Just last week Mrs. B completed a video of myself and the boys out for a ride.  For her first attempt at making a video, I think she did a pretty darn good job.  Obviously I wanted to share this video with friends and family spread around the globe, so I posted it on Facebook.  The resulting comments led to an interesting discussion at home and on the web, which still has me grappling with my thought/philosophy on the issues of wearing a helmet….not just on my head, but plunking one down on the head of my kids (both on the bike and in the trailer).

I don’t want to even attempt to wrap my arms around the whole helmet debate that rages across the internet nearly every week, if not day.  More (and less) qualified individuals have offered valid points on both sides of the divide.  Right now when we are riding the bikes around the neighborhood, which is nearly every day we don’t wear helmets.  We have helmets, good gravy do we have helmets – big ones, little ones, boy ones, girl ones (for the cousins) but when cruising around the neighborhood, at a very leisurely pace, it just doesn’t seem necessary.  We are on quiet neighborhood streets, sidewalks, and trails and the greatest obstacle we face on most rides is falling over because we are going so SLOW.  This isn’t going to be a rant about never wearing a helmet, because my giant noggin has been saved many a time by wearing a helmet.  I always wear a helmet when I am commuting to work, but never wear one when I ride to pick up a sixer of Shiner at the grocery store less than a mile away.  I don’t have any hard and fast rules about when I wear a helmet and when I don’t – for the most part I would say the following

Helmet = longer trips and/or higher speed

No Helmet = slow and local

The real concern that people expressed was about my children not wearing helmets, and that is the part of the debate that I am still wrestling with even now as I write this.  The Boy has just started riding – and he wants to do it all of the time.  We now carry his bike with us wherever we go, just so he can ride it at each new location.  How do I continue to foster this love of riding while keeping him safe?  Mrs. B rode a bike as a kid, but to this day….she remembers when she stopped riding as a kid, it was the day she was told by her parents that she needed to wear a helmet if she was going to ride her bike.  It took nearly twenty years and a sweet Raleigh step through to get her back on the road.  Right now, The Boy doesn’t mind wearing a helmet – and somedays he even puts one on without being asked, but my greatest fear is that by living in fear I will drive my kid inside to the video games, and when he gets older into an intrenched mindset that cars are the only way to survive.

Soccer mom tennis shoe on one foot, and a 4 inch high heel on the other. A cargo bike to haul groceries and children atop and a sleek fix geared bicycle to race through stop signs (Gasp! I typed it out loud!)

One adventuresome mom, one eight year old daughter navigating her own handle bars, and the out spoken fiver year old perched atop the snap deck as the actual cargo of the cargo bike.

The plan: Cycle together downtown, across the river, and arrive at the shores of Lady Bird Lake for an outing on the water in canoes.

The 7 mile jaunt across town began with ease. The eight year old successful managed to stop at all of the stop signs and red lights while maintaining her bicycle’s balance (at times the interpretation of stop, drop, and roll is used with a bicycle. Stop at an intersection, drop the bicycle as hard as possible, and watch it while the chain rolls off of the cassette). Commencing again from a dead stop to back on the bicycle seat and in motion was equally successful this time. The mom whispered “yes” under her breath. The eight year old needed this new level of expertise to add sparks of encouragement to her love for cycling.

From the onset, an anticipated snail’s pace rate for the group was expected. Starts, stops, abbreviated stops, water breaks, and even a potential picnic were prepared for just in case the requests arose from the mouths of the cycling children. The adventuresome mom also made preparations for herself: a full-to-the-brim water bottle in the cage, a fanny pack around the waist for easy access to two pieces of dissolvable candy in case of emergent pediatric melt-downs, and for all the up-and-down ongoings to and from the bicycle seat, the adventuresome (even radical) mom chose to fashion herself with a pair of “jeggings” also known as jean-leggings.

