We talked about Slow Cargo Cycling back in February. Tim and I are all about slowness.

Naturally I was thrilled that Mikael of Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycle Chic fame has started a new site called The Slow Bicycle Movement.

Go ahead, head on over to the site, leave a comment and join the slow cycling movement.

- Anne

Val sent us the info about the Fourth of July Cargo Bike Ride. Sounds like fun. Meet in Pioneer Square at the Pergola - First and Yesler @ noon. The ride will commence at 12:30. Details here.

We’ll probably wander down and ride part way. We have Fourth of July plans so we won’t be able to linger. Hope to see you there.

- Anne and Tim

This Sightline video is worth a 44 second watch. Tim and I were once two of those 76 people in cars sitting on 520 in traffic every day. We carpooled but we still drove across SR 520 twice a day to our jobs on the Eastside. I’m so glad those days are behind us. During his most recent job search, Tim pretty much ruled out working on the Eastside (those traffic memories are painful). Sitting in 520 traffic in a stinky car sucks. Bike commuting six miles rules.

I do love the bike lane at the end of the video. Do you think it will ever happen?

- Anne

Tim and I are engaging in a friendly “big load” competition. We both know Tim is bigger and stronger and can carry more but it’s still fun for me to pretend I’m in the running. (Ah it’s the little things that keep marriage interesting).

The loads are really hard to gauge since we don’t have a scale that will register that much weight. So our method for determining who is the burliest Xtracycle grocery shopper is how much we spent at Trader Joe’s. I hauled $205.68 back in January. Tim’s latest load was $209. I’m pretty sure he bought more wine and cheese and other expensive stuff than me so I know I’m winning. ; - ) Maybe we need to bring in a neutral third party to be the judge?

Happy Friday! It’s a beautiful day in Seattle - I hope it’s nice where you are.

- Anne

The Sightline Institute is looking for car-free vacation ideas. In celebration of their 15 year anniversary, they are giving away a car-free vacation in the Pacific Northwest and they want your ideas. Details here.

A car-free vacation sounds like a lot of fun. We’re not great planners so we’ve yet to make it happen. Perhaps a train ride to Portland with bikes? With rising fuel costs, trains are becoming more popular in the States. How about a ride on the Victoria Clipper to Victoria B.C.? I just learned the Clipper stops on San Juan Island too.

Send along your ideas–who knows, maybe you’ll win a vacation?

- Anne

Tim picked me up from an appointment on his Xtracycle last week. It sure was nice to be the passenger for once. We rode a little under two miles like this–not a bad way to travel.

I kept asking Tim if he wanted me to get off and walk and he repeatedly said, “No”. So I sat back, savored the view and the experience and enjoyed the ride. I have to say it was quite nice. Good thing Tim is a safe rider, you really have to trust your captain when you’re the passenger.

- Anne

We met a group of kids and parents for donuts this morning for our last ride to school event of 2008. We had a pretty good turn out considering yesterday’s sun was long gone and the Seattle mist had returned. There’s nothing like sending your kid off to school with a nutritious breakfast in their belly.

I have a great feeling that the momentum of biking to school is going to continue to grow next year. Maybe we can get even more parents and kids riding to school on a regular basis. I’ll have two kids in elementary school next year and I’m sure we’ll be riding regularly.

How about you?

Happy Summer!

- Anne

I broke my Xtracycle frame the last day of April and am only getting around to mentioning it on the blog now. It’s been so long I almost let it pass without comment, but figured the info may help someone else down the road.

First of all, I should be clear. It’s not really the frame—more the undersized tongue where the front attachment plate sandwiches the chainstays near the bottom bracket.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d been hearing this creak, creak creak—first when climbing out of the saddle (which isn’t unheard of for someone my size), then later even when seated (which is unusual, even for us giant folks) and only applying moderate muscle. I kept checking the torque on the three attachment points and even looked for cracks on my Rockhopper frame and the X where it was visible. Everything seemed fine. Finally, the night before “Bike to Work Month” started, I couldn’t take the embarrassment of a noisy bike any longer. I vowed to pull the Xtracycle off the bike frame, coat up the “Special Nut”/dropout contact points with anti-seize and put an end to the creak once and for all!

