Category Archives: Rides

Biking Break is Over

I have, due to my back injury (turns out to be a bulging disc), been largely off my bike since the end of October. It’s been a bummer because driving has really been stressing me out and I really miss the exercise and the fun of taking R out by bicycle. In the last month and a half we have been out just one time together and I’ve been out just one time solo. I’m finding it hard to get over the momentum of not riding, though I know I will. It will just take a couple rides and getting back in the habit of starting to get ready early enough not to be late when we go out.

Our one ride together was down to Fremont to do some Christmas shopping for my mom. I won’t say what we bought here because she may read this, but I think she’ll be pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t a long ride, though it felt good and we also got some walking in. I’ve finally gotten used to getting R on my back with the Ergo so I’m able to carry her without back pain and with less strain on the injury. This is much easier than hauling down the stroller, plus at least one place we went doesn’t have access that I know of except for stairs, so a stroller would have been difficult. The last time I went there with her we took the stroller with the detachable car seat, but that one is even harder to put on the bike so that was out. Carrying turned out to be fine and my back didn’t seem any worse the wear for it.

Last night was my first night out solo, and my first trip with out the e-assist. I rode down to my friend Barry’s new brewery, Lucky Envelope Brewing, and met my friend David to catch up. He’s been deep in an intensive class for the last 15 weeks and we hadn’t had a chance to catch up since about week five. It was great catching up and great finally sampling Barry’s commercial beer. I’d had his homebrew many times and it was always great, so I was not surprised that his commercially produced beer was as good if not better. On my way home I definitely missed the e-assist on the two big hills (although I intentionally didn’t take it so I could see what shape I was in and work on getting my lungs and legs back). I stopped for several minutes after biking up the first hill, and walked the second one, but even though I didn’t bike the whole way it will still help me get back in shape.

So, after the holidays I plan to get back to riding more seriously. Prior to my injury I was biking pretty much everywhere but to orchestra practice and that felt really good. I’m looking forward to doing that again.

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Ride with Kat and C

A week or two ago R and I got out on a fun ride with our friends Kat and her daughter C. It was our first time riding with them and it was a ton of fun. Fall weather hadn’t kicked in yet so we had a beautiful day out on the bike path.

I met Kat and C at their house and we headed down to the Burke-Gilman trail. We left right at naptime, but I wasn’t too concerned. R has so much fun on the bike that I wasn’t worried about her fussing and I figured she would probably take her nap at some point while riding.

We didn’t do a super long ride because of my time constraints. I wanted to be back home in time to be there when Lurline got home from work. She doesn’t get a ton of time with R during the week so I like to make sure we’re home when she is.

We headed north on the trail up to Matthews Beach Park. It’s a really pretty ride through the trees and was about the right distance for the time we had. I only do about 10 mph on my bike when I don’t use the motor and I wanted to do most of this under my own power to get some good exercise.

At that slow speed it was pretty easy to chat while riding. Kat and I got a good long conversation in while the girls enjoyed their time on the bikes (or in the trailer in C’s case). It was some of the best fun I’ve had biking since our ride to Seward Park a couple months ago. I’d like to get out on fun rides more often, and I’m really looking forward to one where I can take my regular bike instead of the cargo bike. Maybe a ride where R stays home and we can do something like ride to Redhook for lunch and a beer. Not that I don’t love riding with R, just that it would be nice to have a grownup ride sometime too.

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Kidical Massive

On Saturday we made a valiant attempt to go on Kidical Massive, the Kidical Mass that was coordinated with others around the country. If you are not familiar with Kidical Mass it is an organized ride for families with kids. The idea is to get a big group of kids and parents together and go on a ride through a neighborhood. Some places (like Portland, OR) even get more adventurous and go on bike camping trips. You can read more about it here: http://www.kidicalmass.org/.

Our plans for the morning were foiled by nap time – R napped right up until Kidical Massive was scheduled to start and we couldn’t catch up with the group at that point. We still went on a ride through the Ballard Summer Parkways route and met some great family bikers at the parks, which was really nice. During the ride we ended up hanging out at Ballard Commons Park at the Sustainable Ballard festival for a couple of hours, had lunch there, and headed home around nap time.

This was the first time I’d seen a Kidical Mass in Seattle and I was bummed to have missed it. Nap time is more important though so I think we made the right choice. R was much happier all day with a good morning nap than she would have been had we woken her up to make it to the ride on time.

It’s been great starting to connect with other family bikers here in Seattle. There is a very active Facebook group that both Lurline and I have joined. It’s an active online community where I hear about events, can ask for advice, and can see what other families are doing. I really enjoy being a part of it. It’s also started to give me a sense of community I haven’t really had since grad school.
I’d like to transition some of that online community into real life community. I think it will happen gradually as I keep riding around town and meet other folks on the road. Every family biker I’ve met has been really friendly and willing to chat about their experiences and what works for them. It’s given me some great tips and a lot of inspiration.

