A Conversation with Kids

I ate lunch with my daughter and her second grade class recently. I sat down and introduced myself as Matt, her dad.

Kid #1: Yeah, we know who you are.

Kid #2: You're the guy that always rides a bike.

Me: Yeah, most days I ride with my kids to school.

Kid #3: Matt, I just learned how to ride a bike two days ago!

Me: That's awesome, Kid #3!

Kid #2 (incredulously): Do you even have a car?

Me: Yes, our family has one car.

Kid #1: What kind of car is it?

Me: It's a van.

Kid #2: Then why do you ride your bike?

Me: Most of the time it's easier, especially to school. I can park right up front on the sidewalk and ride around the little traffic jams.

Kid #2 : You mean you ride in the street ?!

Me: Yeah, you're allowed to ride in the street as long as you follow the Rules of the Road. Did you know that most of the streets in this neighborhood were made before most people owned cars? Folks either walked or rode bicycles everywhere. And that was over 100 years ago.

Kid #4: What kind of van is it?

Me: It's a Honda. It's good for carrying lots of people or stuff, but we don't usually need it for getting to school. Plus our bike is cleaner than our car. Cars are pretty smelly.

Kid #1: Yeah, my friend has a van and the seats are all dirty and smelly, too. It's pretty gross.

Me: Uh, no, the inside of our van is pretty clean. I'm talking about the dirty fumes that come out of the back of the cars.

Kid #4: Our van has a pop-top so we can go camping.

Me: Cool!

And these are just the bits I can remember. The conversation went on for another 10 minutes as I encouraged them to talk less and eat more before heading for the playground. It's interesting to engage kids and let them pelt you with rapid-fire questions. You learn something about them and they learn about you. 

I left the school thinking about how kids still focus on cars as the most acceptable way to get around, even though I feel like Tacoma is shifting back towards a less car-centric way of life. It reminded me of the McCarver Elementary Safe Routes to School Program.  I'm hopeful that the program expands throughout the district, but thankfully our school is proactively addressing the pickup-dropoff traffic issue. They instituted a valet procedure for the private vehicles and added these cool crossing flag buckets to the busier intersections around the school that aren't flagged by volunteer crossing-guards.

Parking is still the main issue around our neighborhood school, which is bordered by narrow residential streets. I really like the "walk the last block" concept and try to live by it on the occasions when we need to drive. I think it's usually faster, safer, and easier. But that's also the main reason that I walk or ride, though I don't think most people look at our bike after school and think "convenience" or "safety."

I should probably eat lunch with my daughter at school more often.

DIY Flag Pole Holder

A reader just commented in our Show Your Colors post:

"I have been contemplating whether a big American flag on the back of our bicycles would help with one of the hazards of biking my children to work in downtown Seattle: folks in big trucks, who are not used to bicycles. One fellow yelled at my husband and 2 yr old for 4 blocks once as they all rolled slowly along 5th Ave. How did you attach yours?" - Molly

I have only had positive feedback from drivers when flying Old Glory on the back of the bike. Instead of honking in frustration, they honk and wave as they pass with plenty of room and give a thumbs-up.  I met a local couple that toured the entire United States by tandem with a small American flag on their rear rack; they testified that it may have saved them from being run off the road on more than one occasion.  Bottom line: It can't hurt.

Here's a behind-the-freeloader look at our DIY flag pole holder on an Xtracycle.

Drilled a row of holes to make a slot for the U-clamp. 

Zip-tied top of PVC to V-rack

Insert flagpole of smaller diameter and ride.

Grocery Run

Sarah and I planned a short rec ride for this morning, 10-15 mies on the Scott Pierson Trail, followed by a grocery run on the way home. We were soaked with some of the coldest rain imaginable by the time we reached the trail entrance behind TOP Foods, so we decided that this was far enough in these conditions. We purchased about 60 pounds of groceries and a 40 pound bag of dog food.

When we came out of the grocery store, the sun was coming out. The rain had stopped and our load made it home completely dry.


I noticed quite a few car drivers doing double takes at the loaded Xtracycle on our way home. While waiting in a turn lane, one car driver hollered, "Very cool, man!"

So far, I've avoided doing big grocery runs with the kids by bicycle, but that's coming. Now that I know Tula can fit in the PeaPod, the logistics of getting the two girls to the grocery store on the Xtracycle are falling in to place. A sunny day would also be helpful!

Learning about Bicycles

It's been a while since I've spent a 36°F night out in the garage working on bikes until I can't feel my fingers. Today my dad brought over two 20" kid bikes that he aquired while helping someone move, so I had an excuse to do some wrenching in the cold. We've done this a few times before where he finds the needy bikes, I fix 'em up, and then we place them in a good home. The problem is that some bikes are worth working on and others are not.



