Telling yourself that you’ll drive less and bike more is the easy part.
It often involves taking the time to:
- Load the kids into the trailer
- Hook it up to the bike
- Secure the cargo-carrying device (mine is a milkcrate zip-tied to my luggage rack)
- And then the actual work begins…
On a cruise across town and back (17 miles or so and more than a few hills) just to see if I could make it I realized that even with my new street tires, I was still riding a mountain bike. My hands tingled, my back ached, my neck strained to see ahead (and to check the kids nodding uncomfortably back there) and I wasn’t really comfortable.
Turns out there might be a better way. I have yet to actually try one, but these “cruisers” look pretty comfortable. I call them cruisers, apparantly the trendy name is “City Bike.” NPR‘s Bryant Park Project even speaks highly about city bikes.
OMG.
I’ve lived in Holland for 7 years. While the bike in the picture has the same form as the bikes here, they don’t look authentic. Please modify bike in the following ways:
* Remove breaks – at most only reverse pedal breaks should be installed
* Gears?!?!?!? Bwahahahahahahahaha. No.
* Generator on front wheel for front and rear lights (it’s the law here)
* Child seat on handlebar, single/double child seat behind the saddle
* saddlebags over the rear wheel for groceries
* at LEAST two locks
* lots and lots of rustNow you have what we call a “grandma bike” or “hallelujah bike” or in certain circles a “dutch SUV.”
And you know if it’s on NPR it’s either leftist propaganda or about to be mainstream.
I’ve looked around the ‘net and found a couple I’d like to try.
Of course, these are hand-built in Amsterdam and only ships to bicycle dealers and the top one is still in “limited production.” I’ll add them to the wish-list. Maybe I’ll get these as demo models for my dream store.
