Cargo Bike Roll Call recap

Today’s cargo bike roll call (Seattle’s first!) was a huge success. I think we had over 60 attendees. A cargo bike roll call is just like a social bike ride, but without the bike ride part. We met at Gas Works park and stayed at Gas Works Park. Both family and utility bicyclers attended and we test rode one another’s bikes. If you attended, I owe you a spoke card. I’ll get to Kinko’s soon, but in the meantime, here’s your virtual version:

I’ve put my photos in a Seattle Cargo Bike Roll Call Flickr set which will hopefully attract more photos of the day.

Morgan of Bike Works is out of town (in Portland with many of our Greenway organizers collecting exciting ideas), but Davey Oil used her awesome recumbent cargo trike to bring his daughter and folding cycle truck to the event. I think this may be the smallest load it’s ever carried. Morgan tends to pile it with cargo bikes and tow three behind. It was test ridden by many and Davey gave lovely tours of the park. I enjoyed life as a passenger for a change as Davey pedaled me and a couple kids around.

Davey also provided Bike Works stickers and temporary tattoos for the piñata. I had visions of dangling a car-shaped piñata it from one of the cement arches while we rode bike and attacked it joust style with a seat post, but by the time we got to it, Davey and the seat post had pedaled off and it turned into a more kid-friendly affair. Fortunately, one of the kids had a very firm sparkly wand that worked great and Julian of Totcycle facilitated the destruction of the cheerful Cars movie happy birthday piñata. Oh, and there were lollipops in there, too, so the kids didn’t just go home hot and dirty–they were sugared-up, too.

I love kid-toting cargo bikes, but am also intrigued by utility-only cargo bikes. Check out this awesome ANT basket bike with canine passenger.

I wish I’d taken a picture of my bike on the way to the party. I put on my WideLoader to carry the two balance bikes on one side and on the other wide put my road bike (front wheel in the bag, back wheel towed behind), snacks, bike decorating supplies, and toys. But that was the easy part–in my front basket I put a large insulated back filled with ice packs and drink boxes. Some day I hope to have a bike with a frame-mounted front basket and carry heavy loads with ease. I rode that down and Hum of the City, who is visiting from San Francisco, took Leya’s Kona MinUte down. Leya is out of town, but generously let me borrow her new MinUte because everyone who rides one falls in love so we had to have one on hand! The road bike was so I could rush back home solo to grab The Main Tank’s Madsen bucket bike from my garage where we borrowed it for Hum of the City to use on Thursday.

Hum of the City left part-way through the party via Uber car service (brilliant!) to get to the train station and head to Portland for a week of cargo bike test riding (…and Kidical Mass…and another cargo bike roll call…) so I had the exciting task of getting three cargo bikes back home. The kids stayed and partied while I took the MinUte home first and headed back to the park on my road bike. I was planning to take Big Dummy with kids, road bike, and as much stuff as I could squeeze on next and then chase them back down to the park on foot while they balance biked and wedge it all into the Madsen (“wedge” because of the big cooler). But luckily, Forrest didn’t realize how heavy the Madsen would feel going 10 blocks up Meridian Avenue and suggested he ride it home and then walk back down to fetch his regular bike. I hope he’s still cargo-curious!

A month ago I decided what I wanted for my birthday was a cargo bike roll call so this was essentially a birthday party I threw for myself. It’s a wonderful way to get a bunch of awesome people to show up and hang out for the day! I didn’t alert the masses ahead of time about the birthday aspect, but I don’t think anyone minded my sneakiness. The Biking with Brad family brought cake and snacks and Brad played happy birthday on his accordion. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, let alone a better almost-my-birthday! Other exciting birthday stuff included my new mud flap from Tarik of T’s Leatherworks. Yippee!

I’m sorry I don’t have more specific details, but there was so much distracting awesomeness! My 38 pictures in the Flickr set have descriptive titles so check them out.

We’ll most definitely roll call again!