Lately I’ve been feeling a bit like a cargo bike poseur. Wikipedia defines cargo bikes as “human powered vehicles designed and constructed specifically for transporting large loads.” There are quite a few people riding around on true cargo bikes in Seattle. My Milano wasn’t built for hauling, but after taking a lengthy ride on my road bike last night I feel secure in my identity as an after-market cargo bike.

This morning half my cargo and I went looking for the plush fish I lost last night. It’s the same color as the plentiful fallen leaves so we didn’t have much luck. We even took Broad Street under Aurora to leave no stone unturned. It’s not so bad hopping the curb with just one passenger, but I’m glad to go back to my longer, wimpier route in future.

We explored the waterfront on our way back north, including the Elliott Bay Public Fishing Pier, conveniently ignorning the NO BIKES OR SKATES ALLOWED ON THIS PIER sign since there were no fish or fisherpeople to alarm.

We couldn’t visit Ballard without a stop at Dutch Bike Co for a snack, but we eventually made it to the ballot box in front of the Ballard library.

And I finally got back to heavy hauling with a stop at Trader Joes where we overdid things–one kid held a bag of veggie chips and the other a bushel of bananas. So I say I am a cargo bike…just not a very efficient one.

I was able to sneak out for a bit tonight and attended my first Menstrual Monday ride:

Menstrual Monday is the first Monday of every month rain or shine. Ladies of all bike types and skill levels welcome! Meet up at Seattle Center Fountain at 6:30. Depart at 7pm.

This evening’s ride was harvest themed with a bonfire, pie, and cider at the end.

I finally installed my BikeGlow Safety Light to combat the dark. I snagged it for 50% off from Mamasource a couple months ago, and have seen the deal come up once more since then. The idea is to wrap it around the frame, but yesterday I noticed a bike at the Ballard farmers market with it strung in a line and it looked pretty cool. The black thing on my seat post is the two-AA battery pack. It makes a whining sound when the light is on (solid, slow blink, or fast blink), but I couldn’t hear it once I was riding.

This is what the light looked like in the dark:

The ride was great! I thought it was fast and hard, but one rider was on a beach cruiser so it must have been mellower than I realized. The route seemed very similar to the last cargo bike ride, but it was SO DARK it was hard to tell. It was nice to ride on paths without cars, but that also meant paths without lights.

I knew I’d have to leave early, but luckily the ride ended up near home so I didn’t have to leave too early. I was worried the ride would head for West Seattle and I’d have to leave before reaching the end and find my way home all alone. But we rode to a part of Ravenna Park I’m familiar with and I even had time to ride with the group to Boulevard Grocery for snacks and beer before the bonfire.

The only bad part of the evening was losing Nothing the Salmon (formerly known as Sammy the Salmon), our new 99-cent yellow perch stuffed animal from two days ago. The boys wanted him to come along on the ride since they couldn’t. Turns out, water bottle cages aren’t good for storing stuffed animals. I noticed his absence across the street from the Seattle Center, but didn’t want to retrace my steps and look for him in the dark. He’s wearing two reflective ankle bands so maybe I can track him down tomorrow.

Earlier in the day we biked to the Arboretum with Brad and the Yes on Prop 1-mobile. We communed with nature for quite a while, but eventually got too cold and wet and took refuge in Montlake Bicycle Shop. There are a lot of bikes there! The kids had a blast careening through the aisle on the shop’s balance bikes while Brad checked out a tandem bike and I browsed accessories. I bought a reflective ankle band (not one of the ones lost with the fish) and now it’s my only one left.

After preschool pickup we raced to Dutch Bike Co to buy a basket (yes, another new basket) I fell in love with yesterday and deliver it to Seattle Powder Coat just in time to get painted with my new bike frame. Phew. Accessorizing is hard work.

Lots of riding today and tonight. My seat is sore.

Not family-biking-related, but while the rest of the family was jumping in fall leaves at the Arboretum, I rode my beach cruiser to Ballard for a hair appointment and an impulse bike basket purchase. I had stopped in at Dutch Bike Co for a coffee and found myself browsing the baskets. There was only one white one, the Wald quick-release basket. I was smitten.

The Wald basket is a lot nicer than the rusty and bent basket previously on the cruiser–removed three-and-a-half years ago when we tried to attach the baby seat and never put back on. I’m not sure how often I’ll remove the basket from the bike, but it’s a nice feature. And it looks more attractive without the legs attaching it to the hub. It’s a little wobbly over bumps, so not the best basket for rugged riding, but beach cruisers shouldn’t have to deal with bumps. David faux-secured the basket with a removable zip tie (I had no idea they came in removable!) so I could give the illusion of being theft-proof. I just love leaving DBC with a zip tie to show for my visit!

