The Fort Fun Ride

Kidical Mass Fort Collins became the Fort Fun Ride on 18 September 2010.  A few hard-core parents braved the unusually cold, rainy day in the middle of a month of record high temperatures.  We rode around some of Old Town’s quiet, wide streets, stopped at Lee Martinez for an abbreviated ‘bike rodeo’ and finished at the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair.

 

Talking strategy in Old Town Square

 

 

Intersection at Mathews and Mountain

 

 

Obstacle course

 

 

Even the Bakfiets attempts the slalom

 

New name for Kidical Mass Fort Collins?

On Thursday, Mark and I met with Matt Wempe and Molly North of the City of Fort Collins to discuss starting a monthly Kidical Mass ride.  As explained on the website http://kidicalmass.org, Kidical Mass is nothing like Critical Mass, and instead is a “legal, safe and fun bike ride for kids, kids at heart, and their families”.  Unfortunately, the City of Fort Collins Police Department has a negative association with Critical Mass, and therefore Molly and Matt suggested we steer clear of the memorable moniker and land on something more innocuous.  As we are eager to have the support and enthusiasm from FC Bikes, we will definitely be riding under a different name.  Hmmm.  Any suggestions?  As FoCo is the mothership of New Belgium’s ‘Tour de Fat’, I have considered ‘Tour de Fort’.   But nothing about that name suggests families… Fort Collins Family Ride? Pedal Parade? Mark’s suggestion: “The Monthly Cycle” haha (he lives with too many women apparently).  I’m pleading all 4 of my readers PLEASE HELP!

My Viking Longship – The Drakkar

The Cyclehisers have been searching for the perfect ‘All-Rounder’ for our family alpine touring adventures, and we have landed on Rawland’s Drakkar.  Today we ordered the frame set from Sean and Ann Virnig of Rawland, a courageous couple from Northfield, Minnesota.

Check out their site http://www.rawlandcycles.com/

An example of the Drakkar

Mountain biking with children

Mark and I took the girls on an easy mountain biking excursion up Mount Margaret recently.  It absolutely blew our minds.  What fun!   The less interesting miles at the beginning of the trail were a breeze on the bikes, the kids stayed happy and we covered distance like never before on foot.  When we reached the more technical sections near the summit, the girls were excited to get off and scramble around.

Taking the road less traveled

Eva Scrambles Near The Top

By contrast, we went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park recently, and the girls hiked the first few miles of the trail.  We moved too slowly, afternoon thunderstorms caught up with us, and the kiddos bonked early.   A mountainous meltdown ensued, turning us back short of the summit.

Post-meltdown double carry. Not exactly sustainable

It is odd that, despite our love for hiking/backpacking and cycling, we have done very little mountain biking.  The dilemma is, once again, how do you incorporate the kids?  Our Long Haul Truckers accomplish this on pavement, albeit snugly, with racks and a Bobike child seat.   But I am not one that feels very comfortable riding a road bike on single track.  Especially with a kid high-centered on the back.  Very few companies are designing bikes for expedition touring to begin with… add the complication of childseats, and there are really no options for less than $1500 (for the frame only).   Unlike many expedition tourists we’ve been reading about, we don’t have the option of going ultra-light.  We were interested in Salsa’s Fargo, but realized the Bobike/racks combo would only really work on the large frame size.  Oh bother.

So for the time being, we will be mountain biking with our Big Dummies.  They are sluggish, but sturdy, and the kids seem to ride on the snap deck well enough.  If only we could find a way to transport them… but more on that later.

Family Touring in Wet Weather

Mark and I took our first bicycle tour with our girls this April and May.  Although we planned on blogging about the experience extensively, we found that between two small children, camping,  and 30-50 mile days in the saddle, blogging was the least of our priorities.  On occasions when we had the great fortune of staying with a ‘warm shower’ host with an internet connection, we found that it was much more enjoyable to truly socialize, in person, with our hosts.  I digress.

The purpose of this post is to mention that I will be using this blog to share a few stories from our trip.  Things we’ve learned, and to (hopefully) convince others to try and tour with their families.  It’s not only doable, but life-changing and so, so much fun.

