Every summer, I have such idyllic bike dreams. We’ll have picturesque picnics and bike to get ice cream and play in the fountains. And we certainly will do that – or at least we’ll try. But we’ll also get hot, sticky, wet, and sunburned, and come home sweaty and worn, with somebody – or everybody –crying about something.
Let’s not pretend that every outing is a dream come true in the land of happily-ever-after. The reality is that we live in the land of bike tires that perpetually need more air, kickstands that get stuck, and chains that fall off. Or even on a very bad day: a pannier that works its way into the bike tire.
On that note we’ve recently had some, ahem, character-building experiences.
My summer goal this year was to do some “park and ride adventures,” where we’d drive the kids out to enjoy great rides on carfree paths, venturing beyond our usual haunts and familiar neighborhood routes. And though I don’t love the driving part, I wanted my children to have the experience of exploring new places by bike, especially with the fun and freedom of carfree paths.
So here’s how it went…
Bike Adventure #1: Covered Bridges Scenic Bikeway, Cottage Grove OR
For our first big bike adventure, I had grand plans to try out the Covered Bridges Scenic Bikeway during our annual summer camping trip to Cottage Grove, OR. Attempting to be responsible, I began filling all the bike tires before we left. As I was filling the last set of tires on my own bike, the front tube popped–the night before our camping trip. Of course, it was the only tire for which I lacked a replacement tube; it was too late to visit my local bike shop for help, and we were supposed to be leaving first thing the next morning. I nearly gave up right there in the driveway. But I took a deep breath instead. Of course, there would be a bike shop at our destination, so I reasoned this could be an opportunity to visit the local bike hub in a new town and maybe learn a few local tips while my tube got replaced. This busted tube could be part of the adventure, not the end of the adventure, right?
At times like this, I try to remember my fondness for bike-around-the-world travel stories. I often wish I could be exploring the world on a bicycle myself. So when my tire pops in the driveway with five kids watching, I try to imagine myself changing a tire in a remote mountain village. Perhaps I will someday.
Our current family bike travels look significantly more modest, but I can approach them with the same determination I would need on a world bike tour. We can’t let one popped tube end our trip! And besides, there was a lovely bike shop where we were going: Rainy Peak Cycles in Cottage Grove, OR. The mechanic at Rainy Peak agreed to replace my bike tube on the spot while the kids and I explored the downtown antique shops. I even got the sort of tip I was hoping for, as I admired the mechanic’s hat and apron. He told me I can purchase such bespoke bike-specific hand-made-in-Oregon items for myself from Randy Jo Fabrications. Now, I’m putting these caps on our back-to-school wishlist!
Unfortunately, cool caps aside, the tire fix was unable to solve the series of problems that awaited us. We arrived too late at camp to go for an evening bike ride. Then we learned that the nearby access road to the bike path was closed. Then we postponed our bike ride to our last morning, because my kids wanted to stay at camp to play with their friends. Then two of my children came down with a bad case of pink eye, looked miserable, and wanted to go home without riding. I briefly considered dragging them all out for the ride anyway, but I could tell it was a bad idea.
Recognizing defeat, I surrendered to going home. After pumping all the tires and lugging all the bikes and gear across Oregon to go camping and biking, we didn’t even manage to ride the bike path I had intended. It felt like a failure of ridiculous proportion. “Maybe next year”… if I ever try this again.
Bike Adventure #2: Car-Free Bike Trail at Champoeg State Park, Newberg OR
For our next attempt at a summer bike adventure, we decided to try a car-free bike path closer to home, at Champoeg State Park. This time we made it to our destination, got everybody on bikes, and rolled out. Two of my kids crashed in the first five minutes, but otherwise our beautiful ride seemed blissful – until we were about a mile out. At that point, the chain fell off my five-year-old’s little bike. We pulled over and I wrestled it back on. However, the chain, which had never fallen off before, was hopelessly loose and proceeded to fall off every twenty seconds thereafter. We had to turn around, and very slowly make our way back, replacing the fallen-off chain about thirty times on the return trip. Passerby bikers attempted to help, but we didn’t have a multi-tool or bike tool set with us (another lesson: take tools on bike adventures–and learn how to use them!) Very slowly, we we hobbled back from summer bike adventure #2 – which was in my mind, another defeat.
