17 December 2009

Would you, could you, with a bike?

I've read stories about bike moves in Portland and Minneapolis, where armadas of cargonistas move a family of four and their worldly possessions across town in a day.  And Sam in Bozeman proved that even solo bike moves were possible.  So when Evan asked to borrow our Madsen and maybe a trailer so that he could move all of his stuff to a new condo, I jumped at the opportunity to help with, what I think may be, Tacoma's first bike move.

He moved everything himself using a 2005 Burley d'Lite trailer (for smaller stuff like boxes and dresser drawers full of clothes) and a Madsen kg271 "Bucket Bike" (for the chest of drawers and a queen-size bed set.)



The most awkward piece was the mattress.  I went along to help with loading and traffic flagging, but mostly to rubber-neck.  Here we are using the recently-striped S. 12th Street bike lane.



The slow trip was just under three miles.  One passing driver honked and gave us the thumbs up.  A man on the sidewalk nodded approvingly and said, "Now that's how you do it."  I think the entire move was done in sub-freezing temps and it was around 25°F on this particular morning.  Unfortunately my mittened hands are not very adept with a camera while riding, so I only have this one photo of us en route.

When I asked Evan what he thought of the Madsen: "It's awesome."

3 comments:

Blaine said...

does his nice mattress have a rooster tail of grit on it now?

Matt in Tacoma said...

nope...fortunately it had been unusually dry for weeks during that cold stretch...plus the rear wheel of the Madsen is properly fendered...

sara said...

So great. It is inspiring to see what folks can do by bike.