21 January 2010

Dry Run





Today was the first ride with our new DIY rain cover.  It wasn't raining, but 40°F and damp would have to do.  The kids were so excited that they practically tripped over one another running out to the garage.  There was quite a bit of giggling en route to pre-school while they played with the camera and read books.  Compared to our normal ride, I couldn't tell that the cover was on, but the kid noise was slightly muffled. (I'm putting that in the pro column.)  It looks big, but it doesn't have a profile much wider than my body, so any added drag was unnoticeable.

The kids arrived warm and dry, I didn't have to spend five minutes pre-ride finding hats, gloves, scarves, etc. for each one, and the van stayed parked in the garage the whole time.  Win Win Win.




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8 comments:

  1. Mama-sanJanuary 21, 2010 at 12:50 PM

    looks like they had a cozy ride to school!

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  2. inkandpenJanuary 21, 2010 at 1:53 PM

    This. Is. Awesome. Very well done! It looked enormous when I first saw it, but that's because I've been designing for our itty bitty baby. The dimensions make much more sense once you get the kids inside!

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  3. Matt in TacomaJanuary 21, 2010 at 2:35 PM

    Yeah, it seemed huge to me, too, until I had to reach inside with my helmet on to buckle the kids. Plenty of room. We also wanted to give them some room to wiggle around and be kids without destroying it. So far so good!

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  4. Evan SirokyJanuary 21, 2010 at 9:23 PM

    Looks nice!

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  5. saraJanuary 22, 2010 at 10:36 AM

    Glad to see that the first run went well. You look like you have quite happy 'cargo' back there! Now bring on the rain showers....

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  6. bikemomFebruary 3, 2010 at 11:58 PM

    Ok, how much are you charging? :)
    I'm in Seattle and I regularly carry and bunch of kids (with electric assist for hills) and I only bought the Madsen b/c of the rain cover and I'm dying for one...
    but I'm not particularly handy.

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  7. Matt in TacomaFebruary 4, 2010 at 9:41 AM

    bikemom: I'll have to talk with my wife about taking orders. We put about $80-$90 of materials into it, so the price would be something above that. We still have some detail work to do, reflective bits and bobs, but overall the cover works great and is holding up well (with only 34 miles of testing, maybe 10 of that in the wet.) Drop me a line if you'd like to work out some details. matt (dot) newport (at) gmail

    I'm interested to hear more about your e-assist Madsen...

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  8. Anita AnnFebruary 11, 2010 at 8:22 PM

    Looks awesome!

    ReplyDelete