8 posts tagged “bike”

Riding to school?

Apr 30, 2008
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2008-04-29

http://yehudamoon.com - I read him every day. Today's one got me thinking. Do I want Genevieve to ride to school? If so, how? And at what age?

Yes, got a few ideas, and dunno.

Both of the potential schools for Genevieve are easily within walking distance. So, that would make them within cycling distance too - which (potentially) would be a little easier time-wise. Currently, I walk with her in the backpack and me pushing my bike, so I can ride to work from there. She would (sometimes) like to walk, but in the morning, that would just take too long. And the bike trailer is a bit of a pain to hitch/unhitch every day.

I have thought about getting one of these - which I would favour over a rear-mounted bike seat.

The WeeRide is a great idea, but what we have now is working pretty well as the distance from our place to the Childcare Centre is so short.

But, when she's ready for school, she'll probably have a (real) bike of her own!

That's where the TrailGator may come in.

This is basically a pole, that attaches their bike to your bike. It's not light, because it has to attach very securely, and with some strength. You can see from the photo, it keeps the little-un's bike's front wheel off the ground. It bolts onto your seatpost, and their headtube (with an attached bracket). The clever thing, however, is if they want to ride you can unclip it from their headtube bracket and it telescopes into itself and is kept alongside your rear wheel, on the seat stay.

What does this mean? If they want to ride, they can ride. If they don't want to ride, they can be towed - safely! Best of both worlds I reckon.

Still got a few years to think about it anyway - but I've already set up the eBay Seach/email.

Cyclovia

Apr 13, 2008
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A big weekend on the bike for me. Yesterday, Dean gave me the virtually impromptu invite to do the 'Melburn-Roobaix' ride. That was great fun, riding all over Melbourne inner-city, on back streets, bike paths and alleyways.

Today is Moreland City Council's 'Cyclovia' festival. There weren't as many bikes as I expected (especially when compared to yesterday), nor the variety, but it was great to see mums, dads and kids out together. And, seeing how VV is so cute, we got interviewed by about 3 different film crews (but I think they're all from Ch31).

After a little 'digging' - Eddington

Apr 5, 2008

Well, I can see that each of the main transport proposals as part of the Eddington Report, train tunnel, car tunnel and bicycle routes are slated to have an impact at our house.

Cycle

I'll start with the good news (pdf of summary brochure). The existing bike paths at the Maribyrnong are to be upgraded and the somewhat 'suggested' bike route past our house is to be formalised as a proper bike path. 'Copenhagen style' lanes mean a bike lane that is separated from the road, between the road and the footpath. This will continue up our place and around the corner and then turning right at Arden St where it will continue on into the city.

Arden St currently crosses the railway line with a footbridge - so not exactly sure how a formal bike route will handle stairs - but there you go hey?

OK - next are the tunnels.

Train

The train tunnel (pdf of summary brochure) is planned to go from Footscray under the city to Caulfield. It will open up rail access to the Hospital and University district, as well as St Kilda Road/Domain, and intersect with Melbourne Central and Flinders St stations.

This is one that we would welcome, and it seems to make sense.

As you can see, it will run 'under Kensington Adjacent to J.J. Holland Park'. They don't have graphic of where, exactly, but that could mean under our house. I think, however, as they are suggesting that it will head towards the Hospitals, that it's more likely to be the North side of the park, where Kensington Road runs.

Cartunnel

The last bit is the car tunnel (pdf of summary brochure). This, is HUGE. In order to build it, they will be using both 'boring' and 'cut and fill' techniques. And, as I mentioned previously, they have earmarked J.J. Holland park as a 'staging area'. Whether that means just trucks and dirt, or actual digging remains to be seen, but seeing how it seems to align with the route of the tunnel, the worst-case scenario could be that what they don't dig up, they'll store huge mounds of dirt/rock on.

So... where too from here? We'll keep you posted. Off to the Kensington Association meeting on Monday.

Runbike!

Feb 15, 2008
2 comments

She's finally tall enough to ride it with some confidence. Well... 'ride' is a bit of an exaggeration, but she'll get there!

Runbike

Oh, and she's now wearing her helmet - I didn't want her getting annoyed with it until she was happy on the bike.

My new "Bike! Bike!"

Sep 27, 2007
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As you probably picked up from last week's post, I'm a big advocate of run bikes and I've been keen to get one to Genevieve since I discovered their existence. Then I saw this video, and my passion increased. And Genevieve LOVES bikes, so we knew she'd want one too. It was just a matter of us being patient before we bought one, and her being patient before she could ride it. Most of them had a minimum saddle height much too tall for Genevieve. In fact, after a bit of internet research I only found one that went really low - and they don't export to Australia.

The big issue is, that for something so simple, they're really expensive. I think it's because they haven't quite become 'common' yet. That will change soon - because they are such a good idea - but being an early adopter is often not the easiest burden financially. The one Genevieve saw last week can go for as much as $350 - the price that bike shop was asking was $280. I had found one from China on eBay, but then Aldi came to the rescue.

