Category Archives: Biking

Two year birthday

Back at the beginning of the month (June 2nd, to be precise), HerGreenLife turned two.  (It totally slipped my mind, which I guess makes me a bad blog mama.)

Fittingly, this has been the best month ever in terms of blog readership — it’s always fun to see the numbers go up!

I look forward to continuing the main themes of the blog (green transportation, growing and preparing local food, and general green and health-related musings) into the coming year, while integrating the transition from a family of two to a family of three.

If you have any requests, questions, or topics you would like to see covered here, please let me know.

Thanks for reading and sharing the journey thus far 🙂  Here’s to another great year to come!

Rolling toward the finish

Biking to lunch at 37 weeks

I hit the 37 week mark on Friday and breathed a huge sigh of relief.  From here on out, I am within the window for a home birth 🙂  Despite general increasing discomfort for me, the more time baby spends growing inside, the better, but it’s nice to know that if baby decided to come today, we could go ahead as planned with the birth at home.  (If I had gone into labor prior to 37 weeks, that would have been automatic cause to head to the hospital.)

I spent a good portion of Friday and Saturday doing some serious nesting, though, as with the kitchen, my cleaning efforts on the apartment as a whole seem to degrade quickly.  Oh well.  In general, things are pretty well set for baby’s arrival.

On Sunday, I helped Matthew as he showcased our garden in the Sustainable Backyard Tour.  He did an amazing job, giving inspiring tours to the more than 50 people who visited our garden over the course of the afternoon.  More on the garden to come later.

Ungreening Green Drinks

It had been a few months since we made it to a St. Louis Green Drinks event, so last night’s gathering was a priority.  They had a great panel of speakers on the topic of Urban Farming — apparently quite popular, because it was standing room only.

The usual meeting location, Schlafly Bottleworks, is easily bikeable for us, but last night our trusty steeds did not grace the bike racks.  Although I’ve been feeling pretty good for the past week, I have had a few relapses into not so good, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s as much my body giving signals that I’ve been overdoing things as it is related to what I’m eating.  So I’m trying to be good and take it easy, at least until Friday.

Despite having some justification for riding in a car to get there, I felt a bit guilty all night, especially given the nature of the event (but hey, at least the topic wasn’t green transportation).

Not all was lost, as I had some great discussions after the panel, including the chance to bring up Cycling Savvy.  Speaking of, if you live in the St. Louis area, don’t miss the July series of Cycling Savvy courses.  I won’t be teaching, but depending on baby’s arrival, Matthew will be teaching both of the on-bike course segments (“Train Your Bike” and “Tour of St. Louis”).

Biking with Baby — Part II

I’ve been mulling this over for a few months now, and you can read my first post on the subject here.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any hard and fast plans — more reading and research = more confusion!

Bicycle as Transportation
In reading comments on some other “biking with babies” type posts, it’s obvious that many people assume that biking is solely for recreation and not transportation.  Comments such as, “If you and your husband want to go for a bike ride, leave your baby with a sitter,”  reveal general ignorance about using a bicycle for transportation.

What if we want to go to an event in the park WITH the baby?  What if I need to pick something up at the grocery store?  Am I confined to only using my car for these short, easily bikeable trips for the first 12 months unless I leave baby behind?  Despite all the naysayers, I’m not giving up yet.

Safety
First, discard the false (yet commonly held) belief that cycling itself is inherently dangerous.  In fact, it’s no more dangerous than driving or riding in a car, yet most people hop in a car every day with little thought to the risk, and no one bats an eye at a pregnant woman driving a car or parents transporting their infant in a motor vehicle.

That leaves us with a couple of possible legitimate risks to consider when biking with babies: 1) balance and 2) road vibrations.

Balance
A child seat attached to the bicycle could destabilize the bike, especially if they raise the center of gravity.  However, most accidents here occur not while the bike in motion, but rather while it is stopped.  Solution: use care when loading/unloading and get a kickstand that provides more stability, either a double (i.e., pyramid) style or one that mounts closer to the rear of the bicycle.  You could also invest in one of the specialty cargo bikes that I mentioned in my last post, or use a trailer.

Road Vibrations
Although there are no studies on the subject, some people claim that riding in a bicycle trailer exposes young babies to levels of road vibration that can cause brain damage similar to shaken baby syndrome.  While I certainly don’t want to discount this risk, there is NO EVIDENCE that bicycling with babies in trailers causes brain damage.  Solution: Invest in a trailer with a suspension system, keep the trailer tires inflated at a lower pressure to absorb more impact, and secure infant in a car seat so that his/her head is fully supported.

Making it Happen
Since last writing on the subject, I have talked to two parents who love their Xtracycles for biking with slightly older children, but I am leaning toward a trailer + car seat as the best (and most economical) solution for biking with a young infant.

Unfortunately, the nice trailers that have suspension systems (examples here and here) cost significantly more than the run-of-the-mill bike trailer, and, because they’re less common, I imagine finding a used one will be next to impossible.

Realistically, I think the earliest we would try this would be around 3 months of age, meaning we have a bit more time to ponder.  Ideally, there would be a way that we could try various cargo bikes and bike plus trailer combinations before committing to one, but at some point, we’ll just have to make a decision.


Cycling Savvy Instructor!

Despite the heat and my “delicate condition” 😉 , I made it through the Cycling Savvy Instructor training this past weekend!  In fact, I didn’t just make it, I had a great time.

Home stretch

Like the Cycling Savvy training itself, the instructor training was accessible for people of various fitness levels.  We covered over 14 miles on Sunday, but we did so over a 6-hour period consisting of easy-pace group riding, lots of breaks (in the shade) for instruction and “chalk talk,” plus a few individual exercises.  You don’t have to be fast to be a confident, courteous, savvy cyclist!

While portions of this route seem intimidating upon first glance, even for the seasoned road cyclist, Cycling Savvy provides the skills, information, and confidence necessary to navigate the features, breaking them down into manageable chunks for cyclists of every level.

Matthew doing "chalk talk" with my belly in the background

While it will be at least a few months before I am doing any instructing, there are Cycling Savvy classes available NOW in St. Louis.  Visit the Cycling Savvy St. Louis page to find out more about the classes THIS Thursday and Saturday, which still have room for a few more students.  The class provides the real world skills (and first hand experience) to help you drive your bicycle on the road, while interacting effectively, confidently, and safely with other road users.

Cycling Savvy Instructor graduates, plus our trainers, Keri and Mighk

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Photos in this post courtesy of Keri Caffrey and Karen Karabell