The Rain Can't Stop the New Bike Lanes

We went to the Bike the 25th Ward ride.

It was gray and drizzling a little today as we headed out. There was a good turnout nonetheless and the Mexican hot cocoa and fruit at the meeting point provided everyone a nice warm jolt of energy. The T-shirts were a nice bright yellow this year. Everyone signed up for bike info with Active Transportation and other groups. Raúl from Working Bikes brought his pedal powered record player for fun, though it played "Purple Rain." 

The ride was fun. We zipped through Pilsen up Blue Island and Racine to Taylor, across and down to Chinatown via the bridge on 18th. Many people chose to skip the wet, slippery gratings (there are no plates on the bridge) and went for the sidewalk, including several of the important folks. It's safer to be safe. We returned to Harrison Park via Cermak and through smaller streets in Pilsen. Our kids enjoyed zipping forward to the police car in front and back to us but one of them got upset on the slippery bridge and bailed out into our cargo bike sag wagon. Many thanks to the other riders who were incredibly kind to our middle guy furiously pedaling along at the end of the pack.

Come Bike the 25th Ward with Gabe Klein and Alderman Solis this Sunday! Check out the soon to be Protected Lane on 18th Street.

We live in the 25th Ward and there are some very exciting things coming up in our corner of the city this fall. There will be a new protected lane on 18th Street ( Clinton to Clark). This Sunday Alderman Solis will host a five mile ward ride celebrating this new lane and the culture of the ward itself. The 25th includes Chinatown, Pilsen, Little Village, the University and old Italian neighborhoods along Taylor Street. You don't have to live in the ward to enjoy this ride. Come on over from wherever your neighborhood might be!

We are excited that Alderman Solis has taken such huge steps this year to grow cycling throughout the ward. He has learned so much and the new lane signals this incredible change in our ward.

Rolling Orange

We had the chance recently to visit Rolling Orange Bikes in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, NYC. They have a big, bright space full of De Fietsfabriek, Onderwater, Gazelle, Batavus and Golden Lion bikes, with a few bits and pieces of other things. Kids' bikes, cargo bikes, classic Omafiets, wheelchair and preschool cargo bikes, even a bike garage for your apartment building. They were very friendly and patient with our many questions (and the kids frantically exploring the biggest bikes).  If you are far from Chicago but closer to New York, this shop is worth a look. 

Revised "About Cargobikes" Page

Hi. We just finished revising our cargo bike introduction page. Have a look if you'd like. Send comments if you have anything that needs review or any suggestions. Thanks!

Fall Morning Pannier

We had our windy chill this morning as we rode to school. It was time to bring the windbreakers even though it was so sunny and bright. Our post about dressing for the blustery mix of fall weather from last year says exactly what we like to bring in our panniers on these autumn days. It's very detailed and I'd suggest a look if you seek a solid explanation of what our kids wear at each age, from just not a baby on up, during mixed fall and early winter weather.  It also explains where we get clothing and how we take care of things so they will last. Lastly we touch on the difference between dressing a child who is pedaling -- like on the tandem or on their own bike -- and a child dressed to sit in the wind on the bike.

Today if I had packed right, my pannier would have held a windbreaker for each kid. I would have put each kid in a nice medium weight wool or polyester layer as well, as it got pretty cold in the wind. We actually left with a mix of heavy wool and hooded poly layers over long sleeves on, and a not so perfect mix of extra in the bag. I definitely could have packed more wind breaking layers!

We did not break out the under hats and gorgeous matching neck warmers that Erin made us over at Kozie Prery, but they are coming out this weekend for morning rides. (Peek for pictures of the hats and cowls that I should be able to put up at the end of the weekend, or check out their etsy shop at the link. They were worth every penny!) I will probably be breaking out the light gloves to at least keep in the pannier just in case.

Hope we see you out riding one of these beautiful mornings.

p.s. Check out our interview with Nick Wilson of Rapid Transit on the Chicago Parents Ride On page. I started doing interviews for the page in January and that is when we spoke. It's been a bit of a trick figuring out how to post them but now Blogger is upgraded to do it and we decided to go with audio. Our first talk is a pinch long, but Nick is a very experienced family rider and has lots of interesting things to say. Stay tuned as we get some other families up on the same page.

Many other family bike blogs also talk to other families about riding, which is very exciting and always fun to read! Two to seek out are Mamafiets and Simplybike.