It wasn’t to be. As soon as I backed off the Special Nuts torque, … CLUNK! What was left of the tongue snapped under the weight of the bare Xtracycle frame. On closer inspection, this piece obviously had been failing for a while. It’s hard to tell from the photo but there’s surface rust on the break, meaning the puny welds had been failing for a while. Sheesh, would it have killed them to beef that weld point up a bit? A small gusset perhaps? Still, at least it held until I got to the workstand, rather than failing on a downhill with kids on the Snapdeck!

So here I was, the night before the big bike commute month kickoff and me, the BikeJunction team captain without a bike. Or was I?

I looked across the garage and spied my spare Xtracycle. Spare Xtracycle? Everyone has a spare, right? I bought this as a loaner for friends and family but hadn’t got around to giving it a very needed tune. In addition to it being a couple sizes too small, the flat tires, rusty chain and ginormous exercise-bike saddle made it unridable for my commute. As a donor, though …

A mere hour later I had the old longbike frame joined to my Rockhopper and was ready for the morning commute. I figured I’d send my Xtracycle frame in for a warranty claim and do the swap again in a few weeks. That was the plan anyway; six weeks later is still hangs in the garage.

A few more notes/observations:

• Check your tongue! Right now.
• A bit of reinforcement with the original design would have gone a long way.
• A gusset would have been great. Even better, a flat, plate-like tongue could probably serve a couple purposes — more metal-to-weld contact and the plate would spread out the forces on the chainstay bridge like an upper FAP.
• The donor frame has some issues with the disc mount. I pulled the rear Avid brake off my original Xtracycle and it should have bolted right on the donor. Instead, the caliper rubbed the rotor, almost as if the mounting bosses were dialed in for 201mm rotors instead of 203mm spec. A presta valve “nut” worked under the mounts as a spacer, but I’m still wondering if they had a bad batch or something. Anyone seen this?
• The Big Dummy and other custom Xtracycle options are looking kind of nifty. Less to break.
• Finally, and I’m serious about this, check your Xtracycle for cracks! You might be able to do it with a flashlight and some creative neck craning, but if you have any creaks or squeaks you’ve been trying to ignore, pull the frame and check it out up close!

Has anyone else out there broken their Xtracycle? Had it warrantied? I’m starting to think it may not be worth the shipping hassle and time delay to send it back. I may just have someone tack the tongue back on there (reinforced, of course) and be done with it.

Summer’s coming, and with my luck I’m going to need a spare.

Tim spent a couple of hours last weekend lovingly painting my new front basket cherry red. It looks great. Tim, you do good work– and you’re the best.

I made up an excuse to take the new basket out for a test ride when Tim got home from work last night. A quick trip to the library and a stop at the store for a few things I didn’t really need did the trick. I have to say, it rules! I pulled up to the bike rack at Whole Foods as a twenty something guy was unlocking his bike. He gushed over my bike and wanted to know all about it and where he could get one. I’m sure he thought I was a bit kooky - high on the love for my new basket, I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm for my Oma and European bikes in general.

Henry and Val were right, my dainty wicker basket just didn’t cut it. I knew it wasn’t practical, but for a few weeks I enjoyed riding a bike that was just for me to cruise around town and savored the fact that I couldn’t carry much. I have a mini van Xtracycle for hauling kids and stuff, it was nice to have my Oma for when I ride alone. However, with the dainty basket, I found myself taking the Xtracycle most of the time because it was just more practical to carry stuff.

This basket is awesome. It comfortably fit two full bags of groceries and a six pack of Leffe Blonde–yum. It handled great too!

Now if we can just do something about the wind and the rain in June, I’ll be golden.

- Anne

We thought we were done with the rain for a few months. After our horrible winter, we thought the worst was over. A few weeks ago it was 90 degrees for a couple of days. We enjoyed some nice evening rides, we got out our window fans, cleaned the deck and stocked the fridge with Mojito supplies. Mmmm–Tim makes a mean mojito.

But we were wrong, so wrong. Friday it was 50 degrees and raining, it even snowed in the mountains a few days ago. I finally had to turn the heat back on because the kids won’t get out of bed in the morning. And our mojito drinking days will have to wait.

Tim used his rain gear more last week than he used it all winter. Enough already, I’m ready for some warmer weather.

Carfree days really suck when it’s pissing rain in June.

 - Anne