Awhile back, Tori over at Gracie’s Wrench asked for suggestions for a new term to describe cycling as transportation or everyday cycling. “Commuting” usually refers to going to and from work. “Riding” usually refers to sport riding.  What do you call everyday cycling? I read all the comments to her post, and quite frankly, none of the terms really spoke to me. Not in the same way “commuting” does.

I’m looking for a good one (maybe two) word term to describe using a bike to go to the store or to get coffee or out to dinner.

Does anyone have a good one?

– Anne

Heading Home from the Farmers Market

Summer in Seattle is in full swing. We’re taking advantage of a streak of near perfect weather by drinking a few of Tim’s Mojitos , swimming and kayaking in the lake, enjoying backyard BBQs, visits with out-of-town friends, staying up late, reading lots of books and neglecting our blog.

Here are a few photos of our summer adventures so far. I hope you’re enjoying your summer too!

– Anne

Tim's famous Mojitos, always worth waiting for

3rd of July Kayaking on Lake Washington

Jim Needs an Xtracycle

4th of July Neighborhood Bike Parade

17lbs of Backyard Raspberries

This post was written by our 8 year old (and typed by her mom. Hunting and pecking 400 words would have taken a really long time!) It was her idea, and these are all of her own words. Happy Father’s Day, Tim! We love you.

My Dad is the one who taught me to ride my bike without training wheels.

In the summer, we used to go down to our spot at Magnuson, it was a steep grassy hill by the tennis courts.  Dadddy drove me down there with my bike, it was usually only me and daddy.  I would coast down the hill, try and steer and while I was steering, I tried to see if I could use my brakes while doing it. We would stay there all day. The only time I got hurt was when I was going down the part of the hill that I usually didn’t go down, I tried to steer, except my bike fell over. The back of my knee was out so I scraped the back of my knee.

I didn’t want to ride my bike again. But my dad convinced me to keep riding, and now I’m a good rider. I think it is because I did not give up. And If I gave up, I may never feel the joys of riding.

One of my favorite things to  do on a hot day is coast down the hill and feel the cool breeze on my face. I don’t even mind that I have to climb up the hill again because every part of riding makes me feel good that I accomplished it and proud of what I did.

When I was younger, in like first grade, I thought that a lot of people knew about my parents. And now that I’m older, I understand it’s true. So I’m proud to be writing a blog post for them because I’ve always felt proud of my parents.

I’m glad riding a bike exists because on hot days cars are so HOT and on cold days cars are just freezing. I’ve experienced both.

One day my dad took me to get dinner on bikes. We passed a donut shop and I smelled the most delicious smell! It was fresh donuts. And then I realized I could never have smelled something like that in a car.  I like bikes better than cars because you get exercise, you get to experience things from not out of a window you really get to experience them. it’s a bit like you’re just walking by.

I thank my dad for helping me to learn that you shouldn’t just drive around in an automobile. It’s better to get exercise and experience things from the real point of view.

-  carfreedays girl

Anne's latest dream bike

School gets out today. This time of year is bittersweet. We are all ready for a break from our normal routine and are looking forward to some carefree summer times. I’m sure the kids will be happy not to hear the words:  get dressed, eat your breakfast, put your book down, brush your teeth and we’re going to be late for a few months.

We’re planning on a lot of beach time and swimming and zoo visiting and kite flying and ice cream eating.

Since the kids are both riding on their own 80% of the time, I must shift my pedaling expectations: we’ll travel a little lot slower and we won’t venture far out of the five mile radius surrounding our house. Thankfully, we live close to the lake and the zoo and the pool and our favorite ice cream shop so I think we’ll do just fine.

But…..if we had one of these sweet rides, we’d be doing a lot better. I can already picture the summer riding we could do on this WorkCycles triplet. The three of us would certainly travel in style and in comfort! We could happily pedal anywhere we wanted to go.

Ah well, a girl can dream.

Happy Summer and Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there.

- Anne

I love our dentist, Dr. Russell. He’s the kind of guy I can exchange snippy banter with while he takes better care of my mouth then the words coming out of it often deserve.

As many of you know, Anne and I are turning into bike rack zealots. So its no surprise that during my cleaning last winter, I spent some time berating him for his shoddy bike  parking.  The rack at his office is old, rattly, rusty, and not even secured to the ground!

To his credit, Dr. Russell didn’t jab me with one of those evil dental picks. Instead, he listened respectfully, asked a couple questions, and gave me a little hope he’d do something about it.

Last Thursday I was back for my summer cleaning. Approaching the still-in-place ratty old rack my initial disappointment quickly turned to  admiration for the way he had spiffed it up and secured it with the tools of his trade:

Waxed floss!