Mayor's Bike Meeting and .... A Total Streets Approach to Creating Better Neighborhood Riding Conditions for Children in Chicago

Parents in Chicago who wish to use bikes as transportation with their independent young riders are thwarted at every turn. Dangerous traffic uneducated about our youngest cyclists, terrible road conditions, lack of infrastructure for bikes, poorly marked and vulnerable bike lanes. All these factors add up to using public transportation or the car instead of a bicycle in most cases when families are often traveling less than two miles to reach school, shopping, parks libraries or museums.

How can we rectify this as a city? I'm sick of telling my sons they can't ride the four miles to school each morning they can easily pedal in no time because it just isn't safe period.

Today Pedestrian Observations published a critique of rails to trails conversion in the U.S. and separated infrastructure overseas. As a huge fan of well designed separated lanes and road calming here in Chicago I was particularly interested in the comment left by a Dutch reader describing how they use a variety of methods to create better cycling opportunities in Holland. I was interested as always in the mix used in other places both in the U.S. and abroad  and it is part of my solution to riding with children here in Chicago. The comment will be published at the bottom of the post so you can read it too.

Here's my prescription for Chicago.
Let's infrastructure "bomb" one or two neighborhoods here in Chicago in the next year to create cycling forward zones. We could target four-five schools, two CPL libraries, shopping and parks to create pathways that reach these key places designed specifically for the 8-80 rider. The infrastructure for cyclists could and should be a mix of traffic calming and separated lanes in a mix of styles. This would not be ward specific but cycling user specific designed to increase ridership to these most used places for families. Studying the families that use other kinds of transportation to get to school as is being done in Mr. Colon's ward could give some of the information needed to begin laying out lanes.

Cargo Cycles Take Over West Town Bikes

The Cargo Bike “Roll Call” was held this evening at West Town Bikes and pretty well attended by cargo bike aficionados and a few others. Nobody called the roll, and Cetma and Bakfiets were absent. It was an opportunity to meet people and ride fun odd bikes including many of West Town’s Alex Wilson’s small wheeled, heavy load carrying custom or rebuilt bikes (many a little like the Kemper Lorri).

There was a Rhoades car quadricycle and a steampunk homebuilt wood and iron contraption with huge Fat Frank tires.

Babboe City

Bikes at Work trailers

The Babboe City box bike, several Madsens and Xtracycles, a Winther trike, a Human Powered Machines Long Haul box bike, a Christiania trike, several Yuba Mundos, a JC Lind trike, our Onderwater tandem and Haley trike, a Bullitt delivery bike, and a set of Bikes at Work and homemade trailers with boats on them all made an appearance and most were ridden by everyone who wanted to.
Whole Foods delivered some yummy things with a bike trailer. A guy with a Chinese made Fietsfabriek-trike-copy with electric drive that was entirely covered with gray fake fur came by too with a small child balanced on top. Jon Lind was there but Copenhagen, Dutch Bike, and other dealers weren’t. Most people didn’t wear helmets.

Onderwater

A lot of people liked our Onderwater Tandemtransporter, and rode it with two grownups though it's better with kids on the little seats. Nobody wanted to get off.  Though nobody currently stocks them in Chicago Jon Lind has said he would be willing to add one or a few as a special order to one of his regular shipments if given enough lead time. I think after riding many of the others it is one that is worth considering strongly.

Cargo Bike Rally is Monday 6-9 PM

* we got an update from Ash this morning that the snacks and finger food should be pretty kid friendly! J.

Come to West Town Bikes between 6-9 pm Monday 9/12 for a chance to see and try out
several picnic (and other cargo) carrying options. We will try to be there with a few of the
bikes from this blog for you to check out. And if you miss it why not come to Kidical
Mass next time, where a lot of other cargo and kid carriers will be glad to talk with you.

There will be beer and wine and finger food (which means: pack some dinner
and kid snacks). We'll bring some bike books for kids to enjoy.
Here's the link to more info about the event.

The address again:

West Town Bikes/Ciclo Urbano 2459 W. Division St. Chicago, IL 60622

West Town Bikes/Ciclo Urbano
2459 W. Division St.
Chicago, IL 60622

Fewer Cargobike Options in Chicago

EDIT 9/30/11:
Dutch Bike Chicago is out of business.

I recently noticed that the website for Dutch Bike Co has eliminated new Bakfiets.nl cargo bikes, the only ones they carried, from the online catalog, both in Seattle and Chicago. They have a 2009 left online. When I dropped by the store, they had their orange and red advertising Bakfiets but that was it. Had they sold out of all their stock? Were they going to get more? What about all the people who ask me about the Bakfiets - do I have to send them on a trip to Amsterdam or recommend a Madsen? Even after chatting with them, much remains a mystery.

