30 days of biking: April 6th: Family Bike and Sightseeing

Had a long day teaching but didn't need to take a cello. Had to get the kids to school but didn't want to drive. Enter the family bike. It's been pretty cold so I haven't used it but took it out this morning and froze the kids. On the way there, we saw a construction site that was laying a concrete sidewalk. We stayed for a while and the workers liked it.

Then we came upon Ravenna Blvd and discovered the wonders of the RX-700 Asphalt Scraper. That sucker is loud!

Got the kids to school eventually. We were very late. Then rode to Lakeside where I gave notice for next year. I've really enjoyed the forced exercise that riding 20 miles each day to work and back puts into my body, but I'm looking for some other challenges, this time musical.

Total mileage: 20 miles

30 days of biking: April 5th: Riding to work

Two Wheels Good, Three Wheels Bad.

Got rid of this plastic wheeled monstrosity, did a couple of errands which I have not figured out how to do with a bicycle, namely move a daughter, an accordion, and an electric piano at the same time, but then got a good ride up to work and then had a startling and illuminating rehearsal with Jensina in preparation for the concert on the 15th. I need to get back to practicing. I'll perform the 3 Meditations for Cello and Piano at Shoreline Community College on the 15th. It's hard.

Mileage for the day: 21 miles.

30 days of biking: April 4th: First Day to School

The kids have been getting off easy this year because I've taken over the teaching position of a friend who is on maternity leave. Therefore, to save a little bit of time and help Claire get the work done that she needs, I've been driving the kids to and from preschool.

Until now.

I hitched up the tandem to the trailer and offered the second seat to T who politely relegated himself to the trailer with his dear sister. We pulled out and up the ramp and I remarked to myself on the amazing traction of dry concrete, even when riding an unloaded tandem on it. It's a late Burley tandem with OX platinum tubing and I'll be darned if it doesn't feel faster than my Surly single bikes.

I rolled up to preschool and unloaded the kids. We had an extra breakfast and then I rode back home, but first picked up some goodies for the bikes, namely a cable set, some bar tape for the cello bike, and another pump bracket so that all my bikes will elegantly hold a pump.

Did some cleaning, loaded four kids bikes into the van, then drove it up to preschool where I picked up mine plus one more for a playdate. Then to Claire's and then they dropped me off to pick up my bike and cello for work. Rode up to Lakeside, taught some kids to play the cello, rode to my offsite lesson, then home again by 7:30, all in time to figure out my business profit/loss for 2011. I waited perhaps a little to long to do my taxes. But the end is in sight.

Total mileage 32 miles (12 round trip to preschool, 20 round trip to Lakeside). My body feels much better.

30 days of biking: April 3rd, Community Center Tour

Three community centers in one day. No pictures and only biked to one of them, strangely, the hardest one to get to.

I signed up T and A into some community center classes. In the morning, we biked over on the tandem with the trailer to the Magnolia community center for basketball/soccer camp for little kids. Then we drove over to Queen Anne cc for a first swimming lesson. We took the van because we had to pick up Claire from work and the timing was tight. Then I was late and didn't feel very good anyway so I drove up to work for the first time in a month. After teaching, I drove to the Bryant community center to hear Sally Bagshaw give a great demonstration on the new Neighborhood Greenways plan, a horribly flawed plan that I hope works great and better than I fear.

Total mileage 3.5 miles.

30 days of biking: April 2nd

You may not see them all, but there are four kids in that trailer, each weighing about 40lbs. We are mountain biking in Woodland park and I'm pulling them on my randonneuse. We made it. We also went to the zoo, thus the trailer is pretty handy despite the nice weather. We then got ice cream, coasted down the hill to see the troll,

and then out to South Lake Union park where we looked in vain for the fountains, played with lanyards at the docks, scoped out some old boats, and then rode back home in the late afternoon to make dinner. That's T at the top of the photo. Total mileage: 12 miles.

30 days of biking: April 1st

Woke up super early on a Sunday morning because T had a leg cramp. Realizing that today was the Tour of Flanders, I found a cruddy Flemish livestream that included sound advertisements before I found a better French one that featured Thor Hushovd speaking beautiful French to a journalist. I love it when my sports heros are multi-lingual. Tyler Farrar also speaks good french and it really does me proud.

30 Days of Biking is a kind of a gimmick but it's a gimmick that I can live with because it fits pretty much exactly into what I do every day. Well, except for today. I was down in Tacoma for the weekend, had not brought any bikes, but had the bike I gifted to my father in law. The only problem: loose headset. The star nut had dropped down the bottom of the steer tube and it couldn't figure out how to jam things up nicely.

Well the kids needed to get out, they had bikes, and I figured I would just hit up a local shop. Local in Lakewood means Bike Tech but on Sundays it means Performance. Yes, that Performance, by the freeway interchange, 5 miles away. We got in the van, clicked everybody in, and drove down to get the repair done.

