After delivering the kids to school I planned to attend the Grand Reopening of King Street Station’s Main Waiting Room, but it felt like the universe was conspiring against me. At home I was plagued with various wardrobe problems and equipment problems, but I eventually got the trailer assembled (to drop off at preschool), sort of attached my light, and headed out…only to run into traffic problems galore. This truck in the bike lane was the least of my worries.

At the bottom of Stone Way a guy in an SUV revved his engine and sped into his left turn as soon as the light turned green in order to tailgate the driver of a small car who turned right on red into the lane first. The tailgated motorist pulled over into the bike lane to let the SUV driver pass. And behind them came a man in a minivan with his cell phone to his ear. I came along slowly after all that excitement and wondered which of the three was the biggest threat to my safety: the road rager, the victim of road rage, or the distracted phone talker? I think it was probably the car that pulled over to escape the road rager.

Then I still saw a driver run a red light, met with a driver coming the wrong way up a one-way street towards me, and waited patiently while a construction truck turned left through a red light at the intersection I was about to cross. Sheesh!

But I finally made it to Back Alley Bike Repair, bought a new lock (one of my many equipment problems), and biked to the train station with Ben Rainbow. We didn’t notice the bike racks hidden by the construction fence–the outside of the station still needs some work–so we locked up against a planter.

I moved to the bike racks after Ben returned to the shop. There are seven of them. Covered! And nicely spaced for big bikes! Amtrak currently doesn’t allow cargo bikes on trains, but at least they can be comfortably parked while conducting business, picking up friends, or while figuring out what to do upon being denied passage.

And the train station lobby is gorgeous:

Heading home I passed by City Hall Park and saw the “chandeliers” the Bubbleman makes from discarded six pack rings and zip ties. And I didn’t experience any more bad motorist behavior.

Today’s miles: 19.8
April miles: 312.1

We biked with friends to David Notkin’s funeral today. It’s been a very sad couple of days. Many people knew him through his work, but to me he was my dear friend’s husband whose jokes made my kids howl with laughter and the boys’ yardstick for all things tall: “If I stand on this rock, will I be as tall as Akiva’s papa?”

Julie of Wheelha.us, The Transportation Nag, and Barbara met me in Wallingford for the five-mile ride north through uncharted territory. Fun fact: we waved at a bus as we crossed through the intersection in the photo above. It turns out two of our friends were onboard. Our bikes beat them to the cemetery by a longshot.

This was my first time biking by North Seattle Community College. The northbound bike lane on College Way has a gutter alongside the curb. This is the first time I’ve seen a bike lane that isn’t either a door zone or a debris zone. It’d be nice if the gutter was narrower and some of it put on the left side of the bike lane. I’m curious if cars illegally park in the wide, enticing gutter during commute time.

I also spotted a practice bus bike rack here.

The Wallingford Avenue portion of the trip was uncomfortably busy, as expected–we should have navigated a block west, but I was worried it would be steeper if we did so–but College Way and Meridian were OK. We went right by the place we’ve gone for dental pictures twice, with one more visit coming up at some point. In the past we’ve gone by car, but now I know we can bike.

We weren’t the only attendees to arrive by bike. This just represents a small percentage of the hundreds of people there, but many people looked at the bikes and smiled.

Heading home we added a fifth biker to our procession and opted to top the curb south of NSCC to access a very quiet Burke Avenue:

Today’s miles: 18.4
April miles: 292.3

We walked to and from school today, but got a little biking in when we shuttled the last batch of stuff over from the old house. Notable items in this load are the Park Tool bike stand (not as heavy as I thought it’d be), water play table, Christmas tree stand, and our two skateboards.

Today’s miles: 0.2
April miles: 273.9

While our big kids soccered, Julie of Wheelha.us and I biked our little kids to Ballard Commons Park to hit the bouncy house and bike decorating before the Spokespeople Kidical Mass ride. Car-free Julie carried both kid bikes and the rest of her family arrived after soccer via bike + Burley Piccolo trailer bike. I only carried my little guy’s bike, though the new 20″ kiddie bike didn’t quite fit in our car–Mr. Family Ride held the trunk closed with a bungee cord. Boo us. Yay bungee cords. Yay bikes!

Despite just learning how to pedal for the little one and riding pretty on the bigger bike for the big one, both my guys forgot everything and couldn’t get going so we left the kid bikes locked up at the part and they played passenger for the three-mile Kidical Mass ride.

I’m usually leery of stops in the middle of kid-oriented rides because it can be hard to get restarted, but today’s ride was great! Our first of two stops was at a RainWise house where the kids eagerly listened to Julia Field of Undriving explain rain gardens.