Cargo Bike Roll Call Next Week September 12 from 6-9p.m.

It's been a busy few weeks here and we are doing more riding than writing. We wanted to put a little note up about the Cargo Bike "Roll Call" at West Town Bikes next week. There will be lots of different kinds of carrying bikes there and it will be a good place to visit with other riders of every kind about carrying things on your bike.
It's at the dinner hour and the food options aren't quite set yet so we'd suggest packing a little dinner  and snacks if you are loading up the kids.
We will be there with some combination of bikes to share and look forward to seeing how everyone stays on two wheels too. Come ride some bikes and have some fun!

Trying out Cargo Trikes

A few weeks ago we posted a pic of a little ride around the block with some small friends. Bike buddies Danielle and Roxy from Born in Japan spotted our newest arrival — a result of bike love gone mad that is now in our garage.

The three trikes we compared all together - the turquoise Haley
Model 1, the white Christiania, and the Triple Lindy. The only one
that's not ideal for carrying kids is the one with the kid in it...

We found an ad on the Chainlink forum, a nearly-never used Haley model 1 tricycle for a tiny price. We made a pact to ignore it for a few days but then when we looked back it was still there. Here in Chicago it’s good to recognize an offer you can’t refuse, so we rushed to the guy’s house, tried it, and the kids rode in it, actually rode it, shouted a lot, and wouldn’t get out of it. When we woke up dazed we were home and it was in the garage with the children refusing to get out of it.

For other posts on these and other cargo trikes look at Family Ride (reviews JC Lind), Totcycle (Christiania and Nihola) and  Let's Go Ride A Bike (Winther), not to mention Dr Mekon, (Christiania and Bakfiets trikes), BikePortland (Haley) and others linked from these. 

Then we started riding it in the neighborhood, but it wasn’t fun (for us — the kids loved it) since it had never been set up and some components needed work. On the Critical Lass ride the pedal fell off and Dottie had to carry me on her handlebars to the bar. Well, almost. Now that all is taken care of, it’s much better, but it had us wondering for awhile what the appeal of trikes was for grown-ups. 

Then last week we took some highly refined European cargo trikes, the JC Lind Triple Lindy and the Christiania BoxCycles trike, for a test ride to compare. To cut to the chase, the more expensive trikes are in a different class. They have a lot of features that make them more durable and comfortable, more stable and easier to ride, and unlike the Haley they work well with kids. You get a lot for the extra money.

Getting Ready to Bike to School on the Guardian Bike Blog

The Guardian Bike blog has a nice little piece today on cycling to school. Though it is from England it has great suggestions for anyone. Check it out here. Our own post on Growing School Bike Trains and the Portland site about their network share information and inspiration too.
Our family had a wobbly bike-to-school start this week. (Our school began last week.)  Organizing to have all three kids in school for the first time I struggled with getting organized and out the door every morning.

To the Ginza Holiday at the Midwest Buddhist Temple

Click to see it larger, or find
the info at the link above

Each year our family makes our way to the annual Ginza Holiday at the Midwest Buddhist Temple in Old Town. The festival ran this weekend Friday through Sunday at 435 W. Menomonee St. Cash only in years past, but they took credit cards for most things this time. There is a discount entry coupon at the link above. Maybe you missed it this year, but you can go next time!

As you may know there is a very large and vibrant Japanese American community here in Chicago. Many Japanese Americans were uprooted from their homes in other places after being imprisioned during the second world war and came here to make a new start with friends or family that had already returned. The peace and joy of the first Ginza Holiday, held 56 years ago in Old Town to great success despite fear of rejection from the white community, echos on through this celebration every year. A bike is the best way to get to this wonderful time!  Please try it if you've never gone. Your kids will love it. Check out the link to see all the neat things going on.

A bad, bad inner tube gets what's coming to it

fixed, a bit later in the day

Tried to take 2 kids out with me on the old Schwinn tandem and pulled it out of the garage only to find that the front wheel, which had been fine the day before, was utterly flat. Great!, I thought. A maintenance task for the LGRAB games! Out came the old metal tire irons and patch stuff. Off came the front wheel.

Tire coming off

Rrrgh. The hole wasn't in the tube itself. It was in the rubber surrounding the valve stem. Rubbing on the steel of the rim for years had done it in. Even with a patch over it nothing would hold it closed. Any patch just blew off with no tire behind it holding it in place. Tried it a couple of times, even.

