Sunday September 7th, 2008
 |  |
 |
Riding My Bicycle
Posted by Belinda Miller on September 25, 2007 - 8:44am.
(The official sound track for this post is The Jellydots' “Bicycle.” Play it loud.)“Mommy, YOU SAID we can get a bike. When CAN we get a bike?”
Georgia’s frustrated question comes just as I am really, truly ready to make the jump to using a bike. Part of the problem before has been that I couldn’t imagine a bike fitting into our lives, or wearing strange spandex specialty clothes, and how could I deal with snacks and getting a helmet on Georgia and riding with a kid—yikes!—biking is just too scary!
But now that I’ve braved the bike, I’m imagining rides to and from Georgia’s school, which will still give me time to keep up with my freelancing duties. I can picture us tooling to the library, to gymnastics class, to the store for small grocery runs. I’ve been eyeing recycled plastic bin “sidesaddles” (called panniers) brimming with flowers from the farmer’s market, and imagining what a little sparkle paint and duct tape could do. I think we have a couple of beautiful fall months to make biking a habit before it gets too cold and rainy.
But the next step is the hardest. Buying a bike.
“Mommy! Let’s get a pink bike with sparkly streamers coming down from it!”
It’s kinda what I had in mind. Something girly and cruise-y with not too many gears, and sparkles would be a plus. Something a little crazy, like our favorite all-girl bike dance troupe The Sprockettes would ride when they weren’t riding their mini-bikes.
It seems so simple, but my mind goes on overdrive and the green computation starts. Of course just the act of riding a bike is green, non-polluting, and gives the rider fresh air and exercise. I probably can’t afford a good new bike anyway, but the greenest option would be to buy a used bike, therefore recycling, reusing, and not creating a market for virgin products.
I’ve seen free bikes and I’ve seen cheap bikes and I’ve seen very expensive, fancy bikes with very cool, $3000 Bakfietsen (wooden baskets) for the kids and groceries. Georgia’s too small for a tandem bike, and still small enough for a child seat. I can’t spend a lot of money, but I don’t want to get a danger trap. What should I look for in a bike? And how much time will I need to spend looking for just the right used bike and child seat? I realize my fantasy of enjoying the next two months from my bike has to wait until I actually get a bike, and that could take two months, or more.
Maybe I’ll start with the sparkly streamers…
Thanks for chiming! Wow, maybe I can find a used Xtracycle! Well, that might be a little ambitious. But how would G hold on? I love the idea of biking around, grocery shopping. I think I'll feel comfortable with the child seat, I like the idea of being able to talk with Georgia while we're riding, but the trailers are very cool. I do feel very overwhelmed with choices, I wish there were a place to try out all the different options. There probably is here in super bike friendly Portland!
I agree with Paul F. !
Bikes are VERY expensive where I live (Abu Dhabi - next to Saudi Arabia) but worth it. The kids (two on training wheels, one in a seat) are hooked and now want to cycle everywhere (admittedly, I resist when it is 120 outside and we need to buy milk...)
We have found not only are we saving money with less gas and fewer groceries (panniers only hold so much and the exercise makes us all less hungry when we arrive at the store) but also in illness prevention.
We got a great deal on a very nice used bike by explaining our situation to the manager of the bike shop. He kept an eye out for people who were upgrading and he asked them if they were interested in selling the old bike to us. He also let us put a note up in his shop - people who knew they could get a cash return on their old bike were more willing to spend more on a new one!