I love A.N.T. (Alternative Needs Transportation) Bikes out there near Baa-ston. I mean… I LOOOOOVE them. Mike and team harvests the best of the Dutch-Danish-French city-bike tradition as they deliver a stylish, updated ride, complete with with modern steel and components.
Posted in alternative transportation, bike lust, bikes, consumerism
Tagged bikelust, bikes, cargo bikes, city bikes, custom, desire, dutch bikes, lust, steel, transportation
I discovered Alan Durning’s series last year. It was my inspiration for trying to be less car dependent. When I first started reading it, I told myself, ” I could never do that.” (Insert all excuses here). But I was truly inspired. If their family of five can live without a car, I can certainly live with driving less.
We started small – eliminating un-necessary trips here and there, declaring carfree days once or twice a week, doing all errands on one day to eliminate daily short trips etc.
Then we got the Xtracycles. What a truly revolutionary invention. They have changed everything for us. All kid-and-stuff-hauling related excuses evaporated when they were up and running. Now – we barely drive. Maybe once every 2 weeks. Probably less. We’re hooked – wouldn’t go back. It’s so easy and fun.
Give Alan Durning’s series a read when you have a chance.
– Anne
Bike Portland ponders family cycling – is it the next big thing? Way to go, Marion, looks like fun.
Maybe in Portland, but Seattle has a long way to go. I’ve never seen that many bikes at either of my kids’ schools. Our schools are at the top of a hill – so that’s probably why ; – )
– Anne
Our friends at Bikecommuters recently hosted a great conversation about the excuses people make for not bike commuting. Lots of insight there, especially Val’s thoughts on being an enabler.
We’ve heard it all as well. My favorite is when people see us ride up on our bikes with kids on the back and make excuses as an introduction – even before the requisite, “Hello, how are ya doin?”
Last night we rode less than a mile to a soccer party for our six year old. Tim had the 2 pans of enchiladas Anne made strapped to the snap deck , a six pack of Full Sail IPA in the sideloaders, and our daughter sitting behind said enchiladas. It was less than a mile. So what if it was up hill and it rained on the way home …. kids didn’t complain and we had a great time.
We don’t really care if people refer to us as those crazy bike people or those weird people who don’t drive. We’re having a lot of fun.
– Anne and Tim
Posted in bikes
For the past few years, Tim and I have silently observed Buy Nothing Day. I was very excited to read of an event (via Bike Hugger) encouraging active participation. Aarons Bicycle Repair, Seattle’s leading Xtracycle dealer, is leading a HOT STUFF Cargo Bike Ride to remind us all to get out of stores and onto our bikes.
I know we won’t be seeing Tim’s shopaholic sister there, but how about you? Does your city have an event? Tell us about it!
– Anne
…at least the new one at University Zoka, spotted this morning by an eagle-eyed, pre-caffeine, carfree-Anne.
If you recall, I posted a while ago about the Seattle Bike rack program. One of my nominated locations was UZ. Low and behold, today we see a single, shiny new rack. Either someone SDOT reads this blog (unlikely), or I just got lucky.
Like any red-blooded, American urban cyclist, I ultimately lust after a nice pair (at least). The demand is there — at 11am. this rack was full, a Zoka-installed rack was full, and bikes were chained to the street trees. Still, I’m a sucker for almost any rack and can’t help but give a frat-boy-sized W00t! to this lopsided offering,
Dare I hope this is a sign of life to come in a post-Bicycle Master Plan world? Nah, I’m not that optimistic. Still, I won’t mind a bit if SDOT proves me wrong.
-Tim
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, Human Powered Politics, neighborhoods, Rack that Bike, shopping, traffic
Tagged bikes, BMP, coffee, government, racks, SDOT, seattle, zoka
After date night, I attended an amazing lecture by Lawrence Lessig at Kane Hall. On the way home, when I should have been thinking about things like hybrid companies, government regulation, and our broken intellectual property system, I found myself moved to conduct an impromptu bike-basket photoshoot. As much as I wanted concentrate on Supercapitalism, etc, I was smitten by the beauty and function embodied in my Wald #585! Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, buildin' the xtracycle, consumerism, shopping, wrenchin', xtracycle
Tagged basket, bikes, cargo, cargobikes, crush, gear, love, shopping, utility, wald, xtracycle
Little Red Riding Hood (the six-year old) needed a ride to her Halloween party after school today. Xtracycles to the rescue. Here she is joined in the carbikepool by a ferocious dinosaur (our four-year old), and a friendly cowgirl from the bikepool.
This is part of an ongoing series of posts (ok, it’s the first–we’ll see how it goes) on the building of our Xtracycles. We get lots of questions about putting them together so I thought I better start documenting. Normal people would do it in order, starting with the actual kit, but me, I gotta start with the stoker bars. Maybe I just like saying Stoker….
Interested in the build? Read on, then see the blurb at the bottom and watch the “Buildin’…” category.
For our stoker bar setups we used some cheap ebay tandem stems and beer-can shims to mount bars for our passengers. I’ll get to the stems in another post but for now, here’s the scoop on these sylish Nitto “Swept-Back” bars.
…contrary to our cashier’s expectations, we got the whole mammoth cart on the bikes with room to spare. The first time we did this we spent as much time packing the bikes as we did shopping. But as the weeks go by, we’re getting faster and finding we have room for more. Once the sideloaders reach a certain “fullness” I can’t resist stuffing them to make it all worthwhile (twice I’ve sent Anne back for more beer). We’re learning some tricks on that front. (A bakfiets would would be the ultimate in easy packing, but talking to Todd at Clever Cycles it’s probably too darn hilly here.)
And who would have thought the Wald basket, while cool in an old-fashioned-paperboy way, would represent a packing revelation? This little 14x9x9 beauty holds cameras, beer, wine, coffee cups, sweaters, gloves, hats, lunch, stuffed pink piggies, American Girl dolls, and the occasional U-lock. Once again, those guys at Rivendell are onto something simple that works fantastically. When Anne gets the rigid fork on her Xtra, she’s getting a Wald, too.
Check the the thumbnail image for some packing details.
-Tim
Posted in alternative transportation, BIG Loads, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, xtracycle
Tagged baskets, bigloads, bikes, groceries, packing, seattle, shopping, trader joes, xtracycle
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Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
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Tim K
Car Free Days 