Sssssssssss.

Eventually gave up and put in a new tube. The old one, it turned out, had been the wrong size and was folded over itself inside. A neat trick if you don't have access to one that really fits, but not ideal.

Finally got it redone, headed off and had a nice afternoon, with the big kid actually pedaling along!

     To do this yourself, get your patching tools together, with a tire patch kit, tire irons (plastic ones are nicest to your fancy aluminum rims), a wrench or other tool to take the bike apart and put it together (often 15mm on newer bikes), a new tube to fit your wheel that has the type of valve you use (Presta is skinny and Schrader is like the ones on a car) and a pump or compressor. A new tube is fast but if you can fix the old one it will be just fine and it's a lot cheaper. The whole process takes only a few minutes. Need a new tire? Now's a good time to change it. If your bike is Dutch, internal geared, or otherwise very difficult to take apart, and you can fix the old tube well, you can do the rest of this stuff without removing the wheel and without a new tube.

     Notice where the washers and nuts all go on your wheel compared to the fork ends, and unhook any safety thingies. This bike has screw on wheels, but if you have quick release levers you'll probably notice they're not that quick, really, since you probably have to undo the lever, then unscrew one side or the other, for the nuts to fit over the "lawyer lips" you likely have on your fork, or unhook any little tabs from the slots in the fork. The brakes should fit over the flat tire as you pull it out, or you can loosen them if needed. If you have a classic Raleigh you have a special case, and you need to put the wheel back exactly right. Mark the right side and the left side of the wheel, or, better, read this first. Some tires have to go in a certain direction - check yours.
     Take the wheel off the bike, then use the tire irons to gently lever one side's tire bead (inside the metal of the rim) up and over the rim toward the outside. Continue along, levering more and more off until the entire side of the tire is off the rim, leaving the other half still attached, and pull out the flabby flat inner tube. At this point you can fix the tube, usually, following the instructions that come with your patch kit. Pump it up, find the hole, use the kit.
     Check for bad things inside the tire or rim. If you find a piece of something sharp or a rough spoke end sticking through the rim tape or rubber rim band, you can remove it now or smooth it and cover it with new rim tape or a tire patch or thick duct tape. If there is a hole in the tire itself, it has to be pretty big to cause any problem. If you need to you can use a tube patch on the tire, or a stiff piece of paper like a new dollar bill can cover a big weak place until you get a new tire.
     Insert the new tube, slightly inflated, into the tire. You put the stem through the hole first, which should traditionally be near the brand marking on the tire, then stuff the rest of the tube into the tire. Even it out without too much twisting or pinching.
     Write in your contact information and put it in on a piece of Tyvek from a FedEx pack or similar including your name, telephone number and instructions to call you if the bike is taken for service (theft protection), write it on the rim tape, or Sharpie marker it onto the inside of the rim or tire. Rough notes can eat into the tube so make yours small and smooooooth.
     Reinstall the tire. Start near the stem and go around both ways to click it in. Often with mountain bike tires you can do this by hand, but these old Schwinn Westwinds needed a little oomph from a tire iron. Be careful not to pinch the tube (jab it in before levering the tire bead) or you'll be popping holes in tubes and doing this again and again.
     Put the wheel back with the tire mostly flat so it fits in between the brakes (assuming you didn't unclick the quick release on them - the old Schwinn doesn't have any kind of quick release). Attach the various lawyer safety things and washers just the way they were and screw everything in properly (or use the quick release. Put it in the loose way then move the lever to tighten. Too tight? Loosen the screw a bit and try again. Make the lever point back so hooking it on a bush won't drop out your wheel.)
     A back wheel is similar but more complicated to remove and replace. Make sure a back wheel is even so it doesn't drag on things before you tighten it down.

Did you enter the LGRAB games?

Bike luau

What fits better with bikes than a luau? Our niece couldn't think of anything else, either, so she had a luau bike party with bikes, grass skirts, authentic-ish Hawaiian pizza (the park wouldn't let us dig a hole for a pig roast), and pineapple juice and coconut drink (ahem). It was fun for everyone. And nothing says summer and bikes as well as tropical fruit (and frog catching in the park's nearby pond...)

The bikes were fun to decorate and who can resist a grass skirt?

The cool surfer-on-a-bike look

Even the bikes were wearing grass skirts (don't do this - it took
forever to peel the grass out of the sprockets so the thing would
shift properly again)

er, Aloha!