I’ve actually found that Seattle in general has become a friendlier place since starting to bike with R. Whether it’s the interesting bike, the bike seat, or just the sight of a baby on a bike I get a ton more smiles than I have at any point in my six years here. People on the street will say things like, “what a cute baby”, “look at that baby on the bike!”, or similar things. They will ask me in the street about my Yepp Mini because they are thinking of carrying their kid on their bike. I met an older gentleman who was really interested in the StokeMonkey so we chatted about it for a while. He kind of reminded me of my grandpa with his enthusiasm over an interesting piece of equipment (for example my grandpa was super into our Volt when we visited last year, and I’m sure if he saw my bike we could chat for quite a while). It’s been really refreshing to get so many smiles and have so many random conversations.

Infant playing in grass at Summer Parkways on a family bike ride.

R playing in the grass at Summer Parkways

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Labor Day Photos

John just emailed me the family photos he took for us on our Labor Day ride to Seward Park. Here they are! I think they are great. 
 

family biking on the Burke-Gilman trail in seattle, wa

Riding home from Seward Park on the Burke-Gilman trail

  
family biking on the  Burke-Gilman trail in  Seattle, WA

On the way home from Seward Park on the Burke-Gilman trail

 

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Disaster Relief Trials Completed!

Yesterday was the Disaster Relief Trials. The ride was probably the most challenging bike ride I’ve ever done. Not the longest, but the terrain was the most varied and it took the most energy out of me of any ride I’ve done. I learned a lot about my bike setup and my current limits – very valuable information.

Family bikers at Disaster Relief Trials checkpoint

The fam at the first stop we made on the course.

We left the house around 10:00 AM, later than we hoped since the ride started at 11:00. Unfortunately, we hit traffic for the University of Washington Huskies football game. This made us even later. Luckily the ride hadn’t started yet. They were still having speakers from the local community. We had missed most of them, but the man we did hear had some great things to say about building community and encouraging random connections between people – simple smiles between neighbors, even conversations with strangers. He was talking about things I’ve wished for Seattle since I moved here in 2009.

The ride ended up starting at about 11:15, which gave me time to get registered and sign the release form before starting. I got my number – 311 – and managed to get it on my bike by clipping my panniers through it.

Lurline joined R and me for the ride in the “Citizen” class (the class for people who just wanted to ride between checkpoints and do the workshops without carrying anything). It was pretty special doing another big ride as a family in the same week as our first one.

I had originally signed up for the “Resilient” class, which involved doing the entire course with a moderate amount of cargo. That was before R could fit her helmet, and once she could I decided to switch to the Family version. It did also include cargo – two half gallon bottles of water.

So, off we went at 11:15. We had decided not to do the full course, since Family class was only required to do 10 miles and 3 checkpoints. We didn’t want to wear R out too much and I still wasn’t sure I was up for 30 miles of hilly terrain plus the ride to and from home. In the end it turned out to be a good choice. The battery on my e-assist was quite close to empty by the time we got home, and we had a climb over Capitol Hill, plus the climb up to our house at the end. If I’d been out of battery it would have been difficult, since I’m not sure I’m in good enough shape yet to do that last hill unaided.

The race itself was quite fun. There were a couple frustrating points that were less fun, but my own fault. We had some difficulty finding the checkpoints because the map provided by the organizers was quite small and we were having to go back and forth between it and the Seattle Bicycling Map. When they hold the next DRT I’ll prepare my maps in more detail ahead of time, either marking intersections and highlighting routes on the big map or printing out zoomed in sections of maps that are marked with the locations.

Each stop had a ham radio operator radioing in riders’ numbers as they arrived at the checkpoints. I chatted with one at one stop because I plan to get my ham license later this fall. That was kind of fun.

R was a total trooper. She squealed, yelled, blew raspberries, and, thankfully, napped on the bike. We got a lot of compliments on her and chatted for awhile with a man named Sai who wanted to start carrying his son on his bike. His story was great – his son likes to just jump up on Sai’s bike and say “ride, ride!” One of the things I love about this family biking thing is those random conversations with people that happen so often. I even had a woman chat with me while we were waiting at a stop light!

Family bikers eating lunch while baby naps

R napping while we eat our lunch in the background.

In all, between the bike ride to and from the start and the trials themselves we rode for 7.5 hours and approximately 30 miles (I say approximately because I forgot to reset my trip meter until about 1.5-2 miles into the ride). A lot of hills, including one block I couldn’t quite ride up and ended up walking, although pushing the loaded bike uphill was challenging itself. I have a really good idea of the hills I can climb and the ones I need to walk. I know better how long my battery lasts – it looks like I spent roughly half the ride on battery based on my computer readout. I’ll definitely do this again the next time it happens, maybe even doing the competitive version.

