For the first time in over five years of biking with babies on board, I’ve put my bike saddle at the correct height. (Maybe that first year with the beach cruiser/Bobike Mini doesn’t count…I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a seat too low on a beach cruiser.)

I keep–sorry, kept–my seat low enough to get a foot down to the ground easily. I figured until my aging knees started complaining it was A-OK. I’ve often thought about raising it a teensy bit to see if I felt speedier, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Then I really meant to raise it all the way to optimal height for the Portland DRT since I’d be racing over 30 miles with no kids on board…but I forgot. But that thought planted the seed and a week later, I raised it up up up. Looks like it’s almost a two-inch difference. Whoa.

I feel it’s a luxury to be a woman of average height (5’5″) in the bicycling world–I can easily find a bike frame sized to me, that allows me to lower my seat this much. I have a 16-inch Surly Big Dummy, the smallest one they make. But I’ve read of women five inches shorter than me happy with 18-inch Big Dummies. I was mystified how this could possibly work, but they must do what I’m relearning: if you don’t want to slide forward off your saddle at every stop, you pull up next to the curb:

or lean on something:

Actually, I can reach my toes down to the ground while in my saddle sometimes (I haven’t figured out why this only feels stable sometimes) so I’ve got four options.

And now I understand why there are riders who are concerned with space to stand between a front kid seat and their saddle. I never had to leave my saddle on the old mamabike. I was surprised to find I fit behind it at 9+ months pregnant, but I never needed to slide forward off my saddle. I think my Bianchi Milano (“old mamabike”) is also the smallest one they make.

I appreciate there are cyclists who refuse to compromise on seat height. Not having an extensive cycling background before getting into it with the kids, I was more concerned with our safety and my laziness (i.e. not wanting to slide off my saddle at every stop), than my comfort.

There’s one more element to successful cycling with one’s seat way too low, in case you’d like to give it a go: you have to pedal with the middle of your foot. The most efficient way to pedal is with the ball of the foot, but sliding your foot forward compensates for the lower seat height. Full disclosure: I didn’t realize I was doing this until the other day. My pedal position is WHACK on the old mamabike. To avoid heel strike with the rear kid’s feet, I slide my feet both forward and to the edges of the pedals. Using the outer edges also means I don’t have to aim my knees out to sides quite as far to avoid hitting the front kid’s seat. So I just figured that bike had trained me to use the middle of my feet on the pedals. Elly Blue recently wrote a How to Bike in High Heels article for Bicycling Magazine to which I wanted to comment online: “Yes, but what about the part where it makes your saddle feel too low?” Now I’m glad I didn’t weigh in (I was turned off by the “This application will be able to post Tweets for you.” Uh, no.) and embarrass myself. Weeks after my aborted article comment (yes, I’m a bit slow to make these connections) I realized wearing shoes with heels forces me to pedal with the balls of my feet, doing away with my seat-height-compensation solution. Aha! It all makes [some] sense now.

But long story short, two days into the higher seat, I haven’t tipped us over and I haven’t gotten annoyed over having to actively keep us upright at each stop. I feel more efficient, but I don’t know if I’m faster. Faster is good because it’s hard to get out the door on time. I think we were a bit faster on the way to Wheelie Fun Camp this morning–we weren’t late–but I’m not organized enough to time myself.

Looking at this selfie I wonder: is the seat too high? It’s going to be hard to lower it now that I’m liking my new-found height.

That’s not to say there’s no period of adjustment: my six-year old got stuck up here and needed help down.

But me? I think I’m good! Gimme a few more days of not tipping over before I can speak more confidently about it. Life wasn’t awful before so I don’t wish I’d done it sooner, but I probably should toss on a pair of heels to better appreciate biking in ’em…

This isn’t a review–I love all cargo bikes equally and have trouble getting a feel for the nuances of a bike during a short test ride; this is a “yay new bikes to admire and ride!” story with a couple items of interest at the end.

We saw the new bikes last Saturday while in Portland for the DRT, but I was too busy saving the world to do any test riding. The bikes were in Seattle on Sunday at the soon-to-be G & O Family Cyclery while we were headed back to town, but I was able to check them out on Monday at Ride Bicycles, my bike’s birthplace.

The head badge is very pretty:

The kids and I were most taken with the Hooptie and didn’t pay close attention to anything else about the bikes. Other than trying (and failing) to sit in the Wheelha.us family’s Hooptie, I have no experience with one. My six-year old was very excited about sitting backwards when we rode the white ER. That pretty panel on the X2 bags is removable and customizable.

