This weekend was our second annual Kidical Overnight and unfortunately, we had a number of sickies who couldn't make it at the last minute, including Little Brother who had to stay with his dad. Big Brother and I had to go on our own and I have to admit that it was easier to pack with just one kid and not have to leave space for a kid on deck or his bike.

Big Brother was ready to ride the entire route one his own, about 15 miles each way! And to add to the fun, I had him carry some of the gear. He was very proud of letting everyone know that he had both sleeping bags, all our clothes, and the pillows.

We started off with some coffee wth Nama and Big Brother fell off the bike on his first dismount. He wasn't used to having stuff on the rack and clipped it on the way off.

We met up with our other Kidical friends at the park and rode up the Sacramento Northern bike trail.

We had to deal with one detour where they're fixing the levee and have left bikers to deal with an unsafe trail closure detour that routes riders onto fast and unpredictable Del Paso blvd. This added a few extra miles but was worth it. We had two kiddos on their own bikes, and one who split the ride between being on his Islabike and being attached to the Follow-Me attachment. Since most of our ride was on trails, even the youngest rider got to get some pedaling in for himself.

It was slow going, as usual, and we had lots of rest stops for snacks and a long lunch at a big playground. There's even a BMX pump track that Big Brother and a few others decided to give a try. Last time I tried this was with the Bullitt and we bottomed out. I didn't try it with the HaD this time. It was too hot!

Nineteen miles and about four hours later, we made it to Gibson Ranch. Another party had taken our picnic area but we were able to run them off after they finished their meal. We settled into our shady site with plenty of food to munch on and space for the kids to run around.

After 7pm when the park closed and all the picnickers headed home, we had the whole place to ourselves, except for some faint tunes from the wedding party across the way.

This morning, we packed up and made it out earlier than we had left yesterday. It was already warm by 8am. We moved along a bit quicker than yesterday. The kiddos were great riders, even along the rural roads where we had faster moving traffic and parked cars on either side of us.

Big Brother and I got back in about three hours but had a leisurely lunch with Nama. We were both tired from the long weekend. I can't believe how much BB rode, especially considering that he didn't stop moving and playing the entire time. He rode over 32 miles all on his own this weekend, with a loaded up bike. I'm sad that Little Brother couldn't make it, he would have loved it. We'll have to do a make up ride for him soon. It was great having some extra time just with Big Brother, though. And now we have some quiet time before LB comes home. In the meantime, BB is eating everything he can find at home. I guess that's the drawback to making him carry his own weight and do more work.

My morning started out lovely. The kids woke up, made their own breakfast, we managed to get out the door on time and we all rode our bikes to get the boys to school. Then, I got on light rail to head up to Folsom to test out the street ride for our final Traffic Skills 101 course. 

I made it about two blocks when I needed to merge out of the bike lane because of parked cars. I scanned, there was traffic, scanned again, signaled, and merged out of the bike lane. The SUV driver who was well enough behind me (and we were coming up to a red light) decided that that wasn't okay for me to do so she GUNNED her engine to speed up and pass me. It was bizarre and all the while she was gesturing at me for being out of the bike lane (door zone, remember?). About 50' up, she squeezed around the car at the red light and made a right turn. I saw her pull into a driveway another 50' down that road so I followed. I know, not the best thing to do, but I was annoyed and just wanted to explain that that was unsafe. 

She pulled into a parking lot and saw me behind her. She jumped out of her SUV and immediately got in my face, her finger literally inches away from my nose. She was aggressive and defensive and said "If you want to talk about this, do it another time because I have to get my kids to school on time." I just tried to tell her that what she did wasn't safe and to be more careful. I was trying really hard to remain calm and polite. She launched into a tirade about how she "has kids in the car," she "was going the speed limit," "has to get her kids to school on time," blah, blah, blah. And within 30 seconds of me just standing there saying "I have a legal right to be there, I know my rights, I was being careful. You were being dangerous." she's called the cops. So I stayed there and waited. She gives them my name and description and they offer to send someone one. While she's on the phone with the dispatcher, she tells them that she is being "harassed by a cyclist," that I was "all up in her face," and that I "swerved in front of her car." 