I also want to give a big thank you to G&O Family Cyclery for going above and beyond with a last minute repair to my bike. It had a breakdown the day before the trials and Tyler fixed it for me. It was last minute and I was worried he wouldn’t be able to fit it in, but he could! What a rockstar! Thank you!

Cargo bike with infant loaded with cargo for the Family bikers during the Disaster Relief Trials.

Here’s my bike with my number attached, R hanging out in the front.

Family bike loaded for the Family bikers during the Disaster Relief Trials with infant sleeping in the Yepp Mini child seat

R on the bike ready to ride.

Family bikers during the Disaster Relief Trials

Family Portrait at stop number 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sleeping in the Rain

We’ve been riding almost everywhere lately, rain or shine. In light of the rain part, I picked up a cute rain suit for R at REI a couple weeks ago. It was literally just in time for the rain to start, since the next day it poured down. The suit doesn’t fit perfectly, as no infant clothes do, but that’s a good thing. The size it is it should last at least until late spring. I’m glad for that because I hate constantly buying clothes.

In any case, the next day we were out for R’s doctor’s appointment and the rain started. Did she fuss? No. She fell asleep. On the way there, then again on the way back. I parked the bike in the garage, pulled up a folding chair, and did some reading while she finished her nap.

Infant sleeping in rain suit on family bike.

R sleeping in her rain suit.

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Disaster Relief Trials

I touched on this in an earlier post: next weekend I am participating in the inaugural Seattle Disaster Relief Trials. The DRT, while partially a cargo bike race, is primarily an event to increase disaster preparedness in the city. There is a route through several neighborhoods in South Seattle with six way stations along the way. The way stations are meant to simulate community hubs – a place to distribute supplies and share emergency information via volunteer ham radio operators. 

The race version of the event is meant to simulate a disaster situation as much as possible. The course includes obstacles, and the racers are required to carry and distribute up to 100 pounds of cargo. There are five classes of participants:

  1. Responder—30 miles, 100 lbs of cargo, all checkpoints/no workshops, race
  2. E-assist—same as Responder, but with an e-assist on their bike, race
  3. Resilient—30 miles, up to 20 lbs of cargo (water and food for volunteers), all checkpoints/all workshops, not a race
  4. Family—10-30 miles, up to 20 lbs of cargo plus at least one child, minimum 3 checkpoints/workshops, not a race
  5. Citizen—free, no cargo or checkpoint requirement; enjoy as many workshops as they want, not a race

Initially I signed up for the Resilient class. At the time I registered R was not large enough for her helmet and we didn’t have a bike seat for her yet. I wanted the challenge of participating, especially since disaster preparedness has been on my mind lately. Then, a couple weeks later, R had grown enough to fit her helmet. I’d put on the bike seat and she started riding. I really liked the idea of having her participate in this, so I changed my registration to family. While I may not make it for all 30 miles of the course, especially with a 16 mile round trip to the event, I am certainly looking forward to whatever I can handle.

Next year, when the event happens again, I hope to be in shape enough to do the full, competitive race. I’d love to enter the e-assist class and compete. This year, though, we’re making it a family ride and Lurline is bringing her Soma to keep us company. I’m really looking forward to it.

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A Fine Day Out

Past years we’ve spent Labor Day Weekend listening to amazing music at the local major music festival, Bumbershoot. I’ve found two of my current favorite bands going there the last two years. Why didn’t we go this year? Well, not because of the baby. I have to admit it was my own fault. I kept forgetting to buy the tickets, and then Labor Day was upon us. No new bands for us this year I guess. 

Missing Bumbershoot does not mean the weekend was a loss by any means. We fit in plenty of fun together, including getting together with some friends from the new parents group we participated in last winter and having some fun playing one of our favorite card games one evening. The highlight of the weekend, though, was our first big fun ride as a family. 

I’d been working on planning this ride for about two weeks. Part of the impetus is that I’m participating in a big event next week that involves up to 30 miles on my cargo bike, plus 16 round trip to and from the start (more on that later). I knew I wanted to get in at least one major ride before that, since I’ve hardly been on my bike since last August prior to these last three weeks. Added to that, the rainy season is headed our way and my wife’s work picks up big time on Wednesday. This was some pretty good encouragement to make sure we got out this weekend. 

We’ve always liked going on rides with our friends John and Rachel, so naturally I coordinated with them. The thought at first was to do the approximately 45 mile route to and from Red Hook, one of the major breweries in the area. I started thinking about that, and really evaluating how I was feeling while riding, and frankly I wimped out a little. Plus, it’s Labor Day so every third person in Seattle will be doing that ride. It would be so busy we’d never get seated to have a beer. And if you can’t have a beer on a ride to a brewery, what’s the point?

