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.