Category Archives: Biking

Biking in an autumn-y Christmas wonderland

Today brings a return to seasonal weather, but I made the most of the unseasonably warm weekend with three nights of Christmas light biking.

We kicked off the weekend with a family trip down Candy Cane Lane.  We arrived just as it was getting dark on Friday night, and we had the street almost to ourselves.  It was a challenge to bike slowly enough to take it all in, especially with a wiggly passenger on board.

Said passenger informed me that Nativity scenes are more correctly referred to as “Away in a Manger.”  Of course, the appropriate response to biking by an Away in a Manger is to begin singing the eponymous song.  (“Jingle Bells” is also a popular song to sing while biking, along with “Walking Biking in a Winter Wonderland.”)

On Saturday night I ventured out with bikey friends Mónica and Mike.  We scoped out even more lights, starting with Snowflake Street, before moving on to Candy Cane Lane.  On this trip, the place was packed, with a block-long line of cars in each direction, waiting to access Candy Cane lane.  We didn’t butt in line, but we did take advantage of the flexibility of bicycles by hopping off and becoming pedestrians.

After walking down Candy Cane Lane, we hopped back on the bikes and continued down Murdoch Avenue, which led to the discovery of “Angel Avenue” (Prague Ave. between Nottingham and Murdoch).  I loved the house on the SW corner of Prague and Murdoch — the entire front face is covered with teeny, tiny lights.  And then there was the house with the crazy lights synched to Christmas music.

We ended our bicycle tour with cookies and hot chocolate.

Gabriel and I went out again on Sunday afternoon.  It wasn’t dark yet, so there wasn’t much of a light show, but we found some fun decorations.

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Christmas dino on Snowflake Street

I was really tempted to detour by Ted Drewes for some frozen custard, but it was close to dinner time; practicality and my desire for G to eat a good dinner won.

We walked down Candy Cane Lane, checking out the sand sculpture in daylight.

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Sandy Santa

On the way home, we swung by Angel Avenue, but it still wasn’t dark enough to see any lights.  While Candy Cane Lane is the big draw, I preferred some of the other streets:

Angel Avenue > Snowflake Street > Candy Cane Lane

Now I just need to get Matthew and Gabriel to Angel Avenue when it’s dark!

Happy cold weather biker

I’m feeling a lot more optimistic after getting out on the bike two days in a row.  Gabriel came along for the ride both times.  Despite the title of the post, yesterday morning’s trip was actually made in balmy, 42°F temps, but today really was cold.

I had originally planned to use the bike for our afternoon outing yesterday, and the car for our morning outing (which included returning some large-ish items to the store), but when I stepped outside in the morning and realized how warm it was, combined with the fact that temperatures were supposed to drop during the day, I flip-flopped those plans: bike in the morning, car in the afternoon.

Someone had to deal with some disappointment at the change in plans: “But I want to go in the caaaarrrrr!”

Tough luck, kid!  He perked up when he realized that the bike was taking us to the same destination as the car would have (Rise Coffeehouse).  G loves this space for the second floor play area.  On the third Wednesday of the month, there is also music time with Celia.  We arrived early and had the play area to ourselves for a bit, but come music hour (10-11am), the place was PACKED!  Celia won my heart with a song about bicycles, written by a young friend of hers ❤

Today’s outing definitely counted as cold-weather biking (~20°F, with a slightly cooler wind chill).  We bundled into our layers.

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I’ll have to update with a photo of G later.  For now, you’ll just have to look at my [frosty] face.*

Gabriel’s Cold Weather Bike Layers:

  • socks
  • long underwear (just fitted cotton pajama pants and top)
  • leg warmers (to make sure there’s no gap b/w socks and pants)
  • regular pants
  • sweat shirt or sweater
  • down jacket (warm, but not super puffy)
  • balaclava
  • hat
  • insulated mittens
  • rain boots
  • scarf (covering most of his face)
  • sunglasses

We might upgrade to snow boots (his pair from last year are too small), but I also think we could stick with the rain boots, especially if we add a pair of thick, wool socks.

We use the sunglasses to keep the cold wind out of his eyes, and protect that part of his face a bit.  My MIL bought him a pair of ski goggles, which he likes to wear . . . around his neck.  He refused to have them anywhere near his eyes this morning, so we stuck with the sunglasses (choose your battles, right?).

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I’m still just wearing a light jacket (over layers), instead of my winter coat, but I did pull out the snow boots today.  They come up high enough on my legs that I can just tuck my pants into them instead of worrying about wearing leg bands to keep my pants away from the bike.  The combination of the boots and a double layer on the bottom made me feel rather slow and clunky when riding, but when it’s cold, staying warm is what matters.

Finally, I noticed over the last few days that the few remaining patches of ice on the streets are located . . . can anyone guess?