However, despite the extensive planning and preparations to take all potential situations into account, one unforeseen obstacle presented itself to the adventuresome mom within 10 minutes of the departure. The standard rhythmic motion of the pedaling made the feet rotate in circles like a ferris wheel, normal and expected for cycling. The hips are also affected: the ischial spines of the pelvis rise and fall alternately with each downward and upward stroke of the pedal. The foot bone connected to the shin bone, the shin bone connected to the knee, the knee connected to the thigh bone, and the the thigh bone connected to the hip bone. Anatomy 101 from grade school.

“Mom, I can see your underwear!” the five year old yells. Scanning the surrounding environment, not a person is in ear shot to hear the boisterous accusation. Hands reaching for the small of the back, no outside ears are needed for the pink blushing of the cheeks to occur. Cars and cyclist passing the past couple of miles could clearly see what the mom now feels. A whale tail fingertip length has emerged above the jeggings’ elastic waist line. The mere act of pedaling has shimmied the jeggings down, and in the process transferred the mother of two to into a bad mamma jamma on wheels.

Mix 94.7 is looking for volunteers to help assemble bikes at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop (400 Nueces Street) now until the giveaway party. Both individuals and groups are welcome to volunteer between 9am and 9pm daily. Mellow Johnny’s will host build parties for groups who sign up with 10 or more volunteers. Build parties are BYOB and pizza will be provided. No previous build skills are necessary as a certified instructor will be onsite to lead the building.

If interested in volunteering, please email Melinda Bowen at mel@mellowjohnnys.com with your name, email address, and preferred date and time slot.

If you would like to donate to the program, $150 will provide a child with a bicycle, lock and helmet. Also, Mix 94.7 will be doing a fundraising breakfast at 30 Austin area Whataburgers this Saturday, November 12, 8 – 10 AM. Tickets are only $3 for an all you can eat pancake breakfast and benefit Bikes for Kids. See the Mix 94.7 for details and locations.

Parades are outside and riding bicycles is mostly an outdoor activity. Waving to my neighbors and weaving through the city streets and neighborhoods with houses, trees, and gardens around me. I enjoy the openness of interactions that comes on a bicycle. I’m even trying to foster a connection with the cars that zoom past me. Just yesterday a car slowed down while passing me on an uphill climb. The driver of the vehicle made eye contact with me, smiled, and gave me the thumbs up sign.

In addition to the benefits of the solitary one person bike parade, the sense of community and interconnectedness that adjoins a mass of people outdoors on the street parading with feet or two wheels is the ideal I wish for everyday when commuting. A typical repeat conversation when I arrive at school post-commute is: “Gosh, you must be healthy, riding to school, and all.” Yes, bike riding does improve my cardiovascular health, but equally and almost more important to me is the psycho-social aspects of the ride: shared smiles with other riders, talking to a passenger in a car at a stop light, or even the above mentioned conversation doesn’t typically happen when I’m arriving in a car. There is a unique level of communication that occurs when my feet are level with the street.

Craving and embracing the expose of bicycling, parades galore happened this past weekend: Tour-De-Fat’s official bike parade “spreading the good word about the positive societal offerings of the bicycle” and Mexic-Arte’s Dia De Los Muertos Grand Procession, including a special place for bicycles to be showcased within the procession. This year bicycles had the bonus of being behind the Minor Mishap Marching Band. Grooving along to rhythms while pedaling as slow as possible.

Unlike Halloween, where costumes are usually limited to the person, in bicycle parades not only do you get to costume yourself up, but you get to show some TLC to your bicycle too. Handle bars and baskets intertwined with flowers, rainbow lights wrapped around the top tubes (lights just for fun, not for safety or visibility), or using a bicycle that couldn’t transport you efficiently for the weekday commute, like an adult sized tricycle.

I decorated myself as a dead bride for this year’s grand procession. The purpose of the parade was to all gather as a group to celebrate the dead and un-dead alike.I felt like I was apart of something bigger than myself. With the costume on, I blended within the group bicycle part of parade. We overflowed onto the streets. This time when I waved at cars stopped at the intersections as we passed, I did have candy to throw.