It was nice to put my messenger bag in the basket, but the party only lasted a few blocks because I stopped at Fred Meyer and filled the basket with fruit and coffee. This was the first time the beach cruiser had transported anything other than beer. She’s growing up.

We took our first bike trip to the Crown Hill Value Village today. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to make the 4.5-mile trip; I’ve biked slightly farther on a couple occasions. Even more exciting than the thrift store was happening upon JRA Bike Shop. A friend told me yesterday that they have a few longtails–Xtracycle, Yuba Mundo, and Sun Atlas Cargo–but I discovered they also have a Christiania. Nice fleet! They’re also very nice and quickly provided a paper towel for the toddler’s snotty nose and offered us donuts.

Value Village was a big success. We got a kiddie skateboard for $3, our first bag of real Legos, and a plush fish we think is a salmon for 99 cents. And long pants for me, which was the main purpose of the trip. I keep assuming all this biking will help me fit in my old clothes, but it’s not doing the trick so now I’ve got four pairs of cheap bigger pants. Sigh.

While I was loading up the bike, two people asked if it was motorized. I love when that happens, although sometimes I think it’s because the internal hub looks like a motor and not because the questioners are impressed with my hill climbing.

When we overshop at the grocery store, the kids have to hold bulky items in their laps. I thought that might be the case today, but I was able to cram everything in the baskets. This left room for the kids to holds snacks (and Sammy the Salmon) on their laps and I discovered what a great snack holder a toddler makes. The front kid held a bowl of cashews and we didn’t lose a one: uphill, downhill, over bumps. Secured directly to the bike, all the cashews would have quickly bounced out.

We met some friends at Cascade Playground this morning and braved the cold for a while before agreeing to meet at the REI play area four blocks away. The walker with one kid in stroller left slightly before me with two kids on the bike and the driver with one kid in the car. The walker arrived first, then me, and last the driver. If the distance was slightly greater, I think I would have won. Also, I was the only one who thought it was a race.

At the bike rack I noticed that the bike parked next to me still had its rear light on. I felt uncomfortable at the thought of touching someone else’s bike, but also obligated to save the light’s battery. I looked around nervously and quickly turned it off while the kids shouted “Mama! What are you doing?”/”Mama! Uh arr oooooey?” and reached hungrily at other parked bikes. Is that cool or should I have just left the light on? I have a feeling the answer to this question might be different in standoffish Seattle than in other cities.

I was approached at the play area by an REI employee who asked if my two-year old wore a size 2T and did he want to be an REI fit model. I asked what it entailed and she said we’d go to the headquarters in Kent (18 miles south of Seattle) where he’d play around in clothing to make sure it fit as it should. At the mention of Kent I knew I wasn’t interested and explained that we bike everywhere so it wasn’t feasible. Then she said, “Oh, did I mention it pays? $120.” I’m embarrassed to admit I immediately changed my tune: “Oh, well we have a car! We just don’t use it often. Sign him up!” So on our way out–which was two hours later than I’d planned to leave since I was too wimpy to ride home in the unexpected drizzle–we stopped by the third-party talent scouts for measuring. Apparently his modelling career is not a done deal, but the measurers seemed pleased with his numbers and whispered to each other, “Ooh, I think he’ll be great” so we’re just waiting for the call now. $120 could buy a lot of bike lights. Or part of one really bright one.

Today was the first day I purchased dog food by bike. Not too impressive since the 14.5-pound bag borrowed the seat of the 35-pound kid who was at preschool, but a first nonetheless. I’ve probably been slightly out of balance with cargo before, but I think if I’d had both kids with me and put the bag of food in one of my baskets, it would have been a bit awkward. Now I’m curious to see, so I’ll have to try that next time.

It’s been fun keeping track of mileage and days missed (October: 212.4 miles with 7 skipped days), but I think I’ll stop the tally for now. I should try to find a tool to keep track of things online and perhaps get a cyclometer. Some day.

Happy Halloween! After last year’s old-school sharrow costume, my son wanted to be a new-school sharrow this Halloween. I couldn’t think of a good way to create a bicycle-and-chevrons-symbol costume so I talked him into bike lane guy instead. And we turned the green leotard and tights from a handed-down Super Why! costume into a bike box costume for his brother.

Photo courtesy Hub and Bespoke

No one could tell what the boys were dressed as (except for one neighbor who had seen the bike box picture on the Spokespeople Facebook page) and it didn’t help matters that they added wings to their costumes and the bike box also wanted a balloon attached to his helmet. Here are the real street markings in case you aren’t familiar with them:

I don’t know that the costumes are crafty enough to deserve more details, but here goes anyway…

The helmets are covered with half an old t-shirt each, sewn into place.

The bike box’s bike is cut from cardboard and sewn onto the leotard. I’m not much of a sewer–I tried to superglue it first!

I cut the circles for the bike lane’s wheels from thick cardboard and taped a wire hanger to them before gluing white paper over the ugly mess.