Bike Adventure #3: Multi-Modal Bike-MAX-Bike trip to Westside Bike Happy Hour, Beaverton OR
Not ready to give up, I pushed on with plans for yet another family bike outing. For our next trip, I decided to take my four younger kids on a multi-modal trip to Westside Bike Happy Hour (bike+MAX+bike), because I have always dreamed of multi-modal travel and making it to Bike Happy Hour with our bikes and without having to drive; but that attempt also failed.
First of all, it was rainy, and three of our bikes needed new lights, which meant a lot of searching for lights, batteries and a screwdriver and getting all the new lights in place – it took almost an extra hour to get all those lights on all the lightless bikes! I was tired before we even started riding. Then, after we finally made it on the MAX with all our bikes (a complicated choreography with four young children), I was unable to wrestle the bikes onto the hooks myself. I needed an uncomfortable amount of help from a friendly stranger to hang the bikes, and then the handicapped seating (where my kids sat near me and the bikes) was needed by multiple other riders, and I began to worry that the train was getting too crowded to accommodate us (especially with my Mama-bike and its kid seats taking up extra space and all of us generally just being in everyone’s way.) So, I nervously got us all off the MAX after a few stops, then tried to redeem our outing by purchasing dinner at a hamburger joint (which should have been a rare treat) – but all of my kids rejected the fancy burgers and “spicy” fries, which was a significant disappointment for them and for my wallet.
Making matters worse, I was a nervous wreck about the MAX ride home, especially since I had been unable to hang our bikes on the hooks by myself (making it harder: I was baby-wearing my toddler, so he wouldn’t run off while we were boarding the train). Coaching multiple young children with their bikes and my bike on and off the MAX really stressed me out. I was worried about my kids crashing into other passengers in their hurry to try to load the bikes on the train. I was worried about a kid tripping or getting separated from me. We did pinch some fingers and scrape some legs (our own), and I still have bruises from my bike crashing onto my leg during the un-hooking process.
We made it home, but I felt tense, exhausted, and defeated. I had been dreaming about multi-modal family trips for years, and thought we were going to make our first Bike Happy Hour on our bikes – and we didn’t even arrive. Another bike adventure flop!
View from the kids’ perspective
So if you haven’t heard from me for a few weeks, it’s because I have felt like all of our big summer biking attempts have been a disaster, and I’m more than a little discouraged and even embarrassed. It hasn’t been the sort of blissful, Instagram-worthy summer I expected. But as I reflected, and tried to decide if we’ll try any more “adventures,” I asked my children about our “failed trips.” And this is what I heard:
“It was so much fun!”
“I loved it! It was my favorite.”
“I can’t wait to go again next year!”
“The chain falling off was a bummer, but we got to pick blackberries, so it was still pretty good.”
“I love riding the train!”
“When will I be old enough to ride the MAX by myself [with my bike]? That’s going to be so much fun!”
I may have been stressed, frustrated, tired, and even depressed after our “failed” bike outings, but my kids had a blast (except for those hamburgers). They tolerated the chain-fall-off fiasco with acceptance and positivity, and enjoyed the outing in spite of it. On our camping trip, we didn’t get to ride the carfree trail, but my kids were thrilled to have their bikes at the campground, where I allowed them the freedom to bike around on their own, which was the height of joy for my younger boys (who aren’t allowed independent biking at home, on our urban streets). And it was at the camp that my five-year-old learned to bike without training wheels, which was the happiest moment of his summer. He didn’t even know we “missed out” on a planned trail ride. He thought riding in endless independent loops around the campground was the most fun he could possibly have. As for the MAX ride, my kids enjoyed that too, and began pining for the day when they would be old enough to explore the world by bike and transit all on their own.
What I realize is:
- Biking builds perseverance and a taste for challenging adventures. I see this in my kids, and I need to learn from their grit and positive attitudes.
- My kids didn’t have the expectation of accomplishing a certain biking objective–they were just happy to be on bikes. Therefore, they didn’t see any failures. They enjoyed whatever our trips ended up becoming.
- My kids are remembering the best things, and even the mishaps turn into tales of adventure for them. For them, this is a summer of happy biking memories–and summer isn’t over yet!
