Sleepy Time

If you took my advice yesterday, then you should be following Declan's example below, today.

And yes, it is true, Declan can sleep through a parade.  Or a Bike Party.

Coffee Break

It is getting kinda serious out there, folks. Time for a coffee break.

Make sure you take your own seating. Happy Friday!

Setting Priorities

Kids who grow up on bicycles just grow up differently.

Hey! Don't judge! The kid is smart enough to know that the beer is way better to cuddle than some silly bear.

Happy Wednesday! Have a beer!

Weird Science

I love my cargo bike.

The usual weekend bicycle combo in the house is me on the Bat and James on La Baillena.

Like all things we love, La Baillena has some quirks. One of these quirks is very strange. Perhaps someone out there can enlighten me as to its origin.

My cargo bike, at times, generates enough static electricity that it shocks me! If the conditions are right (and I am not completely sure of what all those conditions are) I get shocked through both hands and my inner thigh where it contacts the saddle (if I am wearing something short enough to allow any skin to touch it). The shock is enough to cause a lot of pain and for me to reflexively let go of the handlebars. It always happens when I ride down a particular hill and is worse if I have a significant load, so I know the brakes have something to do with it.

This picture was taken just before the first time it happened. I tried to explain it to James, but he wasn't sure of what I meant. That is until it happened to him the other day. He came home from a quick trip to the market and told me he now knew exactly what I meant. That's when we came up with the possibility that it is static electricity that is the problem.

Has anyone out there ever experienced this? If so, what did you do about it?

Bike My Beer

You go for a ride, you have a beer. While this may not be true for you, it is for the 98 out of a hundred other people that rode around you. In the past, if you were one of those 98 people in Portland, you would have to ride your bike to a place with beer to make this inevitable combination of events happen. Not anymore!

Welcome Beer Bike 2.0 by Metrofiets! After the amazing response they got to their first beer bike for Hopworks, the boys decided that maybe it was time they had their own! Two kegs, two taps, fully self contained, with music system on board.

The best thing about it? You can rent it and make your party soooo much bikier! Delivered to you (as long as you are within peddling distance of it in the first place), picked up and cleaned so that all you have to do is plug in your keg of choice.

Throw a little hors d'ouvres spread on the top, get your bike gang to swing by your place and it is on!

all photos courtesy of Metrofiets

And should the need arise, you could have a little kid transport added to the mix.

Freakin' Yuppies

Yep. He is riding in a cargo bike playing on an iPad.

The best part- two women in a minivan pulled up next to us with three kids in the back seat. When she saw Declan playing on the computer, she conceded defeat.

Waste Disposal

We had a few used tires to get rid of.

Happy to say, they are now gone. Good thing to, because old tires smell like cat pee.

I Kick Back On The Weekends

I let the boys take the cargo on the weekends.

That is what husbands and teenaged sons are for. An enlightened, 21st century view, I know.

Tweed Street

A street with a bicycle is a well tailored street, indeed!

The weekend is upon us. Count your blessings and ride your bicycles.

Day 2 With The Whale

Holy cow! What a day! I thought it would be a quiet ride out to West Portal to get some coffee and a little sunshine (we are having what seems to be an annual false Spring this week). Boy, was I wrong! I have never been yelled at so much while riding a bicycle in my life! Thankfully, it was all super positive! Because lane splitting at lights is almost impossible with the Whale I end up waiting in line with the cars. Every time, at least one driver opens a window and starts firing questions at me. People yell as they pass- Hey! What are you riding?!!! It was a little overwhelming. Not unpleasant but a bit like entering a room full of people you haven't seen since losing 100 pounds.

After coffee and errands I went and picked up Declan and his friend from school. The boys acted like they were on a carnival ride! It was funny listening to them. This is a picture of them pointing at the people driving by who were pointing at us.

So I guess now that I can take pandas with or without a full load on the front I am going to have to get used to answering a whole lot of questions. I wonder how long that will last?

"That's A Big Bike!"

I make no secret of not liking to ride light weight sport bicycles. I am enormously uncomfortable on twitchy, skinny tired, racy bicycles. The bigger the better for me. A huge, heavy monster of a bicycle is right up my alley.

Back in September, I got to ride the biggest, heaviest bicycle I have been on yet- the cargo bicycle designed for the 2009 Oregon Manifest show by Metrofiets. While it may have been light weight by the standards of many 7 foot long steel cargo bicycles, it is not a feather weight.

After deliberating about our upcoming transportation needs, James and I decided that if we were going to put this much money into a new cargo bicycle (Cameron has been gifted the xtracycle) that we felt best about giving that money to someone we knew in exchange for something one of a kind, a rolling work of art.

So with the addition of a wooden box (also handmade and removable so we can use the basic platform should we chose) this gorgeous machine is now ours!

Because I am too busy just enjoying our new ride, I have not come up with anything technical about my land based cruise ship. There are some lovely details I want to photograph that all of you bike geeks out there will drool over. In the mean time, I have a couple pictures of my first San Francisco day with my movable conversation piece.

Because I am fascinated by the front of my bike being four feet ahead of me I tend to notice the space right in front of me more than usual. Of course this also because I have to remember not to bump things with my front wheel. I think that the world would be a very different place if people noticed things like this more often.

Parking something this big takes a little creativity. Or a nice standard parking space in front of the bakery. The law does not say you have to park a car in a parking space, only that you must pay for it and observe the time limits, so in I went. I love how the guy in the black car waited for me to move as soon as I got in it. There were ten minutes left on the meter and I was feeling a need to use all of them. I usually only do this if there are multiple bicycles that need parking, but this thing is as big as three bikes so it works. Anyway, the space was already being taken over by alternate users.

At many points, people were unable to resist looking at my lovely bicycle. A couple of them nearly crashed while riding by because they were so distracted. Several pulled out the smart phones to take pictures. This guy used his to find info about the bicycle while he walked around it!

There will be more info in the days to come. I am going to have Hubby The Bikeman write up the technical stuff (he is a huge bike geek, so it will make him happy. I just like to ride!). At some point I will get comfortable enough on it to take some pandas.