Relevant History

So far so good

The kids and I took the tandem-trailer combo to school this morning. They had a good time, and it felt like a pretty safe, stable ride.

The main reason I've got to do this, rather than let them go on their own bikes, is that we have to go for about half a mile on a pretty busy two-lane street. It's got a decent bike lane, but there are a number of delivery vehicles that use it in the mornings (FedEx and the Post Office both have distribution points nearby), and it's also used by people driving to or from work.

I managed to get my old panniers on the trail-a-bike's rear rack (something I was a bit skeptical of), and stuffed lunches in them.

I hadn't quite noticed how many parents bike to school: there must have been half a dozen bike-and-trailer/Burley combinations around the nursery-1st grade side of campus. I suspect my daughter, whose going into the second grade and therefore is on the other side of campus with the big kids, would find it embarrassing to bike to school on the trail-a-bike. But a tandem, that's okay.

So, my hope is that we can do this whenever it's not raining. It'll be good for everyone concerned.

[To the tune of Led Zeppelin, "Since I've Been Loving You," from the album "Led Zeppelin Box Sex" (disc 2).]

Technorati Tags: bicycles, children, menlo park, Peninsula School

My midlife crisis vehicle

This afternoon, I picked up the trail-a-bike from the shop-- it now sports a cool rear rack, on which I'm going to try to fit my 15 year-old panniers, so the kids can still take their lunches to school-- and hooked it up to the tandem. I then rounded up the kids, and we went for a two-mile ride.

My son is on the left, my daughter's in the middle, and I'm on the right.

Basically, this thing is the size of a truck (at one point I was reminded of the opening scene in Star Wars, with the Imperial battle cruiser that FILLED the screen as it pursued Princess Leia's craft), and it handles like one too. A truck you have to push. The kids are more enthusiastic than useful contributors to the energy system of the bike. But they do a good job of staying on.

It makes my regular mountain bike seem positively diminutive.

It's curious that there's not a bigger, more varied market in bike designs. Essentially, if you want to commute with your kids, and aren't in a place where they can ride safely on their own bikes, your options are very limited: while I'm enthusiastic about the tandem/trail-a-bike combination, it is big, and not very generous in the storage department. Why aren't there, say, more sidecars for bicycles? So far as I can tell, there's only on Canadian company that makes one for children that's available in the U.S. Or other kinds of multiperson bikes?

Maybe it's just an indicator of how unimportant bicycles are to the everyday life of most Americans. In other parts of the world, of course, bike designs are far more varied: people use them like trucks, have virtual stores attached to them, or commute to work in large numbers. Denmark, a nation roughly the size of San Jose, has a huge number of high-quality commuter bike manufacturers, because huge numbers of people have city commutes, and cars are insanely expensive. Maybe we'll catch up. In the meantime, I've got my own ride.

Technorati Tags: bicycles, menlo park