Which means, we have more bike adventures to try.
I hope you had a happy bike summer, full of adventure and fun. But if your bike summer has felt a bit wobbly, or if you have suffered any family bike failures, I hope you find the determination of a five-year-old learning to ride without training wheels: get back on the bike, and love every flying minute of it.
That’s exactly what we are going to do. Keep going, and enjoy the rides to come.
If you have had a favorite family bike adventure this summer, or have a recommendation for our next family “park & ride” outing, please leave a message in the comments. Happy riding!
Thanks for reading.
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Mom….you are a hero. Respect to you!
On the one hand, I can’t imagine taking my bike to someone to fix a flat. You’re going to get flats, maybe often. It’s like the one mechanical failure you will get all the time, and the inconvenience of taking it somewhere to fix it just isn’t worth it. Maybe it was destroyed beyond repair though? And the chain tension would require the same tools needed to fix a flat.
On the other, it really should be easier. I don’t know why it is, but it seems like biking just requires people to do more of their own maintenance than would be expected in a car, and I don’t know why that is the case. Maybe it’s because they have to stay light weight, they aren’t as over built? Car tires are thick.
It makes me think of a recent “The War on Cars” podcast where they talked about a book from the vehicular cycling guy John Forester. He seemingly spent half the book going into excruciating detail of the extensive maintenance and hoops you have to jump through just to ride a bike. Suffice to say, that’s not a good approach to convince people to ride.
That said, I’ve been there where trips with the kid that are meant to go one way just seem like a disaster that stresses me out. I like what your kids had to say about it. It was an adventure of some sort either way. I always tell my son we’re going on a whatever “adventure”.
Good story, thanks! And I don’t mean my first paragraph too harshly. I know some people just don’t want to deal with it! Or are caught off guard without the right preparation, etc. I mean it more as a general comment.
Or those that don’t have the knowledge or tools to do maintenance could go to their local bike shops to do it for a nominal fee.
Heck, I remember back in the dinosaur days when I was in college and was a serious biker I didn’t have all the necessary tools to do some of the maintenance, so I had to go to the local bike shop.
“I can’t imagine taking my bike to someone to fix a flat.”
I am mechanically inclined, and like fixing things, but when I realized I could afford to have someone fix my flats, it took about 5 minutes to embrace it. The only downside is that I prefer to reuse tubes a few times, and most mechanics (reasonably) want no part of that.
There’s no shame in letting a mechanic take care of your bike!
It’s crazy how casually wasteful people are sometimes. You can patch a tube dozens of times. I hardly ever buy tubes. The idea of throwing one out to save 30 seconds makes no sense. I guess for them, they get to make you pay for it, so it’s a way to sell a little more.
Either way, that’s hardly the only downside. Do you just ride your bike across the street for groceries or what? If I had a flat almost anywhere on my ride to daycare, I’d be at least a half hour walk to a bike shop, if it was open, and I’d be late for pickup or work. That sounds like the most inconvenient way to deal with bike flats. I can fix it in 10 minutes and be on my way like nothing happened.
To each their own, but if you use a bike to get places, seriously, you have to be at least able to fix a flat yourself.
I agree with you that self-sufficiency is very important. But I take exception to your assumption that (most) bike shops don’t patch tubes because “they get to make you pay for it”. That’s because correctly patching a tube takes more than 30 seconds as you claim, and if you take 30 seconds to do it there’s a high likelihood that the patch will fail and now you’ve wasted your time, the customer’s time, and a patch. The cost of the amount of time it takes to do it properly exceeds the cost of a new tube. So we’d actually be making you pay *more* if we patched your tube for you.
And for what it’s worth, tube recycling is now an option that many shops (including where I work) are doing. I realize that “reduce” and “reuse” take precedence over “recycle”, but it’s still better than the “throwing one out” that you allege.
I had no idea bicycle tubes could be recycled. I thought the rubber was vulcanized which renders it very difficult to reuse, but perhaps it’s not.
Thanks for the information.
Ridwell partners with Green Guru Gear to reuse inner tubes.