If you guessed, “near the edge of the road,” you’re spot on!  While black ice can happen anywhere, this observation is yet another reason (on a looooonnnggg list) to NOT ride far to the right!

*That’s my new helmet-mounted mirror, which I’m not really crazy about.  We’ll see if I warm up to it . . . .

 

Preschool honeymoon ends

I feel like Gabriel’s first couple of months of preschool were a honeymoon period.  Sure, I had my initial qualms about giving up the convenience of childcare that was literally just a half-block away (or free public preschool that’s just a few blocks away), but, with the help of lovely fall weather, we settled into a pretty decent routine: Matthew taking G to school on Big Blue most days, and my MIL dropping G off in the afternoon (for the record, it would work for Matthew to pick G up at school most evenings, but my MIL likes spending the afternoon with G; they’re usually out and about anyway, so she just drops him off on her way home). About once a week, I take G in the morning so Matthew can make it to an early yoga class.

With the exception of a couple of rainy days, and a couple of mornings where I was headed somewhere in the car anyway, we’ve made it work with the bikes.  We even made it work on the cold mornings last week, bundling G up in layers for the ride.

And then yesterday it snowed.  It was little enough snow, and the streets were still warm enough, that the roads (even those they don’t treat or plow) are almost 100% clear this morning.  But there are still a few icy patches, and, not knowing exactly what the route would look like, Matthew opted not to bike.

A year ago, that would have been really easy — Matthew grabbed the bus and I walked G the half block to Mrs. L’s house.  Unfortunately, the bus that is so convenient for getting Matthew from our house to work is not terribly useful for getting G to preschool.

So this morning we spent ten minutes scraping off the car.  Ten minutes (sucking exhaust) in which I could have walked G to Mrs. L’s and been back inside our house already.*  Ten minutes in which I could have walked G to the neighborhood school and been on my way back home.  And it’s only the middle of November!

I’m hoping we’ll still be able to bundle up and bike most days, but if the precipitation this winter is anything like last, I’m afraid we’ll be car-bound more often than not over the next four months.**  Sigh.

It’s not forever — it’s just now, just this winter (okay, and probably next winter, too).  I don’t have to like it, but I imagine I’ll get used to it.

*To be fair, the beloved, oh-so-convenient Mrs. L’s is actually not an option anymore.  A month after G started preschool, I found out Mrs. L retired (which shot my back-up childcare plan!).
**Getting G to school without a car (on the days we feel conditions are not safe for biking) would be very tricky — transferring buses, waiting on lines that run infrequently, etc.  So, while part of me longs to be car-free, I am aware of our privileged position, to choose biking most of the time, while still having a car for bad weather, tricky timing, etc.

Biking with kids: Trailer bike vs. tandem

I started this post just two weeks after we got Big Blue.  Don’t get me wrong, we plan to get many more years of use carrying Gabriel on the longtail, but things change fast with kids, and finding a quality, used product takes time.

We still have awhile before G is ready to ride independently on the streets with us, so for now I’m considering options that would allow him to pedal with us.  Gabriel is now tall enough to fit many trailer bike set-ups, though I’m not quite sure that he’s developmentally ready for this step, but perhaps by next spring or summer.

The two main options for your child pedaling with you are some type of trailer bike or a tandem that has a rear (stoker) position that fits a small rider.

Trailer bikes
These are pretty common and easy to find.  You can get a new trailer bike for between $200 and $400, depending on brand and features.  A general pro is that we could purchase an extra hitch and/or rack (the Roland and Burley each attach to a custom rear rack), so that Gabriel could easily ride with either Matthew or me.  The trailer bike could be easily detached and left at school if one of us was doing drop-off and the other pick-up (or it could hitch a ride home in Baba’s car).

What’s in the running for us:

  • Roland add+bike: Very highly recommended by the folks over at Hum of the City — see their review here.  Of course, my number one trailer bike choice would have to be made in Germany and not widely available in the U.S.  Rumor has is that we could order one through J.C. Lind Bike Co. in Chicago, though this would easily be the most expensive option (with import shipping, probably around $500), and the one we are least likely to find used.
  • Something by Burley, either the Piccolo (pricier, but has gears and the option of converting to a stand-alone kid’s bike) or the more basic Kazoo.
  • The Weehoo iGo PRO: this seems like a cool concept, and the product gets great reviews.  If I found a great price on a used Weehoo, I might go for it.  In general, the Weehoo would be particularly good if you were concerned about your kid falling asleep or otherwise not staying on the bike.  Otherwise, I think I’d opt for one that gives more of a true riding a bike experience.

Given that this is something we’ll probably only use for few years, I doubt we’ll spring for the Roland, which means we’ll likely end up with one of the Burley options.  For a comparison of even more trailer bike options, see this guide over at Two Wheeling Tots.

