Trailers and Kids

Jon's new HASE Trets child trailer.

This past Sunday marked the first Sunday bike ride with kids this season. So the friends and family cycling weekends have officially begone.

This was my daughter Maya's first ride on the trail. I waited until she was a bit older before taking her out on the trailer. She did quite well, sleeping half way until we neared Loveland Ohio. 

Shawn and Maya enjoying the swings.

The kids always liked the part of playing at the local park playground once we reached Loveland. This gets them nice and hungry for lunch.

The season would be different for me, since my buddy Jon will not be hauling his daughter Violet and my son Shawn on his old trailer. He recently bought a very high end single seat child trailer for his daughter. It's more like a trike but without the front wheel. So now, I''ll be hauling my own kids up the trail.

On the way back, Violet was fast asleep. I'm surprised that she was able to keep her foot on the pedals.

Hauling two kids and a trailer is a chore. The weight combined is around 90 lbs. My speed varied from 10 mph to 13 mph on the flats. On a slight grade going down I can probably get it to around 14-15 mph.

Here I am with my son Shawn inside the Trek GoBug trailer.

On the way back Maya rode home in my wife's car, while Shawn enjoyed the ride.

At the end my lungs were the ones tired instead of my legs. I have to find a way to hook up a child carrier to my wife's Trike, in order for her to share in the load.

Trets and Trailers from glenn m on Vimeo.

It's not the bike, it's the engine

Today I took out my RANS Zenetik crank forward bike. The factory handlebar was replaced with a Nitto Albatross handlebar, twist shifters replaced with bar end shifters and pedals with Crank Brothers clipless pedals.

The Zenetik was my latest acquisition for hauling my kids around in their TREK Go Bug trailer. I figured that it would be much better and safer than hauling them on one of my recumbent bikes. The Zenetik sports 700c wheels which are designed for less drag on road surfaces, meaning a faster ride. But it also depends on the engine; I could be riding a $5000 road bike and still not keep an average speed of 18 mph, at my current fitness state. Plus, the design of the Zenetik sits me in a more upright comfortable riding position.

When hauling my kids around I’m not looking into breaking speed records. It’s all about enjoying the ride.

The issue I had was adjusting to the different seat position. On my recumbents my weight is mainly distributed on my back, but on the crank forward seat it’s on my butt. Constantly changing my seating position allows the blood to flow and relieves the aches.

My Zenetik rides smooth and feels like it’s on rails. Accelerating quickly on the bike was no problem at all. The bike itself weights around 20-24 lbs.

Night Ride 20090316

I decided to ride my Baron lowracer this time around.

Another night ride, but with some company. This time, on my night ride, my buddy Jon and his friend Brian joined me on an evening ride. We rode from Newtown, Ohio to Loveland, Ohio. The pace was a bit faster this time around (18-20 mph). Round trip 27 miles.

On the way up we spotted three deers. We almost hit them as they stared at us coming towards them. The term "deer in the headlights" was true that night. Jon had his Light and Motion Arc light and I used my smaller 900 lumens led flashlight.

Images are references only.

On the way back we saw a large owl. Probably the same large owl Jon and I saw a year ago. Several rabbits and two coyotes ran across the trail from us. The coyotes were the first Jon and I have seen on the trail.

Jon on his Cervelo TT bike.

Brian Duffy (location Milford, Ohio)

The photo comes close to illustrating the type of illumination my small 900 lumen led flashlight gives off.