Last year, I commuted on a lovely Raleigh Venture. Yes, it is like riding a living room. The squishy seat is a beauty to behold. You are fully upright and fully content. However, for commuting with passenger and gear, it turns out to not be the ideal idea. It worked, no doubt. But it did lack some finesse and carrying capacity. New year, new (old) bike: SuperPinky, a longtail.
Let’s review 2008: With a child seat, aerodynamics are gone. Not just limited, but the thing is like a giant plank at your back, blocking all airflow with a nearly audible thud. Add child and your handling becomes, erm, interesting. Plus the kid kicks – not on purpose, but the road is bumpy. Oh, and he steals my water bottle. Then I had the problem of carrying stuff, like bike tools and clothing. I used a lovely Wald basket because child seat is not compatible with panniers. (I do love the basket, really.) But the basket wasn’t quite big enough for everything and fully-loaded with 20# or so, it makes the front wheel a little squidgy. So I added a backpack. The next thing I know I have me + backpack + kid all above seat-height on the cruiser. It’s a go-slow bike to begin with. This kinda turned me in to a crawl. The crawl speed was expecially noticable on the rare days when I would ride my racing bike (Pinky or Nightwing) to/from work. The child was getting bigger anyway – I needed a new solution.
Then Pinky had to be retired. And I cried.
But huzzah! Pinky is reborn! For smooth operation of what must now be known as SuperPinky, her entire drivetrain was replaced as were the brakes. SuperPinky has new, hand-built wheels at 700cc, semi-slick tires, and (gasp!) modern presta tubes. To accommodate the length, she now has a disk brake in the rear. Then she became a longtail. This work, which was not insubstantial, was completed by the mighty souls at Harris Cyclery (the best guys for working on older bikes in the Commonwealth) and an assist from Xtracycle (FreeRadical full kit + magic carpet + footies). (There is a great article about the different types of longtails here and their description of the Xtracycle is pretty accurate.)
Photo of Free Radical Kit from Xtracycle
SuperPinky is a little, um, odd. People notice. There aren’t a lot of longtail bikes on the road in the US. I’ve only seen a few, mostly in places like Cambridge. (Xtracycle gives you wallet cards for when you get tired of explaining that yes, this is a legit bicycle mod.) However, the reviews have been solid and the things these things can carry are astounding. The Xtracycle site, blog, community, etc, is loaded with photos of people carrying all kinds of stuff: two kids plus groceries, surfboards, recycling, and even other bicycles. There’s actually a warning in the manual about how you may be able to safely put more weight on your longtail than you can really safely pedal. The limit may be you, not the bike.
My kid loves it. Harris made him a cute little handlebar that attaches to my seatpost (a stoker bar, for you bike geeks). I also got the cushy pad for the snapdeck since he’ll be riding on it a lot. He holds on tight and we go rolling through the urban landscape. He is, in my opinion, just old enough, strong enough, and aware enough to understand his job is to hold on. Different children mature at different levels and not every kid would be ready for this. I’m lucky – mine is.
The ultra-pannier bag things hold an amazing amount of stuff. With my massive bag-of-holding, I don’t come close to filling it. I feel a weekend bike trip coming on.
For the commuting, to help me stay organized I use a bunch of packing cubes from Eagle Creek. I have one folder (the 15-inch small) that I keep my clothes in for work. I have a cube that holds the bike clothing that I remove (preventing cross-stinkage). I have a half-cube that is dedicated to accoutrements: shower kit, hair stuff, the whatevers. I still carry my ultra-light, ultra-wonderful travel towel from REI. Put it together with a lunch box, thermos, and water and it’s quite the commuting kit.
Riding just these past few days, I’ve been holding a decent speed, considering the load. The upgrades were not free (alas). Riding four days a week, I’m saving roughly $5 in gas alone ($22 if you include car maintanence and other stuff). If you want to be environmental about it, I will not emit roughly 47 pounds of carbon dioxide into my urban environment.
My final upgrade to commuting for 2009 was getting a roadside assistance plan for the bike. Yes, there is such a thing. If I get double-flats or have other massive issues and must get to work (or baby-work) then roadside assistance may just save my cookies. I had heard about Better World Club via CarTalk, read some reviews, and have decided to give it a shot. As they put it:
When former Working Assets Mutual Fund President Mitch Rofsky learned that AAA actually lobbies against environmental efforts such as higher fuel standards and alternative transportation, he founded Better World Club, the nation’s only environmentally friendly auto club. Better World Club provides carbon offsets for travel, gives discounts to hybrid auto drivers, surcharges gas-guzzlers, and dedicates one percent of gross revenues to environmental protection efforts. Better World Club also offers an option for bicycle roadside protection, and gives family membership status to domestic partners as well as married couples.