The A2W staff photographer for the Tour de Fat was my 7 year old, Miles, taking pictures from the back of our Xtracycle.

On Saturday, we rode our Xtracycle to the Tour de Fat for the opening bike parade ride. Coming in near Halloween, it is always a costumed affair and my kids love to see what people wear. This year, my son Miles used my camera to take pictures from the back of the bike. What was his favorite? He is a Sponge Bob Squarepants fanatic so it was the Patrick and Jellyfish combo, of course.

Here’s a sample of some great shots. More are on our Flickr page.

Since then, my wife got one, and we have used the Xtracycle to do all manner of tasks including picking up a Christmas tree. Through Austin on Two Wheels, I have also had a chance to test ride bakfiets like the Gazelle Cabby and Christiania as well as alternative long tail designs like the Yuba Mundo and Madsen. Each cargo bike has its strengths and weaknesses, but they all provide great ways to carry cargo and kids on two wheels.

I am certainly not the only cargo bike rider in Austin, but I still get several people talk to me about never seeing a cargo bike before pretty much every time I am out with the kids on one. For those who love cargo bikes and want to feel part of a larger community, Bay area film maker Liz Canning has a project for you. Canning is attempting to produce a crowd sourced documentary on all the different cargo bikes people use and how they have affected their lives. She even has a limited number of cameras that can be shipped to folks who need them.

Check out this great intro video on the project and visit Liz’s site and the project’s Facebook page for more info.

It’s 8 am on a Sunday morning. The people awake and already going  this early on the last day of the weekend I mentally divide into three categories: 1)fitness fanatics worshiping their bodies, 2) late nighters that never fell asleep, and 3) parents like myself, who feel lucky if my kids let me sleep in past 7 am.

The thought did cross my mind to pop in the movie 101 Dalmations and try to get another hour of snoozing. All the onscreen dog howling wouldn’t have helped catching more Zzzzz’s. Plus, I felt the subtle invisible pressure of a group of parents and kids awaiting our arrival. I had said “yes” on the facebook invitation: Sunday Morning 8 am Parent-Child Meetup Group. We’re to bicycle 6.6 miles on Lady Bird Lake Hike-and-Bike Trail. The last thing I wanted was to be the one responsible for slowing the momentum of children post pancake and maple syrup ingestion. That’s like trying to stop a full speed train suddenly.

Of course, there’s the positive of the group dynamics, like peer pressure. I had secret hopes that my 4 year old would see another 4 year old pedaling without training wheels and think it was the coolest thing since vanilla ice cream.

The group is small, and my kids and I feel inexperienced for this type of terrain. I’m accustomed to smooth asphalt streets and wide corners to turn on. The route initiates on the Longhorn Dam. The narrow pedestrian bridge atop the dam has a 4 foot high chain link fence and heightens the sense of claustrophobia. My 8 year old somehow manages to navigate her handle bars perpendicular to the cement side-wall of the bridge and t-bones herself. “I’m so glad she’s got a helmet on,” I think, as two friendly joggers get to her before I do and help dust her off. An advantage and disadvantage of the trail, when she crashes there is usually someone running by who has the built-up speed and momentum to help her up, before I have time to squeeze the break levers, dismount, and kneel by her side.

The remainder of the route is full of minor crashes as we adjust to sharp curves and tight corners. Then there’s the sharp turn from the down ramp from the 1st street pedestrian bridge back to the graveled trail. The change in terrain from cement to tiny pebbles and dust skids her tires out from under her. I wince cause I’ve bit the dust literally a few times near the same area. The green trees and grass can be visually deceptive to the rootless parched dust that can’t soak up the water.

This crash climaxes with a skinned knee and a tiny trickle of blood from the scrape . I see my peer-pressure plan backfiring before my eyes – my kids are now never going to ask to ride the trails again.

Kids are resilient though. By Wednesday the raspberry on the knee has already faded to a dull pink, and by Sunday the kids are up again at 7 am, and rip-roaring and ready to hit-the-trail rolling.