Tandems
As far as I know, there are exactly two bikes that would fit the bill here.  I first became aware of the tandem option when I read about the Circe Helios on the Less Car More Go Facebook group.  The appeal is that either Matthew or I could ride as captain with Gabriel as stoker, OR Matthew and I could ride this bike together (if I can get over my control issues and deal with being stoker 😉 ).

Circe Cycles is based in the U.K., and they have exactly one U.S. dealer, located on the East coast.  On the low side, once we paid for shipping and such, I think we’d spend at least $2000 on this bike.  Given that we just recently made a big ol’ bike purchase (Big Blue), I’m not really sure this is in the cards.

Recently, a friend pointed out his Bike Friday tandem, which he’s been riding with his preschool-age grandson.  Bike Friday offers three models of their tandem (including a folding option).  The Family Tandem is the most basic, and it starts at $1300.  Quite a bargain for a tandem, but still an investment.

Both the Circe and the Bike Friday tandem use 20″ wheels, which makes for low step-over height, and they both claim to fit a relatively wide range of rider heights.  The suggested rider heights for the Circe Helios are 4′ 10″ to 6′ 5″ for the captain, and 3′ 6″ to 6′ 2″ for the stoker (though elsewhere on the website they mention 6′ as the max ideal stoker height).  I don’t have the exact numbers for the Bike Friday, but they are similar.

I’m not sure how a tandem would work for our everyday riding.  If we used a tandem to take Gabriel to school, then after Matthew or I dropped him off, we’d be riding around with an empty stoker seat.  I’m not sure how the bike would handle in this set-up.

At this point, it’s unlikely that we’d be able to ride either of the tandems before purchasing, which is a big downside (though it worked out okay with Big Blue).  I question whether Matthew and I, both on the tall side, would truly be comfortable on either of these bikes together, so being able to test drive would be really nice.

Next steps for us
I like the idea of the tandem, but I’m not sure I can justify the purchase.  Given both the versatility, lower cost, and greater availability of the trailer bikes, I imagine we’ll go that route.  I plan to keep an eye on Craigslist in the coming months (wish there were a way to set up an auto-alert!).

 

 

 

Stolen bicycle saga

Earlier this month, as my bike hunt dragged on, I followed up on a Craigslist post for a Salsa Vaya 2.  The Vaya 2 offers a bit of a component upgrade compared to the Salsa Vaya 3 that is on my bicycle short list, but that comes at a price that is more than I want to spend.  (It also comes with a color scheme that I prefer, which would be the main attraction for me.)

Anyhow, the opportunity to get a lightly used, 2014 Vaya 2 (with the beautiful baby blue frame) at a Vaya 3 price sounded pretty good.  The CL ad was a bit odd, referring to the bike as a “professional racing bike,” and making no mention of frame size, which is pretty important.

I called the number in the ad to ask about the frame size.  Talking to the seller, who had no earthly idea about the frame size (he kept repeating the wheel size), or really about bikes in general, it quickly became clear that something was fishy.  I told him that there should be a sticker on the frame with a number on it, something from 50cm to 60cm (not the 26-inch number he was giving).

At that point, it came out that the CL seller didn’t actually have the bike in his possession.  Instead, it was on layaway at a pawn shop, and he was going to buy it if he had a serious offer.  (At that point, he also offered to drop his CL asking price by $300, meaning I could have had a $2k bike for $1200.)

Um, yeah.  The odds that this wasn’t a stolen bike were slim to none, you know, the 0.000001% range.  I immediately shared a link to the ad on Bikelife STL, a local Facebook group, asking if anyone there belonged to the bike in question.  (On the off chance that this was, somehow, a legitimate sale and not a hot bike, this was a bit of a risk, since it meant that someone else could buy the bike out from under me, but I knew how upset I would be if my bike were stolen, so my primary concern was tracking down the rightful owner.)

One of the photos in the CL post clearly showed a “Big Shark” sticker on the frame, so I also contacted Big Shark, asking if anyone had bought this bike and reported it as stolen.  I didn’t have a serial number (or a correct frame size), but one of the store managers did some work, looking back at their 2014 sales records and contacting everyone who had purchased a Salsa Vaya 2.  He narrowed the list based on the accessories that were still on the bike.  Within a day, he received a return call from the rightful owner of the CL bike.

Unfortunately, I’m not really sure how it played out after that.  Theoretically, the owner, with the help of the police, got the name of the pawn shop and recovered his bike, but I never received any follow-up communication.  I going to hope (and assume) that the story had a happy ending.

On a related note, I saw this post today on better (and worse) ways to lock a bike to prevent theft.  With the right tools and enough time, almost any bike can be stolen, so your goal is to make it so that your bike isn’t an easy target (and then hope for the best).  If you’re using a standard U-lock, you may want to swap for a mini U-lock which is harder to force open.  Also, always record the serial number of your bike, to help with tracking in case of theft.