Then they both sat backwards when we took out the blue bike. This one is the original ER with its deck lower than normal. And it’s the same bike Hum of the City reviewed. And now it has a Yuba Bread Basket–I totally want a frame-mounted basket on one of my bikes some day! This was the first time I biked with one, though, and I fully expected to crash as I hear one can become mesmerized watching the basket. Fortunately, I stayed upright. A frame-mounted basket can carry lots of weight with no change in steering, though the load can’t be higher than the handlebars without getting in the way. Currently, my steering gets a little wonky if I put lots of heavy stuff in my front basket.

Here’s a panda shot photo comparison of the different deck heights:
Left: My bike with 26-inch rear wheel
Center: New EdgeRunner with deck over 20-inch wheel, but three-inch gap for battery for three inch difference
Right: Old/custom EdgeRunner with deck super low over 20-inch wheel for six-inch difference

But the true purpose of this post is two-fold. First of all, Xtracycle is planning another tour of the new EdgeRunners later this year. I’m sure they’d love to be contacted with suggestions of local bike shops in your area to host them :) And second, after talking to Robert I realize Mr. Family Ride may not be the only person with an aversion to 20-inch wheels and there’s help for that–so I must share!

Here’s Robert from Xtracycle who toured with the bikes. He’s super cool.

He had a Surly Big Dummy before he started working for Xtracycle, but it was stolen. They suggested he use the company EdgeRunner and despite his little-wheel misgivings, he obliged and loved it…after a short two-week adjustment. Apparently “Unless you want to ride over logs in the wilderness” it’s fab. He suggested Mr. Family Ride email him (I have Robert’s email if you are in a similar situation and would like professional help) about it so I’m working on that happening. When I brought it up, though, Mr. Family Ride became appalled that my bike has 26-inch wheels rather than 700cc so that’s step one.

Kona cargo bikes have 700cc wheels and I know many people have trouble managing the weight of two kids on the back of a Kona Ute due to its deck being just a little bit higher than my FlightDeck over its 26-inch wheel. But these are all just random numbers to me so I took a picture of my bike next to Jennifer’s Kona Ute at farmers market yesterday. Yup, noticeable difference.

Here’s a sweet little video Xtracycle put out about the EdgeRunner today: Ross Evans Talks About EdgeRunner

And one last picture, Christiaan of Ride Bicycles test riding my bike. Not nearly as funny as when he took a spin on my toddler’s 12-inch bike, but still worth sharing:

Spoke & Food is coming up Tuesday, July 30th. Twenty restaurants around Seattle will donate 20% of their evening revenues to Bike Works. You don’t have to bike to dinner for your dollars to count, but it’s definitely more fun that way!

Join me, representing Familybike Seattle, for a family-friendly, easy-paced ride from South Lake Union Park (860 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA, meet next to the MOHAI building) to Julia’s in Wallingford (4401 Wallingford Ave N, Seattle, WA).

Gather at 5:15 p.m. and ride at 5:30 p.m.

Facebook event for this ride
Spoke & Food Facebook event

If Wallingford isn’t your dining ‘hood of choice, here’s the full list of participating restaurants.

More about the event from Spoke & Food:

The fourth annual Spoke & Food event will take place at a up to 20 host restaurants in 20 different Seattle neighborhoods on the evening of Tuesday, July 30th, 2013 from 5:30pm to 9:30pm. If you have yet to ever participate in this important and fun community building event, this is your year to do so!

Participation is easy. All you need to do is to bike to and from one of our participating host restaurants on the evening of our event. Invite your friends or family to meet you, bring your neighbors, pack up your kids or go at it alone.

Each of our participating host restaurants have agreed to donate 20% of ALL of their patron revenues from the evening of the event directly to the local non-profit that we select each year. This means 100% of the funds raised via the restaurants go to helping a local Seattle area non-profit. The 2013 Spoke & Food event will benefit the Bike Works non-profit.

Pedalheads Bike Camps had a booth at Saturday’s Wallingford Family Festival and I got this very exciting flyer:

Pedalheads Bike Camps open house!
Bike Skills & Safety Camps for Kids Ages 2 to 12

Seattle: Magnuson Park
Tues July 9, 1:00-3:30pm
7400 Sand Point Way NE
Mickey Merrium Field #7. Access of NE 74th.
Park in the parking lot of the Seattle Musical Theatre

Bellevue: Cherry Crest Elementary
Tues July 23, 9:30am-12:00pm
12400 NE 32nd St, Bellevue

There will be lots of riding and activities for all ages and skill levels so bring your bikes and your helmets (trikes, training wheels, and run bikes welcome, too). The activities will include an obstacle course, “bike bowling”, road riding skills, a safety session on helmets, and riding ramps and teeter totters.