The program has a lot of cool projects including a weekly walking bus (where an adult leads a walking route to school picking up kids along the way), a bike bus and bike rodeo, prizes for kids that walk and bike, and city code compliance officers making sure people do not block sidewalks and cross walks with cars, trash cans, etc. It looks like a really good program, and it begs the question if we are serious about reducing car use and addressing obesity and air quality why we are only funding 6 campuses a year for this? Road expansion projects cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, but how much less would it cost to fund staffing these programs at every school in town every year? It would not be cheap, but it would show us where our priorities are.

While this program is great and I am excited to participate in encouraging other families to bike and walk to school, I also got the nagging “ignoring the bull” feeling. This phrase was coined by Mikael Colville-Andersen of the site Copenhagenize to point out all the little ways we do not confront or attempt to work around the dominance of the automobile in our communities. He says is it like we have a wild bull loose in a china shop and instead of wrestling and subduing the bull, we scold people in the shop for not getting out of the way of the bull.

Two things jumped out at me in the presentation. First was the little data tidbit that nearly 1/3rd of 5-9 year old children killed by motor vehicles are on foot (there is no citing of source on this in the materials so take or leave this number). This is a bit of shock tactics which will surely make parents worried about children walking place, not encourage them to walk. Of course, ignored in this data is the flip side of the statistic: the other 2/3rds killed were passengers in a car. If the data were presented to show how dangerous cars are to the passengers as well, perhaps it would be easier to get helicopter moms out of “safe” SUVs and instead walking with their kids.

The second thing that was more disconcerting was the absence of any programming targeted towards drivers to take responsibility for looking out for vulnerable street users, those not encased in steel. As Uncle Ben would say “with great power comes great responsibility.” Yes, we need to teach our children how to navigate street crossings and be aware of their surroundings, but why do all these programs leave it to the least among us to overcome the danger created by the most powerful. While I truly believe we need to build our streets to be safe for all users (we still have long section of the neighborhood on the way to school with no sidewalks!), infrastructure improvements are outside of the scope of this particular program. Nevertheless, I hope the program can evolve to interact with all parts of the safe streets equation and stop ignoring the bull.

This morning was filled with excitement in our home. My daughter is going into kindergarten, enrolled in her first bilingual class no less, and was practically bursting at the seams to get to school. Last year, we got in a bad habit of using our car more than not. The excuse was due to the different campuses my children went to (one the neighborhood school, the other a local daycare center.) This year, it is a simple one stop shot. No more excuses.

This morning we loaded up on the Xtracycle and pedaled the 9/10th of a mile to school. We talked and laughed and took in the neighborhood sights and smells in a way that is not possible in the steel and glass cocoon of the automobile. The kids discussed the best routes to ride when they are ready to ride to school themselves. We arrived just minutes later than it would have taken by car and no waiting in line at the drive. Biking to school really is the good life.

Our big birthday kids’ bike release was a huge success, but it’s also left us awfully short on child-sized rides. As the school year creeps closer, we want to make sure that parents can offer their kids the option of spinning cranks to the classroom no matter their income, and that we can continue to provide support for after-school programs, awesome non-profits, and a whole variety of organizations that share our knowledge that Kids + Bikes = Good. Whether that training-wheeled, coaster-braking rust collector in your garage was outgrown two weeks or twenty years ago, consider donating it to YBP – we’ll make it new again for another young’un.

To donate your kids bike, visit the YBP donate page for donation info and shop hours for drop off.

Don’t have a kids bike but want to help? You can also make a cash donation or donation these other highly needed items:
* quality bikes (especially road bikes)
* Working laptop computers
* locks with keys
* blinky lights
* tools of all kinds – especially metric wrenches and bike-specific repair tools
* good 700c and 27″ tires – please no unusable, dry-rotted, or completely worn-out tires.
* good wheels (especially 700c)
* Cleaning supplies, Fast Orange, Simple Green
* Bike oil, grease, etc.