Since they were sending someone out, I decided to wait for them so I could tell them my side. Everything this person had told them I was doing was exactly what she was doing to me! After she came out of the school where she dropped off her first child, I was still waiting for her. She kept on her tirade, talking about how I was going to die, get myself killed, and so on. At one point, I actually put my bike in between her and myself because I thought she was going to hit me. I wasn't making any movements but I also wasn't going away. She thought I was standing too close to the back of her car so as she was starting to get ready to leave (she wasn't in her car, yet), she kept telling me to leave and get away from her. She said "you're too close, I need to get my kid to school on time and you're going to get hit." She wasn't even near her driver's side door. I just said that I was fine where I was and that since she had called the police, I was going to wait for them. I had her license plate number anyway. 

She pulled away just as the police came so she stopped to talk to one of the officers and I talked to the other. I told him exactly what had happened--I had scanned, signaled, and merged around the door zone, she had sped up and passed me unsafely. He listened and was nice about it. I left as the woman was still talking to the other officer. I'm not sure what they said to her but I've left a message asking for a follow-up report. 

What amazes me (and it shouldn't) is that this person actually sees herself as the victim. I honestly had done nothing wrong and didn't even slow her down in the least. The whole time, she kept repeating "and I have kids in the car!!!" as if that's an excuse for her to drive as she had, as if she was protecting them! This is the first time I've ever had the police called on me but I'm glad I was able to stay calm and collected, and I'm glad that they actually came out to talk to us. I'm sure she's going to be seething all day and unfortunately, unless the police officers reprimanded her, she is probably going to keep thinking that she was in the right. I can't stand the entitlement of drivers! 

After that experience, I continued on my ride without any further issues. Maybe I should change helmets for tomorrow's ride since we'll be coming down the same road at the same time... Here are some other interesting things I saw in Folsom: 

This weekend, we tested out our Crazier Train for the first time! What better time then Kidical MASSive to debut our newest rig?

Our Bike Friday tandem still isn't quite perfect, still needs a tuneup and some fit adjustments but it's rideable. Our friend Keith came by and made our Burley Piccolo rack fit on the back by adding longer rack stays.

Little Brother gets the middle seat because he's known to be a bit erratic and unpredictable at times. Big Brother, on the other hand, is very useful by letting me know about any riding infractions. Last time LB was on the Piccolo, he ended up sitting backwards and dragging his feet on the ground.

Kidical MASSive was great! We had about 25 riders and started at the Oak Park Farmers Market where we got $5 in produce bucks to spend. Melissa and her family counteracted the healthy stuff with boxes of doughnuts to celebrate their daughter's birthday. Then we rode down to the Colonial Heights library to see their garden and learn about their seed library. It's such a great library!

The Crazier Train worked out beautifully. I was even able to add a pannier to the Piccolo rack to carry home all our grapes and books. This will be such a fun adventure bike! The boys were actually helpful pedalers. I can't wait to take this our camping once it's more reliable.

Speaking of camping, this weekend is our second annual Kidical Overnight Extravaganza! We don't have enough cargo space to take the Crazier Train but I plan on letting the boys ride their own bikes as much as possible. I'm even going to load up Big Brother's panniers for the first time.

One bummer today was that someone stole some clothes out of my pannier while I was in class. Dirty gym clothes! I had gotten too complacent about leaving things in the panniers. I came out to find one side open and mostly empty. They left the spare tube and pump and didn't get my helmet that was in the other side. Can't complain too much as it wasn't a big loss, just annoyed at the violation of space and that I lost my favorite tote bag. I'll be more careful about emptying out my bags when I leave them. Ugh.

Nicole sent me an email a few months ago, asking me what I thought about the Bullitt vs. the Mundo. The rest is history! Here is her story on how she and her family decided to use cargo bikes to get out of their car more often. Take it away, Nicole! 

