Friday Family on Bikes...Mine

First, an introduction:

I'm Emily.  I work mostly as a stay-at-home parent to Bigger (age 4) and Little (age 2).  I also work one day a week at a rural elementary school as a writing teacher.  Both of these jobs are my dream jobs.  My husband, Austin, is a superhero: he works full-time as a carpenter, and spends his evenings in graduate school studying library and information science.  He is also an amazing husband and papa who makes seriously good waffles.

Austin and the boys

No, my kids are not actually named "Bigger" and "Little".  But this is Eugene, so I understand why you might be curious.

Our family bike setup:

Our family bike setup is currently in transition.  While we are awaiting the arrival of a Workcycles Fr8 Uni this spring, I am riding Austin's hybrid bike with a ragtag circus of kid and cargo attachments: a Bobike Mini front child seat with windscreen (you can get one in Eugene at Arriving by Bike), a Follow Me tandem coupler that allows me to tow Bigger's bike behind mine, and an extra-large milk crate for hauling a limited amount of cargo.

Our new bike will be able to carry two children on seats mounted to the rear rack, as well as one up front on a child saddle.  It will also have a very large, lidded wicker basket up front and panniers on the rear rack.  It will probably tow Bigger's Follow Me tandem, but I haven't entirely made up my mind about that yet.  Installing the Follow Me would allow me to carry four child passengers!

When we got rid of our second car over the summer, I considered a bakfiets or an Xtracycle, but the deal breaker for me was compatibility with the bike racks on buses and trains.  We share a garden on my mother-in-law's 7 acre property in Creswell.  I need to be able to take a bike on the bus to Creswell with me so that I can cycle (instead of walk) the three miles between the bus stop and my mother-in-law's place.  I've also heard stories of folks being denied the opportunity to load larger cargo bikes onto Amtrak trains.  So we're going to see how bus and train friendly the Fr8 can be.  It is a seriously heavy bike.

We love our Follow Me tandem coupler for a number of reasons.  Unlike most tagalong-style bike attachments, the Follow Me allows families to install rear child seats, crates, and virtually anything else on the adult bike.  Once he feels confident enough, I will be able to disconnect Bigger's bike from mine so that he can ride solo on the bike path or quiet streets, and then reattach him when we're heading into car traffic.

While I'm excited about my new bike, I also want to emphasize that it's not necessary to purchase a special bike in order to get around town with your kids and stuff!  If I had decided against the Fr8, I could have made my current bike setup work better for me.  But since we were getting rid of a car, it made sense for us to upgrade to a much nicer bike.

Little, loving his pink bike

 We also have a balance bike used by both Bigger and Little, a pink Strider.  We like that the Strider is lightweight and relatively sturdy, and that it's small enough to hold a very little passenger (both boys started on it at age two).  I would say that I feel that many of these balance bikes are a little overpriced given the quality of the product, and that it is simple to remove the pedals from a 12" kids' bike from the Goodwill for a total cost of $10 or less.  (Our neighbors transformed a 12" Salvation Army cast off into a truly awesome, custom painted balance bike that I hope to feature here sometime.)

Why we choose to ride bikes together:

As Heather pointed out last week, there are too many reasons to share all of them here!

Our decision to give up a car was tied into our beliefs about what is practical, sensible, and fair.  I think that people on bikes, foot, and public transit (and the infrastructure that supports these modes of transport) make our communities richer, more equitable, and pleasant places to live.  I believe that getting around by bike is helping my children to grow up more confident, resilient, and fit.  I think that it will help them to be more independent as they grow older and begin to be able to get around town on their own.  It almost always lifts our mood to get out by bike.  And getting rid of a car helps to free up money in our budget for other things that are more important to us.

What kinds of trips to we make by bike?  And what other modes of transport do we commonly use?

I make almost every trip by bike, by foot, or bus now.  We do our shopping, appointments, playdates, and most other trips by bike.  I ride the bus to my teaching job. We walk to various destinations close to home (the park, the bakery, etc.) regularly as well.  I've started to frequent shops within four miles of our house almost exclusively.  I've become more efficient in the way I run errands.  And because we really enjoy riding our bikes, taking the bus, and walking, I'm more likely to plan a couple of pleasant errand and park trips every other day or so.  When I was driving my kids around, I often crammed several hours of errands into one day in order to avoid the unpleasantness of errands by car as much as possible.

We also love taking long-distance trips by train.  Our most frequent trip by train is to visit my parents' house near McMinnville.  I have taken my two kids on several overnight train trips by myself, which is actually really fun provided that you have the good sense not to let your kids drink the complimentary sparking juice right before bedtime.

Austin carpools to his job as a carpenter each day.  He sometimes has to make trips of up to 50 miles with large loads of lumber and tools, so I think that this is a pretty sensible option for him.  The final few car trips I make a month (between 0 and 3, typically) typically involve and social obligations in distant areas at times when there is no bus service (or very limited bus service).  The moms at Carfree with Kids have a great post about this which is helping me think about how to collaborate with friends and family so that visiting is more convenient for all of us.  One of the goals I have for this year is to try to get to rural family members' homes at least a couple of times a month by bus.  I'm hoping that this will help us refine our rural bus trip routine so that it's more automatic for us to visit our rural family members this way.  Plus, if we're getting to folks' houses by bus regularly, they'll understand if we can't make it to some of those late weekend events.  Not to mention the fact that my kids are always asking for more bus trips!  At $3 for a day pass (the kids are too young to pay fare) it's a cheap thrill.

