Whole Health Dietitian — Tastefully Fueling Active Transportation
Wish it were Saturday . . .
Or Sunday . . .
. . . but the mania is mostly of my own making. I took the day off to “relax,” which quickly turned into a long to-do list, which mostly involves wrangling fresh produce. There were also some adventures with grilling — in the end, I prevailed, though it made the day much crazier than planned. Off to deal with a HUGE zucchini.
So, in the midst of a final cleaning of the old apartment, unpacking and settling into the new place (we already have pictures on the walls!), and comforting a sick, teething baby, I took my iBert-outfitted bicycle on its maiden voyage with Sir.
He wore his new helmet without much complaint and smiled as he sat in front of me, holding the handle bar and intermittently ringing the bike bell. The bike handled fairly normally, and I adjusted to any differences in weight distribution and balance without processing it.
It is ironic that I found the seat just before, and used it for the first time just after, we moved to a place with a garage, since one of my major complaints with the trailer was having to lug it up and down the basement stairs. However, the garage is still a good thing because the mounting bar for the iBert attaches right where I usually held my bike for carrying it up and down the stairs, so not having to deal with basement bicycle storage is still a big plus.
Sir seemed much happier in the iBert than he did in our most recent trailer rides, and I imagine I was grinning like a fool as we cruised around our new neighborhood. We just rode, and it felt right — simple, easy, and fun.
We incorporated a little errand into one of our trips, and I looked forward to more trips by bicycle with my little copilot.
On Friday night, I hauled out the bike trailer for our trip to Food Truck Friday (FTF) in Tower Grove Park (since we’re not quite ready to use our new front seat).
Getting there
Mid-way through our ride to the park, Sir was so ridiculously and awkwardly slumped in the trailer that I pulled over to straighten him out. By the time we arrived, he had resumed the awkward position.
I suspect that my modification to the baby supporter, which I thought so clever, and which is necessary to fit the harness over Sir’s head without a struggle, may be contributing to the slumping. Argh, I am so over the trailer!
The food
We’ve been wanting to try the Korean barbeque tacos from Seoul Taco ever since they sold out before we could get them at FTF in October. Unfortunately the line was ridiculously long, so I headed to Lulu’s Local Eatery, which was also high on my list.
Having experienced the long lines and food selling out issue at a past FTF, I went all-out at Lulu’s, ordering the sweet potato falafel, quinoa bowl, and sweet potato fries (I was bummed that they weren’t serving the soba noodle bowl that night). Matthew and I enjoyed the food, but Sir was too distracted by his first picnic meal to eat much (we paid for this later, when he was up and crying for over an hour in the middle of the night).
Go by bike
I noticed a dad with a little one in an iBert — but it was as we were getting ready to leave and returning from the Recycling On the Go recycling and composting station, that I spotted something even more exciting — a Yuba Mundo!
After I wiped the drool off of my chin, I chatted briefly with the family and asked if we might be able to meet up sometime to take it for a test ride. They raved about the bike and were happy to give me their phone number so we might be able to take it for a spin sometime (assuming I didn’t already lose the number).
As we left, we couldn’t help but notice the crazy number of cars cramming the lanes of the park. To make matters worse, it appears that a car company is somehow sponsoring the event, as we biked by a big, ugly Chevrolet banner. I think the company reps were handing out “keys” that served as coupons. Ugh. Can you say sell-out?
I propose that Food Truck Fridays be a car-free event. Given the lengthy lines and food sell-out issues, FTF would really benefit from a slightly smaller crowd. There should be enough attendees within biking and walking distance to sustain the event.
Barring that possibility, anyone who walks or bikes to the event should get a “skip to the front of the line” pass. Until then, we’ll pack our own picnic dinners and eat in the park on lower-key nights.
A week ago, I typed “iBert” into the search box on Craigslist, along with a few other front bicycle seat names, not really expecting to find anything. Imagine my surprise when I found a recently listed iBert seat — for five dollars!
Cautiously excited (since there was no picture with the posting), I contacted the owner with a few questions. She confirmed that it was in good shape and said she would just give it to me, so we set up a time to meet. Wednesday night, Sir and I arrived home the proud owners of a lime green front bike seat!
The only hold up to using it? We still need to get him a helmet. I bought a basic toddler helmet at Target a few weeks ago, but with a starting head circumference of around 19 inches, it was still slightly too big.
There are toddler helmets that have a range that includes head circumferences down to 18 or so inches — we just need to get one. We should have that resolved this week, but not using our new toy over the weekend was hard.
I installed the seat on Sunday afternoon and practiced getting Gabriel in and out. I resisted the temptation to go for a spin around the block.
Initial verdict — he likes it much better than the trailer! I showed him the bike bell, thinking it would take him awhile to catch on and figure it out for himself. Not so much . . . .
Come back next week for the iBert test ride report.
Last week, I shared some green baby strategies, one of which was, “Wait on it.” While I’ve done a good job on that in general, there are a few things that I wish I had waited on, one of those being the bicycle trailer.
Despite the fact that we’ve had it for over eight months now, I can still count our “biking with baby” trips using my my hands. I need both hands, not just one, but still.
Sure, there have been mitigating factors: waiting until Sir was a bit older and had decent head/neck control, ordering the baby supporter accessory, winter weather, carrying the trailer in and out of the basement because we have no garage . . . but enough with the excuses! An average use of once a month at most? Not good!
Given that we found a high quality, good condition, used trailer for a reasonable price, I’m not sure it was a bad purchase, at this point it just does not seem like a good purchase, either.
Ever since I saw this post on the Momentum magazine blog, I’ve been thinking about options that don’t involve a trailer. A longtail bicycle, like the Yuba Mondo featured in that post (and here, as well), seems like a great option.
In my excitement, I dug a little deeper into the world of longtails, and found some reviews and comparisons of various bikes including the Yuba Mondo, Surly Big Dummy, and the XtraCycle Radish.* Based on our initial research, we lean toward the Yuba for it’s combination of features that meet our needs and being a good value.
A couple weeks after my longtail excitement, I read S’s post on front-mounted seats on Simply Bike. While I like the idea of a longtail, I’m less excited about the price tag — far more affordable than a car up front and down the road, but still overwhelming to my frugal sensibilities.
With a front-mounted seat, you don’t sacrifice the cargo room on the rear rack as you would with a rear-mounted seat, and you don’t have to deal with the weight and bulk of a longtail (especially a factor in our case, with carrying it up and down stairs).
Also, your little one is right up front, experiencing the ride with you, which appeals to me. While Sir does not seem to mind riding in the trailer, he doesn’t seem particularly excited about it either, and I can’t really blame him.
When thinking about biking with baby options, front-mount seats were not even on my radar, but based on the post I mentioned above, the main contenders are the Yepp Mini, the iBert, and the Bobike Mini.**
Immediately after reading about front-mount seats, I saw an iBert on Craigslist. For better or worse, I didn’t feel ready to grab it up without more research on the various options, including which seat styles work with which bicycles, and that seat is now gone.
For now, we’ll continue using the trailer, if less often than I would like. And I’ll be dreaming about front-mount seats and longtails.
*For more info, check out these resources:
Heavyweight Showdown: Big Dummy vs Yuba Mundo
Cargo Bikes in Momemtum Magazine
Beautiful Bicycles: Yuba Monda Cargo Bike
The Best Cargo Carrying Bikes Of 2012: A Review
**See comments to S’s post for feedback on front-mount seats:
Front mounted bike seat for a child: what are your favorite options?
Her Green Life