Category Archives: bikes

Sharing is Nice

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Anne | 6 comments

Tim and I are both officially Zipsters. I’m glad being hip is not a requirement, apparently all we need is a membership card to earn the title. I’ve been a Zipster for a few years and Tim recently joined when we sold our final car last month. (can you believe we used to have four cars?) Since we started using it more, we have managed to slip “zip” into our vernacular: Zip skiing, Zip Brompton, Zip trip, the Zip possibilities are annoyingly endless. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, sustainability

Tagged alternative transportation, bikes, Brompton, Car Sharing, zipcar

Me and My Bike: Teen video from Africa

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Tim K | 7 comments

The problem with having a single-topic blog (family biking in case you’ve forgotten … it has been a while), is that sometimes we run out of things worth saying out loud. Do any of you really need to hear about our heaviest Trader Joe’s run ever? Or that we finally sold our car? Or that we still love our Xtracycles (a lot)?

I don’t know about you, but for me it gets kinda old and preachy.

So we give it a rest.

But as the gap between posts grows, we start second guessing every potential idea (“it’s been a two weeks since we blogged. It’s gotta be something good” and “it’s been a month and a half since we blogged, better be AWESOME”). The larger the gap, the tougher to break the cycle.

Luckily, busting out of our slump this time is a no-brainer. Check out some amazing kids from Kenya and the fun & inspiring hip-hop bicycle music video they created video for the 1 Minute to Save the World video contest (yes, they won)!

via HuffPost

The video has it all – kids, bikes, mobility, and saving the world. What’s not to love? And it fits with our recent media and bike-music themes, too.

–Tim

Note to self: … remember to help Tom the next time he’s soliciting donations/volunteers for the Village Bicycle Project!

7 Comments

Posted in bigger than here, bikes, kids

Tagged bikes. videos, kids, music

Bike Radio: Families on Bikes

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Anne | 3 comments

A couple of weeks ago the ten-year-old and I had the immense pleasure of riding with and being interviewed by Benji Perrin for the Bike Commute (part of KBCS One World Report).

The Bike Commute:

brings us interviews on wheels…bike wheels. Producer Benji Perrin discovers what inspires and drives interesting people to do what they do both on and off their bikes. It tells their stories and ideas amongst the sounds of the streets while cycling throughout the Puget Sound. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, family cycling, kids, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged 91.3, Benji Perrin, Bike Radio, bikes, Families, KBCS, One World Report, radio, the Bike Commute

Fourth-Annual Xtracycle Tree Haulin (plus retrospective)

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Anne | 24 comments

We used to make a huge production out of the annual-tree claiming event. We’d load up the VW camper, grab a $5 (bargain!) Forest Service tree-cutting permit, drive up toward the snow for a while, and tromp around in the (snowy, wet, muddy,etc) woods, until we found a tree we could all agree on. Of course, said tree was always double the size we needed (they look smaller in the forest), so fresh we couldn’t bear to take it down until Valentine’s day, and that five-dollar permit usually involved an oil change, a swap to the snow tires, and at least a tank of gas. So really, $5 plus another eighty or so & change.

Bargain?

So when we seriously started doing the long-bike thing, we thought we’d give our auto-induced tree haulin’ a break for a year so we could support our local, neighborhood tree lot and find out if was really possible to haul (it seems so obvious now) our family tree via bike. I mean, it’s just a year, right? Then we’ll go back to fun way up in the snow.

Except, all of sudden it’s our fourth, haul-by-bike Christmas. It turns out we didn’t miss the old that much at all. In fact, we’d argue the new way is much, much better. Here’s why: Continue reading →

24 Comments

Posted in bikes

Tagged "orange helmet", 2010, Bicycle Christmas, Christmas Tree, tree haulin, tree-by-bike, wet, xtracycle, Xtracycle tree haulin

The Bike Song (advocacy+hipster UK dance music)

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Tim K | 5 comments

I got Mark Ronson’s “Record Collection” a while back. Since then, this song pops into my head nearly every ride. But I kept forgetting to look for a video (I think I actually may have been a tad frightened of what I might find; at least after viewing the “Champagne Bike Party” video Ryan hosted on Go Means Go!).

