And now Peanut has a new bike!

Tuesday night James, Jacob and I rode our bikes to Flipper’s Pizza for dinner. The ride was 2.85 miles each way, so just over 5 1/2 miles total. It was a nice ride and we enjoyed our dinner, but there was one thing that could have been better: Jacob’s speed (or lack thereof). He was sooooo slow. And needed lots of breaks – usually alternating between “my legs hurt”, and “my butt hurts”. The breaks weren’t long, but we averaged about 3mi/h throughout the mostly-straight road trip – that’s walking speed. We didn’t mind stopping because we could tell he was really pushing his little bike as hard as he could, but that’s when I started to think of how we could make cycling more enjoyable for him.

So after our Tuesday trip I looked at alternatives, the most appealing of which is the Trail-a-Bike attachment that clips onto the seat post and allows the child to pedal if they want but coast when they get tired. The best part is that there are no brakes, so the kid can’t slow the adult down. :-). The Trail-a-Bike looks pretty cool, and even comes with an orange flag for safety. I did have a few concerns though.

1) Price. The one at Olde Towne Cyclery is $219. That’s a lot of money for something he can’t use without me. I would say this is the tippy top of the range of what I would want to pay for a bike trailer.

2) Size. The one they have in stock is made for 4 – 6 year-olds. Jacob is 7, and although he’s small for his age and I’m sure he’d fit fine for now, I worry about how quickly he would outgrow it. We could probably order the larger size Trail-a-Bike which has 7 gears, but it’s $319. Gulp.

3) Weight. Will I be able to travel significantly farther when I’m pulling 50lbs of Jacob plus 27lbs of added bike? He’ll help when he can, but will it be enough to compensate for most or all of the extra weight?

Thursday after I picked Jacob up from summer camp we headed over to Olde Towne Cyclery to check out their Trail-a-Bike. Bad news: It won’t attach to my seat because of the suspension boot. DRAT! I was so bummed. I was really hoping this would work because I wanted Jacob to experience the joy of riding beyond 3 miles, but trading my bike for a different model is not an option at this point – I invested way too much time and energy into finding the perfect bike for me; there’s no way I would change it now!

So just when I think all hope is lost, Tommy (shop owner) pulls out an OMG AMAAAAAAZING kids bike for Jacob to try. The first thing I notice is the name brand – Specialized – and I hear cha-ching sounds going off in my head. If I was stressing over the $200 bike trailer, there’s no way we can afford a gabillion-dollar Specialized bike.

I let Jacob approach the bike anyway. It looks a little too big in my opinion, but Tommy lowers the seat and Jacob’s able to touch the ground and can pedal and turn comfortably. The bike is just absolutely beautiful. It’s a Specialized Hotrock, silver with black flames, has 21 speed Shimano gears with the really cool twist-shifters (like I have on my bike), front suspension, and even has a kickstand. Judging by the bike shopping I did for myself in the past few weeks and what I know about what James paid for his Specialized mountain bike, I can tell this is definitely not something I can afford to buy right now. Jacob immediately starts with, “Mom, can we get it? Pleeeeeeeeease?” and I’m instantly stressed. I’m thinking damn Tommy for putting me in this position – I hate that I have to tell Jacob no and break his little heart after he obviously fell in love with the bike. I mean, look at it… what’s not to love. Then Tommy said “$100” and I almost fell over. What???  This is like a $400+ bike (I later confirmed online, it retails for $410)… did he really just say $100?? Well it turns out it was a trade-in (I thought it was brand new, haha)! So I think it over for about 5 nanoseconds before agreeing to purchase the bike. And a matching helmet. And a bell that Jacob picked out (it says “I [heart] my bike”).

Aaaaand WE’RE OFF!

It was raining when we returned home, but Jacob and I were both so stinkin’ excited about his new bike that there’s no way we could wait for a sunny day to try it out. We immediately strapped on our helmets and made several laps around the block. This was of course Jacob’s first time using gears, so I had to teach him how to handle them – something I actually only learned a few days ago. We probably rode 2 miles total, and I could tell Jacob loved every minute of it! He got used to shifting much faster than I thought he would and seemed to have good control of the bike. My mom recently told me I haven’t taught the kids enough “boy stuff”, so while I was out I taught Jacob how to jump the bike off a curb. 🙂
Yes, I am the coolest mom ever, thankyouverymuch.

By the time James got home the rain had stopped, so after dinner went out for a ride around Seminole State College. This time Jacob was going just as fast as we were, and sometimes faster! He didn’t get tired at all, and he handled the bike like a pro. We got up to 12mi/h at one point! After about 3 miles around campus we had to head home because the sun was setting and we don’t have lights yet. Jacob of course wanted to stay out later, and even asked if he could ride his bike to school this morning – which is about 12 miles away, haha! He’s so cute, and I love that he’s enjoying his new bike as much as I enjoy mine.

I recently started a new fitness plan which includes weight-training at the gym 3 days a week. Yesterday was a weight-training day but I knew Jacob wanted to ride his new bike (and I wanted to ride, too!), so we decided to ride our bikes to the gym. This was a new challenge because it’s the farthest I’ve ever gone on a bike: 3.85 miles each way (7.7 miles total). We actually did ok, and the trip only took about 35 minutes each way (about 15 minutes less than I thought it would take, haha). We averaged 8.1 mi/h with a top speed of 13 mi/h – what a difference a good bike made for Jacob! He did a great job and really enjoyed the ride. I noticed he sometimes forgot to change gears when the incline changed, so I would remind him to “gear up” or “gear down” and he was good with that. Sometime he would ask “what gear should I be in?” because he was unsure, but I think he’ll get better with practice and it will become second nature to shift gears when it feels right.

I’m incredibly excited about Jacob having a really great bike, and I hope to get one for Logan before he returns home at the end of the summer. This is something fun and enjoyable that we can all do together – and it doesn’t take batteries or an internet connection. The fact that it’s good exercise is just an added bonus!