve helped change this guy’s perception a bit. I’m working on a more engaging and educating response for next time.
I was so thrown by the question that I paused to let it compute. Was she asking if I needed charity? To a writer of some standing in this town? An author with his own bike rack in front of Powell’s Books? A man in the process of hauling donations to his kid’s school?
She shook her head, as if to dispel the insensitivity of her question.
“I’ve offended you. Take both.”
She handed me the bag of clothes before I could react. There was a $20 bill on top.
It’s nice to have company.
And I should admit I’ve been called homeless before–by friends. Completely different.
Twenty minutes later we arrived to G & O Family Cyclery where I immediately related the story to Davey Oil, Tom Fucoloro of Seattle Bike Blog, Kelli Refer, and Adonia Lugo and asked for an honest opinion if we looked homeless today. They assured me it was him and Adonia made a joke about his having forgotten his “glasses of classism”.
Heh, now I realize under all our layers the kids were both wearing their Hobo Inn t-shirts.
We had a great six-mile ride (three out, three back), complete with unexpectedly terrific weather, from Gas Works Park to the Washington Park Arboretum today. We started with 20 participants, picked up 4 more en route, and were joined by 3 late comers for quite a big group! Of course there were the usual peel-offs for naps and similar reasons, but I think it’s safe to say everyone had fun.
The group was comprised of a variety of bike types:
regular adult bikes
regular bikes with front seats (Bobike mini, iBert)
regular bikes with rear seats
regular bike with Weehoo iGo trailer bike
regular bike with trailer
Surly Big Dummy lontail cargo bikes
Kona Ute longtail cargo bike
Cargo Joe folding longtail cargo bike
Yuba Boda Boda midtail cargo bike
Madsen bucket bike
Bilenky Viewpoint tandem with just one parent this time and kid in rear seat
four kids on their own bikes
The ride was fairly flat–first half along the Burke-Gilman multi-use trail and second half along the Lake Washington Loop, a signed bike route where other road users are very used to seeing bikes. I toted my four-year old and his 16-inch single-speed bike, thinking it better suited to my six-year old on his 20-inch three-speed bike, but we had a rider on a 16-inch bike who did great. Naturally, we’d adjust the speed of the ride to accommodate any rider. I’ve promised my little guy we’ll plan an all flat and downhill ride soon–today’s ride would have had him walking uphill and needing rest breaks. Here’s our route:
We stopped at the Arboretum’s Oak section, just north of the Visitor Center, where everyone immediately pulled out snacks…because snacking is one of the most important parts of successful family biking.
We also did some craft projects with fall leaves and pipe cleaners. My helmet leaves were a little too big for comfort, but twig antlers worked well.
I also got to heft an Islabike. So light! I don’t know how much our bike weighs, but it’s definitely more. Comparing our 20-inch kid bike with the 20-inch Isla would be an even bigger difference. I think I want a bike scale. Of course, what I really want is two Islabikes, but I’d settle for a scale. For now.
The first leg of our ride took a quick break to watch the weed-munching rental goats under the freeway. Later, the kids and I took a closer look on our way home. They almost escaped two nights ago, but are securely contained now. This one is my favorite:
And this is one is the kids’. They’ve named her Best Friend. Next time we visit them, we’ll bring pumpkin. check them out if you’re nearby–they’re adorable!
In Kidical Mass news, we’ll be holding monthly rides. Next ride with be Sunday, December 1st, with full details coming soon.
It’s that time of year again! Our sweet friend who threw the most terrific very bikey birthday party upon turning five last year followed it up with a just-as-terrific event for age six this year.
It was amazing to see what a difference a year made. Last year the kids were cargo, but this year four little kids biked six miles from Gas Works Park to Magnuson Park. We stopped momentarily to watch the hired goats chow down on the blackberry brambles near the freeway and took a longer rest break (during which the kids ran and biked around!) two thirds of the way there.
The ride was primarily along the Burke-Gilman Trail which made for a very comfortable (and flat) ride, and the kids did great keeping to the right and stopping safely at numerous intersections. I lost my six-year old to the front of the pack for most of the ride and hung back with my slower four-year old. I tried my hand at giving him a boost while riding alongside and we pretty much got the hang of it, though I don’t think I could do it on a real hill. But on small inclines it was enough to keep him happy and pedaling the whole way.
Then we utilized the NE 65th St cycle track to reach the park. I stood atop the barrier to snap pictures as the party whizzed by.
