29-speed bike
During my weeklong bike ride I saw lots of families riding together. I was trying to picture my older daughters on the ride in future years. Children my kids’ age are too big for a bugger yet too small to ride on their own. You’d see first graders on the back of pricey tandems or on bike trailers. Picture a 20″ kid’s bike with its front tire replaced with a pole and yoke. The yoke attaches to the back of a regular bike just below the seat to become a poor man’s tandem. Many major bike makers produce them.
For several weekends after I got home from GOBA, I dragged my girls to one bike shop after another to gauge their interest and comparison shop. Ones with derailleurs were running $230-$350. A tad pricey if you’re not sure if your kid wants to ride on one. So I hit ebay to see if anyone was selling one they’d outgrown.
I lucked out: a bike store was selling new (in box) Adams trail-a-bike. It was last year’s model (only 5 gears) and I got it for half what they normally go for.
It came today and Katie couldn’t wait for me to assemble it. I was hoping that she would fit it. I managed to bend I part and had to figure out how to still make use of it. That alone set me back for most of an hour.
A half hour before sunset Katie and I were finally able to get on the bike and pedal to the neighborhood playground. She had a great time. Barely big enough to touch he pedals, she didn’t bother to pedal herself. Basically dead weight. It is a little more aerodynamic than the bugger, but with a higher center of gravity. So as Katie shifted back there, it would lurch my bike left and right without warning. It turns out the trailer, even thought it has only one undersized wheel, is heavier than my entire bike. Yikes.
Only 11 more months to the next GOBA.