He was especially proud of how the floss integrated with the rock and bamboo branch support. Supposedly if a criminal didn’t see the nearly invisible floss and tried to steal the rack, they’d unknowingly yank out the support. The tree would then fall on the would-be thief and the bike would be safe, thanks to cartoon-like simplicity!

I laughed for a good 10 minutes, then called Anne to stop by with the camera (and hurry before any criminals tripped the trap)! I’m not sure when that new rack is coming, but I’m guessing Dr. Russell thought more about bike racks last week than he did the whole previous year. That’s a pretty good (and hilarious) first step.

I wish all dentist appointments were this entertaining!

-Tim

We like visiting Portland, not just because of it’s bike culture, yummy food and modern architecture, but also because we know some great people in town.

Last week, Tim and I got together with some of my college friends for dinner and beers as part of a long weekend (without children!).  We went to college a while ago so these really are old and super fantastic friends. As always, we had a  great time catching up and  sharing stories and cutting loose with them.  Even us semi-old people need to do that from time to time.

Mitch, Julie, Vincent, Anne and Tim enjoying dinner and beer at Seraveza. Photo by Jennifer

Since our kids were at home with grandparents, we were the only couple that didn’t have to worry about relieving babysitters and picking up kids and putting them to bed etc.  So naturally when our friend Jennifer had to leave early to pick up her kids, we offered to be helpful and give Vincent a “ride”  home.

As most of you know, our four wheels are not of the usual variety but since we ride practical city bikes, an extra passenger was no problem.

Vincent declined the offer to ride on Tim’s  snapdeck and stare at his, ahem, backside for the three mile journey, choosing my Oma instead.

Good choice, Vincent!

From the look on his face,you can tell he kinda liked our normal way of traveling home from a date. I don’t think he even minded Tim’s non-stop photo shoot.

Always up for spending quality time with my favorite husband,  I happily rode side saddle on the Xtracycle.

Despite my repeated offers to walk the inclines, Tim shuttled me the entire trip. He’s a great pilot and only dumped me on the pavement once! Note to Tim:  snapping photos while track standing at stoplights may work just fine when you’re solo but it’s probably not a good idea when are ferrying an adult passenger.

The rest of the trip was just as good. We spent three days riding our way to and from delicious food and drink while taking in the low key Portland culture. We even got to spend a couple great hours with Todd, Martina and some of the Clever Cycles staff. Thanks for your hospitality and for the opportunity to drive the Work Cycles Cargo Trike, folks!

The volume of bike traffic in Portland truly is stunning,  but one observation came to me this trip. Most of the people using bikes to get around at night were (quite) a bit younger than us.

What’s up with that? Were we just out on the wrong nights or in the wrong part of town, or is date-night not a bike night for the Rose City’s marrieds-with-children?

There must be others out there who are into their 30s and beyond and use bikes to get to restaurants, bars, shows, movies, the theater and the like, right?

And if not, by all means, start RIGHT NOW. You’ll be hooked.  One ride and I think Vincent may be willing to give it a go (he claims Jennifer may not be on board but I think she’ll prove him wrong).

How about you?

– Anne

Tim has been combing craigslist for the past six months looking for some inflatable kayaks that we can haul to the lake on the Xtracycles. We used to own sea kayaks before we had kids but sold them a few years ago. Loading and unloading the kayaks on the car and driving a mile to the lake was never worth the effort for us and we didn’t use them that often. It wasn’t that hard for us to let them go.

Still looking for a way to escape the beach crowds during the warm summer months, inflatables that can be hauled on the bikes seemed like a good solution for our summer boating needs. These inflatables aren’t going to get us to the San Juans, but are perfect for floating around the lake with the kids on a hot day.

The stars aligned this weekend and a great boat, pump and life jackets came up on craigslist in Fremont, a perfect bikable distance for the whole family. We pedaled down and picked them up and took our maiden voyage on Sunday, a beautiful warm summer kind of day.

All in all, getting the boats and the whole family to the lake was easy! Tim hauled two boats on his bike. I hauled the jackets, paddles and beverage and lunch laden cooler and the kids pedaled their own bikes.

We pumped up the boats and launched them in the water in no time at all. The rest of the afternoon was spent floating,  checking out birds and turtles and an impressive beaver dam, counting dead fish, eating, drinking cool beverages and swimming.

All in all a great day.  Looking forward to more kayaking fun this summer.

– Anne

It’s so great to watch the number of cycling families grow during Bike to School Month.

I have noticed a pattern since we started organizing Bike to School Month last year.  At the beginning of the month, the number of cycling parents and kids isn’t that impressive. This year a dozen or so families biked to school on a daily basis the first week. But as the month progresses, (and the weather improves) more and more families join the fun and start riding bikes to school.

