Mike on a Bike!

Mikes Nana has bought Mike his first bike! Its not quite a bike its the Puky Wutsch, horrible name for a great product!

When he got it he wasnt remotely interested. When we suggested going outside on his bike he ran to the door and sat on it with the bike pressed to the front door! In Mikes world bikes are for outside!

Its a smart product. Its sold as a "pre-bike" for 18months+ 80cm+ (~£50) Two key points:

• The seat is very low to the ground so great for shorties like my boy.


• It steers like a bike. ie it goes where you look. This really works because Mike was fine until he looked around and then he'd veer into whatever he was looking at.

Mike was dog tired when we went out (we went out to keep him awake), and he didnt smile at all. We knew he liked it because if we tried to take him off the bike he screamed blue murder! I'm waiting for my brother in law to send us the video!

Note the cunning use of my trouser belt to keep him from flying down the hill!

Cycling with 2 young children Part 3: Trailers

I'll start off and proclaim my bias here. I don't like trailers. I think they are useful for cargo and out of rush hour leisure rides, but i really don't like them when your in town or crossing busy junctions.

My son agrees and still resolutely refuses to go in the trailer. He wants to be on the bike with daddy. In fact he wants to ride the bike and have daddy sit on the back. He's pretty convinced he knows how to do it :-)

That said they have a lot of benefits:
-Weather proof
-Can carry a lot of 'stuff'
-Gives the kids some freedom to do things
-Safe in a crash that doesn't involve cars
-Can carry infants from 3months with suspension and inserts
-Easy to load

The disadvantages are:
-Heavy
-They 'feel' vulnerable in traffic
-Increased width on the road (suddenly i feel like I'm holding everyone up)
-Awkward to park
-Restricted view compared to bike seat.

I often read\hear people assure me that drivers behave very nicely round trailers and in my experience they do, but i feel that I'm holding up the traffic (its harder to pass on our narrow roads). In rush hour i cant imagine drivers would tolerate being held up like this.

I do recommend having a trailer. Its a nice add-on to a child seat combo and increases luggage capacity for days out (I can fit my birdy in mine!). I'm really hope that in the summer on long leisure rides in country roads i can persuade Mike to use it , just to get him out of the sun for a bit.

Another Trip to Cambridge

Mike and i had another trip to Cambridge last weekend. My wife was away for shopping and clubbing , so we had a free Saturday.

We went to Cambridge for a few reasons: I needed some bits and pieces; a bit of casual tourism; just for the ride ; but mostly to go and see a carpark. "A Carpark?" i hear you cry! Yup, but not just any carpark, we went to Park Street Cycle Park

We rode in, parked the bike, picked up our pushchair, walked into town and had a lovely day.

Lets just say the middle bit of that sentence again, as the simplicity and perfection of it need repeating.......

'picked up our pushchair'

I can't possibly overstate how great this was. The one thing that makes it hard to shop and travel by bike with a little one is not being able to take a pram. Yet in Cambridge they have the perfect solution. Loan pushchairs. They were nothing special, yet did the job and Mike could have his little sleep while i could enjoy a restful lunch with a good book and a nice glass of wine.
It had the added benefit of making me appreciate all the money we spent on his luxury top branded pushchair.

Town planners please take note of this small piece of genius. The people who spend Bristol's recent windfall should really consider this.

Family Ride

The whole family went out for a small ride at the weekend. We rode to a duck pond which is 6 miles away. Its quite flat but has a couple of ups and downs. This was our first 'true' family ride (as opposed to few test runs). It was a lovely day and Mike wore his Sunglasses for the whole journey which was a first (normally he always pulls them off). Unfortunately in training for this I'd been letting him wear 'Daddys' shades. This worked only too well, now if i pick him up and I'm wearing shades he grabs them of my face. I have little baby scars on my nose!

A few notes on from my wife's perspective. It was my wife's 3rd ride since she'd had Michael and it was also her first ride on the Agattu. She's lost the 'habit' (in the drug dependency meaning of the word) of cycling.Her first challenge was what to wear (I'll refrain from the obvious comments here as a) I'm just as vain and image conscious and b) she'll hit me). When i pointed out that the bike had power, rubber pedals and a skirt guard and that she wasn't going to get sweaty and that she could wear what she liked, she instantly thought great! and went off to change. Of course she was back 5 minutes later moaning her nice summer skirt was in the wash.....

The other things she liked were:

• She instantly liked the smooth ride which was reminiscent of an old dutch style bike she used to have.
• She loved the power when we hit our first hill. I told her to wait for me at the top:-)
• She loved the way having Michael on the back had no effect on the ride.
• She liked the new basket on the front. Great for throwing stuff into

All in all a convertee. I just need her to use it more now so that she can get her own!