Then the sun broke free of the clouds when we reached the SolarizeNW home. Kismet.

So it turns out our three-speed Danish Mosquito doesn’t currently have three speeds. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I should have made sure it worked when I got it.) I was a little grumpy about lugging the kiddie bikes around when they didn’t use them so rather than drag them both uphill, we dropped the Mosquito off at Recycled Cycles, conveniently at the bottom of the hill. The sticker on the frame says “Aluminum Super-light” but that beast is as heavy (and solid!) as any kid bike.

I love seeing little bikes on big bike stands.

As well as big people sitting on little bikes. He’ll have to call tomorrow to see if he can find a replacement cable, so today only saw the grips adjusted…but at least I could leave it behind at the shop.

Speaking of truly light kid bikes, Recycled Cycles has a used 18″ Redline Micro Mini (like this, but older). Weights 11.5 pounds! It’s a beautiful little bike.

The kids organized the free reflectors and moved on to making music with seat tubes. So much fun stuff for kids in the parts bins!

Today’s miles: 13.3
April miles: 273.7

Last year we rode to Pedaler’s Fair with Kidical Mass which was great fun, but I didn’t get to spend much time at the fair. So this year we organized a Critical Lass ride over, which I intended to do sans kids. The ride worked great, the fair worked great, but the leaving the kids behind part didn’t. Oh well. But we started the day right with a stop at Dutch Bike Co for coffee (coffee!) and cookies.

The fair was at the Underground Events Center in Belltown which is tricky to access with a pleasant route. We met at the Locks and used the West Thomas Street Overpass since everything else is so steep. We stopped at the Seattle Center for lunch–and to disguise the fact that we climbed uphill only to head back downhill into Belltown. No one complained so I think it worked! The woman riding the single speed beach cruiser even said she was encouraged to start biking around Seattle (this was her first time on her bike since moving from Southern California). I’d forgotten Whirligig was going on in the Armory so there was a bit of kid pushback during lunch, but we made it out. Here’s the whole route we took:

Again, I didn’t get to really experience Pedaler’s Fair, but third time’s the charm–I’ll make it over solo next year, I’m sure. The kids were very excited about the temporary tattoos (so much so that later at the Seattle Art Museum Earth Day Celebration they wrote temporary tattoos! on the “What would you like to see at SAM Earth Day next year?”).

The bike behind the kids was fascinating–and that was before I noticed the brake. A foot lever pushed the rear fender onto the wheel to [hopefully] stop the bike.

Also outside was Bikelava – Artisan Peddled Baklava with regular and new chocolate almond hazelnut flavor. Yum! The kids are pretending to air up Frosene’s tires with Robin’s pump. Always a good distraction.

Inside we saw bikes, dogs, accessories, and stickers. Here’s Haulin’ Colin grabbing me a replacement spring from a Rolling Jackass centerstand. The one he’s handling is his new model for Kona Ute longtails. The RJ is seriously the best part of my bike. And I’m not the only Big Dummy rider to say that. In fact, the burly kickstand enabled me to leave the kids out on the bike while I ran into Dutch Bike Co for our morning treats.

Today’s miles: 18.8
April miles: 259.4

We hid out from today’s rain at MOHAI (Museum of History & Industry), where Jen of Loop-Frame Love saw my bike parked outside and found me inside–hey, another version of friends running into friends thanks to bikes.

On the way home the rain let up for ten minutes and during those measly ten minutes we decided to check out Marsh Island, adjacent to the former MOHAI site.

Surprise, surprise: Marsh Island is a frickin’ marsh.

I read ahead of time that bikes must be walked over the footbridge, but the path itself is made of wood chips (and the submerged portions are made of water) so nothing was bikeable. I pushed the bike along while the kids hiked ahead until I declared it too soggy.

We’ll be back, but only after a string of dry days. The 520 widening project won’t spell the end of Marsh Island, but I’d imagine it’ll have an impact so we’re hoping those dry days come soon. Ha.

Today’s miles: 11.8
April miles: 240.6

Today we trekked to Issaquah (20 miles away) by bike and bus for a toddler dentist appointment. Sometimes we drive there and sometimes we use two buses, but we generally ride downtown to catch the 554.

We headed over a bit early to hang out at the train museum and meet up with Issaquah bike personality extraordinaire, Kent Peterson, who is not content to simply do 30 Days of Biking like the rest of us and is “kicking” it up a notch with 30 Days of Scootering on a KickPed scooter.

I tried it–it’s fun! I’ve never been on a scooter before, but I used to skateboard so it didn’t feel too unfamiliar.

