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.

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.

Trip to cambridge

Mike and I had a day out in Cambridge today. Cambridge is a great city for eyeing up good practical bike solutions.

I saw this bobike mini today, complete with wicker basket. They had a hamax mounting block on the back as well. Great 2 kids and some shopping rig. Of course the bike was a classic Cambridge city-bike hack, so its a very modest little ensemble.

A couple of nice features on this. The basket fits on the windshield mounting which is neat. I also saw another bike that had a minoura space grip woven into the front of the wicker basket. This solves the problem of where to put a light on a bike with a basket.

I also saw a lovely bike trailer for luggage. Its the 'carry freedom' one. Very clever design features making it a great accessory to these types of bikes. I'll hopefully revisit this in a later post (maybe near my birthday? hint! hint!).

PS Mikes little arm was worn out from pointing at every single bike that went past today. I think his first word may be 'bike!'

Great Family Bike Shop!

I was passing through Cambridge today and i missed my train, so i wandered out to look at the bike shop by the station ( http://www.stationcycles.co.uk/ ). It used to sell 2nd hand student hacks and a couple of newish bikes. Its now the best practical bike shop i've ever seen!

Lots of child seats (Including all the ones i was interested in), lots of trailers ( For hire and sale and they even had Chariots in Stock!), lots of practical European and classic City and commuting Bikes (including their own version city bike which looks stunning) , a good range of folders and a lot of top brand pedelecs as well. All in all just special!

They even have the bike rig set up that i'm planning (more on that later). I've never seen it in Holland let alone in the UK, even though its all dutch components ! If you want a practical bike for commuting or family cycling stuff go to this shop!

PS It even has long opening hours! Left luggage, left bike facilities, tours, friendly helpful etc ect etc etc