Portland adventures continue!

By the third riding day, we had much better organizational skills. The boys wore their rain suits and "ninja masks" because the Kr8 didn't come with a rain cover and the box was still wet from the snow the day before. Notice, however, that Big Brother still managed to leave the house without gloves and he had grown out of the boots I had brought for him. I started bringing an extra bag so we'd have everything mostly contained for when we would inevitably have to schlepp it around with us when we left the bike. 

Despite all my moaning about the Kr8, one of my favorite things about it was how much cargo space was in the box! Since the kids sit on an elevated bench, the rest of the box is free for all our extra layers, snacks, etc. I actually still could have used some panniers on the rack but we managed. 

We rode over to coffee to meet up with Madi, Kath, and Sarah. The bike was feeling more natural and easier (relative, it's still a beast!) to ride, especially with Kath's special mostly-flat routes.

After coffee, we made a trip back over to Clever Cycles. Todd had offered to swap out the Kr8 for another cargo bike, a BionX-powered Douze. He had also mentioned that there was a rain cover that I could use--score!

I'm in love with this bike (but in the red)!

So much awesome bikey-goodness at Clever!

It wasn't a difficult decision to swap bikes. I'm sure there are many people out there who absolutely love the Kr8 but while I don't necessarily hate it, it's not the bike for me. The Douze is just about as different as you can get from the Kr8. Even with the BionX system, it still weighed less and was easier to maneuver. The riding position was similar to the Bullitt and much more my style. Todd had warned us that the Douze would be a bit bouncy-feeling but I felt that it was actually much more pronounced in the Bullitt. If this had been my bike, I would have made some changes to the cockpit but it was just fine for my temporary needs. The box on the Douze was also similar to the Bullitt in that the seat is flat on the box floor which made the boys legs go straight in front, taking up most of the cargo space. I really could have used a rack and panniers to compensate but made due with what we had. The box is also wider than the Bullitt's which gave extra elbow room for the wiggly boys. Having the rain cover was wonderful! A Blaq Designs cover like Kath's would have been the best but it was nice for the boys and our gear to escape the constant drizzly rain and so helpful to be able to close up the top when we left the bike and know our gear would stay pretty safe and dry inside.

Photo by Madi (familyride.us). Yes, there are kids tucked in there somewhere.

Beautiful, grey, bikey Portland!

We also stopped in at Splendid Cycles, another amazing family bike shop. They pretty much only sell cargo bikes--Bullitts, Xtracycles, and the new Butchers & Bicycles tilting trikes, many of them with various electric assist options. They're also wonderfully kid-friendly with the cutest shop doggy and a bucket of chalk for kids to draw all over their floor with. 

Joel let Madi and me take the Butchers & Bicycles trike out for a test ride. 

Joel demonstrating the "tilt"

We were both pretty excited for the test ride!

Ooo, tilty! (Notice new placement of child in box. That wasn't helpful for the first experience)

That's Mike Cobb, another cool Portland bike person! He makes the Yuba Tool: https://sites.google.com/site/yubatool/

Finally, a trike I'd actually ride! I haven't really hidden the fact that I'm not a trike person (sorry, Neil). While they may be stable when you're stopped, riding them actually still requires a lot of weird balancing. They're also so slow and wide and heavy. Not a good combination, in my opinion (yes, I realize that they're perfect for other people). This trike is so much fun! It tilts so you can lean into a turn, making it a much more natural feel while riding. Balancing and steering is closer to a two-wheeled bike than the Nihola or Christiania. The boys loved being inside the little bubble (which is a great feature for trikes, I'll admit that) and the swinging door in front was a nice feature. 

After playing bikes, we were all starving so Kath led us over the the food trucks. The kids could run around a bit and we shoved our faces full of delicious crepes. By the end of the day, we were tired and cold but we had BionX! Being unfamiliar with the neighborhoods and routes, having the assist gave me so much more confidence to ride longer distances and more often. We didn't use much assist while we were riding around town with Kath and crew, usually around level one or two, just enough to offset the weight of the system and the kids. However, on the way home, I decided to just go for it and cranked it up to level four and took Google's route home which ended up being just about 5 miles of steady uphill and a couple of steeper grades. We took the hills at about 13-15mph and I wasn't even out of breath. It was a blast! Made it home in about 30 minutes, about half the time it took to get us there on the Kr8 (which had been downhill). 