I made a little harness with part of the helmet t-shirt: part of the hem from the sleeve worked well to thread the hanger through and the collar fit under his other arm to hold things in place. The wheels flopped around a bit, but didn’t get in the way as much as the wings.

The bike lane held an arm out front and did a “flamingo leg” to look the part. Of course the bike box insisted on doing a flamingo leg each time his brother did, despite my suggesting he put his hands on his hips to look more box-like.

My dad is visiting so we haven’t been doing much biking. This afternoon we all took the bus to Fremont to see The Bubbleman at the statue of Lenin and trick or treat at the local businesses (including Hub and Bespoke and the Theo Chocolate factory). After a couple hours of that, we hoofed it past the Troll to catch the 16 to the Wallingford Center for Green Halloween. That didn’t last too long, but it was nice to get a warm indoor break before trick-or-treating the nine blocks home. That was by far the best part of the trick-or-treating and we met so many more neighbors tonight versus Neighborhood Night Out. The best house was the one that had candy for the kids and choice of vodka/tonic, red wine, white wine, or beer (IPA) for the grown ups.

Parts of the evening would have been easier on the bike–especially the half hour of waiting for the 16. The bike would have been convenient for carrying our stuff, but I had a stroller along which served to carry our increasingly heavy candy overflow bag.

Saturday’s miles: 0 miles
Sunday’s miles: 0 miles
Today’s miles: 9.1 miles
October cumulative: 212.4 miles
Days missed: 7

Yesterday resolved into a stunningly sunny day so we spent the afternoon aboard the Virginia V steamship for the final floating farmers market of the season. In exciting bike-related news, when I mentioned to Matt of Hart Coffee that his operation looked compact enough that he could manage as a bike-based business, he said it’s already on his radar and he’s currently looking for a bike trailer. Of course I tried to talk him into an Xtracycle, but he’s very attached to his road bike.

According to the FarmBoat blog, the construction in South Lake Union has kicked into high gear, cutting off access to the park. We really like SLU Park, but admittedly primarily in warm weather so we’re cool taking a break until May.

This morning was our coldest morning yet. We all wore gloves and extra layers. The boys didn’t complain about the cold at all so I think we’ll be fine through the winter. I have to admit I’m relieved preschool is on the Seattle Public Schools snow closure program so we won’t have to deal with riding on especially bad days.

Wednesday’s miles: 0 miles
Yesterday’s miles: 12.2 miles
Today’s miles: 0 miles
October cumulative: 203.3 miles
Days missed: 5

After reading this How to Teach Your Kid to Ride a Bike tutorial, we broke out the new princess pedal bike for the first time. I thought we’d be golden practicing on our block, given Step 1: Point the child up a gentle incline, but we didn’t make a lot of progress today. Back inside, I checked the steepness of our hill for the first time with the veloroutes.org hill grade calculator. Perhaps I shouldn’t have considered our 7.1% grade gentle. So even though the solo pedaling was a bust, it was cool that the little balance biker got to zoom ahead of his big brother for a change. I’ll rest my back a bit (Step 2: Hold the back of the saddle is hard work!) and find a gentler slope. The bike looks a bit on the small side so we’ll have to get over to Bike Works soon.

We checked out the fall colors today, too. Perhaps not the most glamorous locale, but the parking lot of Gas Works Park is full of red trees.

We collected a couple buckets of leaves and then admired the latest colors recently added to the play barn.

Yesterday’s miles: 3.3 miles
Today’s miles: 8.8 miles
October cumulative: 191.1 miles
Days missed: 3

I’m still planning to buy a quality kid bike at Bike Works with my $12 for $25 Google Offers coupon, but I couldn’t pass up the FREE BIKES message to the local moms group. There were no descriptions of the bikes so I rode over hoping for a blue one and found quite the opposite. I almost brought our bigger balance bike along for size comparision and probably should have–I initially put both pink bikes in my trailer. I felt greedy and put the big one back and got lucky–the little one is the perfect size if not the perfect color.

Since we’re still in balance bike territory and may stay here for qutie a while (“I just want bigger and bigger and bigger balance bikes. No pedals!”) I haven’t done any kid bike research. I noticed that this little bike doesn’t have hand brakes so I figured it had coaster brakes and might therefore be a bit hard to learn on. Turns out it has no brakes. By design. Doesn’t seem like the safest way to start biking. Maybe it’s supposed to have training wheels to control the speed. But we’ll give it a go as-is.

For the record, I’ve got nothing against princess bikes…though I think six leading ladies is more than necessary on one tiny bike. Most of our little friends have lovely pink sparkly bikes, we’ve just really got a blue thing (and a yellow thing with the little one) going over here. And it looks like my beach cruiser had a baby bike.

Today’s miles: 1 mile
October cumulative: 179.0 miles
Days missed: 3