A bike tip for other beginning family bicyclists:

See if there are Kidical Mass rides where you live.  Meeting and talking with folks at Kidical Mass helped me build confidence about riding my bike with my children when I was just getting started.  I learned some family-friendly, low traffic routes to my favorite destinations.  I've gotten advice about family bike setups, and seen some really interesting family bikes in action.  And I've met a community of people who enjoy riding bikes with their kids.  There's a Kidical Mass in Eugene tomorrow -- meet us at 3 pm in Monroe Park!

Little Nutty Helmet Seeks New Home

We are looking for a new home for this helmet, which does not fit Bigger.  It came into our hands for free (Bigger won it from Arriving By Bike at the Blackberry Jamboree), and we'd like it to go to someone else that way, too.

A recipient here in Eugene (or nearby) would be preferred, but I would consider shipping the helmet to the right family.  This helmet has been gently used for several months.  If you are interested in the Little Nutty, please post a comment below.  Please mention your relationship to the intended recipient of the helmet, whether he or she has tried on a Little Nutty in the XS size, and anything else you'd like me to know.  Assuming that someone out there is interested, I'll let folks know who the helmet goes to by Thursday of next week.

Thanks, and happy riding!

Back on the Bike, With a New Helmet

Thursday morning, Little and I woke up feeling healthy again, but Austin was a groggy, nauseous mess.  The kids and I needed some fresh air and a chance to see something other than the walls of the living room, and poor Papa needed a quiet house.  Happily, we had a fun errand to run: Bigger's new helmet had arrived at Paul's!

Bigger has had a string of ill-fitting helmets this year.  First there was a little Giro helmet, which fit him for quite awhile.  He was starting to outgrow it, so we measured Bigger's head and cashed in a gift certificate to order this Nutcase helmet in size S/M.  This was Nutcase helmet #1.

Bigger and his 8 ball helmet with Auntie R, who gave this bike its wild custom paint job

Nutcase helmet #1 should have fit Bigger (according to the size charts) but it didn't.  We tried various adjustments to the padding and straps, and even took it into a couple of shops that sold Nutcase helmets to see if the experts could help us make it fit.  It never did.  It slid around his head in all directions, and never managed to hit the safety target for protecting the front part of the brain: you should only be able to fit about two fingers above a person's eyebrows.  (I learned this and lots more in a confident cycling class offered by our local bike club: GEARS.  This is a great class if you're in Eugene, and it's taught by two papas who cycle with their families, Paul Adkins and Shane Rhodes.  I recommend it if you are interested in learning more about biking for transportation.   There's also a class for families with kids age 5 and up: Traffic Skills for Families.)

Enter Nutcase helmet #2.  Just before we figured out that the first helmet was never going to cut it, we entered in a drawing to win a Nutcase Helmet from Arriving by Bike at the Blackberry Jamboree Ride.  Guess what?  We won.

Bigger chose this gray model in the next size down, XS.  This is the model they call the Little Nutty, and it has a dial at the back for adjusting the size of the helmet to fit smaller noggins.  According to the size charts, the Little Nutty also should have fit Bigger.  We worked with a very kind woman at the shop to adjust the fit of the helmet until it was almost right.  We had foolishly set out a little too close to Little's naptime for this errand, and had included the purchase and installation of a new rear rack on our to do list at the shop.  It was a long morning at the shop, and we finished with the helmet sizing (boring to the point of tantrum-induction for a sleepy toddler) and moved to bell ringing as quickly as possible.  When we left, crying toddler in my arms, I thought to myself that the new helmet would fit better with just a little bit more adjustment to the straps.  Adjustable dial = better fit, right?

Wrong.  In fact, Nutcase #2 would go on to win the Wost Possible Helmet for Bigger award.  Nutcase #2, adjustable dial and all, would slide sideways towards his left ear, leaving half of his head completely uncovered.  (I can't find a photo of this stunning helmet malfunction now, but will search for one to include here.)  While the smaller helmet size fit his head better, the straps on the left side were too short, and seemed to yank the helmet off the right side of his head while we were in transit.

Now, I'm sure that the good people at Arriving by Bike would have been glad to take Nutcase #2 off our hands and exchange it for a properly fitting helmet.  We have never had anything but positive experiences with them (they sold us our Bobike Mini and windscreen), and I love the mission of their shop: cycling for transportation, as opposed to cycling for sport.  But they cannot re-sell a helmet that has been returned, and the idea of this helmet going into the landfill when others could make use of it just doesn't feel right to me.  Also, Arriving by Bike does not carry Bern, the brand of helmet that we discovered fits Bigger's head perfectly.  (We read Julian's review of the Bern helmets on Totcycle, and tried one out.  It was like we had met Bigger's soul mate.  Perfect fit, good coverage, and it comes with a cold weather liner or visor.  What's not to love?)

Bigger, delighted with his new helmet

We haven't had great experiences with the Nutcase helmets for kids, obviously, but I think it's possible that certain brands of helmets just fit certain people's heads better than others.  If it's the case with shoes, why not with helmets?  I love that the Nutcase helmets are available in so many fun colors and designs.  It seems to me that the Nutcase helmets have been a part of the rebranding of cycling -- it's not just for people who are comfortable in spandex.  Lots of stylish women in particular seem to choose Nutcase.

We're going to hang on to Nutcase #1 (we have a friend in need of a new helmet that we suspect it may fit), but we're looking for a new home for Nutcase #2.  Are you interested?  Check back next week (or spread the word to folks who might be looking for a kid-sized helmet that they may want to check in next week), when I'll be giving this helmet away.  We'd prefer a local kid (Eugene, OR), but if there isn't one, we'd consider shipping it to someone whose child has tried on an XS Nutcase and is sure one would fit its new recipient.

Now I'd better get going.  We have a big day of bike errands and swinging at the park planned.  I love my job.