Photo courtesy Kent Peterson

And Kent took a spin on my bike. I’ll have to have him try the Big Dummy once I get the drivetrain fixed so he can better experience modern family biking. His experience is with bike trailers. The old mamabike is a bit of a wobbly beast…though he was too polite to say so :)

Then Kent took off for Seattle for a meeting (by scooter and bus) while we headed for the dentist and then the salmon hatchery. We’ve never come to Issaquah for a reason other than the dentist, but I think we’ll make an exception for Salmon Days in October.

One bad thing about long bus trips, especially when back-to-back with long bike rides, is that it’s hard for the kids to eat. We ate lunch before catching the bus, but the kids wanted a snack before the 45 minute ride home. This won’t be such an issue when it warms up and their hands aren’t encased in mittens preventing snacking, but for today we hid from the rain in front of Cinerama for a quick bite.

When we said goodbye to Kent I said, “Maybe we’ll see you on the other side” but of course I didn’t think it would happen. We bumped into one another in Issaquah once, but that’s not the same as in big bad Seattle. But lo and behold we saw him on the Burke-Gilman Trail! I have to admit that in Issaquah I thought the scooter’s bell and headlight were just for fun, but seeing him in action in the falling light on the busy trail, I got it. I should have gotten it to begin with, but I’m slow to change. Maybe he can give me a little advance warning what he’s going to pull next round.

Today’s miles: 11.7
April miles: 228.8

First of all, I need a better phrase than running into or bumping into a friend on the bike path, especially after after yesterday’s “bike crash, sort of.” What do you say?

Anyhow, I ran into a couple friends today. En route to meet Kona-MinUte-riding Barbara at the zoo, I saw Brad plus one kid whiz by on his Big Dummy. I shouted a hello and he said he’d meet us after retrieving his other kid.

Upon leaving the zoo, I saw Dutch-bike-riding Sara wheeling her bike while her daughter slept on her back. Yes, bike seats work great for napping toddlers, but this nap started when they were inside the hardware store. So we all walked them home. It was quite the parade.

Then Barbara showed me her route to the zoo, using Woodland Park Avenue and cutting through Woodland Park. It’s much better than either of my routes:

1. 50th is just a bit too steep to be pleasant, not to mention having to cross like a pedestrian at Stone since there’s no left turn, which means waiting eight minutes (I timed it last time) for the two lights to change.
2. My usual route involves using the sidewalk of 45th/46th as soon as I cross west of Stone. The sidewalk is narrow and it there are several busy street crossing, but at least most of them are controlled by lights.

The park part of Barbara’s route was great and Woodland Park Avenue is nice and wide, but the unprotected crossings at 50th and Green Lake Way are pretty sucky. I’m still deciding which is the least of all the evils. I might really like this new route on the way to the zoo because having to wait for crossing openings in the middle of a hill climb is fine by me.

Today’s miles: 4
April miles: 217.1

It’s Spring Break from school and preschool this week and therefore the perfect time to schedule appointments that take a long time to reach by bike. The only thing on today’s agenda was a follow-up chiropractic appointment after the rain pants + slide incident on our abbreviated day. But first, we grabbed a bunch of stuff from the old house by bike.

Having discovered how much I like the 39th Avenue Northeast Greenway on the way home from the Memorial Walk, I was eager to try it in the uphill direction. We backtracked our previous route to 70th and stopped at Grateful Bread Bakery & Cafe on our way. 70th is a bit steep (and busy) to climb so next time I’ll try 68th, as suggested by the NE Seattle Greenways map.

After lunching and tiring of the cafe’s play area, we headed north on 35th, thinking we’d visit a small park by the chiropractor. We impulsively stopped at the abandoned-for-the-off-season Hunter Tree Lot. It was great run-around spot and we were all smitten by the wood/bike wheel contraptions [benches? tree delivery hand trucks?]. I basked in the sun–the day was great when the sun wasn’t behind clouds–while the kids collected dandelions and chased butterflies.

And we saved a bit of time to explore Penguin Park, our original pre-appointment destination. It’s a hidden gem! I thought it was an empty lot neighbors had adopted and turned into a park, but I read it’s an “undeveloped SDOT right-of-way.”

Then crack-crack-crack, the kid looks great, and along to Meadowbrook Pond since it’s on the way to the Burke-Gilman Trail.

I walked the bike as the kids led us on a hike. Unfortunately, they led us down seven steps which was no fun for me, but the plethora of trails meant we could circle back around and I didn’t have to carry the bike back up.

