3 posts tagged “bakfiets”

We made good time back home, so I thought we'd skedaddle down to ScienceWorks to see the Star Wars exhibition there.  It's been on for months, but it's finishing in a few weeks, so I thought we'd make a go of it.

We rode the 6kms down there, with her not really knowing what it was.  We had her lovely brown coat on - a bit Jawa or a bit Jedi depending upon how you look at it.  But she also had her (well... my actually) Leia hair beanie.  We locked up the CargoBike and she could see the StarWars signage about the place.  She was SO excited.  Her little buddy Henry has seen it, and he must talk about it a lot.

We walk in, and I see this sign.

I find your lack of tickets disturbing

I explained it to her, but she didn't want to believe it.  She started to tear up, so we headed back out to the bike.  By then, she was having deep heaving sobs.  Not the whingey rubbish we normally get - she was really upset.  That's when I started to shed a few myself.  I'd never seen her so sad.  So I thought it's worth a try, and I headed back in.  She was still crying and I went up to the ticket booth.  The poor guy - he really wanted to help us, but he couldn't.

So, slowly stopping with the tears, we got back into the Cargobike and headed home.  I cheered her up by taking a few pix of her with 'the big gold lady'.

I had been meaning to head to Thornbury to see a friends' new coffee shop they're setting up. In fact, they had a sorta grand opening a few weeks back, but we had to miss it.  Naomi had some work to do (requiring the computer, my main distraction other than the girls) so I thought I'd give her some time out from one of them, and hopefully the younger one would sleep.  So the stone was not only going to kill two, but now three birds as I could stop in a Paul's new bike shop on the way home, just for a looksee (Sat is Paul's only day off).

We caught the train to Croxton station, which meant swapping trains at Southern Cross.  As always, the CargoBike received a lot of positive reaction.  Swapping platforms is easy with the big elevators there. Genevieve was very excited to see the 'Wavy Roof One' again, and we even saw a choo-choo pass through (but then, it regularly passes our place too).

Boarded our second train and by that stage the novelty was over and she kept asking if this station was ours.  I made a crocodile action and told her to listen for 'Crocs-ton'.  So when she heard the announcement, she was rapt.  It's handy having the GPS in the phone although I probably didn't need it on this occasion with the coffee-shop being only two blocks away.

Next it was in to Steve for a coffee, and a hot chocolate for Genevieve.  (It seems that hot chocolate has surpassed the babycino when she's visiting a cafe).  Chris came out too.  She was doing some sanding out the back, and so was dressed accordingly, with boilersuit and breathing mask.

The place already looks great, but will certainly get better with time as they procure some more artworks and, I expect, actual old bikes etc. And Steve was a master at the espresso-machine.

Next, we made our way to the Capital City Trail for the trip home.  We stopped at a few of the playgrounds, and Genevieve also rode some of the distance herself. We also stopped into Paul's little shop.  They've got the perfect venue, (the old VideoEzy shop right on the CCT), but they can't start fitting that out just yet so they have a small store just near it. Genevieve spied some stickers, so of course, had to have a couple.

Then, it was back onto the path for more riding, and more playgrounds, and scaring a flock of pigeons.

Genevieve's runbike also garnered a bit of interest.  In particular, from a few parents whose own kid had to get off his bike to push it over the grass towards the playground.  Genevieve, of course, just ran/rode it straight to the gate.

Traffic

There were quite a few cyclists on the path today, with a disproportionately large number of old tubby blokes.  (He he... probably not much older than me, now I think about it, but they sure looked older). Initially I felt guilty, but they were really holding us back so we ended up passing quite a few - especially on hills.  Whoops.

The new bridge over Manningham Street makes the trip on the CCT much better, so it'll be even easier to get to the zoo now.  When we got home she asked if she could put a sticker on her bike, and we also put on a new honka-hooter.

The Dutch call it a 'Bakfiets' - literally, a 'Box-Bike'.  The English equivalent tends to be 'CargoBike'.  YES, it's easy to ride.  YES, it can carry a really heavy load.  YES, it has gears (8, broadly spaced ones, so good on all but the steepest hills).  And YES, Vievey LOVES it!

I got onto these online (through a variety of sources) and I've managed to become mates with the importer.  There's a photo exhibition on at Federation Square, all about Dutch Bike Culture, starting this week.  I suggested that if he lends me one, I'll ride it to Fed Square and park it out the front every day.  He was rapt.  (And so am I).

I picked it up this morning from Coburg, and rode it home (on the Upfield Bike Path... as I was a bit wary to ride it in traffic on the first ride).  It was fah-reekin weird for the first 3-5 mins, and then, it's just seemless.  It rides like any other bike.  I think it was more the very 'upright' stance that I had to get used to, more than the fact that you're riding a wheelbarrow.

After I got it home, Genevieve and her little buddy Harry had a quick ride (not a long one, as we didn't have a helmet for Harry, so just up and down the street).  Then, we did a decent trip, to the supermarket.

Genevieve absolutely LOVED it, chatting with me and saying hello to people and looking at things I pointed out "Look... there's a dog".  Certainly very different to having her in the trailer (or even in the car, for that matter).

We loaded it up with quite a LOT of shopping, including 10 bottles of ginger beer, and a big olive oil can.  Heavy load.  If anything, it was even more stable with the load. John, our next door neighbour had a ride too.  After a few minutes, he was loving it also.

I've gotta say, I'm really, REALLY impressed.