The event is free and don’t forget, you are welcome to bring friends and family!

For more information, email leah[at]pedalheads[dot]com

Phone: 1-888-886-6464
http://www.pedalheads.com

My three-year old hasn’t been on his pedal bike since the April Cascade Learn 2 Ride class and this seemed like a great way to get him back on the horse. I also loaded up his balance bike just in case. So that’s a total of three people, four bikes traveling down the Burke-Gilman Trail. One passing woman on a road bike likened me to Superwoman :)

We started at the Pedalheads tent with the obligatory helmet spiel. But a fun one! With helmet held to the side of the instructor’s head (“What’s wrong with my helmet?”) I love that stuff!

I hope I’m not betraying any trade secrets, but it was just so fun and the sky was so remarkably blue that I had to take a million pictures.

After a couple loops through a cone-marked course, we moved on to bike bowling.

I don’t think my cones are this sturdy, but we’re going to have to try it because IT IS SO FUN! I’m not sure anyone bowled a strike, but kids went multiple frames and the instructors were so quick in resetting the pins.

And there was a ramp that looked SO BIG at first.

Then a rousing game of What time is it, Mr. Fox?

The kids were coached to gently set their bikes down before running away from Mr. Fox.

They sprinted even more quickly to retrieve their bikes at the end of each round. This is a camp that will tire the kids out!

Temporary tattoo break! (Photo taken from my FlightDeck)

Rest time over! Teeter totter! I really really wanted to try it, but they deemed my bike too heavy and I’m too klutzy to maneuver the 12-inch or 16-inch bikes.

And the ladder:

By now it was pretty hot so the instructors set up a difficult cone course and each toppled cone resulted in a nice cool sponge thrown at the rider’s back. I was skeptical, but the children all loved it.

I can’t wait to compare our calendar with theirs and see if we can attend a full camp. I’m not sure if this is mentioned on their website, but one of the instructors told me the age for enrollment is the schoolyear age so my little guy can enroll in four-year old courses already–more possibilities!

Don’t miss their Bellevue open house on July 23rd!

Yesterday I headed six miles north to check out the new cycle track on Linden Avenue. I’ve only been up this way once before and frankly I don’t remember the stretch between 128th and 145th, but it was on a weekend so I didn’t experience weekday commute traffic. The Interurban Trail before the cycle track was just as nice as I remembered.

Entering the cycle track was very exciting! We could see it from a half block away–paint for bikes in the intersection! Curb between the cars and bike lanes!

Two blocks later we hit the first traffic signal. The right-most light is for bikes, with bike-shaped light. We saw several of these and the bike lights all change with the car lights, but I’d imagine it could easily be changed to stagger start times…because that would be cool. I was also very taken with the signs: instructions for using the loop detector and directions to a bike box for making two-stage left turns.

The cycle track had lots of signage on the right (maybe I wouldn’t find it excessive if I rode it every day and I’m sure it’s just temporary) and a stripe of paint demarking the door zone on the left.

Here’s a van with all three side doors open to demonstrate the door clearance:

There are a lot of driveways cutting through the cycle track, but they’re marked with sparkly green paint, as are some of the intersections.

At one point, the separating curb disappears, but at least the parked cars create a barrier between the road and the bike lanes so it’s better than the Dexter Avenue paint-separated bike lane…although it’s bidirectional for bikes all through, so Dexter’s got it beat there. It’d be lovely to see a cycle track on either side of a street one of these days. (The woman in the car in the photo below was just contemplating parking illegally on the hatch marks and too far over to the right. She soon pulled out to look for a legal spot.)

The paint separation is better than nothing, but cars are free to park too close to the bike lanes:

And construction could more easily take over. But it was nice that rather than have bicyclists merge with car traffic, parking was temporarily removed and the cycle track moved to the parking lane.

The last bit of the cycle track has reflective pylons in the middle of the painted gutter between the parking lane and the bike lanes. I laughed when I first saw them because they made me think of the illegally-but-politely-installed bike lane protectors on Cherry Street.