On our last day in Portland, we weren't going to let the steady rain stop us from more bike time! With our gear stashed under the cover and us decked out in our rain suits, we left again to meet up with Kath for coffee and general bike meandering. The Portland rain is deceiving. It looks light but it's drenching! I tried to avoid wearing my rain pants but even with two layers of leggings and a skirt, I was drenched in less than a mile and had to put them on. I would certainly invest in a Cleverhood if I lived somewhere it actually rained. 

Even though I had only used about 1/10th of the battery life from the day before, I topped it up overnight to have a full charge for the day. I was getting used to the main bike boulevards Clinton and Everett/Davis but still found myself in weird locations on occasion. 

Our rain gear pile. Kath knows all the tricks!

Rookie mistake--no seat cover! Glad I still had my rain pants.

The puddles of rain on the cover kept the boys entertained for hours!

Kath took us over the new Tilikum Crossing, a bike/ped/public transport bridge. I tried so hard to avoid the BionX-assist in solidarity with Kath who was riding a heavy Workscycle bakfiets with children bigger than mine (and a horrible cough), but I ran out of low gears by the foot of the bridge and needed more power. That was one of the few issues I had with the Douze, I would need a wider gear range. 

Once we were back to the east side of Portland, we left Kath and crew for our own adventure. Despite riding about 10 miles on a cargo bike with 100 lbs of kid, I hadn't made a dent in the battery, yet. To change that, we rode up Mt. Tabor. This actually took some of my own pedal power to get all the way up, even with the assist, but it was still fun and not at all exhausting. 

By the time we reached the top, the boys were starting to lose it. They were cold and hungry and ready to be back at the condo. We stopped briefly for some photos and to look down at the lights of cars stuck in traffic below us but headed back down quickly. The BionX came in handy again when I was able to put it into regenerative mode to add resistance to slow us down but not have to grip the brakes super hard (my hands were pretty numb by then). 

I was following Google's route, again, and in unfamiliar territory. We got into some trouble when we were suddenly faced with an incredibly steep downhill that ended at a very busy and dangerous crossroad. I debated our options for a few seconds before I turned us around and pushed the bike to face uphill again and find a safer route. If we had been on a different bike, I wouldn't have been able to get us out of that situation. We finally made it back to the condo, cold and wet but happy. The boys peeled off their layers and plopped themselves by the heater while I plugged in the BionX and tried to warm up before I had to leave to go out again that evening. The trip up Tabor and our circumventing route back had taken a chunk out of the battery finally. 

I love this bike.

About 45 minutes later, I got back on the Douze and headed over to Clever Cycles, again. I had to return the bike and Madi was there giving a reading of her new book, Urban Cycling! On the ride over, I once again found that using Google's routes got me into some tricky situations. I was familiar with most of the ride but as it got darker, became rush hour traffic, I ended up on some busy arterials. There were bike lanes but many were in the doorzone and I had a very wide bike that barely fit in them. Traffic was nerve-wracking and I was so grateful to have an electric assist to be able to keep up with the flow and not have to worry about being exhausted in addition to using all my focus to get through complicated intersections where I had no concept of where they led. It had been so much easier having my own personal tour guides! 

 I was so happy to have made it! Madi is amazing and you need to buy her book. Probably you should buy two or more so you can give them out to all your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and that guy you see riding the wrong way down the bike lane without lights at night. Just keep a few spares in your panniers (they have rounded edges for easy portability!). The event was great and I was able to finally meet a few of the folks I've been following on Twitter and Facebook (Real-Life People)! Having an online biking community has been the greatest help in our car-free, bike-centric journey and so many of the people there had been integral in offering suggestions and support along the way. 

We're now back home after 11.5 hours in the car. The kids were so patient and helpful. I'm looking forward to getting back to my best bike friend, Babe the Blue HaulaDay. I'm also really excited to know that I have some more exciting adventures already planned for next year that will take me back up to Portland! Thanks, PDX! 

My favorite people being wonderful, as usual.