Today's Lesson: Tighten The Bolts on your Rack

On a trip up into Santa Cruz earlier today with my two boys, my cruiser, the Wee Ride for Sully and the Trail-a-Bike for Grady we nearly had to abort the entire mission. Because I'd failed to notice a locking screw on part of the new bike rack. Without it screwed down, the bracket holding the forks to the rack rattled loose and started, brace yourself, bouncing along down the highway.

It could have very easily destroyed the rack and the bike but the total damage ended up being the casing around the bracket. No damage to my bike and I always make sure to travel with my Topeak Alien multitool so it was pretty easy to get it back in place and fully secured with the screw locking it in place but good.

The rest of the trip was pretty standard if you can call riding a one speed cruiser with one kid up front and one kid trailing behind standard. The ride down to the lighthouse was pretty easy with the wind pushing us along and man, oh man did it make the ride back a workout.

Grady has a horn on his bike and was really good at using it to alert the three or four abreast walkers blocking the entire path. He would also say hi and wave alot too.

All in all it was a fun outing and next time will be even better.

Sully's First Ride

Sullys First Ride

Sully got his first taste of cycling yesterday afternoon while his big brother napped. At first he didn't know what to make of the process but he got into it as we pedaled around the driveway for a few minutes and then headed down into the slough for a short ride.

I could tell he was having fun because he started pumping his body while we raced down the big hill next to our house.

The Wee Ride is awesome for this because he's protected inside my arms and has a fantastic view of the action. It also lets anyone we pass get a good look at him having a great time. And they almost always light up with a great big smile in return. The people who don't, I generally think they're sour pusses.

Next step will be to start Grady on his Trail-A-Bike so I can go for rides with both the boys. Nothing like an extra 65 pounds of child to make for a more vigorous workout!