Hi there! I'm Nicole and I live in San Diego with my husband and two little girls. We first got into cargo -biking because I wanted to expand our range around our house that we could travel car-less. We have one car, and my husband was using it to commute to work (8 miles each way at that point). We walked everywhere, but with a bike- I knew we could go so many more places! And I was desperate to incorporate more exercise into our daily routine. 

So, after obsessively reading way too much online, we bought a Yuba Mundo. All cargo bike blogs aside, I wanted to buy something sturdy, that would handle two kids seats, plus groceries or gear, and be "cheap" for a cargo bike. I was attempting to not make this too complicated, and the Mundo met all of these criteria. 

In fact, my husband decided to get in on the action and picked out a bike for himself! He chose the Juiced Riders ODK e-bike. He loves it! They are actually based out of Chula Vista here in San Diego and we all went down and met Tora, and test rode it. He now bike commutes and zips around happily. We have a Yepp Maxi seat that we put on it, too, that works great. My 50-something mom rode it on a visit to us, and she like it a lot, too. It has a nice, low step-through, a low deck, two 20" wheels, and is assisted with crazy-range. I think we will get new handlebar grips, but we like it. 

Anyways, back to the Mundo. I wanted a basic, inexpensive cargo bike. I worked with the guys at Metro Cyclery, who are awesome, and bought it from them. I also had them put a Bion-X kit on it because while not San Fransisco, San Diego has a ton of canyons and hills, and there was no way I was biking around with two kids plus kit up and down significant hills without an assist. When I first got it, I will admit I was a little embarrassed. I mean, an "electric" bike was "cheating". I have totally changed my mind on that. The e-assist in a hilly area especially is what makes the bike a car replacement. Now, I look at people on road bikes and think they are cheating! I think to myself, "Psh, what does your bike weigh? 15 pounds? Yeah, I'd be fast on that, too." How our perspectives evolve. 

Well, the Mundo was a beast. A BEAST! The kickstand was rock solid and I loved it. My toddler used it as a jungle gym. But it was heavy. Really, really heavy. Like 80 or 100 pounds heavy. And it was all top-side. I started with the Yuba bread basket, Yuba's peanut shell, and monkey bars. Then swapped for a Yepp mini and Yepp Maxi trying to balance the weight a bit more, and not have the baby all the way in the back. But I dropped it. I dropped the bike many times actually. I felt like I was fighting a lazy elephant. It was rock solid (like most bikes, I guess), when in motion. But any time we stopped (and we live in the city- it's mostly stop and go traffic), it would want to "rest" I like to say. Imagine an elephant laying down. It would slowly, slowly lean to the side, and I just couldn't stop it. It was a slow motion horror show. "Noooooo". It would lay down. "Up, elephant, UP!" But it didn't obey. 

It was embarrassing to say the least. It always happened when I had an audience, too. And with both kids, and probably involved stuff spilling all over as well. But I'm a dedicated sort of gal, so I kept riding. I figured I was in the throes of my learning curve.

I put over 200 miles on the bike, and finally admitted defeat. If I was tall, with more upper body strength, using the bike for cargo, or just one kid, I think it would be fine. The bike seemed well built, but I just couldn't comfortably wrangle in with two kids, their gear, groceries, trying to stop and start on hills. Not even with e-assist. 

I was angry about buying this bike I couldn't use as I wanted, and had a nice pity party. I felt embarrassed that we'd spent all this money, and it wasn't working! Talk about hurting my pride. Then I emailed Elle to please, please, please help and share her biking goddess wisdom (editors note: awww, shucks!). Time to take some action!

As you would imagine, she was ever so kind and filled with ideas and suggestions on how to make your bike riding more comfortable with my kiddos. And as luck would have it, she was looking for a new home for her Bullitt! I had ridden one initially, but passed due to price. But, my husband and I talked about it, and concluded the money we'd spent on the Mundo was a sunk cost, and did us no good if I didn't actually ride the thing. (I actually tried to convince my husband that he should ride the Mundo, and I would ride the Juiced Rider's or something else. He was having none of that. He loved his bike, and did not like mine.)

