Tonya and PQBON's WebLog

Riding bicycles...

Katie is almost a year old... That is a magical age milestone for many reasons. For the purposes of this article the significance is that she can now go in either a bicycle trailer or a baby seat on a bike. I started looking into both options about the time she was born (OK, a month before she was born). Now, that she is old enough, I wanted to be able to share bicycling with her. When I was a kid I lived on my bicycle and I hope she is the same way. I was also looking to get more exercise then the 2.2mile walk Tonya and I take with Katie.

I decided to get a bike. I needed a new one as the only bike I is a 20" wheeled BMX Vert bike (Hoffman Condor from 1997). It isn't conducive to pulling a trailer or mounting a baby seat. The more I talked to Tonya about getting a bike the more she wanted a bike too. The thought was that biking could be a form a family exercise.

We started shopping for bikes. It was a long process. I didn't know what I wanted. I kindof wanted a road bike but the more I looked into it the less practical they looked. So while I was undecided on what I wanted I focused on Tonya and Katie.

Tonya was going to be easy or so I thought. While it was easier then it was finding me a bike, it still wasn't easy. First, we cruised the bike shops in Palo Alto and Mountain View. The place we had the most luck was The Offramp in Moutain View. I won't even mention the other places we tried as they ignored us for some reason. We were at one place for almost an hour and no sales person ever made an effort to help us aside from a few inopportune questions (once when we first came in but wanted to get our bearings, then when we were finally going to leave and change Katie's poopy diaper). At the offramp we found the frame size for Tonya and two hybrid bikes that Tonya was thinking about. She was looking at the Giant Sedona and Cypress models. We were thinking she would be best suited by a hybrid. That thinking chainged when we went to a bike shop near our house in Fremont, The Bicycle Garage. There Tonya was encouraged to try different bikes in the parking lot and explore. She like the hybrids and the comfort bikes, however, she was more comfortable on a Trek Mountain Bike. She really like the Trek 3900 WSD in green.

I fell in love with the StumpJumper FSR while at the The Bicycle Garage. I rode several different models in the parking lot and I enjoyed the StumpJumper FSR the most. However, I knew we couldn't afford the price tag.

While doing all of this I started looking into the options for Katie. These days people tend not to like the baby seats. They are viewed as less safe and more difficult to ride with. The big thing for kids these days is trailers. So I started looking into trailers. Currently there are two major bike trailer vendors: Burley and Chariot. They come at the problem from two different directions. Burley is a bike product company. They make all sorts of bicycle related products while Chariot makes child carriers. However, both make competitive products. But neither one is cheep. We looked at both product lines and made some decisions. Since we know we are going to have more kids and are most likely going to have another one before Katie will be on her own bike we wanted a two kid trailer. I wanted it to be light and easy to pull since I would be doing all the pulling. I also thought that some kind of suspension would be really good for the kids. We wound up with a Chariot Cougar 2. There was nothing wrong with the Burley product. We actually came really close to getting the Burley as we almost had to wait for the Cougar2. However, in the end the Cougar2 was just more of what we were looking for and it was slightly less. So far all we have is the cycling kit and a spare hitch for Tonya's bike just in case we need it for some reason.

So now that we have Katie squared away back to me... I was going all over the internet trying to figure out what I wanted. First, I found a Motobacane dealer. I knew the name from my bike dealings as a kid so I was stoked. However, as I did a little research it revealed that they had gone out of business and a new company was now using the name. The new company wasn't making bad bikes but the were using cheap components and you could get better deals. One of the better deals I was pointed to was Ibex bikes. I was really excited about Ibex. I couldn't find anyone who was disappointed with products they sold and they're prices are great. I decided on an Ignition-3, however, I would have had to wait until Feb of '07 for one. That was just too long to wait. So then I was thinking the Asta X7. It was perfect, except for one thing. It was red. For $1,000 I wanted to like the looks of what ever I got. I just could get behind the red Asta X7. I loved the look of the X9 or the bare frame but neither was in my price range (and the frame wasn't available until Feb '07 anyway). Ibex was out, which made me sad. They have a great internet presence and a reputation for working to meet all customer needs.

I was back to the StumpJumper FSR I had ridden. I really liked it but couldn't afford it. I started scouring Ebay and Craig's list for a StumpJumper FSR. I couldn't find one (actually, I did find the perfect bike on craigslist and at the perfect price but I never got a response from the seller). I started to broaden my search on Ebay to other bikes comparable to the StumpJumper FSR. I found a seller with no feed back selling '05 Marin mountain bikes for a killer price. They were selling both Rift Zone and Rock Springs. The thing about the listing that cought my eye was their location: Palo Alto. It turns out it was the Bike Connection in Palo Alto. I drove over to try the bikes. I tried both the Rift Zone and the Rock Springs. I was sold. They felt like the StumpJumper FSR but because they were hold overs from '05 didn't cost like the StumpJumper. I really liked the Rift Zone. It was a touch lighter and more designed for the lighter use I would be giving it. However, the Rock Springs was cheaper. To save money I went with the '05 Rock Springs. I still think the Rift Zone would be a better bike for my riding, the Rock Springs has been GREAT! I was very happy dealing with the Bike Connection. They have a nice knowledgeable staff. The only change I made to the Rock Springs was clipless peddles to allow me to use the up stroke along with the down stroke. My leg bad leg doesn't hurt after riding with the clipless peddles, wear as without them my leg gets very sore.

Once we had bikes and a trailer we were ready to go. We have done two family trips. The first was just around the neighborhood. On the first trip we learned Katie doesn't like having her helmet put on and get a little nervous in the trailer until we start moving. Once moving she stops playing with her helmet and gets happy about the trailer. She also falls asleep really fast in the trailer (this has been true all 3 times I've taken her out). I was also getting used to my clipless peddles. I haven't fallen over in them yet except when trying to do tricks (riding up stairs or up walls) or ride up steep hills offroad (rear tire brakes loose and I can't get my feet free fast enough). However, when I'm doing tricks or offroad Katie isn't attached. The other family trip was to Fremont's central park and then around the lake. This was a fun trip and a reasonable amount of exercise.

Personally, I'm also trying to go riding at night while Tonya puts Katie to sleep. I'm hoping to use biking to get back in some kind of shape. I'm not there yet but I can tell my legs are getting more fit each day. I've also looked into commute options. There isn't a direct bike route from Fremont to Intel Santa Clara. However, I discovered ACE Train. They have a stop not too far from my house and not too far from work. I can ride to the trail station and then from the Great America stop to my office. I signed up for their free trial pass to see how it goes. It will make a nice alternative to riding my motorcycle everyday.

In summary, so far we are really happy with: Tonya's Trek 3900 WSD, my '05 Marin Rock Springs, Katie's Chariot Cougar2, the Bicycle Garage in Fremont and the Bicycle Connection in Palo Alto. This is all with an honorable mention for Ibex bikes which was almost perfect.

Posted by pqbon at November 24, 2006 2:53 AM