May Is Bike Month 2015–About to Kickoff!

Ahhhh, May, the loveliest month of the cycling year…

Our friends at SACOG are once again pulling out all the stops for Bike Month to promote and encourage cycling as a part of everyday life.  One of the things I appreciate most about Bike Month is how accessible it is and how it celebrates the hard-core thousand-milers just as much as the new cyclists, making it easier for everyone to log their miles, keep their goals in check, and receive the little rewards we all need at times for just that little extra bit of motivation.  The results can be as little as a having a bit more fun or as grand as the formation of life-changing habits.

I’m a huge believer in–and beneficiary of–the power of example, and I can attest that seeing what people CAN do on two wheels makes it a lot easier to take whatever next steps are necessary to rely less on using four wheels.

To that end, the Bike Month folks will be setting up tents (“Energizer Stations”) throughout the region with snacks and fuel, bike pumps, buttons, tchotchkes, and more to make your commute or rec ride just a bit more glamorous and fun.

I even scored this nice pant leg strap (and buttons and pencils for the kiddos) this morning at a Pre-Bike Month Energizer Station in front of Old Soul, run ably by our dear friend Jose Luis and our friend Tara.

So here are my 2014 Bike Month stats:

Miles I rode TOTAL: 367

Miles with kid(s) in tow: 309

Miles Little Mister rode behind me: 269

Miles the Little Ladies rode behind me (combined): 266

Miles the Little Ladies rode on their own!: 14

Overall Rank: 1513 of 9914 (top 15%–way better than last year!)

No-Car Days (in-county): 28 out of 31

This year, I’m aiming for 500 miles and 31 out of 31 car-free days!

For all of the information on Bike Month events, prizes and more, including details on the Fri, May 1st Kickoff Party, click HERE.

COSTCO via Cargo Bike!

A JOURNEY IN PHOTOS

(OK, “journey” is maybe a little strong…)

 

So, this was my first time attempting a Costco run by bicycle.  Why I waited until it was winter, four days before Christmas, and a week before TWO of my children’s birthdays (for which we would need provisions), I cannot say. I was pretty sure the Mundo could handle a decent-sized warehouse load, but I left the kids at home (just in case).

The city is beautiful in winter, even if we don’t have snow. I missed having my little ones with me, but a solitary ride downtown was quite refreshing. Usually I’d have to take the freeway to Costco…thankfully, though, not today.

I love that the bike trail is is right on the edge of downtown. I find that I do so much errand-based riding nowadays that I don’t take advantage of the river and the bike trails nearly enough. Serendipitously, though, Costco is right behind the bike trail on the other side of the river, so today I get to enjoy nature, see the water, AND procure 36 organic juice pouches for a houseful of ready-to-party kindergartners.

I love these old foot bridges that span the Sacramento and American Rivers. This one is parallel to a venerable old train bridge, lending a great timelessness to the area.

I’ve been reading a fair amount of Steinbeck this year, and it has me romanticizing life on the rails. I can’t wait to take our girls on a big train trip away from the civilization, where we can soak in the scenery and bask a little bit in the desolate melancholy that comes with chugging through the wilderness and empty flatlands. A train is like a giant metronome whose repetitive locomotion seems so jarring and novel at first because it is at such odds with the modes and means of our frenetic lives. After awhile, though, it lulls us into rhythms and spells we just don’t get on streets and highways. Man, I wish we had a more European or Asian model of transportation in America…I think it would speak to the better parts of our nature if we traveled in synchronicity on the rails, rather than in our isolated and disjointed manner via the almighty automobile. Alright, pontificating is over…for now…

Seriously, Costco’s just off the bike trail (it’s that big light-tan building in the middle). Who knew? (tons of people, just not me, I guess).

Made it. Safe and sound. Behind me are a million parked (or hoping to be parked) cars. You can’t see them, but–trust me–they’re there.

THIS JUST IN!!! Costco doesn’t have bike parking. I know…you’re shocked, too. I had to make due by hitching a lock to this car display. Anybody want to buy a Kia?

No, I didn’t buy CLAMATO for my 6 yr-old’s birthday party. I just felt compelled to take this picture. Who, exactly, says, “Man, this tomato juice is pretty good, but it could use a little…I don’t know…Mollusk?” And, being Costco, it’s sold in two-packs of huge jugs. There are many, many bottles still available for purchase.

So I got out with a full cart (and stuff underneath). Now, it’s time for some serious arranging using the Mundo’s Monkey Bars, Peanut Shell, panniers, hooks, and all the other little things I’ve added, knowing this day would one day come. CUE THE TETRIS MUSIC!

Eureka! The girls’ bench, Baby Boy’s seat, the plastic IKEA containers on the running boards, and hooked bags on both sides of the Monkey Bars were enough to handle the job. I didn’t even have to use my front wheel panniers, meaning that my steering was easier for the ride back. YUBA, you’re always up to the challenge.