So, instead of Red Hook I suggested Seward Park. It’s just over half the mileage of Red Hook, and the ride is, honestly, prettier. So, I may have wimped out a little, but it was still a significant ride for me. This marks only the third or fourth time I’ve biked over 20 miles in one day in my life, so I was prepared for a challenge. 

The ride was as beautiful as I remembered. A significant portion follows the edge of Lake Washington and most of the rest goes through a lovely residential neighborhood. Lots of good scenery to appreciate. The park itself is wonderful, with sweeping views of the lake and abundant trees. 

We left the house right at nap time, Hoping R would sleep on the bike as she did last week on our errands. She did. Unfortunately, after only ten or fifteen minutes we noticed that her helmet was slipping badly. Not wanting to leave her in a dangerous situation we bit the bullet and stopped to adjust it. She was not happy when we woke her up and proceeded to scream the entire time we were adjusting the helmet. However, her helmet now stays firmly in the right place, essential for everyday biking on the street. 

R was awake for the rest of the ride to the park, but in much better spirits than when we woke her up. She laughed, babbled, and squealed most of the way. Once there we sat and ate a leisurely lunch, enjoying the view and chatting about life.  We hadn’t seen John and Rachel in awhile, so it was really great catching up with them. 

The ride back,felt faster than the ride there, as is often the case for me on outings. I’ve never understood that quirk of travel for me, but it happens when hiking and horseback riding as well. I don’t complain, since I’m usually getting worn out by the end, so having it feel shorter is quite welcome. This time R fell asleep and we didn’t have to wake her. She dozed for probably thirty minutes. Not enough to be a proper nap, but enough we were less concerned about bedtime getting disrupted. 

Just before John and Rachel split off from us to head home John was so kind as to snap some pictures. These are our first, but not last, real family biking photos. I’ll definitely cherish them. 

In total we rode 28 miles, had one diaper change and one meal for R, and had a ton of fun. I hope we can make this into a regular part of our life, even once the rain starts in earnest. 

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First time out on the bike

When we got our bike back from the shop we were excited to start biking with the little one, but unfortunately she wasn’t quite big enough for her helmet. So, in preparation, I started biking on the cargo bike to get used to how it handles before carrying such precious cargo. I spent about 10 days biking to and from Aikido practice, down to the coffee shop to write and study for my ham radio license, and on short rides around the neighborhood. This practice both felt great because it increased my exercise, and made me much more confident on the bike. I got the hang of going from a dead stop to a powered ride, refreshed myself on how the longer bike handles after around 9 months since I had last ridden it, and generally just boosted my confidence in riding it.

I decided shortly after getting the bike back from the shop to start checking the fit of R’s helmet. At first it was still a little sloppy, but I put it on her anyway to help her get used to it. At first, she screamed and cried and just hated it. So, I started singing silly, made-up songs as I do when she is upset (or even when she’s happy just to pass the time and make her smile – you can see the Murray Sampson original “Rosamond in her Zebra Shirt” on YouTube). She quickly got distracted and stopped thinking about her helmet so much. I’ve heard some kids take a long time to get used to wearing a helmet, so I was really pleased it only took two or three times wearing it for her to stop minding.

Soon after the helmet stopped seeming so sloppy. When we bought it the tag indicated the circumference of head that it fit, so I decided to use a piece of string to measure her head to see if she officially fit. She did! So, her helmet fit, we had the bike, and all I needed to do was buy and install a seat. A quick Craigslist search turned up a nearly new Yepp Mini for sale for 2/3rds the list price so I emailed, then went straight to pick it up after a stop at the ATM.

Installing the Yepp Mini on my Mundo was pretty straightforward, once I found directions that had more detail than the included instruction sheet. You just remove the handlebars, pull off one spacer from the stem, place the adapter in, replace the spacer, then reattach the handlebars. You then use the supplied U-bolt to fix the adapter in place so it won’t shift left and right. Some bikes do use different hardware that clamps to the handlebar stem rather than slipping over it.

My wife really wanted to be part of R’s first bike ride, so we waited a few days to go out. I made the mistake of waiting to install the seat until the day we wanted to ride, so our original plans to go get the Sunday family-style chicken dinner at our favorite restaurant went out the window. We still had about 45 minutes until bedtime though, so we altered our plans. We took a short ride up the street to the neighborhood pie shop and picked up pie to take home for dessert. Although short, it was a ton of fun. R squealed and laughed the whole way and it had the added bonus of tiring her out for a better bedtime.

As a side note, my title for the first draft of this post was “First Time Out”. When I went in to revise I saw that title and thought, “She’s not old enough for time-outs.” I quickly decided I may want to save that title for a couple years from now, because I imagine the first time-out will be a bit of a big deal. Of course, then I’ll have to give her a time out on the bike someday and the problem resurfaces. Ah, well.

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