A blog of benign neglect

Subliminal...

Seems that one theme of our shop slowly works itself into the mind of people...

'The revolution will not be motorized' ...and oh, bring the kids!

Marion Rice, a super cool mom with an xtracycle wrote this cool article for bikeportland.org -- that's what our shop and I are all about!

In the last month a lot has happened in the realm of family biking for me: Marion started to work on a series of articles for Bikeportland, BTA is planning a family bike workshop(more info soon!) and I met a mom from urbanmamas, an activista mom blog that features a bike section!

Very good!

Portland swallows - SGOB

'One swallow doesn't make it Spring?!'
In Portland the arrival of spring is not measured by the swallows, blooming of the trees, but by SGOB sightings - at least according to my friend G. SGOB stands naturally for Skirted Girls on Bikes and while there a still some discussions about the "G", this bike shop lady embraces the rest of the abbreviation!

Bak fiets vs. Mt Tabor

We need a bike map with elevation like they have in San Francisco! I nearly got a heart attack going the recommended bike route to my son's Tball practice. This time not because of reckless SUV drivers trying to reach light speed on Division St., but for the PDOT planners whose bike routes all seem to be laid out for street or tour bikes. Sending a woman in bak fiets up Lincoln to where it intersects with Harrison (aka half up Mt Tabor) is not funny! But I have to say that I am darn proud of myself.
10 minutes later when the big hail storm of the afternoon happened, I was very happy to have a bak fiets with a rain roof: Carl and I sat under our nice dry tent and waited the storm out.

Bakfiets wins!

Community through living carfree...

One of our clients, who tries to go car-free in a Portland suburb, asked me yesterday how I deal with kids and activity and no car. Having just survived my first ride to TBall practice, I wasn't quite sure what to say.
I told him that my normal modus operandi would be to asked neighbors and other team parents to take my son to games that are outside of biking distance and in return chaperone the kids to games/training within biking distance. He thought that he could either offer to pay for gas, babysit the kids or wash their car.
He was also concerned about what he would do in an emergency -- I told him about my experience bringing C. to the emergency room in cab long years ago in San Francisco. The emergency scenario is also one of the reasons why we are zip car members.

Through our conversation meandered the baseline of having to ask neighbors for help - a strange idea in a society that values self reliance, but I start to think that having the courage to ask neighbors for help is one of the best community builders, because it create a connective web of granting and repaying favors.