So we brought home the Bullitt and love it to pieces. The lower center of gravity makes a huge difference. I never feel like it will tip over. 

I've now put a couple hundred miles on the Bullitt, and the difference is night and day. It does exactly what I want it to: that is to shuttle myself, my two girls, and whatever we might like to carry (beach chairs, groceries, vacuum, diapers, snacks...); and it is carried well with little trouble. I love that it can go fast, and goes up hills well. I had the wonderful folks at Metro Cyclery switch the Bion-X from the Mundo to the Bullit, and had fun towing the two cargo bikes filled with two kids no less, back and forth from the bike shop many times. 

I also love the rear rack from Cycle Trucks Elle put on the Bullitt! It adds so much utility. I have the "baguette" pannier from Yuba strapped onto the rack. I also strap our beach chairs and umbrella to it, and I tow our older child's bike on it. Just love it. Also, our older really enjoys straddling the top tub when I let her, a la Dorie from "Hum of the City". 

If I were to buy a long tail, I would probably buy a midtail, but either way I would *only* do it with 20" wheels. So either a Bike Fiday "Haul a Day", or an Edgerunner or Spicy Curry, and switch out to 20" wheels front and back. We're a household who loves our 20" wheels! They're so much more stable with the lower center of gravity, and quicker to start rolling in city traffic. I don't think the Yuba Mundo is a bad bike inherently, it just wasn't the bike for us.

I hope sharing our cargo-biking journey will help some others. It wasn't always smooth (and still isn't because San Diego has terrible roads), but it was an opportunity to be gentle with myself for not being perfect, and that different people like different bikes. 

Bike away, and don't be afraid to try different things and mix it up to find what works for you!

It's been hard to keep up with everything that's been going on around here and one of the main things I've been meaning to post about has been our changes in the fleet. After getting our first Haul-a-Day, Smurfette, last year, I realized that being a three cargo bike family didn't make sense in a one-adult household. As much as I wanted to hoard ALL the cargo bikes, the Mundo was the first to go. We loved our Mundo so much, she was the bike that started us on this journey in the first place, allowing us to go car-free (now three years!) easily. There were many adventures to be had and she could handle anything we threw at her. However, with the Haul-a-Day, I found that the bikes' usage overlapped enough for one of them to be deemed redundant. Also, the HaD was able to do more than the Mundo, especially with things that were incredibly useful like getting on public transportation and being smaller and easier to maneuver. It was heartbreaking to decide to sell her but knowing that another happy cargo biking family is riding around the streets of Sacramento makes that loss bearable. 

Next, I upgraded our original Beta HaD, Smurfette, to the newer model HaD, the Mk3. Smurfette now lives with my parents whom are both able to take her out on errands and rides. They haven't tried taking the kids out, yet, because it makes them nervous but I'll get them to try soon. 

Another bike popped into our lives as I was searching for a way to help Little Brother get more riding in without being terrified of him riding around streets he's not ready for. Little Brother is a determined soul who tries to keep up with his big brother as best he can but doesn't quite have the listening or focusing abilities that Big Brother has mastered. We had picked up a tandem from a friend with the idea that I could convert it to ride with the boys but realized quickly that that tandem was going to be too much work to fix up and was too big for me to comfortably ride anyway. My much taller boyfriend and his much taller son have been able to set it up for their needs and have been enjoying riding it together. 

We, on the other hand, found a Bike Friday tandem on craigslist and my dad helped me retrieve it from the Bay Area, crammed into the back of the Prius. The BF tandem was in a bit worse shape than I had realized after getting it home, and although I kick myself for not talking down the price a bit more, I still feel like I can get it fit our needs with a bit more elbow grease than I'm used to. So far, I've changed out the stoker handlebars and added crank arm shorteners so my shorties can reach the pedals comfortably. A friend of mine (thank you, Keith!) has searched out a way to make a Piccolo trail-a-bike rack (also thank you, Lamaia!) fit on the back so I could take both boys out for rides and not have to do any work (ha!). The bike still needs some work tuning everything up and dialing the fit for me but after the short rides we've done around the neighborhood, we all agree that it's a blast! I can't wait to go out on an overnight trip and have the kids be as exhausted as I am after the ride! 

