My Current Obsession: Cargo Bikes

I've been on the search for a way to get more strenuous exercise into my routine. The challenge is finding time away from my family to spend an hour or more working out. Then I started thinking about what can I do with my family. Swmming...out. Running...not unless I get a jogging stroller. I'm not much of a runner & pushing the weight of two kids would make me even less of a runner. Biking...now there's an idea. I was inspired by Sweet-Juniper's Popscycle. I could ride a bike with the kids.

I toyed with the notion of a kid seat in the front and a trail-a-bike in the back. The weight limit for kids in front is typically 35 pounds, which my youngest is already brushing up against. So I started looking at bakfiets. I took a test drive of the Nihola and Gazelle Cabby pictured above kindly snapped by Joseph the proprietor of the local Flying Pigeon. I am completely in love with the cargo bike and the Yepp kid bike seat. However, the cargo bikes are expensive ($2500-3400). I have not stopped dreaming just yet and plan to go back and test ride the Christiania box bikes when they arrive at the Flying Pigeon.

In anticipation in biking with kids, I rode the 6.3 rolling hill ride to my oldest son's school and back. I'm hoping that I might be able to work something out. Perhaps it will be biking with one kid at a time until I weld together a homemade box bike or sidecar or the bakfiet companies recognize what a wonderful marketing opportunity they would have by using Ramshackle Solid as the equivalent of a cellophaned bus.