As many of you will know, the Cyclehisers toured Washington’s coast,  Olympic Peninsula (the rain shadow side), and the San Juan Islands.  Most folks I have chatted with were concerned about riding during the notoriously rainy Pacific northwest spring.  We took precautions, like making a new cover for the Chariot (see earlier post), and being equipped with full rain suits for the girls, etc.  According to some of our hosts, it was apparently one of the coolest springs on record in the Northwest and the rain+cold made for a few challenging days.  Fortunately, the soggy rides typically had a warm surprise at the end of the day.  Sometimes a ‘warm showers’ host would surprise us with a warm cup of Irish Breakfast, or a spaghetti dinner and homemade cherry cobbler.  When we were on our own, we would locate a cafe with hot chocolate and the girls would be happy for miles to come.   On rainy days, the girls spent more time in the trailer, so we had to break more often.  They didn’t seem to mind however, it was often our morale, not the girls, that wavered in the wetness.  They had their babies, and active imaginations to keep themselves warm.

Kidical Mass

I want to start a kidical mass ride in Fort Collins.  Here is an example of a blog for the ride started in Eugene http://www.kidicalmass.org

After all, my kids are now traffic too.  Especially Eva.  Although I have found it a bit challenging to teach her to ride on the right side of the road when she doesn’t yet know the difference!

Yes Eva has mastered two wheels at age four

Eva riding by the our little house on Cowan

Back in the Blog Scene

The 'new new new' old yellow house we love

Blogging resumes.  Between touring, moving and teaching bike camps, this spring/summer has left little idle time for reflecting.  In ways, I have adored living without the constant distractions of an internet connection, but community organization in this day and age seems to require social media.  I succumb.

The Indespensible Big Dummy

As we get more confident in our kids abilities, we are riding further and further afield.  In the second camp, we were easily covering 12-15 miles some days, with mountain biking and BMX riding during  the ‘breaks’.  We’ve only run into a few snags, mostly with our 7-8 year old crowd dropping chains on their single-speed bikes, and occasional flats.  Thanks to the Big Dummies, we are able to carry both the temporarily decommissioned bike, and the rider, to a good location for bike maintenance.

Tristan and his chain casualty

As it may not be clear in the photo, Mark and I also carried 8-9 backpacks in the Xtracycles.  Temperatures during the last week were in the late 90’s, making it very uncomfortable for our kids to wear backpacks.  Once again, thank goodness for the Dummies.

Bike to Work Day 2010

The Bikes Improve Kids Experiences (B.I.K.E.) Camp participated in the City of Fort Collin’s ‘Bike to Work Day’ this Wednesday (June 23).  The kids rode to the station sponsored by Recycled Cycles and the Vitamin Cottage who were serving all natural (with real buttermilk) pancakes with fresh blueberries and lots of other goodies from the Vitamin Cottage.  Yum.  The kids were thrilled and one of our kids, Jack, said “Free breakfast, I like biking now!”.  We took the opportunity to talk a little about the cycling culture in Fort Collins, and how much fun it is to participate in the different events.  Thanks again to the businesses that sponsored the stations for this event.

Clara joined us for camp today

Thanks to April for providing the camera today!

We were well hydrated with the coconut water

B.I.K.E. Camps

The day after returning to Fort Collins, Mark and I were able to score a temporary job teaching bicycle safety to 7-12 year olds through the FC Bikes program.  What a blast!  Today we took the kids from Fossil Creek Park in southern FoCo to Spring Canyon Park, where we rode the Pineridge natural area singletrack.  The kids rocked it, and we were beaming with pride.  It got Mark and I thinking about the bike shop idea again.  How great would it be to include a safety + fun ride with the purchase of any new kids bike (or any bike, for that matter)?  Of Fort Fun’s many shops, not many are as involved in the community as they could be.

Anyway, we are gearing up for Fort Collins Bike to Work Day tomorrow.  Mark and I are going to hit up a free breakfast station or two on the way to camp, and then take the kids (and a few parents) to another station after camp begins.  It is so great to be back!

William doing the slalom

Mark causing a sudden obstruction for the hard right turn

Flat demonstration