Note: I'm currently on a family trip and not working normal hours. Email and message responses will be delayed and story and posting volumes here and on our social media accounts will not be at their usual levels until I return to Portland September 4th. Thanks for your patience and understanding. - Jonathan Maus, BikePortland Publisher and Editor
I snapped these photos downtown a few days ago. I noticed this guy riding around with a kid in his messenger bag and had to stop for a closer look.
Turns out he goes by “Sharky” and his boy’s name is “Velo”. I heard from some other messengers that Sharky is “an animal on the bike” and “sort of a messenger legend”.
Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)
Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, contact me via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a paying subscriber.
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Glad to see his wee-little-one has a helmet on. Had me really concerned for a moment. Father/son bonding on the bike is the tops!
I saw him when i was riding home the other day across the steel bridge.
i’ve heard his name quite a few times. mostly people sad that he was moving to portland.
it’s not really a helmet–it’s one of those padded leather things.
Crackee I thought the mini van was the final nail in the coffin for the ol’ kid on the bike with you trick. Hmmm well now I feel much better about my day.
If my wife and I ever have kids we are riding with a kid in tow all the time. God you folks live in a great city. 3 years then I’m transfering my seniority out there.
Maybe you all will think Im raining on the picnic, but this seems highly dangerous for the child. I wouldnt be concerned if it was an adult being carried around in a bag (not that this idea is possible), but not a child. the child seats are bad enough….
Aww, those photos are so incredibly CUTE. That is amazingly sweet.
I understand that it rains on picnics all the time, and sometimes it doesn’t rain, and then the ants come, and all of a sudden, WOAH!!!! The watermelon is walking away, on little tiny legs….
I must tell you that I know this boy has been in a bag on a bike since 10 months old, and is probably as qualified to ride a bike as I am.(Well Maybe)
And no one on the plane is safe without a good pilot, and Sharky is the cream of the crop.
By the way, I fully endorse this type of bonding, and if you knew them, you would too…..
the ants always take the watermelon dont they?
yeah, I think its great bonding. those two seem very happy together. However, he could be the best biker in the world and his son could have the grip of death and a harness from hell, but all it takes is one mistake or the mistake of someone walking or riding a bike to do some major damage
I do undestand the idea of not letting fear control or limit your life. You can get killed just walking out your front door, but my greatest point is that take your own life into your hands, not your child’s. At 10 months old a child’s neck doesnt have the neck strength to where it should be anywhere near a bike unless its inside a trailer (preferably in a car seat inside a bike trailer til they are 1-1.5 years old).
My son (age 10) snow skis double black diamond ski slopes — powder, steeps, bumps, and through the trees. He has a blast doing it and he’s pretty good, but he didn’t get that way because I kept him on the bunny slopes where it’s “safe.”
Safe is death. Ski legend Klaus Obermeyer is 86 years old and he’s still doing 360 degree inverted aerial spins on his skis, while his peers who spent their life in “safety” are drooling in near coma watching “Wheel of Fortune” in a stinking nursing home somewhere.
I personally wouldn’t have carried my kids in a messenger bag, but they have and still do ride all around town in a trailer, on a trailer bike, and now on their own bikes. I’ve had a few people tell me how “dangerous” it is that I take my children on their bikes through heavy traffic. These well-meaning bike safety experts haven’t been on a bike since they were about 12 years old.
Lighten-up safetyniks. Look at the big picture and it is positive. I see a Dad spending time with his kid.
So, a couple points.
Atrailer, while conveinent, relaxing, and nice, is no safer place to have a child.
They are behind you out of site. Trailers flip, jacknife, get hit while the bike is unharmed, many, many more points about trailers are bad, but most are willing to sacrifice this too take the kids on the bike…..
Kid seats on bike are aboput the same thing as carrying your chilkd in a messenger bag.
No wait, they are more dangerous… Lot’s more dangerous.
Actually, they should probably be illegal they are so dangerous… enough about that…
So now you say, what about the tag alongs?
Don’t those work great?
They do, for the first hour or so maybe.
But when you are out all day, or half the day, kids get tired. The motion, as we all know , puts kids to sleep.
Try saving your boy from falling off the back of a tagalong when he is falling asleep. Impossible…
Letting fear control your life is like making annonymous posts about things you don’t understand.(yes, this is a dig on you…)
Letting fear into your life, where you can control it, or have some sense of controlling it, is what living is about.
So live a little.
Put your name on your posts. Jump off a cliff into your favorite river spot. Hell, go play on the freeway if it allows you to live a little more….. ( this is not a endorsement for playing on the freeway by any means..)
One more thing.
I think it was last year, at a event, I saw friends of alot of us, out on a tandem, with a beautiful,NEWBORN, baby on board in a pouch, slung how?
Over the shoulder of the father.
I could not have been happier seeing this.
Seriously, it was great…..
call me a broken record. the most dangerous place to put your kid is in a car. bikes are safe. ride ’em.
i got to see sharky riding at the naccc this summer. here’s some of “action” shots of him riding: http://flickr.com/photos/drewish/tags/sharky/
andrew,
I like those naccc pics.
:p
Sharky’s calves are bigger than your head. Represent. I seen him play polo on that bike too.
Sharky, build a damn polo bike. Fixed if you like, but lower that ratio, you crazy bastard.
Umm… dude has no brakes.