Is it momentum? Is it peer pressure? Does it just look like fun?

Kids see their friends riding to school and it looks like so much fun, they want to do it too. Those kids convince their parents to give it a try. As more and more families join in, the bike racks fill up. And pretty soon bikes are spilling into the garden and being locked to any available stationary object. Sometimes they aren’t locked at all (who is going to steal a kid’s bike from a school playground anyway).

I’m not sure how the momentum builds. What I do know is: I’m still seeing new faces at the bike racks every day(and they’re all smiling faces).

Thanks to all of the parents who have given biking a try. You’re doing your kids a huge favor, and hopefully you’re having some fun too!

Does anyone have Bike to School stories to share?

– Anne

Heading out with a small group on the 2009 Ride of Silence

As I mentioned, Wednesday was the 2009 Ride of Silence. Having been impressed by last year’s numbers  and the diversity of participants, I was really looking forward to paying my respects by riding with an even larger group this year.

Upon arriving at Gas Works Park, it was quickly apparent that I was a bit optimistic. In fact, riders were  so sparse, my first thought was that I missed the roll out and had showed up at a Cascade evening group ride.  Last year’s rider count was in the mid-hundreds (Wednesday’s ride leader mentioned “600″ in past years), this year I counted 43 or 44 riders TOTAL.

I’m just going to come right out and say I’m really disappointed by Seattle cyclists. While other cities had growing numbers of riders, Seattle fell flat (Portland drew about 75 for their 2009 ride).

One thing I think would have made a difference in Seattle is some serious support from Cascade. The day of the ride they sent out a mass email about the Bike-to-Work challenge and a calendar of Bike Month events. The Ride of Silence was absent.

I can imagine the idea of promoting a ride that draws attention to the dangers of riding doesn’t exactly mesh with the up-beat marketing plan employed for Bike-to-Work month. I get that.

But it’s also no excuse. As the largest bike club in the nation they have a responsibility to take the lead in making sure Seattle riders are aware of and encouraged to participate in this international event.

As I mentioned, the turn out was poor across the board. I was the only cargo bike and the hipster fixie crowd was no where to be seen. Last year the Byrne-Invent race team must have brought 25 or more riders; They were by far the more biggest team in attendance, though other teams came out too.  That wasn’t the case this year.

This surprised me considering just last February the racing community lost one of their own to a car-bike crash. As it turns out, this  years  ride route was partially chosen to honor Kevin Black, making a loop through Ballard and up 24th.

I know Black had a significant memorial event following his death. I didn’t go because I didn’t know him. I wrestled with it and decided it didn’t seem appropriate. Maybe many  in the local cycling community wrestled with something similar about this event, I don’t know.

Few killed or injured riders receive support from the entire cycling community. Many are  quickly forgotten as we go about our lives on the roads. That’s what makes The Ride of Silence important. It serves to draw our attention to ALL of these riders, even if just for one evening.

Yes, Black was a bike racer. He was also  a father, neighbor, and (obvious if you read any of the moving tributes to him) a friend to many. That’s what this ride is about—remembering and respecting those friends,  mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and yes, children we or others have lost.

All of us who ride should be supporting and promoting this ride. It may hurt, but drawing attention to the fact that bad things can happen on the roads may help make us all safer. Like the riders we’ve lost, the Ride of Silence itself deserves our support, respect, and attention.

I hope next year we can do better.

The Seattle 2009 Ride of Silence quietly rolls out from Gas Works Park at 6:30 this evening. The ride, if you aren’t familiar, is an international event intended to honor those killed or injured cycling on roadways.

I participated last year and was marked by the ride. It’s a rather eery experience when a few hundred normally chattery cyclists string out along the road for a completely silent, solemn parade. Other than the whir of tires, ratcheting of freehubs, or squeals of wet, longbike disc brakes (sorry about that), it really is a ride of silence.

Interested? Plan on a slow-paced, 12-mile tour of Seattle. You’ll see entire race teams in full kits, hipsters on fixies, city folk on city bikes, handcycles, and maybe even some Xtracycles (two last year!). Assuming you can ride safely in traffic, you’re encouraged to join with however you want to pedal.

The ride is timed to start late enough that motorists see us sharing the streets, but not so close to rush hour that the ride becomes a Critical Mass-style traffic hindrance. The mood is serious, contemplative, civic, and positive. Quietly.

I hope to see you there.

-Tim

update: Your city probably has a ride tonight, too. Find it <a hrefhttp://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php”>here</a> and then let us know how it went.

2008 Ride of Silence pre-ride at Gas Works Park

More Images and video from last year in the Car Free Days Ride of Silence flickr set.