Now, if you're keeping tabs, we're two bikes in with two bikes out. I was using the Mk3 Had for just about all my kid-hauling and cargo-wrangling because it was such a lightweight bike to maneuver in and out of our tiny shed, easy to lock-up and stash for errands so our poor Bullitt had been sitting unused for about four months. I finally realized that it was time to let her go as well. I wasn't ready to post an ad on craigslist so I was just starting to ask around when I received a message from a blog reader (hi, Nicole!). She mentioned that she'd bought a Mundo a few months ago and had been trying to love it but it just wasn't working for their needs. She asked what I thought about the Bullitt and how that would be different from the Mundo. A few emails back-and-forth and suddenly, she was ready to take ours off our hands. The tricky part was arranging for transportation from us to San Diego where she lives. A stroke of luck shined upon us when it turned out another cargo biker-internet friend from San Diego (thanks, Mark!) was going to be coming up to Sacramento to  get a Caddyrack from John Lucas. He also happened to have a Cycle Truck that he was ready to sell because he had upgraded to a Beavertail. After posting the Cycle Truck on our Kidical Mass FB page, a Sacramento family claimed dibs within a few hours. So now, he would be coming up to sell his bike and return back with the Bullitt to hand off to Nicole. It was an intricate plan that ended up working out pretty smoothly for all the crazy organizing. Mark and his son even joined us on one of our Kidical Mass rides. Big Brother was so excited to be riding with an older and speedier big kid! 

Mark and I (mostly Mark) were able to finagle the Bullitt and all her accessories into the back of his van for the long ride to her new home. A few days later, I received proof that the whole complicated scheme had worked out and the Bullitt was now happily settling into her new home. I'd like to add that Nicole was able to swap her Mundo's BionX system over to the Bullitt with the help of the wonderful folks at G&O Cyclery and her Mundo has found a new home in the flatlands of Brooklyn. The hills of San Diego make an electric cargo bike a truly car-replacement vehicle. 

While Mark and I were working out the details of Bullitt delivering, I was also trying to sort out how I would transport a bike out to Minnesota for my bike tour with Adventure Cycling Association. I considered renting a bike while I was out there but it would have been a hybrid-comfort type bike, doable but not very fun. I started looking at Bromptons but they're difficult to find used and out of my price-range new. Mark mentioned that he had a Bike Friday New World Tourist that he was looking to sell and as soon as he sent me a photo, I knew it was going to have to be mine. My dad has a Bike Friday Pocket Llama that he's been riding for about 30,000 miles but he hasn't spent much time packing it up in suitcases as Bike Fridays are famous for. I knew that it'd be more complicated that a Brompton fold and was nervous about the extra work but all that worry turned out to be for naught. I am in love with this NWT whom I have named Bluebell. Mark had built her up with three sets of gearing: a double chainring in front, 7-speed cassette in back, and 3-speed internal gearing in the hub. As he said, she races with the best and climbs like a mountain goat. 

So, the final count after all of this: one beautiful Haul-a-Day (Mk3 version), Bike Friday tandem, Bluebell the mountain goat of a BF NWT, Oscar (who is no longer grouchy), cheery little Linus, the Mobic, Big Brother's 20" Large Beinn Islabike, and Little Brother's 16" CNOC (don't tell him, yet, but we're about to upsize him to the Small Beinn now that a friend is ready to sell her son's 20" Small Beinn soon), the Burley Piccolo trail-a-bike, and an off-brand BOB-type single-wheel trailer. Did you catch all that? We've had quite an amazing bike journey and as we keep growing and figuring out what we want our fleet to do for us, our bikes keep evolving to fit our changing needs.