Luckily, the shop in question is right next to a pedestrian bridge that I've always wanted to go over. This pedestrian bridge connects an elementary school, which due to it's location, features an ambient decibel reading of 83db. Loud! And the roads weren't even wet. This bridge covers 12 car lanes in 4 highway segments and takes a couple of minutes to cross. Cars sure do make cities ugly.

We played in the playground and found Easter paraphernalia (early!) that the kids put in their baskets. Then we rode back to Performance where I tipped the guy who took my bike on such short notice. The workers there were astounded by this bike: 24 inch Mongoose rigid 26er. Rear rack, fenders with mudflap, 1by7 drivetrain with ancient gripshifter, European city tires, 42 tooth front road crank off a track bike with a 13-30 7 speed in the back. Best of all, it's bomb canned John Deere green with legit stickers. I spare no expense on my bikes and on my gifts.

After getting this crazy bike out from the clutches of Performance, who were excellent by the way, we drove to a skate park in South Tacoma off 56th. It is here that A discovered the joys of gravity. T is in the distance. There are few things as fun as riding down a ramp and up another in a seamless roller coaster.

Biking distance today was approximately 200 yards, give or take.

Biking With Brad Meets Family Ride

Every once in a while, you meet your cycling mirror image, or that is, every once in a while, you meet a cool biker mom who does all the coolest things you like to do. Well Madi Carlson is all of those things plus the December 2011 Cascade Cyclist of the Month (there should be a calendar, amirite?). And in this case, I'm just delighted that she and her boys like to play with me and mine.

Friday, We went out in the windy December weather to find fun for the kids before they get wrapped up in school and work and the drudgery that will accompany them for the rest of their natural-born lives. University of Washington is a giant beautiful ghost town during the breaks and it was looking like rain so a Tour du Structures de Stationnement (Tour of Parking Garages) seemed in the offing.

Before we get to the story line, I must say that Madi's bike is dazzling. She took the time to get the frame, fork, racks, and fenders painted to the same dye lot. She also has it decked out like we would all like to have. Where I have a Wald Paperboy rack for $45, she has a matching European front basket. Where I content myself with moderately functional Sturmey drum front hub scavenged from an earlier, dead-end cruiser build, she has a matching black Shimano dyno with disc brakes. Where I have brake levers scrounged out of a parts bin coming from an old Raleigh city bike, hers ergonomically fit and are machined to high tolerances, giving sure braking feel. Elegant is what she's got in spades. Just look at that jacket! Don't ever let people tell out that cycling is anti-materialist. We sure are, but we have our own aesthetic cues and trust me, I am fully outclassed.

We met up on the Burke and we instantly recognized each other from past playdates and a general Je

ne sais quoi that has to do with neither of us wearing day glo yellow or green nor clippy shoes. We both seem to ride every wheel turn with our lights on. You never can be too careful, well except that our kids ride in traffic with us, but seriously, do you ever have fun driving your kids around? We I sure have a fun time riding with my kids so maybe there's a secret in there somewhere.

We then rode over to UW and into the parking garage under Red Square. This garage featured ramps that the kids could ride up as well as down and very few cars for the kids to have to dodge. It was also warmer than the outside air and we had a great time with it. We cruised around campus, visited the geology department to see cool rocks, rode on the top of Red Square and intimidated a BMX'er with our mad handling skilz and then ventured down through the Medical Center parking garage and on to Pizza at Furhman and Eastlake (excellent pizza, by the way). Next, we moved onto the Colonnade under I-5. Thorvald has grown into the 20 inch bike world and was in need of some gearing to make the hills around here somewhat bearable so St. Nicholas, in the form of a biking enthusiast named Brad, gave him a 2011 Scott Voltage 20 for Christmas. That same philanthropic dad, wanted him to have a good time on it so, well, we just had to try some gnarly drops with it and Thorvald is clearly up to the task. He even rode the rubber bridge and and took the long downhill with aplomb.

Both kids rode up and down and I can now appreciate how useful balance bikes are for any junior mountain biker at least up through 5 years old. Kids love being able to put both feet down and can ride even the most difficult obstacles on balance bikes that were impossible on the larger, more purpose driven mountain bike. Still, Thorvald loves to ride both and Astrid (foreground) is oh so close to pedaling her own 16 inch bike. We just got her out of diapers and here we are almost to the point where the whole family pedals. I couldn't be prouder.

Much has been made recently by Ms. Family Ride as to a genial competition among Seattle cycling parents to either ride the furthest, heaviest, steepest, or most complicated kid/bike contraption and I rather think that she equates me as the Alpha Dog of said city/interest group. I would say no, there will always be one greater.

I don't dismiss a little envy here or there, but I have to say that I have a wonderful time with like minded and frankly first rate minded people. But there are limits:

Upon showing this photo to the boys at Surly Bicycles, they retorted "Brad, Never show that picture to our lawyers. Seriously, though, awesome." It should be noted that my kid is the one going ballistic in that photo.

So when you see Ms. Family Ride out there, buy her a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and by all means, take a photo of her bike. It's the prettiest one you will ever see.