A note on the intent of this blog...

So it occurred to me recently (and it was driven home by a comment from a friend) that my blogging here has somewhat strayed from the "car free with kids" theme and has taken on a distinct "things that can be carried on a bike" feel. Just so you don't worry, we're still taking Jula out on our bikes but life with an infant added to our mix has slowed us down quite a lot. Mind you, this slowing down is a good thing for our little Tenzin but it means that we're not all biking together just yet :)

Also, we have a little secret that we haven't discussed here yet. Nicole has a new bike :) More on that later...

Xtracycle xtracycle

One of my coworkers is buying my extra xtracycle setup and now that it's finally cleaned up and removed from it's previous host bike I needed to haul it in to the office.

The tapestry helped keep my brand new snapdeck safe and pretty :)

And we're here!

Hauling wood and drums

A friend and I loaded up our drums aand a didgeridoo and rode off in to golden gate park to play music.

We eventaully settled on playing in one of the tunnels near the deYoung museum, great acoustics!

Firewood haul

We wanted to get some firewood for the weekend while some really good friends were in town staying with us. I thought this would be a lot more awkward to haul but it was very easy and only needed one strap to hold it on :)

PARK(ing) Day #3

Loaded up for yet another Inner Sunset PARK(ing) day!

This time we had a nice spread of food to attract the passers-by.

And come they did! the PARK(ing) space was full of people all day long!

We were even treated to some music!

A good time was had by all!

To top it all off, Adam was given this awesome pumpkin which he hauled home on his bike just like this :)

PARK(ing) Day

I've been joining in with a group of folks from my neighborhood to hold a bi-weekly PARK(ing) day in the SF Inner Sunset. I've been hauling most of the furniture out to our spot via my xtracycle/trailer combo.

Parked and ready to unload.

We take over a parking space and make it our PARK space for the day. It's a blast!

The farmers' market in full bloom across the street from us.

Thomas looking quite chipper while Kevin looks on.

Office junk haul

A handful of stuff had been laying around the office that I had been meaning to take home. Kevin motivated me to get it all out of there by threatening to throw it out :) So you know me, I'll take on any chance to haul a bunch of stuff. The big spool is now a table in our backyard, the wheels are going to have their rust scrubbed from them and will hopefully roll again on the extremely well-weathered bike frame, maybe as a road bike for Nicole. :)

New Stroller Haul

Nicole finally wore out the stroller that we found on the street 2 years ago. Lots of off-road walks in Golden Gate Park will do that :)

I found this awesome deal on craigslist, a moderately priced, pneumatic-tired, well built stroller that should be the last one we have to buy (coincidently, it's the first one we've ever paid for).

The catch was that it was 8 miles away and over at least one pretty big hill. The xtracycle handled the whole affair like a champ and I learned a few things about strapping cargo to the snapdeck :)

Xtracycle maintenance day

My xtracycle needed to go to the LBS for some TLC but I didnt want to have to take the bus home and back again so I hauled along my single speed so I could ride back :) Runs good!

Xtracycle Furniture Moving

While on my way back from our local bike shop I ran across this pile of furniture. My daughter has been in need of a new dresser for some time now and this fine all-wood dresser will do quite nicely! It does need a coat of paint and maybe some new knobs but FREE! Woo!

The best part is that the xtracycle is so stable that I was able to strap the dresser on with only 2 bungee cords. I couldn't believe how stable is was for the ~1 mile ride home.

Friday Morning Craigslist Staff Ride

In what's quickly becoming a regular thing, Today I met up with several of my fellow craigslisters for a Friday morning ride. After a spirited romp through the dirt trail in the park (I caught air with the xtracycle for the first time!) we made our way to the ocean. Half of the Great Highway was closed to cars due to sand dunes encroaching on the road so we had the road to ourselves all the way to the SF Zoo! After that we took a lap around Lake Merced and then back to the office. Something like 20 miles or so. It was a blast!

Skitching for fun and profit!

Nice shadow Dallas!

A nearly perfect ride with perfect weather and good friends. Life is good.

Finally a break!

This is a sight that I love. My wife, my best friend, in front of me on her bike.

My parents were visiting us this past weekend. It may be more accurate that they came to visit their grandkids. I feel like I hardly saw them since they were almost insistent that Nicole and I get out of the house together without our kids. Tenzin isn't quite old enough to ride with us (another ~9mos!) so we don't get this chance very often. We rode through Golden Gate Park and then down the panhandle before deciding that we wanted to go to the Lower Haight for coffee.While we we down there, Grandma called to say that the kids were still napping and to encourage us to go out to eat alone. Just the two of us! It's amazing how valuable this kind of time has become to us now that we're parents of two :) We quickly found a Thai restaurant that we had not eaten at before. Totally fell in love with their crispy fried portabello mushroom & eggplant dish. Wow. Nicole took pictures of the food, it was all so beautiful. Coincidentally the restaurant is right on the wiggle so when it was time to go we just hopped on our bikes and wiggled our way back up to the panhandle and back through the park on home. Part of the way that I fell in love with Nicole was through our mutual love of bicycles. Riding with her is easily my all time favorite activity and I miss it so. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for allowing us the space to get out together :)

DFL Cross Dress Cyclocross Race!

