From the category archives:

Biking with cargo

Xtracycle Hooptie: Initial Impressions

by Dorea 12.25.2012
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We set up our Xtracycle almost 5 years ago, when our now 6 1/2 year old daughter was not quite 2. It’s hard to explain how different the cargo and family bike market was back then (or the family-biking-blog scene, for that matter). The only true extended frame on the market was the Big Dummy, though [...]

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What we ride

by Dorea 01.09.2012

I thought it might be useful for readers to know in more detail what bike gear we use to ride with our kids. Sure, we ride our cargo bikes, but we also ride (and have ridden) several other more standard (and more affordable) set-ups. So, here is some basic info about our current rotation. I [...]

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Local Roundup: Somerville Illuminations ride, cargo bike sightings, new local family bike list

by Dorea 12.27.2011
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Last weekend, H & I decked out our bikes in festive lights, put on all the wool socks we could find, and and headed out for the second annual Illuminations Ride put on by the Somerville Arts Council and the Somerville Bicycle Committee. We arrived to a festive gathering of 75-100 brightly lit cyclists, including [...]

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Family Bike Shopping Part V: The Final Verdict

by Dorea 11.04.2011
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(See also Parts I, II, III and IV) In a final round of consideration, we looked at some of the higher-end bakfiets, looking for something essentially like Mike’s bike, but with a better raincover and a less finicky kickstand latch. The trimmest I found was the well-regarded Workcycles Bakfiets Short, which is available in the [...]

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Family Bike Shopping part II: The first bike we almost bought, Sun Atlas Cargo

by Dorea 10.25.2011
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Back in part I, I described why we decided to wade back into family bike shopping. At first, we were just looking to find a longbike that would be easy for Angela (5′ 1″) to get on and off of, and possibly be a more stable ride with two kids. That approach led to the [...]

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Family Bike Shopping Part I: Why another bike?

by Dorea 10.19.2011

At long last, we’ve settled on a new family bike. Family and cargo bike shopping can be a daunting process, with limited access to test rides (see our previous desperate plea), limited knowledge available at local bike shops, conflicting info available online, and a confusing set of options that have different strengths and weaknesses, and [...]

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One thing I’m glad I got wrong when bike shopping

by Dorea 02.17.2010

Way back when we were trying to figure out what family bike to get, we thought that we were looking for a good way to bike with kids. We eventually found it, and love our current set up with an Xtracycle and custom two-kid seat. It works great for carrying one kid, and soon baby [...]

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Advice for the carfree plunge, Part 1: Gear

by Dorea 08.31.2009

We got a comment last week from Lauren asking for advice in taking the step from car-light family to car-free family. She writes: “My family (two grown-ups one 3.5 year old) have been day dreaming about being car free for a while- since we already owned a car, it was easy to just do our [...]

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Xtracycle shopping

by Angela 03.06.2009

True confession time: I have no right to be writing this post right now. Between illness and bike problems, it’s been far too long since I’ve done a good shopping trip on a bike. In fact, thanks to the generosity of our friends, I’ve borrowed a car for several in the past couple of months. [...]

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