Tag Archives: seattle

Election Night Special Edition: Seattle Mayor DOES Want to Show Off His Rack

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Tim K | 1 comment

…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

1 Comment

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, Human Powered Politics, neighborhoods, Rack that Bike, shopping, traffic

Tagged bikes, BMP, coffee, government, racks, SDOT, seattle, zoka

Xtracycle Date Night #8

Posted on November 4, 2007 by Tim K | 1 comment

It was a lovely Friday night for some Xtracycle errands followed by drinks and dinner at Flowers on the Ave. The combination of my captive subject, our bikelights, and the camera’s second-curtain flash settings were hard to resist.

-Tim

1 Comment

Posted in dates, extravehicular activities, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged car-free, carfreedates, date night, dates, seattle, U-district, xtracycle

Xtra-spooky? Halloween, Xtracycle Style

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Tim K | 2 comments

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 ~~car~~bikepool by a ferocious dinosaur (our four-year old), and a friendly cowgirl from the bikepool.

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2 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, extravehicular activities, kids, longbikes, School, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged bikepool, bikes, carpool, costumes, dinosaurs, dragon, halloween, kids, seattle, xtracycle

Xtracycle Build Details: Stoker Bar

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Tim K | 3 comments

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.

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3 Comments

Posted in bikes, buildin' the xtracycle, wrenchin', xtracycle

Tagged bikes, build, cork, diy, grips, howto, parts, passengers, seattle, stoker, wrenchin', xtracycle

Trader Joes: $187.93

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Tim K | 9 comments

…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

9 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, BIG Loads, bikes, extravehicular activities, seattle, xtracycle

Tagged baskets, bigloads, bikes, groceries, packing, seattle, shopping, trader joes, xtracycle

Xtracycle: An Anti-Minivan for the Anti-Soccer Mom

Posted on October 28, 2007 by Tim K | 2 comments

Seats four in comfort. Check!
Cupholders? Check!
Loads of cargo Space? Check!
Room for the brother to bring his bike? Check!
Space for tailgating? Check!
Co2 Belching SUV/Minivan? Nah!!!!!!!!

We had a lovely Saturday at the six-year-old’s soccer game. It’s not exactly sport at this age, but it’s fun to watch. Dozens of these tiny three-on-three teams play at a time and the resulting parking frenzy resembles the UW Montlake lot the first week of fall classes.

No matter, we just cruise by the madness and park the SUBs on the sidelines like VIPs!

-Tim

2 Comments

Posted in bikes, extravehicular activities, neighborhoods, School, Uncategorized, wrenchin'

Tagged bikes, cupholders, kids, seattle, soccer mom, SUB, tailgating, xtracycle

Seattle Mayor Nichols Wants to Show You His Rack(s)

Posted on October 26, 2007 by Tim K | 6 comments

SDOT Photo

As we ride more (and more and more) around our fair city, I’m struck by how little the city does to accommodate the parking of our two-wheeled steeds. Racks are few and far between, but cars are welcomed on nearly every curb. It used to be, back in the day, this didn’t matter much because you could count on a nearby, sturdy, parking meter…

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6 Comments

Posted in alternative transportation, bikes, neighborhoods, Rack that Bike, seattle, sustainability, xtracycle

Tagged bikeracks, bikes, governement, local, racks, seattle, transportation, xtracycle

It’s Fall

Posted on October 19, 2007 by Anne | 2 comments

Seattle fall weather has officially arrived. It’s windy, wet and on the downward spiral toward darkness. In a couple of weeks cars will start turning their headlights on @ 3:00 pm. This is the time of year Tim and I talk longingly of moving to San Diego. This morning I met my sister for coffee and I didn’t even think about driving. I just put on my favorite wool base layer and a shell and got on the bike and rode the 8 miles. So maybe I’m over the hump? Last fall I would have sheepishly gotten into my car and driven because I didn’t feel like getting wet. We’ll see how I do in a couple of months.

– Anne