New Bike

As everyone whose family has ever had a bike-to-people ratio greater than 2-to-1 knows, the perfect number of bikes a family should own is N+1, where N is the number of bikes you currently own. With that in mind, April bought a new bike.

You might think that's crazy, but in reality we've been suffering a serious bike deficit lately. We've fallen well below the 2-1 ratio. Right before moving we sold our recumbent trikes because we'd decided that Oregon City wasn't that suited for trikes; it's hillier than Loveland, and there aren't as many super-wide bike lanes. And April sold her upright bike as well. It was over 10 years old, and she'd put well over 1000 miles on it, so she was due for a new one. Her needs had changed, she wanted a lighter, easier to pedal, bike.

So, yesterday we went bike shopping. And ended up getting a Kona Ute. It's a longbike; a somewhat obscure type of bike that's designed for carrying lots of stuff. After getting it home we headed to the store for a test ride. April on the longbike and Rich on his not-so-long (i.e. normal, plain, not-so-cool) bike pulling the kids in the tag-a-long and trailer. She bought $60 worth of groceries, which fit into two of the store's reusable bags, and then found the stores bags fit perfectly into her bike's saddle bags. So she simply dropped the bags in and we headed back home.

We were most pleased, and are now searching for additional saddlebags. The bike comes with two, but will hold four, so we're hoping to obtain two more. And in the meantime, we thought "hmmm.... what else could this bike carry?..." the obvious answer: People!

So today, Travis hopped on the back for a quick test ride. And, as you can see from the pictures below he thought it was great! Unfortunately (as you can also see from the pictures) seeing Travis and Mom biking away without her made Hailey very sad. Very very sad. We didn't think she'd be able to hang on, so we weren't going to give her a ride, but we did put her on the bike in an attempt to make her happy. And while this did make her somewhat less sad, since they weren't moving she never quite got into the happy zone.

So then it was dad's turn. He got a little ways into the happy zone, and would have gotten further if April hadn't been complaining about how hard it was to pedal with all the weight on board.

In the end, fun was had by all. Except maybe Hailey...





P.S. That Borg-implant-like thing sticking out of April's head is a mirror. The Portland bike shop biker-dude said it was the best "regardless of the dork factor". Only the best for us!