Meh, I disagree. They make patches that are just stick on. I bought one box of them and they have lasted me 10 years and never failed. You wipe off the spot with the hole with a wet rag and stick it on. They never fail. But as you say, the bike shop may have their reasons to be super wasteful.
People are really doing their damnedest to make this sound like more of a hard problem than it is. It’s some weird form of gate keeping that scares people off from just trying it themselves.
Glueless patches? Those are the least reliable kind.
I’m telling you, I’ve had tubes last for years with three or more glueless patches on them. They hold fine. You can decide to throw away tubes for no reason if you want, but don’t pretend there isn’t a trivial solution.
I’ll only repeat this for you this one last time: It’s not “for no reason”. Apparently your tube, tire, brand of glueless patches, and tire pressures all get along fabulously. But I’m telling you from personal and professional experience, they are not as reliable as vulcanizing patches.
Every shop I frequent has stopped recycling tires, tubes, or metal parts.
If your shop is not even recycling metal, which is pretty dang easy in Portland, you should find a new shop.
I ride for pleasure, for commuting, and for every day stuff. I’ve changed a flat on my bike a few times, but almost always prefer to take it to a shop. I only ride with stuff for fixing flats if I know I’ll be in a situation where I’ll really need it (so like on a long tour).
Is it wasteful to not feel inclined to patch my own tubes instead of just taking my bike to a local shop to pay 10 bucks for a fix? Maybe. But I like going to local bike shops well enough and I’m not overly fond of taking the tires off my bike.
I imagine we live different lives – I don’t have a kid and I’m basically never more than a 5 minute walk from a transit stop if I’m riding somewhere time sensitive. Recently, I got a flat on the way to PSU. It was much faster to walk to the nearest streetcar stop and ride it the rest of the way than it would have been for me to change a flat. Then I took the MAX home at the end of the day and dropped my bike off at the shop the next day.
I’d agree that knowing how to change a flat is a really good skill to have if you rely on a bike, but it’s also a bit intimidating. I wouldn’t ever knock someone for not wanting to do it
There are some solutions to make bicycles more reliable. An internal gear hub with puncture resistant tubeless tires with sealant goes a long ways to make a bike more resilient. Downsides is that the US market for these commuter style city bikes isn’t as widespread yet.
You don’t need a special bike to use tubeless tires. You need “special” rims.
“Special” is in scare quotes because recently tubeless-ready wheels are as easy to find as non-tubeless wheels
Tubeless on commuter/utility bikes is indeed not widespread. But tubeless on “gravel” and “mountain” bikes is extremely common–arguably, de rigeur. Even tubeless-tired road bikes are becoming more common. Personally, I’ve been riding tubeless on my commuter bike for six years now, and haven’t had a single flat tire. I don’t even knock on wood anymore when I announce that.
For the uninitiated, tubeless tires require compatible rims and tires, and when they’re correctly installed with a few ounces of tubeless sealant (latex emulsion) inside, they instantly seal any small punctures that occur. Sealant must be replenished periodically as it dries out, but that’s the only real drawback.
Disclaimer: I am a bike mechanic, and I sell this stuff to help keep the lights on.
I have ridden tubeless tires for 7 years and 20,000 miles with no flats .
I have them installed at Metropolis bike shop and replace them like a person does at Les Schwab.
I don’t know why this is not standard.
I help run a community bike shop here in NC where we give away 400 bikes a year to needy refugees and homeless, about half of whom are kids or young adults. Kid’s bikes are a pain, especially the cheap Walmart types which are the vast majority – they are designed to be simple enough to assemble with a crescent wrench and screwdriver, but for repairs you actually need a lot more tools – tire levers, shrader pump, 17mm combo wrench, 10mm box wrench, often a 15mm too, metric Allen/hex wrenches, 1/2″ combo wrench, spare tubes, and so on. The continuously falling off chain is probably caused by a loose lock ring in the rear sprocket, easy to reinstall if you know what you are doing, but it will require not only loosening the rear wheel but also the coaster brake to get everything back in place. While you are about it, get rid of that annoying chain guard.
