Little brother's helping me steer.
The last two days have been fantastic. We've been celebrating 'Nama's birthday week and culminated her actual day on Thursday with a doughnut run and a 41 mile bike ride. Nothing like a dozen doughnuts to power through a long ride. I was surprised with how few stops we made along the way. It definitely helped to have 'Nama and G'ampa to help distract the babies. Little Brother wasn't feeling as well so he spend a good portion of the trip sleeping. I think that the windscreen would really help him be more comfortable and help protect him from dust and debris. One more step towards full Mundo-van-dom. Although I was a feeling the miles towards the end, I was quite happy to see that my body survived and felt pretty darn good the next day. The only thing I feel I need to be more careful of is the way I pedal around the Yepp. It is not a great situation for long rides and I am planning on taking it off for touring.
Doughnut fairy rides again!
Hagan's swings never get old.
Today was the first "group" ride, a 2-miler, just meant to help get people used to city riding and have a great excuse to drink some yummy Old Soul Coffee. Sadly, many of my riders called in busy and on the way over, Jose's bike decided to call in broken (the rear wheel actually popped off while he was riding, luckily there was minimal damage to the bike and none to him). So when I got to Grant Park, my two faithful parents were there, waiting in their matching neon jackets with their matching Bike Fridays. I love them. Since it was just us, we decided on a longer ride down the bike trail to Old Town and a stop in to Practical Cycle to pick up a few things.
Lovely morning at the shop, it was fairly quiet and I got a chance to talk with Tim and his son, Cassidy. I mentioned to Tim that my brakes were a bit loose and he went straight to work, checking out this and that and somehow managed to do an almost-complete bike tune up right there in the middle of the shop. My brakes were frightfully loose, the crank arms were, too, the Yepp Mini was spinning on the spacers wildly, and my tires were a bit low. Whoops! I guess I had been a little too excited to get off and riding on my Mundo and had let things stretch a bit too much. Thankfully, Tim was nice enough not to lecture me about proper bike maintenance and I had to promise him to bring the bike back in during the week to get my spokes tightened up. While I was there, Cassidy ordered some trailer tires for me (awesome white walls and great price!) which should be there before our camping trip. I also picked up an alternative trailer hitch clamp that we should be able to swap for the one that is on the Chariot arm and the we'll be able to move the trailer back and forth between any bike. The problem with the Yepp was that the hitch is not designed to fit on a threadless stem (as I had mentioned before). We had been able to get it to "fit" but as Tim found out, it was wobbling--not because it wasn't tight enough, but because it was clamped to the spacers on the headset and the spacers were spinning freely, taking the Yepp with it. One of the reviewers for the Yepp had mentioned that he solved the threadless headset problem by just taking the spacers out and clamping it directly onto the fork. I mentioned this to Tim and off he went to try it out. That's how it is now and it's working perfectly. Problem solved! So, the Mundo is feeling great with its mini tune-up and I'm feeling better about having working brakes and a solid baby seat.
Jose finally got his bike up and running and met up with us at my folks' house to fiddle with the bikes a bit more. We moved the Peanut Shell farther up the utility board, giving enough space for a third person on the back. Jose was my first victim...er...passenger. You can tell from his white knuckles in the photo that he wasn't quite comfortable with my riding. It was difficult to get used to because he would counteract my balancing and get us wiggling all over the place. I finally got him to put his feet on the lower bars and that helped him calm down and keep us steadier. I need a lot more practice with big people before I can get everyone on the bike at once.
'Nama's birthday was celebrated again this evening with delicious burritos and ice cream cake then we ditched Big Brother at their house for his slumber party and the hubby, Little Brother, and I rode home for a "quieter" evening.
My goal had been to rack up 300 miles for the month of March but looking at tomorrow's weather, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm at 268 now and I'm hoping to squeeze in a couple more tomorrow. Soggy or not, 268 is just too weird of a number to sign off on.
Lovely morning at the shop, it was fairly quiet and I got a chance to talk with Tim and his son, Cassidy. I mentioned to Tim that my brakes were a bit loose and he went straight to work, checking out this and that and somehow managed to do an almost-complete bike tune up right there in the middle of the shop. My brakes were frightfully loose, the crank arms were, too, the Yepp Mini was spinning on the spacers wildly, and my tires were a bit low. Whoops! I guess I had been a little too excited to get off and riding on my Mundo and had let things stretch a bit too much. Thankfully, Tim was nice enough not to lecture me about proper bike maintenance and I had to promise him to bring the bike back in during the week to get my spokes tightened up. While I was there, Cassidy ordered some trailer tires for me (awesome white walls and great price!) which should be there before our camping trip. I also picked up an alternative trailer hitch clamp that we should be able to swap for the one that is on the Chariot arm and the we'll be able to move the trailer back and forth between any bike. The problem with the Yepp was that the hitch is not designed to fit on a threadless stem (as I had mentioned before). We had been able to get it to "fit" but as Tim found out, it was wobbling--not because it wasn't tight enough, but because it was clamped to the spacers on the headset and the spacers were spinning freely, taking the Yepp with it. One of the reviewers for the Yepp had mentioned that he solved the threadless headset problem by just taking the spacers out and clamping it directly onto the fork. I mentioned this to Tim and off he went to try it out. That's how it is now and it's working perfectly. Problem solved! So, the Mundo is feeling great with its mini tune-up and I'm feeling better about having working brakes and a solid baby seat.
Jose finally got his bike up and running and met up with us at my folks' house to fiddle with the bikes a bit more. We moved the Peanut Shell farther up the utility board, giving enough space for a third person on the back. Jose was my first victim...er...passenger. You can tell from his white knuckles in the photo that he wasn't quite comfortable with my riding. It was difficult to get used to because he would counteract my balancing and get us wiggling all over the place. I finally got him to put his feet on the lower bars and that helped him calm down and keep us steadier. I need a lot more practice with big people before I can get everyone on the bike at once.
'Nama's birthday was celebrated again this evening with delicious burritos and ice cream cake then we ditched Big Brother at their house for his slumber party and the hubby, Little Brother, and I rode home for a "quieter" evening.
My goal had been to rack up 300 miles for the month of March but looking at tomorrow's weather, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm at 268 now and I'm hoping to squeeze in a couple more tomorrow. Soggy or not, 268 is just too weird of a number to sign off on.
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