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Haul-A-Day Kickstarter

11/22/2014

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Yesterday was the official opening of Bike Friday's Haul-A-Day Kickstarter campaign. In less than 24 hours, they had already met their goal and are now moving into their stretch-goal range. For the next 24 hours, you can support Bike Friday's goal of increasing their Haul-a-Day production capability and developing their accessory offerings to improve the Haul-a-Day's adaptability. I love how Alan calls this bike the SUV-replacement vehicle.

You can check out their page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/greengear/haul-a-day-the-strong-and-light-cargo-bike-built-f and score your own Haul-a-Day at a nice discount!

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The Caddyrack

11/20/2014

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Life on the Bullitt before the Caddyrack was okay. We had to do some finagling to get a rack on there because Bullitts surprisingly don't come with braze-ons for mounting a rack. I used a rack-mount seatcollar and had a freebie rack put on that was in the bike shop. It wasn't ideal but it added more room for cargo. I was amazed that once the boys were in the box (or the box was full), there was little room left for the rest of our stuff.
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Only room for one set of panniers, small because of the risk of heel-strikes.
Once we got the Piccolo, I installed the special rack and that was slightly better. Now, we could get one munchin out of the box and "helping" to pedal, leaving more space in the box for extra "stuff." The Burley Piccolo rack was sturdier than the one we had before but it still wasn't ideal for panniers because of the mounting bracket. 
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Crazy Train!
Our next set-up has been an amazing upgrade: John Lucas's Caddyrack! It has changed our Bullitt for the better. 
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Prototype #1
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Great towing capacity!
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Testing out the whole rig.
The Caddyrack is unlike any other rack I've seen. Because there weren't any mounting points at the seatpost, John used a sleeve-type mount on the seatpost and bolted it into the frame by the dropouts. 
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We've had the rack for a few months now and I've been really impressed with its versatility. We can tow bikes both large and small, sometimes even two at once! 
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We can carry an extra kid sitting on the deck, although we're working on some foot-guards to keep them toesies out of the spokes so for now, it's just for short rides with very trustable kids. 
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The Caddyrack has its very own Burley Piccolo mount built in! Easy on-off when we need our Crazy Train to load up. 
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The side bars at the bottom are wonderful for stabilizing a large load. 
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This was a super heavy load, maybe about 100lbs. We didn't go far but it worked. I needed real tie-downs for this.
It can hold panniers (although my rack design doesn't have a lower bar to attach the bottom of panniers, yet. That was a feature we discovered was needed after this prototype was developed). 
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We don't have a Yepp Maxi seat but there is a built-in bracket for that, too! 

The Caddyrack has basically doubled our carrying capacity for the Bullitt, something that I had always been a bit frustrated about. This rack adds about 10ish lbs but we're riding around on a bike that weighs 80 already and we add 90lbs of kid most often. The benefits and functionality of this rack are worth it. I love it! 
12 Comments

Mundo + Yak trailer

11/12/2014

1 Comment

 
Our friend, Russ, just sent us an email with this awesome DIY Mundo hack to add extra cargo capacity:

"Before I bought my Yuba Mundo about a year ago, I used a Bob Yak trailer when I had a lot of cargo to haul.  Having the Mundo has been a big improvement on hauling capacity, flexibility, and stability.  But from the start I was wondering if there might be a way to attach the Yak trailer to the Mundo to further up my hauling capacity.  I started to work on that this AM, and over 30 or 40 minutes came up with two different “engineered” solutions that would have involved more or less work with metal pipes or brackets.  Then I took one more close look at the Mundo and noticed the lower set of bolt-on bosses on the rear vertical support for the rear rack.  I think that these bosses are used for attaching the large black plastic spoke protectors (which I don’t use).  The space between the bosses’ outside edges was close to the space between the mounting dropouts on the Yak.  I had already taken apart the special rear hub quick release that attaches the Yak to a regular bike’s rear axle, and had the thick, shouldered washers that the Yak dropouts rest in.  I bolted these to the rack bosses—the shouldered washers are recessed and the bosses fit inside the recesses—and checked to see how close it came to fitting the Yak.  Miracle of miracles, the spacing was right on!  The trailer fit perfectly and the retainer clips that hold the trailer dropouts to the bike worked as well.  I loaded the trailer with about 25 pounds and took it for a test ride.  It handled very well; a lot more stable than it would have been on my regular bike.  I replaced the stock screws on the Mundo rack with slightly longer ones and thicker washers for a more secure attachment to the rack.  Total cost at the hardware store was 98 cents.  I don’t think that those bosses on the Mundo rack are engineered for a heavy load, but I think that it will be reasonably safe for trailer loads of up to 40 lbs., since the load is shared between the trailer wheel and the bike attachment.  All together, it makes for a very long bike/trailer set up—about 11.5 feet.  So I will be using the dorky Yak safety flag to help alert drivers to the long load.   I’m excited about discovering this hack and hope that others are able to use it!"
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1 Comment