And the new bike does babycare as well!

I've not posted for a while as my wife and i have had stinking colds all week, caught from mini Mike. Last Tuesday , i was at home with Mike all day along with my stinking cold. This was my first time looking after him while feeling poorly. Mums of the world you have my admiration!

Anyway by the time he woke up from his post lunch sleep i was exhausted and couldn't face 4 hours of entertaining him. Bring on the bike! I took him straight out in the garden and pointed at the shed. Mike started his mini fit of excitement that he gets when he realises he's going out on the bike.

We went for a 4o minute ride to a nearby play park. Then he ran round the park screaming for half an hour. Then we picked up some food and headed back home. He fell asleep again after 20 minutes and then once i got home he stayed asleep in the bike for another 40 minutes, while i kicked back and dozed in the sun. With 3 hours killed my wife came home early and the afternoon had passed!

So the parenting moral of this tale is: When the kids are driving you to your wits end get on the bike!

The biking moral of this tale is: A good pedelec will carry you on a nice gentle ride when your too poorly to ride normally. Fantastic!

Car Free Weekend

My wife was away this weekend leaving me to mind the baby. I did what I'd normally do on a weekend.
On Saturday i popped to our local Market town (6 miles each way and hilly), picked up some shopping, had some lunch and headed home.
On Sunday i popped to our local garden centre and picked up some seedlings (2.5 miles and mildy hilly), headed home and did some gardening. Mike loves his watering can!

Prior to getting the child seat and the new bike, both of these would have been car based journeys, as it was they were really pleasant outings. We passed 'horsies' on both trips. As we cycled slowly past Mike had a good long look coupled with urgent pointing. Normally horse riders and cyclists have a slightly fragile relationship , but this time we got 'Oohs!' and 'Aahs' and 'Look at the little baby!'

In fact we get this reaction wherever i go with Michael on the bike. Utility cyclists are quite rare round my way and i don't think I've ever seen a baby on the back of a bike, so i guess we're a bit of a novelty. What fascinates me is that people smile and they have this sort of pleased look on their faces , which is clearly saying 'That's so nice to see'. Makes me wonder how many think it would be nice to do !

Great Day Out

I had a great day out yesterday with my son. We took the new bike to Cambridge for a bit of an explore. I'll have to add some more detail on the bike and the hamax plus system at a later date.

It was a lovely sunny day, so Mike loved cycling from our house to the station, which is very rural, i could see him in my rear view mirror twisting around and pointing. He loved the trip on the train and then riding round cambridge at the other end. Citycycling is really stimulating for countryside kids, just because of the diversity of what they see. Plus Mike loves all the bikes and cambridge folks love kids in bikes.

It was my first full day out with him and the bike, so it was a learning experience. I think some of the things i learnt were:

• He loved it and we're doing it again!
• I was a bit alarmed to see him sticking his arms out all the time trying to grab or point at things. This was bit of an issue when cycling in a narrow 2 way cycle lane, but much less so on the road, where theres more space. Its something to pay attention to.
• He's happy to have his hour long sleep in the bike seat, whether its moving or still. I rode round a park with him for 10 minutes to get him to sleep and then adjourned to a riverside cafe with a good book and a coffee.
• The bike becomes the pram, which means i couldnt spend the day shopping, but if my wife had been with us as well, we'd have had plenty of space for luggage and someone to share baby carrying duties.
• Cambridge has a fantastic central bike park
• The piccies taken on the train going home. Mikes got that dazed but happy look on his face.

Edinburgh

I've just enjoyed a long weekend in Edinburgh, which is a lovely city. Its also a cycling city, which has incredible cycling motorways that lead directly into town radiating from the city centre.

I fancied a ride around Edinburgh and i knew Michael would enjoy it more than using a pram. So i phoned several Edinburgh cycle hire establishments before i went to see if it was possible to hire a child seat.

Not only could i not hire one, but the shop owners sounded positively horrified at the very idea. I think i was more disappointed at the attitude than the fact i couldn't hire one. Edinburgh may be a cycling city, but its clearly not a family cycling city.

Our situation...

18 months ago, my wife Julia and myself were keen cyclists. We had matching touring bikes (sad i know!) and a bike for commuting each.

We'd go for rides at weekends and the odd short UK tour. I'd cycle to work via the train station and my wife would often drive to the station and cycle at the other end. In short we love bikes and cycling.

We live in the essex countryside. The roads are hilly, muddy and sometimes a bit rough. In the winter it can be pretty windy and often below zero in the mornings. The train station is 4 hilly miles from our house. Our nearest shop is 3 miles away and our nearest town is 6.

When we found out we were expecting Michael we were overjoyed, but after his first trimester, Julia decided it was time to stop cycling. When he was born we started looking into options for transporting babies......