Riding home was pleasant and smooth! I had, easily, over a hundred pounds of cargo, but it didn’t make the ride harder (just a tad slower than before, obviously). All told, the round trip was a tad under 12 miles and about an hour in length. It was so much more enjoyable than driving there and playing parking-lot-roulette. And the capper? I left Costco with two dozen uncracked brown eggs and arrived home with the same!

Car-Free, Carefree Culinary Futbol Field-Trip to San Jose!

Riding the Rails, Canadian Cuisine, Earthquakes, Mexican Ice Cream Robots, Hopping the Bus, Getting Close to a Shark Tank, Tacos and Goals and Riding my Bike to Jail…oh, and 6-foot Muppets with Hometown Pride…

At the crack of way before dawn, I put my couple-decades-old Worksman Cycles folding bike to work. (I just picked this up off Craigslist a few months back on the cheap–it was covered in tree sap and grime and the previous owner was looking to clear space). It’s a single-hinge folder that I outfitted with a homemade tin cup coffee-holder/phone-speaker amplifier. It feels strange riding a small-wheeled bike with raised seats and handlebars after years of rolling on my hybrid Trek and–especially–our beast of a Yuba Mundo, but I like the change of pace!

I couldn’t find reliable information about bike racks at the Amtrak Station, so I looked nearby to see what was available. The best close option? The county jail. It was a block away, well-lit, and maybe–ironically enough–the safest outdoor parking spot downtown. (I can’t imagine too many people leaving jail feeling brazen enough to steal a bike five feet from the guarded front door.)

Our train trip from Sacramento to San Jose on the Capitol Corridor was easy as pie. During the week this is a pretty packed commuter train, but at 7:40am on a Saturday it was a ghost town on rails. As Russell and I lamented numerous times, we wished that it was more cost- and time-effective to take the train more often, because it SURE IS more pleasant than driving (understatement of the day).

Again, the train provides a scenic view and smooth ride that is just…so…pleasant. (if I was stuffed in a 3-piece suit with a briefcase, checking emails in a packed compartment on the way to a business meeting in another county on a Wednesday, I suppose, I’d take a less wistful view of things.) That being said, leisurely cruising with my buddy to partake in a day of fun, food, and fútbol in a new city we were eager to explore afforded me a rose-colored view. Yay, train travel!

Upon entering downtown San Jose, one of the first things that caught my eye was a bike rental terminal for Bay Area Bike Share.  I am so excited for Sacramento to finally get a similar program (which is currently in the works).  New York, Chicago and other cities with far less-hospitable climates, topographies and cycling cultures than Sacramento already have these ingenious systems in place.  Someday, they will be the norm, and I hope that day comes soon.

Wall Street Journal article re: Cargo Bikes

Cargo Bikes: The New Station Wagon

Cargo bikes are winning over casual and avid cyclists alike with one supersize feature: the ability to haul it all—from the groceries to the family that eats them

By Tom Vanderbilt

Updated July 5, 2013 11:41 p.m. ET

ON A RECENT SUNDAY, Brandon Jones, a 44-year-old fund manager at 9W Capital Management, traveled from his home in downtown Manhattan with his wife and two children to meet friends for brunch in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They were heading to Reynard, the popular restaurant in the neighborhood’s fashionable Wythe Hotel, where Manhattan-bound Town Cars regularly idle on the street outside.

But Mr. Jones did not drive. Nor did he take the subway. Instead, he piloted his two children via the deck of his Yuba Mundo, a so-called “longtail” cargo bike. (His wife rode her own bike.) Picture a mountain bike, but with a stouter frame and smaller wheels, stretched out and lowered in the back. “We actually beat our friends who drove back to TriBeCa,” Mr. Jones said. While Mr. Jones does garage a BMW X5 SUV, his car rarely sees daylight within the city limits. Rather, for daily trips like the mile-and-a-half commute from TriBeCa to his children’s school in Greenwich Village, he simply hops on another kind of SUV—one that actually includes a bit of sport.

Mr. Jones’s choice is becoming an increasingly popular one in the U.S. The country’s biggest seller of the Yuba Mundo is Joe Bike, a Portland, Ore., store specializing in “high-performance urban, utility and touring bikes.” The owner, Joe Doebele, said that when he began carrying cargo bikes—a catchall term covering a variety of bike styles built for functional hauling—five years ago, he thought they would be for just that, cargo. “But parents, mostly moms, were the ones who were buying them,” he said. “It quickly became a family bike.”

Mr. Doebele attributes the interest to Portland’s “mini baby boom” and the fact that many young families are choosing to stay in cities like Portland instead of moving to the suburbs—not to mention higher gas prices.