New this year was a bike ramp and teeter totter! Like last year, more families met us at the park, most with kid bikes in tow. The kids zoomed around amphitheater both before and after sushi, cake, and bike decorating.
And finally the birthday-boy-led parade through the park!
We rode all around–past rugby games,
dog park, uphill, and down. Some ups and downs were steep and gravelly enough that the kids walked. My kids had a couple wipe outs in the gravel so for most of the parade I had one or the other kid and his bike on the Big Dummy. Maybe next year we’ll each ride the whole thing, but today it was nice to be versatile.
I woke up Sunday with a pulled muscle in my back, in too much pain to play cyclocross or do much of anything. It’s a recurring thing from an old car crash and I’ve never put much thought into the crash, but as I think more about cars versus bikes these days (not in terms of War on Cars, but in terms of selecting to use one over the other on a day-by-day basis), I’m starting to cast off the veil of our car culture. It’s not just me: see Apathy by Tiny Helmets Big Bikes. I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t even blame the car crash for my neck problems at first. Shortly after the crash, we moved offices and the risers for my monitor got misplaced so I blamed staring at a screen five inches too low for my sudden neck pain. It couldn’t possibly be the car crash in which my seat belt didn’t lock and I flew full speed into the air bag–with enough force to bloody my nose, fatten my lip, and swell my eyes shut for 24 hours (though the eye thing was probably more from irritation at the powder the air bag was packed in–awful stuff!). Funnily enough, my friend who was dropping me off at the subway station after a post-work function struck a brand-new street calming island he didn’t notice.
So my neck acts up every so often, though usually not to the degree it did yesterday. By this morning I was mostly mobile so we hopped on the bike. In any regular scenario, if I’m too sick to bike, I’m also too sick to drive. Today it was easier to swivel in my saddle to look over my shoulder than it would have been to wrench my neck to the side to check my car’s huge blind spots. Old me probably wouldn’t have chosen the bike, but becoming a parent creates a new level of resilience. Or maybe it’s a new level of resignedness. Either way, my motto (as of today) is: if you’re well enough to take a panda shot, you’re well enough to ride a bike.
I’ve never bothered to check the bus schedule to school, but it looks like if I timed things carefully, I could manage school dropoff by bus.
And thank goodness we biked because I would have missed some cool stuff! I saw a brand-new-to-me white Bullitt cargo bike with wooden box, Linnette on her Boda Boda cargo bike, and a couple other friends as well.
After 4.5 kidmiles on the 75-pound bike with 85 pounds of kids, I swapped to the 20-pound road bike to ride 12 regular miles and visit the chiropractor. Full disclosure: after this road bike panda, I dropped the iPhone in the street, but that doesn’t disqualify me.
And errands wait for no one, so I snuck in a few of those after the neck repair. First up, I had to swing by Counterbalance Bicycles and thank them for having tuned up my brakes two weeks ago. Of all days, today was the day I nearly got squished by a license-plate-less delivery van en route to the chiropractor. The guy behind me who also nearly got squished said “Nice braking!” to me. It is the closest call I have ever experienced…though had I been on the mamabike, I’d probably have assumed the guy would force the right of way and not have entered the intersection. As I replied to nice-braking guy, “You can’t be too defensive!” Though obviously, that’s exactly what I wasn’t in this case.
Then bank and grocery store. I won’t say I’m completely recuperated, but I was certainly well enough to lift my 20-pound bike to park like Opal…though not until I tracked her down inside to ask a couple questions:
“Does it only work with a fixie”
“Is the U-lock helping hold it in place?”
I swapped back to the Big Dummy for preschool pickup at 1 p.m. and had the pleasure of seeing a new-to-me bakfiets on the Fremont Bridge! Naturally I sped up to catch her and ask as many questions as I could before it got creepy.
One-kid, uphill panda:
For 3:30 first grader pickup, I walked while the four-year old biked, but we were all back on bikes for soccer practice a couple hours later. Despite the lingering neck pain, I offered to carry both kids and their bikes those first four uphill blocks. Imagine my relief when they both insisted on riding the whole way. Of course the little guy can’t manage the hills, so I got to carry him and his bike. Panda!
But soon enough we were riding in a little pack of separate bikes. It’s getting to feel much more natural to ride like this–I’ll write about the transition soon.