Jula and I had a grand time in Golden Gate Park watching the annual DFL Cross Dress Cyclocross race. It's an unofficial, unsanctioned, illegal cross race through Golden Gate Park. Race entrance fee was $5 or free if you wore a dress!

There were lots and lots of bikes!

Part of the "course"

Pink tu-tu's make you ride fast!

Jula (and Brown B) were enthralled with all the bike action. I had a hard time peeling her away.

The crowd from Jula's level.

Eventually I persuaded Jula that it was time to go by taking her to the nearby pond to watch the ducks and the fog roll in.

Pet food haul++

It was that time again. Dog out of food, cats out of food and litter. Time for a big haul!

This load was actually pretty heavy! It was still a breeze to actually pedal home but I could really feel the pull of the off-center load this time.

I used 10 (!!) bungee cords to hold all of this on. After the pet store I hit up the grocery store, the hardware store and the pharmacy just to top off the xtracycle.

Left to right, Full bag of groceries, MC Escher book I found on the way home, baby diapers, box of baby bottles, 35lbs of cat food, new griddle, 45lbs of dog food, 60lbs of cat litter.

Sunday Streets!

Jula and I just got back from riding the last Sunday Streets of the year. Sunday Streets is a San Francisco event where the city shuts down car traffic along a long-ish route though different parts of the city for most of the day. The closed roads are open to all non-car transit, bikes/skateboards/walking/etc. Today's event included all of JFK Drive through Golden Gate Park and then all of the Great Highway. It was such a blast! All kinds of people on all kinds of bikes (some walking too)! Riding down the Great Highway without any car traffic was so nice. The over all speed of the ride was very relaxed. We started a ride with a neighborhood friend but ran into many other people we know along the way.

We saw five other xtracycles while we were riding, most with stoker or kid seat set ups. Here's that Mundo that we saw in our neighborhood!

The Cyclocide folks had a few rides out for the kids to enjoy. This little 4-bike ride was great. Watching the kids all try to stop at the same time was interesting :)

This ride looked like a lot of fun. Kids ride in the swings on the outside and parents power the whole thing by pedaling in the middle.

As you can see the kids really got quite a ride out of it!

I accidentally took this picture of our "Mutant" xtracycle bike while trying to take some overhead shots of the Great Highway and I thought it was kinda cool :)

I heard a rumor from a reliable source today that Sunday Streets will be coming back again next year and they plan for it to become a permanent yearly event. Last year there were 3 Sunday Street's, this year there were 6. Hopefully next year we'll get more added to the calendar!

Hobo Bike!

Nicole found this bike totally crammed into some bushes out in Golden Gate Park. She was walking our huge dog, pushing our son in the stroller while our daughter was walking with her. Even though her hands were full already she somehow managed to push the bike-heap nearly a mile back to the house!

There's not much on the internet about it but I did find this link that says it was given away with other kinds of purchases "BUY A STEREO, GET A BIKE!" which cracks me up.

It was in pretty poor condition and had clearly been abandoned, maybe because the derailleur was broken or maybe because the brakes didn't work at all. Go figure!

I took the bike into the office to show all my bike-loving coworkers but it was clearly not rideable so I packed it into the xtracycle to haul it in.




With the help of a friend and a handful of scrap parts that were hanging around our office I managed to get it into a little bit more of interesting working order. I replaced the spindle but used the original bottom bracket cups and bearings and rebuilt the entire bottom bracket. Used the original pedals but replaced the cranks to match the spindle. The wheels and tires were totally shot and I was able to find a pair of 700c wheels and a set of knobby tires to go with them. The scrap bike I got most of these extra pieces from had been set up as a fixie which I definitely didn't want but the idea of a cyclocross-esque single speed sounded like fun. I hit up Roaring Mouse for a set of new tubes and a freewheel cog for the back wheel. This morning I finished off my initial modifications by swapping the spare saddle on to the original seat post and putting the new tubes and knobby tires on to the wheels.




I also had to tweak the brakes a bit but only managed to get them to barely work, clearly there's room for improvement here. I just took it for a little spin just a few blocks away from the house, it's definitely fun to ride though I think I may opt for some different handlebar arrangement. Oh, and the brakes need lots of love. :) I've been wanting a bike that I could learn to disassemble/reassemble but couldnt really fathom blindly taking apart any of our daily rides for fear of rendering them unusable.

Thanks Nicole for my new bike!