Compared to the kids we deal with, yours are saints. The kids we deal with often don’t have parents at home (or at all) and ride wherever they want (free-range), and they stand on wheels, allow them to be run over by cars, “let” their huge big brother “guardians” ride (crush) their bikes, and frequently lose their bikes when neighbor kids take them. We usually remove the hand brakes to help the bikes run longer between repairs – when the wheels inevitably get taco-ed, the hand brake is simply in the way, whereas the coaster brake is still operating. The bikes are clearly not designed to be maintained – tires frequently pop off the rims, the rim tape, cables, and seat are the lowest quality possible. Only the tubes are really high-quality, I still don’t know why.
Do you wish these non-saint children would get off your lawn? And are the (apparently driverless) cars that run over their bikes also prone to killing people that they can’t be bothered to notice and not hit?
I live in an apartment – I’m too poor to own a home. These kids are low-income, that’s why we serve them – they themselves regularly attend funerals of friends killed in crashes, drive-by shootings, and drug overdoses, sometimes witness the deaths themselves. The drivers are often too high to care. It’s grim.
You seem to have proved my point that the children are the victims of vehicular violence, not the guilty parties. I don’t understand why you would choose to use a pejorative, inflammatory description of the kids you’re helping.
Not exactly biking, but a lot of my favorite childhood memories revolve around playing video games with my Mom. I know she struggled with it, and I remember waking up sometimes and seeing her playing on her own to try to get the hang of things (she had a really hard time with the shift to 3D graphics). But it was so much fun having something we got to do together even if it didn’t always go smoothly.
It sounds like your little ones feel similarly about your attempted bike adventures, and it makes me smile to think so. I hope your next attempt goes more smoothly for you!
Shannon, you’re so awesome !! You’re teaching your kids that bicycling is a fun adventure, that bikes can be brought on trips, that there are helpful people almost everywhere you go. I had an amazing summer ride up and down Mt Evans / Mount Blue Sky Byway a number of years ago. My ride buddy and I started riding from Evergreen, CO. it was a 21.5 mile ride that took over 3 hours, climb climb climb. The ride down would have taken less than an hour but I high side crashed on a tight left turn. I just got some scrapes, no bent wheels or popped tubes. The crash was the best part of a ride that I’ll never forget. It should only get better for you and your kids as you add more miles and get more experience. Bravo! Keep it up! Do as many easy rides with the kids as you can. They just want to ride, it doesn’t matter to them where they go, as long as they get there by bicycle. 🙂
Shannon, you already have all you need. The determination and drive to strike out is the most important thing, without that nothing gets started. I would encourage you to find a way to lean into the repair aspect and maybe plan some trips that mainly entail the “getting” to the campground, event, store, etc. If the going is the primary goal then what may come after may come easier. I hesitate a bit but might recommend a ride in the Gorge. There are several good trailheads that can be used for an out and back with plenty of features to see.
I commend you for being the Mom and leader your children need, it sounds as if you’re doing just fine by them.
Wow what a great article! You are an amazing mom! Way to go that was incredible!
Learning to fix flats really is quite difficult – no one should assume it’s easy.
I remember trying to follow the instructions that read: “The tire will not stretch: you need to expand the opposite side of the tire.” Whaaaaa?
That direction is *sorta* correct: in my experience there *is* some stretching of the tire required but also a massaging of the rest of the tire to get it to the point where you *can* lift it over the rim.
This technique is obviously second nature to bike mechanics, and frankly I still struggle with it. So I agree with you and Watts:
Hooray for our bike mechanic heroes, and there’s no shame in taking your bike to them on a regular basis.
Thanks mom! Bike shop heroes are the best!
I also pack a small first aid kit with some band-aids just in case.
…I include Tecnu or something for poison oak….
Great job, keep at it! Helpful hint: pack a few sizes of zip ties, as they can come in handy for things like temporary chain repair, etc.
This was beautiful and you’re doing an amazing job teaching your kids grit and adventure. Great work mama!
This is the most relatable content ever! Thank you for posting this! As a kid, my parents always tried to get us to do family bike rides. I was the stubborn obstinate one who would often bog down the trip with bad attitude. But today, I love cycling! Keep up the good work and give yourself grace.
Oh mamacita, I can relate. But I can tell you in less than ten years they will be fixing your bike. Your kids oiling your chains and pumping your tires will feel like a bike luxury you didn’t know you earned!