We stopped at Dick’s Drive-In on the way home because nothing hones a kid’s riding skills like making his way through a Dick’s parking lot. Side note: I’m so glad it’s the end of soccer season so our weekly post-practice french fry tradition can come to an end (for now, at least). But thank goodness for our tradition today, because a woman approached me to talk about bikes. Turns out she just moved here from Belgium and has a Batavus she carries her daughter on. She already seemed pretty tapped in, knowing of G & O Family Cyclery, Hub and Bespoke, and Kidical Mass. She didn’t have her bike with her today, but I have a feeling I’ll see it soon!
The things I would have missed today had I been too sick to ride!
In honor of the last of the year’s Disaster Relief Trials [bikes saving the world after mock disasters–yeehaw!] wrapping up last weekend in Eugene, I’ve finally gotten around to sharing pictures and words of my experience in Portland some three months ago. Like everything awesome and bike-related, DRT was founded in Portland, with the first–and only 2012 DRT–occurring last Pedalpalooza. This year there were a bunch of them: first was Seattle, then Portland, Boulder (which turned into actual disaster relief when it coincided with the floods), Victoria, and Eugene.
I helped organize the Seattle DRT, which had the convenient side effect of making me ineligible to participate in the hard part of riding the event. Actually, I’m sure I could have participated in the Seattle event had I wanted to–ours wasn’t a race, but rather an expo event as part of the Bicycle Urbanism Symposium with a marked route so my having chosen that route didn’t give me any advantage–but it was fun to camp out at the water crossing with the kids (plus, where would I have put the kids?!) and photograph the event.
Our first DRT-related event was the Joe Bike Grand Opening/5-Year Anniversary/DRT Kickoff Party Friday night. I followed Katie and Dave of A Most Civilized Conveyance over. This would soon be a familiar sight for me, by the way–Katie’s back as she led me over Portland bridges.
There were so many cargo bikes at the party! But the most amazing thing was watching DRT competitor Cory Poole arrive on skateboard with his daughter in/on on the cargo trailer he towed and managed with a hand-held brake.
I was a nervous wreck the morning of the event. It’s not often I can participate in events without the children in tow and on those rare occasions I generally have them with me until the last possible moment…like for last year’s Girls of Summer Alleycat. But Mr. Family Ride flew in late at night the eve of the big day and played at the hotel pool with the kids so I could fly solo. Arriving alone and on time made for a lot of time with nothing to distract me!
I was antsy, under-caffeinated, and under-water-bottled–the day was shaping up to be hot and I only had one water bottle–so I asked around for nearby coffee and bike shops. I thought I was unprepared, but when Sterling heard I was hitting a bike shop, he gave me some cash to pick him up a new tire. A purpose! So off I went to Water Avenue Coffee and River City Bicycles for two more water bottles and a fancy new 20-inch tire for Sterling. He was in the e-assist class so I was not at all tempted to sabotage him. Mr. Family Ride and I had just watched a show about the last 100 Tours de France and I was intrigued by the footage of long-ago riders wearing spare tires crisscrossed on their backs. Would a 20-inch tire fit over my head? It did! Wearing a tire sash made for a much better entrance than shoving it in my cargo bag.
The Bullitt seemed to be the bike of choice–though there were other cargo bikes, bikes plus trailers, and of course, Cory’s skateboard. That’s Austin Horse on the left, movie stunt double and eventual DRT winner. Big time!
Austin and the rest of the Open Class took off first and then we Citizen Class riders hit the road. Our goody bags contained important stuff like after-party drink coupons and a DRT-logoed stainless steel Kleen Canteen pint cup as well as many local bike maps, Yuba cargo straps, and a laminated checkpoint map with clip for attaching it to our handlebars. Here’s a bit of a peek at Katie’s map as we made our way over the St. Johns Bridge.
Beautiful bridge, by the way:
This was after a long flat ride alongside train tracks during which we exchanged waves with train conductors (the kids have trained us well), the first checkpoint at which we had to uninflate and reinflate a tire, and a big climb to the start of the bridge. I thought Portland was supposed to be flat!
And we traveled so far, to “North of North Portland”, for our second checkpoint to fetch a long, empty box.
Katie calculated we rode 36.6 miles. The shortest route for Citizen Class should have been about 30 miles, but we made a bonus stop at Checkpoint 4. It wasn’t on our manifests, but it wasn’t listed as “Open Class Only” on our laminated maps so we played it safe. Checkpoint 4 was the fun offroad section and mybagisbigger took this excellent photo of me there so I’m happy for our extra stop:
Photo courtesy mybagisbigger
Also contributing to the extra mileage was riding too far along the Columbia River for Checkpoint 5. We weren’t the only ones to do so. This guy is shouting, “I’ve only got my babysitter until 2pm!”
