Shawn and April

(catching up on a little blogging...)

A couple weeks ago we played host to a couple bicycle travelers from Portland; Shawn and April - who are making a rather circuitous route across North America. I knew Shawn from waaaaay back in the comix/zine trading days in the 1990s. It was super fun to put a face and voice to the creator of all those Ten Foot Rule comix.


You can follow their respective bike tour journals at Urban Adventure League and April Likes Bikes!.

The day after they left we were off on our own little family bike tour - nothing so grand as Shawn and April's shenanigans, but it's a start! More on that in a moment...

August Kidical Mass

Summer. Did yours make that disturbing WHOOOOSHing noise as it flew past...? Mine has...

Here we are at the August (Saskatoon) Kidical Mass ride - next week school kids are back to school, and we're back to... well... whatever it is that we do...

Here's some pics from the ride.

(Click on the pics to see a bigger version!)


Aaron marshals the riders


Alot of kids gearing to go! Isn't it awesome!


City councillor Charlie Clark and "the other Yuba rider" - Laura (and young Ella!)




Mike and Stella (who is, I think 3 years old and riding a pedal bike for the first time at a Kidical Mass - way to go Stella!!)






Bryn (and Oliver) and his (their) homemade longhaul cargo bike! Woot!








After the ride we picked up some groceries then headed downtown to the library to drop off some (overdue) books. The we hit Unreal City to see what books had been added to the $5 graphic novel sale!?

Amanda missed this ride as she was on an airplane back from Montreal - hopefully she'll have a post up on her blog about her pedalling adventures there, shortly!

I should have a post or two up this weekend (or next..) about some of our pedalling adventures this summer (I gotta do these right after the event or I just never get to it...) a family bike trip to Pike Lake... some bike tourist visitors... maybe some pics from the other kidical mass rides... stay tuned!

Finnegan's New Ride

Woot! Woot!

We were out for a playdate in the park this morning and afterwards head over to Broadway to pickup some groceries... but before we did we nipped into the bike doc to see if there was any word on Finnegan's new ride...


As it turned out - when we walked in we were informed they had just phoned and left a message to say it was in and assembled.

With a few minor tweaks we were ready to roll!


handbreaks were a bit new - took some getting used to...


It took some time to find something that would work for us - there's not a lot of great bikes out there for kids. It's encouraging that there's a number of companies now making runner bikes - for kids to learn balance just gliding a long. But when they get to big for that... there isn't really much for them to graduate to. Almost all 12" and 16"wheel bikes (or at least ALL the ones I came across) are designed to be used with training wheels. Because of this the bottom brackets are crazy high (kids don't need to put their feet down because the training wheels are holding them upright, right?) so if you crank a seat down low enough for the rider to actually tough the ground with their feet - they get no leg extension at all when pumping hte pedals and look rather like they're trying to pick their noses with their kneecaps!?


Once you get to 20" wheels it seems the choices are - for the most part - BMX or Miniature Mountain bikes... all build like brick sh!thouses to take the severe kid of punishment that kids deal out hucking them off whatever they can find.... But what if you don't want to huck a bike around at the skate park or shred up the local trails...? What if you actually want to GO places... and go places... well... farther than the average person might imagine kids could...


When I was Finnegan's age "Ten Speeds" were all the rage and when I was 8 my folks bought me a "five speed" - a scaled down road bike with skinny (relativly) smooth tires... Where are those now!?


Anyway... I could rant all day... What we found was a 20" Townie. It's pretty sweet. Full leg extension AND can touch the ground. Gears for going up those hills (and bridges!) and it isn't a total tank!!

Finnegan liked the look of the green frame and the fact that you could more easily step trhough it than the all black "boys" version.

We probably will swap out the tires and seat on this one... and will some how need to rig up some method of carrying stuff (custom rack, perhaps...?)


Home safe and sound...

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!