The New Bike

Well, we did it. We bought a bigbike.

A couple of Saturdays ago we spent the whole day shopping for a bike that would accommodate both girls and some cargo. We tested three bikes at three different shops: the Kona Ute at Bike Gallery, the Yuba Mundo at Joe Bike, and the Xtracycle Radish at Clever Cycles. (I'm not going to link to the stores because if you live in Portland you can find them easily enough, and if you don't, you don't care.)

The Kona was the nicest bike, and they were all about the same price -- i.e., eleven to twelve hundred dollars. The Kona is a single-piece extended frame, has front- and rear-derailers, and disc brakes. It rode like a dream. The Mundo was a nightmare: stupendously heavy, handled not so great, awkward ride position, just felt weird. Plus regular V-brakes. The Radish was startlingly light, is a two-piece frame, has only one derailer (thus only 8-speeds), and V-brakes.

We bought the Radish primarily because the salesman did not balk at the idea of putting a Bobike front seat (for baby Suzanne) on the thing. The salesgirl at Bike Gallery was at first unsure, then basically told us the Ute wouldn't take a Bobike and we should just put Suzanne on the back in a Peapod. Wrong answer.

The guy at Joe Bike told us the Mundo would take a Bobike, but he "could not endorse it" -- apparently for liability reasons. Wrong answer.

At Clever Cycles the mechanic (we somehow bypassed the salespeople) said, "Sure, we can put a Bobike on the Radish -- it just takes an adapter, which costs thirty-five bucks. I can have the bike ready to roll in twenty minutes." Sold!

The Radish is a bike inferior in every way to the Ute. But it's more than good enough. What sold it to us wasn't the bike, but the shop.

Good on you, Clever Cycles.


Here we are after the Sunday Parkways last weekend -- we spent the day out of the house, on the bikes. By the time we got home, Elizabeth and Suzanne were both asleep in their bike seats (Elizabeth was by that time in my bike seat, not on the back of Barb's Radish, which would not allow her to fall asleep.). In this picture, Barb is the only one playacting.