With the help of some of our friendly competitors shouting “Turn back! We’ve gone all the way to the end and THERE’S NOTHING THERE!” we found our way. Ooh, maybe this was part of the disaster scenario, but the participant consensus was that the laminated map had the wrong street address. No biggie, I’m used to being lost and we eventually made it there and that guy got a backup babysitter lined up. All good!
Checkpoint 5 had FEMA volunteers providing helmet stickers for emergency information and empty buckets to fill with water from the river. Open Class filled their two buckets full while we filled them 3/4 of the way. I only have one Xtracycle WideLoader so I loaded both my buckets on one side at first and did a practice lap after shouting, “No one watch! I’ll probably tip over!”
It didn’t feel too tippy, but I decided to better distribute things and moved one bucket to my FlightDeck, fairly well secured to the stoker bars with cargo net and bungee cord. I feel I had a bit of an advantage at this point–a couple weeks prior my younger son fell asleep in his Yepp seat for the first time without his straitjacket (my snowboard jacket wrapped around him backwards to keep him warm) on and he flopped around like crazy. I haven’t appreciated how still he sits on a regular basis! The sensation was very similar to the 3/4-filled bucket of water riding behind me.
At this point, Katie and I joined forces with Joyanna, riding a regular bike plus trailer. Her setup was great for the buckets. Fortunately she didn’t make the extra stop at Checkpoint 4 because it wouldn’t have been very fun offroad.
Katie was an awesome leader. I felt guilty just tagging along while she did all the navigating and pace setting. Heck, Katie has even done the navigating and pace setting for me in Seattle! Finally Katie showed signs of slowing so we took a much-needed water break on the side of the road–next to a blackberry bush as luck would have it. Somehow the story morphed into a folk tale of we three passing a bunch of other competitors, stopping to go blackberry picking, and then passing those same people again. Ha! I laugh because we were about ready to keel over.
But soon enough we were passing those people and picking up our three eggs (to represent fragile medical vials). The checkpoint staffers offered us water, which I sorely needed, but not until I checked, “Is there a time penalty if I accept some?” I didn’t realize I was so competitive!
Then we headed into Downtown Portland where we received specific routing advice to get to the finish line. We were instructed to ride along the waterfront, which I can only assume was to mimic navigating a zombie apocalypse.
And back at OMSI we discovered the six-inch-deep water feature and meter-tall barrier. Katie, Joyanna, and I unloaded our water buckets and eggs and helped each other bike by bike over the barrier. Then we growled at one another and sprinted for the finish line. We turned in our eggs–they all survived!–and emptied our water buckets into the Clever Cycles Dutchtub.
Ours certainly wasn’t the only teamwork of the day. The team from Joe Bike opted to take it slow and rode as a group, helping with bike repairs all along the course–fellow DRT participants and random stranded bikers alike. It was great to see them merrily ride across the finish line in a big pack shortly after us.
Naturally, it was the feats of the family bikers that had the biggest impact on me. The lovely and amazing Emily Finch was one of the event organizers and I caught her making a quick run home to drop off a bunch of stuff, including her husband’s Christiania, after which she’d ride back on her daughter’s 20-inch Gazelle to fetch her own bakfiets. I wish I had seen that! I can coast downhill to school on my son’s little bike, but I couldn’t imagine actually going anywhere real on it.
But I didn’t catch up with Emily again until the after party at Velocult. This is my other favorite picture of the day, from dontbecreepy’s Flickr. We’re arguing. Emily is claiming I’m awesome for having carried a box spring on my bike and I’m reminding her that I *didn’t* carry a box spring on my bike. However, I appreciate my friends’ selective memories on this.
Photo courtesy dontbecreepy
I was so excited to see an Emily Finch slide show live in person! But there were technical problems…which I think might also be part of the live slide show experience. But I saw it later and it’s awesome. And I’m in it!
And a couple other fun family bikers–Andy and Chele–had just that afternoon returned from a family bike tour and since Andy’s Big Dummy was out of commission, having lent pieces to a tandem bike for the trip, he carried the whole family in Chele’s bakfiets. Quite impressive!
Is it wrong to lump doggie bikers in with family bikers? I don’t think so. I’d seen pictures of Rando the pug before, but this was the first to see him in his “Pugeot” sidecar.
It was the best. Each and every part of it. As I told a few of the car drivers who pulled up alongside to ask what we were up to, “We’re saving the world!”
Family Ride 