Bike camping for the soul

11/10/2014

9 Comments

 
I started this website about two and a half years ago. It was a way to hold myself accountable for my goal of living a gentler life on this planet and sharing our adventures with others. I try to be honest about the difficulties we've faced going car-free with the rest of our lives moving along. Earlier this year, I posted about working on staying positive. After last year's depression, I was ready to move forward and live a life that felt authentic to me--to focus on my boys and my work with bicycle education and touring. What I hadn't realized at the time was that that also meant letting go of my marriage. Jose moved out earlier this year and since then, it's been a roller coaster of emotions and reevaluations. I've pared out a lot of things out of my life since then that were not necessary or beneficial but also added some very wonderful people to my circle. I've focused on being gentler to myself and giving myself the freedom to be happy with what's evolving. It's been hard. Most days, it seems that nothing has changed. Some days, the reality sets in and it's overwhelming. The boys are happy and have adjusted wonderfully. I am so lucky to have such resilient children. Bicycling helps me work through my feelings of failure and allows me to focus on what's ahead. 

This weekend was particularly rough because Big Brother's birthday fell on one of my weekends without the boys. I took myself (and Oscar 2.0) on a bike overnight to recharge. The weather has been beautiful (a little too beautiful for it being November) and I wanted to take advantage of my time alone. 
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Tested out a new eyeglass mirror. Made my brain hurt so I took it off eventually. I miss my handlebar mirror.
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Bike art along Putah Creek Rd. (no, I don't mean the PBR box).
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Cozy tent for the night. This is a Coleman Peak 1 Cobra tent that I've had for about 10+ years. It packs into a tiny bag, under 4lbs, one pole and not freestanding but the ground was soft and easy to stake. The entire top is mesh so it got a bit chilly but I wanted to see the stars and left off the rainfly.
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Took myself out to breakfast at my favorite Winters cafe. Arrived before the roadies took over and ate a roast beef and bleu cheese sandwich at 8:30am. It was amazing.
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Fully loaded for one person. I had plenty of room to spare.
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Heading back on the Amtrak from Davis.
Life is different now but it's still very, very good. I am so grateful for all the support the boys and I have received to help us through this time. I am happy with the way things are going and look forward to continue experiencing this new adventure. 
9 Comments

Parties by bike

11/2/2014

1 Comment

 
This week, we partied! 

First, the boys and I joined my parents at the ECOS Environmentalist Of The Year Awards. My mom received an award for all her hard work this past year. She has dedicated her life to creating positive change and I am so proud of her! The event was a great inspiration with some incredible people doing incredible work--I feel so lucky to be related to one of those amazing folks. 
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And, of course, we biked there. 
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Next, we had to celebrate Halloween at Big Brother's school. 
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Look fast, there's a ninja!
Last night was the SABA Velo Ball, an annual fundraiser with silent auction and raffle. I was invited to join Mellissa and the NNTMA crew. There was fun schmoozing, delicious food, and valet bike parking! Mellissa and I rode out together. It was wonderful to get an opportunity to go out to a party without having to run around after the kids! I felt very adult. 
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To wrap up the week, Big Brother had a surprise birthday party with some of our neighborhood friends. My dad and I brought over the food and boys' bikes by cargo bike to the newly revamped McClatchy Park. 
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It's great to have so many bikey friends!
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Little Brother's rolling in the street!
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My peloton!
I'm looking forward to a quieter week to recover from all our social butterflying. 
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