7.05.2006

When We Ride on the Wee Ride

It has been several months since our last outing on the bike, Graydon and I, using the supercool Wee Ride kid bike seat. Why is it supercool?

Because on this kid bike seat, the kid doesn't sit in the fart blast zone behind the parent, also known as the can't-see-a-thing zone. Nope, on the Wee Ride Kangaroo, Grady rides on a seat that is mounted along the top tube. His seat stays between my arms, he gets a fantastic view of the ride and, almost best of all, people we pass get to see him having an absolute ball.

And by an absolute ball, I mean he was laughing, pointing, sucking his thumb, talking and smiling the entire time, even on the downhills when we got to cooking along pretty well.

We talked about helmets and safety before going for the ride and he understands that he can't ride the bike without his helmet on. And he loves wearing his helmet an awful lot more now.

I've got the Wee Ride mounted on my Phat cruiser single speed right now because I need to make a few adjustments on my Ibis before it'll mount properly (a couple of spacers on the ahead set). Our first trip out in town was down to the slough path that meanders around the coves and crazy edges of the sometimes huge lake of water. I made sure to take it very easy on the gravelly corners to avoid a spill that would be a serious bummer all the way around. But we got going pretty well on the straights and I got a good workout in going from one end of the slough to the other and back. One of the really nice things about the location of the seat is that the bike's balance isn't thrown off at all, unlike the seat behind style.

Graydon had such a good time that, after we'd come back home and gotten some food and water, he wanted more. So we went back out for another short ride, this time I got him to wear his sunglasses for eye protection (and for the super cool dude look!). All in all we put on around 8 miles or so on a single speed cruiser with an forty pounds of kid and kid seat. Not a bad workout at all.

And the big hill leading back up the house? It was a freaking bear but I pulled it. Oh yeah! Though I'll admit to taking the longer and much less steep back road in the second time. It was a toss-up as to which was harder, the quick, steep burn or the longer, slower burn.

I'm thinking about taking Grady to day care on the bike tomorrow, I'm sure he'd love it and I know my cardio can use the extra action. And tomorrow, if/when we go riding, I'll get pictures because the kid is just grinning from ear to ear!

And here's some more info about the centric riding system made by Wee Ride. It is alot safer and it is alot more fun! If you ride bikes and you've got little kids, I highly suggest looking into one of these rather than subjecting your kids to the fart blast zone.
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