Saskatoon Kidical Mass - May 2011

Just a few pics from the first Kidical Mass ride of the year...





Getting ready to go - Amanda thought she'd try out the Dahon Mu Uno that she won when she bought me a lifetime subscription to Momentum Magazine


On our way. That bikes getting mighty small for Finnegan (we got a new one on the way!) but he rode it all the way too the ride, through the ride, and back home... Quite the trooper!


Lots of kids, lots of bikes.


People still arriving...


Getting ready to go...


The crowd marshals


...and everybody gets going


quite a bunch...


I'd say it was the biggest ride yet.


Keira riding with her pal Sophie.


Because Keira did the ride on her runner bike - we were pretty much dropped and the others rode on ahead without us... so I didn'e ge ttoo many more pictures of the ride... ah well...


Caught up to everyone at the park.




Threw the runner back in the yuba bag, and the girl on the back deck for the ride home. It'd been a tiring day.

On our way home we stopped at the Bike Doctor to order Finnegan a new bike - more on that shortly! (hopefully!?)

Getting Around

Everyone decided to ride their own bikes to violin lessons today...


Keira's still on a runner bike, but not for long, I suspect. Dang can she go FAST on that thing... when she wants to! It was a little cool and threatening rain when we headed out.


And tuck her legs up to coast down most declines... The river level is super high right now! standing waves and swirling eddies.


Luckily most of our routes consist of quiet backstreets and multi-use trails.


On our way home we had a lucky chance encounter!


Bryn was out test driving his new DIY long front-loading, cargo bike.


Looks pretty damn sweet!


did our usual stop at Steep Hill for groceries.


Then back down the bridge and home for lunch!

Banana Bunch Rides the Orangemobile

a rainy day on our all-weather, go-anywhere, self-propelled fun-machine!

Amanda's Big Yuba Adventure

While I've been hauling the kids around on the Yuba for about a year now (Including all through this past winter!), Amanda's not really tried it - preferring to haul them on the train. We've been having "issues" with the chariot of late, however, and so this morning she decided to roll out to dance and swim lessons on the great orange beastie....


Out the gate...


Loading up...


If it looks like no one is smiling, it's because they weren't. The kids were being their usual unhelpful selves getting out the door (and thus they were leaving late... as always...). Amanda's just back from a whirlwind work trip to Toronto and still fighting off a nasty cough/cold and was a bit nervous about hauling the kids on the beastie (especially up the bridge). Finally, just as they were just about to head out the door Amanda caught Keira scribbling on the piano with a pen...


Uh oh... I think I see someone cracking a smile...


Less than 100m down the road and everyone's smiling again. How can you not!? It's just so damn fun to ride together!

Spring-Like

Finally some spring-like weather! Above freezing, melting, slushy-muddy streets, shorts, it’s all good. Kids are wearing less layers which gets us out the door quicker and makes everyone happy. Soon I'll be taking the studded tires off and rolling a little more smoothly.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Amanda heading off to work Monday morning. It was still a tad chilly Monday... But she was still probably overdoing it with that balaclava.


More Geese.

Heralds of Spring

Despite my previous announcement of the arrival of spring, we were within days treated to another dump of snow, followed by another week of -20°C weather. It has yet to rise above 0°C this week... They say Tuesday...

Anyway, last Wednesday, in the midst of all the returned snow and cold we headed out to the Library and as we toddled through snowdrifts along the riverbank pathway we spotted a pair of Canada Geese!


Unfortunately they both took off as I stopped to get out my camera...

With the warm weather approaching (or so they say...) I've been starting to think a lot about what to do for kids bikes... There's so few companies that actually make decent bikes for small children. Everything looks like the bastard offspring of a bmx and a mountain bike. Knobby tires, built like a tank and almost as heavy as MY own bikes... Also anything with wheels smaller than 20" seem to be built for use with training wheels. If you put the seat up to a reasonable height for a bit of leg extension there's no way the rider would be able to touch the ground with their feet. Lower the seat so they can touch the ground and they're picking their nose with their kneecaps!?

I've been checking out the Batavus catalogue as I know a year or so ago they had a kids version of their personal bike - complete with rack, fenders, light, and I think a three speed hub!? But when I click on kids bikes I get the following message: "De door u opgevraagde pagina kan niet worden gevonden" I'm guessing they are updating their website with he new years stuff... though it's been like that for a while. I've also been looking in on Fourth Floor Distribution (the Canadian/US distributor of Batavus - and a lot of other neat stuff...). They still have last years catalogue up and it doesn't look like they has any kids bikes last year...

sigh...

I may just have to settle for one of those tanks and find some smoother tires...

Spring Has Sprung

From deep cold and blizzards to instant melt in a week... Not complaining. So nice to go out with the kids and not have to bundle them up like they're heading out to explore the moon.

With the return of warmer weather we will soon see a return of bike lanes (as through the winter they are either a dumping ground for snow ploughed from the road) or the road is so obscured by packed snow and gravel that people just forget they were ever there and use the extra metre of road space as "breathing room". With the return of bike lanes comes a Saskatoon spring/summer tradition I could do without: parking in the bike lanes.


This is actually a CBC van (you can see the camera man on the sidewalk). He was thoughtful enough to roll two wheels up onto the promenade so as to ONLY cover teh bike lane and not block any "real" traffic.

To be fair, he was probably assuming that since half the bike lane is submerged in murky brown water and the rest is filled with detritus from months of ploughing snow and gravel and rubbish off the road (into the bike lane) that no sensible cyclist would actually want to USE the bike lane....

Fear naught - they will be cleared of said detritus by June - just in time for them to be used as parking for all the summer festivals in the park...