But thanks to a timely Facebook update from my library school pal Abby (whose taste I trust implicitly), I’ve now got visuals— including some ’80s Brompton-based, retro-’80s Night Rider-style special effects, bicycles coming to life to stop a bike thief, and a parade of UK hipsters reveling in the joy of bikes—to go with a great song.

Beyond the cool factor of just being a good song about bikes, the The Bike Songs spins a really positive advocacy message, too. I especially appreciate this gem for every teenage boy who feels pressured into ditching his bike so he can get girls:

“I can’t understand it, but i can’t really stand them
Girls love cars, but cars cause harm to the planet
Don’t you wanna take a joyride on my tandem
Humming on a huffy, don’t i look so handsome
Bass to bikes they’re so nice they’re priceless”

That’s right, young man. Keep the faith. The ladies worth having are going to find your bike sexy!

-Tim

PS – Portland bike advocate/planner wunderkind Mia Birk at REI tonight. Maybe she’ll share a little Portland-style bicycle secret sauce? I’d be happy with some tips to help us take our local car v. bike rhetoric down a notch or two.

I’ll be heading down there w/ Julian from Totcycle. We’ll either be the dudes on the really big (Madsen/Xtracycle) or really small (Brompton) bikes. I bet Mia likes “the Bike Song!”

5 Comments

Posted in bikes, Events

Tagged advocacy, bikes, music, ronson, video

Kidical Mass Canceled Today

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Anne | Leave a comment

Rain cancels.

And there’s no doubt about it, rain is falling from the sky.

We plan to drink hot cider and eat all of the cupcakes our 9-year-old made for the ride.

Next time!

Details at Totcycle

– Anne

Kidical Mass, Halloween edition

Posted on October 28, 2010 by Anne | 2 comments

We don’t have a great track record for Kidical Mass. We attempted a Kidical Mass ride in the Spring. But we never made it to the actual ride because we got completely utterly and totally rained out (literally).

We’re ready to put that experience behind us and do it all over again in one of the rainiest months in these parts.

Why, you ask?

Because riding with other families en masse is a life experience not to be missed.

Continue reading →

2 Comments

Posted in bikes, Events, extravehicular activities, family cycling

Tagged halloween, Kidical Mass, Oct 30, seattle

Reason #6789 For Riding Bikes

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Anne | 20 comments

The other day, Josh Cohen ( aka Publicola Bike Nerd) did a post with a link to a Jay Jansheski piece Some Things I’ve Seen While Riding a Bicycle in Seattle.

A harmless fluff piece wouldn’t you think? No lectures, no stats and nary an environmental or health reason sited. He merely highlighted some positive reasons for riding a bike: because it’s just plain fun.

And before I read the comments, I too was enveloped in a blissful bike loving fog. There are so many reasons I love to ride a bike. And I daydreamed about all of them for at least 5 minutes.

This weekend we experienced reason #6789: because little detours sometimes change everything.

When you’re on bikes, you may go a bit out of your way to check out the mysterious blue glow. And when you get there, you discover it’s a giant grim reaper ( The Greenwood Reaper no less). Continue reading →

20 Comments

Posted in bigger than here, bikes, family cycling, Ha, kids

“Borrowing” Mom’s New Bike

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Anne | 19 comments

I wasn’t prepared. In fact I was completely caught off guard.

Aren’t they supposed to borrow your shoes before they borrow your bike? Continue reading →

19 Comments

Posted in bikes, kids, shopping

Tagged Brompton, kids, riding with kids

Bike Pool to Soccer Practice

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Anne | 8 comments

This is most likely the last year I’ll be able to shuttle two kids on the Xtracycle. (sniff sniff) I don’t know what Tim has been feeding them, but the wee ones have grown. They are simply getting too dang big to shuttle around.

And now they have friends.

And it’s not just their size, it’s their energy. They’re all squirmy and excited and silly. And they laugh and joke and eat lollipops. And sometimes they bonk each other with their helmets.

I have to say, I’ll miss this era. There’s nothing quite like hauling squealing kids on a bike.