Aldi's Wooden Balance Bike

My good mate Dean told me that he'd bought his son Spencer one a few weeks back. Knowing Aldi's turnover, I knew I had to act quickly. So I put the word out to everyone I knew who had an Aldi near them, and jumped in to the car to zoom off to one near us. Alas, it shut 20mins before I got there, so I checked the City one the next day, and YES... they had a whole stack of them. It was hard to tell through the box, but it looked good and at $69 it was hard to resist.

I got it back to work and resisted the urge to rip it out of the box for a good...ooooh... 15 minutes. The construction was very solid. The saddle was a little high but, being wooden, and me having a drill at home, I could do some modifications. It may void the 2 year warranty, but I don't think Genevieve (or my drill) would do too much damage!

So looking at it, I reaslised I could flip the frame upside-down to lower the saddle height. With one small drill-hole in the saddle post, it should all be good - but I was still unsure if it would be low enough for our little girl. But it sure looked good that way! Getting it home caused another problem, and I quickly realised the bike alone would be a lot easier to carry than the box.

Once I got it home, it was just that drill hole before the customisation was complete - saddle lowered by a whopping 10 cms!

Genevieve was pretty rapt with it. And... it is slighlty too tall for her, but it won't be long, I'm sure. In the meantime, she can walk around with it, and spin the wheels - it's still a 'toy' to her, but it won' t be for long. Once she grows a bit more, I'll flip the frame back to the right way - although she may like it in 'Harley' mode?

Back to the bicycle

Aug 23, 2007
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We got a bike trailer (which is also a jogging pram and a regular pram) some time back. In fact, we had it before it's recommended kids should go anywhere near a bike. So we used it as a jogging pram on several occasions, and not long before her first birthday, we tried it out with the bike.

Since then, we've used it occasionally, but now that Genevieve has been getting older, the seasons have been against us and it's been a bit too cold/wet/windy to give it a go. But recently it's been getting better - and today, we had brilliant weather.

I was going to take her to the doctor before going to childcare, just to make sure that there was nothing too concerning with her rash (which, thankfully, there wasn't). Anyway, when i pulled out her bike trailer and started assembling it (the wheels come off for storage and it folds) you could see her excitement. Previously, she hasn't been too wild about the helmet. But she's been seeing Naomi and I wearing a helmet whenever we ride. So this time, she was reaching for it.

When I went to put her in the trailer, she was squealing "Bike! Bike!". She loved the trip to the doctor, and then from the doctor's back to childcare. I then took the trailer to work and picked up a few groceries to bring home in it. I dropped them off so I could go and pick her up in the trailer again. We rode around for 15-20 minutes (instead of the 2 minute ride it should have been). She just loved it.

So now the weather is getting better all the time - I think we'll all just be looking for an excuse.

On yer bike

Apr 27, 2007
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Both Naomi and I love our cycling and we can't wait to get Genevieve on a bike (she loves coming with us in her bicycle trailer ).

Anyway, that got me thinking - are there many alternatives for younger kids? There are, and they are collectively called 'Balance Bikes'. They started with the German (I think) Like-a-Bike. I've had a search for one of these on eBay for ages, but they almost never come up, and when they do, they still fetch a good price. i think that's coz they're so good people hang onto them. The idea is that the kid can scoot along on them, with their feet on the ground to aid in balance. That way... they learn how to balance instead of the traditional way I think we all learned - using training wheels, which don't teach you any balance.

Anyway - I've found a few alternatives to the like-a-bike (not that there's anything wrong with them).

This one's really cool Easy Rider

This one is probably the one we'll buy, coz it's affordable. It's also great it comes with a brake. JD Bug First Bike

This is the one we'd REALLY want! Skipper Balance Scooter.

And it looks like some of the established bike manufacturers are getting in on it too. I don't think the Aust distributor of Norco is bringing them here tho, as they aren't listed on the Aust Norco website, only the Canadian one. VERY cute video!

Angling for a Cure

Apr 22, 2007

Well, we managed 2 find yet another charity fun run. This one started just near us at the Angler's Tavern, on the Maribyrnong River.
Angling for a Cure is to raise funds for cystic fibrosis research, so a good cause. But we probably ran in it because it was well spaced between other ones, and it was close by.
As it was close, we thought we'd save the planet by riding there. Gen's jogger is actually a bike trailer that has an extra optional extra wheel for the front for jogging, so that worked well. We also thought it'd help with parking, but the inclement weather seemed to keep runners away.
The course was 8.5km, with a few short, but VERY steep hills in there, as well as some off-road paths. It made it fun with the jogger pram, but I think Vievey slept thru most of it anyway.
We were all impressed with the family's achievement. Gen was well behaved and finished with Daddy in 45 mins. Mummy was close behind in 48 mins.

 Cory (via phone)