Bikes and Burgers

Our Saturday was full of errands and playing with the kids. We were out on our bikes all day long. Tenzin full-on passed out in the trailer on the way to Burgermeister and slept all the way through our lunch. I guess it's pretty comfy back there :)

Ikea chair haul

Jula helped hold this ikea chair on the back of the bike. Somehow my ratchet strap went missing from my xtracycle bag so this was a 100% bungee affair. Of course Jula hung on to the chair too. Found it on craigslist and hauled it 1.5mi home ;)

First full family grocery run

Finally we can all go to the store together. Since my son Tenzin was born 7 months ago Nicole and I have not been to the grocery store together, something that we enjoy doing together. Since Tenzin seems to be enjoying riding in the trailer so much we decided that we'd make the trek to Safeway to stock up on things that we can't get or are too expensive at our local markets.

We made several changes to the path that we would normally take getting to the store, mostly to avoid badly potholed roads so that Tenzin's ride wasn't too bumpy. These included a bit of very low-speed sidewalk riding and a bit of a wide walking path through the park. The walking path has a "no skating no bicycles" sign at the entry way but I justify riding there because a) we are moving very slowly so as to not jar Tenzin in the trailer and b) the city of San Francisco is clearly negligent in taking care of South Drive from Lincoln to Stow Lake, particularly from Lincoln to the Tea Garden. There are patches on patches on patches and still big scary potholes. It's a major conduit to the park for cars which is certainly the cause of the wear but it's a terrible experience for cyclists. Sadly from the Inner Sunset there aren't any other good entries into the park for cyclists. So in a way riding on the walking path is my act of civil disobedience in the matter and it's really all about Tenzin's safety.

Anyway, I digress! We had a lovely time shopping together and playing with the kids in the store. Hooray for more family togetherness!

Here's our full family rig as it stands now. Jula rode with Nicole and I pulled Tenzin in the trailer. He seems to really love riding along with us and it was oh-so-awesome for us all to go to the store together!

We had 7 bags of groceries, I hauled 4 and Nicole took the rest. The mile back home across Golden Gate Park was easy-peasy :)

Tenzin's first ride

After much deliberation and gnashing of teeth over our restricted family mobility we decided to let Tenzin take a spin in the trailer. He's only 7 months old so probably a lot younger than most people would take their kids out. He's clearly not ready to be out in heavy city traffic but we realized that there are still lots of places that we could take him if we were just cautious enough about it. We put him in his infant car seat and then I used four straps to anchor it to each corner of the trailer's frame. He's got quite a bit of roll-over protection and there's a clear plastic window that comes down over the front to shield him from road debris. Honestly he gets more jostled in the stroller during the dirt-trail walks that Nicole goes on every day through the park.

He absolutly loved the ride. He cried a bit as we rolled out of the garage but then he caught sight of his sister and all was well again. The only other complaint he issued was at a red light on the panhandle path as it crosses Masonic. When the light turned green the crying was over before we even made it across the street. :)

Our destination? Breakfast at the Green Chile Kitchen down near the end of the panhandle. Seriously yummy New Mexican food.

Sadly, I didn't get any good pictures of this ride. But I did get this short video:

The path to Green Chile Kitchen goes past a school with these bike racks. I took this one specificly to be an iPhone background. :)

Nicole's new road bike!

Since she got her Xtracycle Radish earlier this year Nicole has been riding a lot more. She's actually quite a strong rider but the weight of the Radish (and it's single chainring) really holds her back so when it comes time to go riding with friends or on a cargo-less errand she was loathe to have to take it out. I had a grand plan of building up a road bike just for her and was ready to start hunting for a frame on craigslist but we didn't know what size she needed exactly. A few weeks ago had a bit of a date-night that started out by test-riding bikes at American Cyclery to get her on a road bike so she could try using dropbars on a bike that's the right size for her. She tried a few flashy road bikes that were ok and then stumbled on this 2009 Raleigh Clubman. She fell in love with it right away. It also happened to be on sale and we couldn't pass it up. It's a steel frame with some really nice modern components and it's a joy to see her ride it. :)