The Great Bike Swaps

9/8/2015

Chaos!

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.

Our first adventure bike

Mundo's moved on

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.

Haul-a-Day Beta, Smurfette

'Nama showing off her cargo biking skills

Newer HaD, version Mk3...needs a name...

So talented!

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.

First tandem attempt

Fits them much better!

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.

Happy days on the Crazy Train!

Thanks, Mark!!!

Whew!

New happy home

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.

Have bike, will travel.

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.