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bikes, bikes, bikes

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

After the cold weather had long since settled in this past Autumn, my boss told me that his family had a spare bike (a loaner long forgotten by a now-defunct bike shop) and that I could have it. He even dropped it off.

It solved a problem we had, in that Mari's "Tokyo bike" is a bit too light and has too-small tires for Toronto's godawful frost-damaged roads. It took me 'til today, when the weather was finally co-operating, to go over that bike making adjustments and so on. I attached the anchor for the child seat, which is now The Girl's (The Boy's ride with me yesterday up to his Japanese school will have been his last on that seat - he's right at the top of the weight supported by the seat's design). I also added a bell.

I then re-attached a seat to the old bike I was riding for over a year when I first returned to the city, and put a bell on that bike as well. It's now once again ride-worthy, and will probably serve Mari's father when her parents are visiting in June/July.

And then I added a bell to The Boy's bike.

All of this comes a day after we made a decision about getting around town with the two kids. The Girl will ride with Mari, and The Boy would ride with me. But since he's too old to ride on a child seat, and not yet old enough to ride with us for long distances on his own bike, we reached a compromise. Not the cheapest alternative, but one that we tested two summers ago in Montreal: we've ordered a recumbant trailer.

My first thought was that The Boy and I can now go visit Grandma! This made Mari nervous, but I think we can do it....