Yes, the fork of the blue one was backwards. Both also had bent brake calipers and other borken bits here and there. I took the broken stuff off, then adjusted seats and bars, aired the tires (all were good, I was shocked), and flipped them over to inspect the tranny.

The orange one was fine, though the hub needed adjustment. I'm sure someone thought the front hand brake was a good idea, but I doubt that it ever helped to stop the bike any faster. I ditched it since the coaster brake worked ok. My first BMX bike only had a coaster brake and I remember it stopping on a dime (though it likely did not.) On to the blue bike.

The blue bike was problematic. When coasting, there was a horrendous high pitched grinding noise that seemed to come from inside of the hub. I thought maybe it just needed the outter cone adjusted, but that was not the case. So, I just took it apart completely. Why not?

I've never taken a coaster brake hub apart before, so it took a while to figure out. Late in the game, I remembered reading somewhere that you should use a bench vise to hold the wheel on one side. Bingo. I cleaned everything up and tried to understand it's workings. I reassembled it twice, wrongly thinking I had found and solved the problem. I finally deduced that the spring which controls the un-braking mechnism needed to be reshaped a bit and heavily greased. I'm glad I bought those cone wrenches ages ago when they were on sale.

With the bike returned to it's upright and fully locked position, I returned to the house for a cup of tea and some cookies.

Dude, where's your car?

You may have noticed in the numerous bike photos taken in my garage that there is never a car in there. Don't let me mislead you, Reader, into thinking that I don't own and use a car regularly.

My wife and I each had a vehicle. They fit nicely in our two-car garage. Then I started bussing and carpooling the 14 miles to work in 2003. By late 2004, we had sold the pick-up and kept the hatchback as our shared vehicle. It was great. We saved tons of money on insurance and car payments, and surprisingly put less miles on the hatchback every month than we were before.

However, with our first child on the way in 2005, we decided that we needed to add a vehicle to our fleet with more modern safety features. And, to be honest, we weren't sure how we would juggle commutes and daycare dropoffs with just one car. It didn't seem possible, and, without changing where we lived or worked, it really wasn't possible.

After only 9 months running car-lite, we were back where we started. Two cars. It was easy. We drove more.

But, where are those cars now, you might ask? Well, in the late summer of 2007, after nearly two years of shuttling our daughter to daycare and with a second child on the way, my wife decided to reduce her hours at work and stay home more. After a few months of consistent bike commutes and carpools by me, we proved that the little hatchback was now excessive and sold it to a family friend. When child number two arrived we traded to a minivan so we could haul more people/kids/dogs/things at once and combine more trips. It works for us.

We have been a car-lite, family-of-four for just over a year now, and I can't think of a single time where we were put in a bind because we didn't have a second vehicle. Like many folks, we borrow someone's truck now and then for big hauls, but that's about it.

A few more personal opinions on automobiles and their energy consumption:
1. Not everyone needs to drive an automobile for every trip, even if they own one. We take the bus downtown with the kids on weekdays to the Children's Museum to avoid parking hassles and to teach our children about public transportation. It takes a few extra minutes, but we notice more about our city from our chauffeured seats on the bus.
2. I don't bash on folks that drive inefficient vehicles. Not everyone can afford a new, gas-sipping car. And let's try to look at the big picture here (or at least one interpretation of it) and agree that all cars pollute, even the ones with batteries. Driving a used car into the ground may be a better solution in some cases.
3. Ethanol is wasteful to produce and consume. If you think that running out of crude oil sounds bad, let's imagine running out of food because we eventually become so dependent on burning it to get to the grocery store.
4. I'm not worried about global warming in the short-term. I'm worried about the immediate impact of your tailpipe emissions on the health of my family.
5. The City of Tacoma should charge every resident a fee for on-street parking in the city. It could be collected when you renew your vehicle registration.
6. I worked for an oil company in a group of seven employees. On any given day, four of us vanpooled, carpooled, biked, bused, or telecommuted to work. When friends and relatives would inevitably ask me, "So, why are gas prices so high?" I would have to ask them, "Well, did you drive somewhere today?"
7. Not driving a car from A to B is very patriotic.

How's it lookin' back there?

I usually do my big grocery shopping trips at night after the kids are in bed. There's less traffic, both on the road and in the isles, so I can usually get more done in less time.

From Xtracycle

After returning home from a recent trip, I began to wonder about my night-time visibility to cars approaching from the rear, since I can at least see what's coming at me from up ahead. I always wear a reflective vest at night as well as a blinkie on my Bell Metro helmet. The Xtracycle also has a bottle-dynamo driven light set, but it's the many added reflectors that seem to be doing the most good.

Day...(notice LED standlight)

From Xtracycle

Night...

From Xtracycle

I think adding some reflective tape to the corners of the H-racks would seal the deal...