I like them…though they don’t prevent cars from parking too far to the right.

Watch Seattle Bike Blog’s video of the cycle track for a better feel for the thing:

And next weekend there’s an official party: The Street is Complete! celebration on Saturday, July 13th 10am-noon at Bitter Lake Community Center.

Heading home I was happy to see markings for a new neighborhood greenway on Fremont Avenue. I am all for cycle tracks all over the city, but when I think about my kids riding safely in the city, I think about greenways first. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every destination had a cycle track route and a greenway route?

Sometimes something amazingly significant happens in the course of a busy weekend and I worry about it getting lost in the shuffle.

Last weekend was huge: DRT on Friday (which entailed DRT prep ALLDAYLONG), Critical Lass/Fremont Fair/HONK! Fest West Saturday, and Family Bike Expo Sunday. But buried within were 5 minutes that rocked my world.

Saturday morning I set out alone on my cyclocross bike the ride the DRT course one last time, removing course markings–or decorations if you prefer a more accurate description. A Kidical Masser will mark a course with sidewalk chalk and birthday balloons, just so ya know.

Heading down towards Ravenna Park, I saw a guy and kid on a Brompton. Aw! A bit down the hill behind them I noticed another kid-carrying Brompton. What are the odds? I knew Katie was in town from Portland and had borrowed a second IT chair from Julian of Totcycle. Sure enough, it was them. I decided to finish balloon collecting later and rode back towards home with Katie and crew.

They wanted to check out the Wallingford Greenway on their way to a residence near the zoo and had already mapped things out so I followed alongside as we pedaled south and turned right on 45th. Uh, big street!

I often wonder how my bicycling would differ had I lived in Seattle before kids. There are a lot of streets I opt to avoid all together, if possible, or more often, take to the sidewalk–especially if they’re slightly (or more than slightly) uphill with little or no shoulder. I’m not often out on a bike alone, but on those rare occasions, I stay off the sidewalk for the most part, but it’s such a habit on roads close to home that I ride the route of my slow-moving kid conveyor automatically. 45th through U-District is one of those streets.

It was enlightening to see Katie and Dave confidently take the lane without batting an eye. And it wasn’t because we were a group, but because that’s what one is supposed to do.

I hear the term taking the lane often, but with one right turn I realized I’ve been doing so much wrong! I should have realized this two weeks ago when I got buzzed by a Prius. I didn’t hear a thing and suddenly it was two inches to my right. I blamed the Prius. But that’s the thing–I made it appear there was room to pass so she did.

But back to today…we crossed I-5 in the right lane and I should have led our bikey group two lanes over, into the righthand left turning lane, but I was on autopilot and before I knew it, there wasn’t time to move left so I apologetically told them I usually head onto the sidewalk to push the walk button to make the left turn. Of course a car had pulled into the intersection and was blocking the curb cut so I apologized about that, too. I find myself apologizing a lot when riding around our city with others.

When the light turned I pointed out most cars are getting onto the freeway so we should have the right lane to ourselves. Dave didn’t hear me and rode up onto the sidewalk. Of course I felt apologetic about that, too. I’ve seen tons of people ride the sidewalk there, but still.

One block later we turned right onto Seattle’s first Neighborhood Greenway. Phew.

As we rode along, I shared my favorite zoo routes: “I usually ride the sidewalk of 46th because it’s the least steep” (Shut UP, Madi! Shut UP!) “…uh, but you’ll probably prefer 50th because there’s a bike lane, though you’ll have to use the crosswalks to make the left turn and they take forever.” Yes, yes, they’d gone on 50th yesterday, it was fine.

We parted ways a few blocks later and I swapped bikes to lead Critical Lass with the kids and our happy group took the lane on NW 58th St as we checked the progress of the Ballard Greenway and not until much later in the day–maybe when I navigated my way through cars in the Westlake parking lot or through naked painted people in Gas Works Park, I can’t remember which–the enormity of the ride with Katie hit me.

It’s going to be hard to change my bad habit of hugging the right of the lane too closely, but I’m going to work at it.

And there are classes! Cascade Bicycle Club offers Urban Cycling Techniques–tomorrow, even! I’d like to take a class alone, but there’s even an option for families–Family Biking Skills, with the next class on September 22nd.

I think this was our first time donating a full bike-load by bike. It was fun to wait in the drop-off line behind a car. The kids were totally into it–probably since this was their first self-directed toy purging. They regaled the donation guy with stories about the retired toys.