We stopped for dinner halfway home, at U-Village. Coming from the east I enter the shopping center by Counterbalance bikes and I used to leave at the southwest corner, but the parking garage construction (because more cars and more parking is exactly what this place needs) has made that street temporarily one way into the center and the sidewalk’s been removed. So I brave the stop-sign-ignoring cars (Two today! What’s your hurry?!) and take the exit to 25th and then use the sidewalk to head north and connect with the Burke-Gilman Trail. Our light turned green as we arrived to Blakeley and the trail, but so many bike commuters were going in either direction that we stopped 10 feet shy of the corner and just as I was saying to the kids, “We might need to wait for the next light cycle to cross…” an eastbound bicyclist lost control, turned right towards us, and bumped into my front wheel. He was riding with a friend who raced up and apologized, “He lost control! His wheel got stuck in the rut!” It was pretty uneventful on our end. We tipped over into the thick grass where I helped my front kid crawl out from under the bike so I could lift the remaining kid and bike. The kids weren’t phased in the least. I guess it’s a good thing I’ve dropped the bike here and there…not lately, but apparently often enough to condition them not to get scared by being suddenly horizontal. I didn’t stick around to see if the guy was OK since he had his friend along. I figured it must have been his first day of the year back out on the bike and he hadn’t relearned his clipless pedals yet. There’s a good chance crashing into my steel beast mangled his little bike, so I hope both bike and rider are OK and not discouraged.

Today’s miles: 15.2
April miles: 213.1

My kid is six today! He woke up and discovered a 20-inch Mosquito Sky bicycle in the living room. We’re the third owner–it moved here with a family from Denmark and has found happy new homes via Craigslist twice. It doesn’t have lights, but it’s otherwise similar to the Mosquito Sky Light 24″. It is really really cool–fenders, a rear rack, full chain guard, wheel lock, rear coaster brake and front hand brake, and a three-speed internally-geared hub (indvendige in Danish)! Here are a couple pictures from the day I picked it up:

We took off the bar ends off–they poke the back of the Yepp seat when I drag the bike in my cargo bike pocket. And I added some blue Fun Reflectors–stars and dolphins. The one problem with getting my bike powder coated is that the kids want to choose the colors of their bikes, too. Fortunately, the blue stickers were sufficient–he loves it!

Then we left the bike at home and went to celebrate the big day with a bunch of train activities (climb the old blue engine, cruise through the train yard, lunch in a trolley car, monorail ride). We had one bike-related errand: the one thing the missing on the new bike was a bell. Of all the great bike shops in town, we ended up getting a cheapie compass/bell at Daiso in the Westlake Center. We got two since my new pedaler’s bike doesn’t have a bell, either. Unfortunately his was broken and apparently parts from two different broken bells since they don’t fit together. But this is the first time I’ve been burned by the Daiso everything-$1.50-all-sales-final so I figure I’m way ahead and we’ll stick it together somehow.

Heading up steep steep steep Broad Street from the waterfront, a guy walking his dog nominated me for Mom of the Year during the first block of the climb, but then I slipped a gear on the second block and couldn’t get started again–it was just too steep. Then my chain started squeaking (and I remembered Edward mentioned it looked dry when I ran into him on the trail two weeks ago…oops) so we swung by Wrench Bicycle Workshop on our way home. I really like Wrench and Buck and Greg are truly excellent at putting a positive spin on big bad bike things. Two weeks ago when I told Buck I’d worn out all my rings save the big one, he said, “Well, that’s good. The big one is the most expensive one.” Now I feel frugal, not wimpy. And today, having just learned yesterday that I am the reason my drivetrain is hosed (more below), Greg helped put my mind at ease with his rationale that many people are of a mind to ride until something breaks and then address it. I’d certainly like to be more proactive about bike maintenance, but historically that’s not how I operate. Anyhow, they’re awesome and even have a magical tool they can use to check if a chain needs replacing. And judging from the trouble I’m having at absorbing the info in Sheldon Brown’s Chain Maintenance article, I need supernatural help. By the way, Wrench is one of the three shops conducting free tune-ups at Cascade Bicycle Club’s Dust Off Days Saturday April 27th, 11-3 at the Swedish Cultural Center on Dexter.

My hosed drivetrain:
I probably haven’t remembered everything Seattle’s family biking guru, Morgan Scherer, explained, but something along the lines of the chain stretches–especially if one doesn’t clean or oil it regularly (hey, that’s me!)–and the stretched out links don’t fit as snugly to the chainrings and wears those away gradually. And…yadda yadda yadda…the whole drivetrain needs replacing. Groan. Or I could replace my chain every six to nine months. Lesson learned, I hope.

Today’s miles: 13.4
April miles: 197.9