The idea was to travel to the thrift shop with a full bike and home with nothing new…or maybe just a couple kid clothing items. I found the kid clothing items, but also a set of like-new TV trays. $12.99–or $9.99 considering the $3 off coupon our donation netted us. Now my laptop has a stable perch. And I get to bring our old usable-but-wobbly TV trays to the thrift store next trip! And, OK, OK, a couple toys came home with us, too.

Our TV trays then accompanied us to the zoo for a couple hours and finally along to the Bicycle Urbanism Symposium where our bike was part of the Family Bike Expo. I was a little embarrassed to show up with an impulse purchase on my bike, but I guess it’s appropriate and authentic of family biking.

Photo courtesy @LMBikes

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I got the idea for these while reading one of the numerous CPSC recalls involving infant/child products newsletter about hooded sweatshirt drawstrings posing strangulation hazards.

I picked up some locally-made ReUsies snack and sandwich bags during a half-off sale, but anyone more crafty than I can DIY it: with cloth and PUL or oilcloth which that tutorial just taught me is the same thing–I had no idea!

I found two of my removed hoodie drawstrings–sadly, not because of the recall, but because it annoys me when my three-year old tugs on them–and cut them to a length that would fit over kiddie helmets because I know I’m not organized enough to remember to distribute feed bags before helping get helmets on. Then I just sewed them into the sandwich bags, near the edge so I don’t compromise their waterproofness. Voila!

I think constant snacks might be enough to keep Little Man Strangle Hands from messing with his brother once it gets too hot to keep the snowboard jacket/straitjacket on. He wore it today–the exposed toddler arms above are just for the sake of the picture.

Ballard Bike Street Party to celebrate the end of Bike Month. My Commute Challenge team was awesome! Even with me, the captain, laid up the last six days with the flu. Blech, I haven’t had the flu since 1988 and I don’t think I’ve ever been this sick. Now I just feel like I have a cold. Go Team Family Ride!

Riding to the street party was OK…though maybe it’s a sign I wasn’t quite ready to be out and about when I was riding head down, huffing up a teeny hill and didn’t realize the person I exchanged “hi!”s with was my husband. Fortunately the kids clued me in and he didn’t seem to notice I mistook him for a random well-wisher. We pulled over and he turned around to [wait while I finished a coughing fit and] check in.

The street party was big fun, with lots for kids. KEXP had this cool pedal-driven art project. A turntable spun a piece of paper around while kids squirted paint on it. And the bike! It’s a longtail cargo bike made by someone at 20/20 Cycle.

I was smitten by the kickstand:

The Cascade bicycle license plate making was very popular, but my guys seemed to have the most fun with the magnetic board at the Elliott Bay Seawall Project.

Here’s the cutest bike passenger of the day. I think that’s an Outward Hound Pet-A-Roo Front Carrier worn on the back. (Outward Hound! I love it!)

The dog (and his human carrier) were in the “Share Your Style” Bike Fashion Show put on by Hub and Bespoke. As were we–they’ll let just anyone in! We did it last year, too. I couldn’t resist the free Fun Reflector stickers, Theo Chocolate, and bike t-shirt this year. It pays to play. I’ll stick a picture in here if one surfaces from Cascade or Hub and Bespoke.

Also in the fashion show was Ian of Bicycle Benefits ($5 sticker on your bike helmet saves you money at participating businesses all over town). This guy is so cool–read the Seattle Bike Blog profile on him.

The Cycle Saloon was also at the party so the kids sat up on seats (and freaked out at being so high–babies) and I got to ask the driver some questions. Apparently passengers can have booze on board now! With an easy-to-obtain banquet license. I verified they don’t have a motor and a car battery runs the lights. On the way home we discovered there are two Cycle Saloons in the fleet when we saw another one on The Missing Link. Way to go, Cycle Saloon! (This picture is from a month ago, by the by.)

Once we got past The Missing Link I let my pedaler ride ahead of me. Then my balance biker wanted to join him for the last mile. It takes a lot longer and it’s often quite nerve wracking when they’re both out there, but I was very relieved not to have to lug them up that last hill. Good timing, too. I got home to read Kids are the true indicator species of a bike-friendly city, written by BikePortland’s Jonathan Maus while he’s visiting Copenhagen.

That’s Super Hi-Vis Man we’re riding by, by the way. A lot of people have been reporting seeing him (how can you not??) on the Burke-Gilman Trail lately.