The Highs and Lows of Bakfietsy Rose

Since we moved to our new house and town in August, I haven't written much about the bakfiets. This is largely due to the fact that I've been spending so much of the day riding it, I haven't had as much time for blogging and other things. Biking the kids to school now takes about 30 minutes each way, which, if I bike exclusively all day, can multiply itself to 3 hours spent commuting by bike (because Zeb gets done with nursery school in at 12:30, and the big kids don't get done until 2:45). When we lived in town, biking was at least as fast as driving, so the timing of things was never really a factor when making the choice between taking the car or taking the bakfiets. But now it's a huge factor. We need to leave the house by 8:00 a.m. to ensure we have enough time to bike to school, and in order to do that, I really need to have made the lunches the night before. Biking can no longer be a spontaneous decision. So, the downside to all of this is that I have been driving way more than I'd like to be, even though actual mileage by bike has drastically increased since the move. The upside is that our longer commute is beautiful--often breathtaking--and 90% of the ride is on the bike path, which feels very safe and lovely. The longer stretches of time with the kids in the box has allowed us the opportunity to really enjoy all of the benefits of bakfietsing.

When we drive places, Luke and Jaz are way back in the third row of the minivan. Having a conversation is difficult at best, though it's often a non-issue since we're usually listening to something anyway (a kids' music cd or NPR). In the bakfiets, there's nothing to do BUT talk. And that's when I get to hear all about school, what the kids are learning (this week it's the life cycle of the pumpkin), what's going on socially (Jaz has plans to marry his friend Melle), and what happened in gym today (playing with scooters!). These are conversations that kids don't usually have with their parents (at least not without a lot of prying), but the lack of distraction in the bakfiets kind of forces it out of them. So our hour in the bike, on days we ride, is absolutely one of the highlights of my day. I love that we're all squished together, these days the kids bundled under fleece, barreling our way through the leafy, autumn world.

Some pictures from our 3-mile bike commute, through farmland and across the Connecticut river (these are a couple months old, so unfortunately lacking in fall foliage shots):


After I've dropped the kids off at school, the ride home is a bit lonelier. A passerby stopped me one day and asked, "don't you feel silly riding that thing around without any babies on board?" Maybe, a little. But the truth is that I feel a whole lot more silly driving the empty minivan around. The nice thing about bakfietsing with an empty box is that I can go so fast it almost feels like flying. Lately, I've taken to bringing my ipod along for those stretches of alone time in the bike. I catch up on my podcasts, and it feels like such a luxury.

In the past couple weeks, the biggest obstacle to biking has been the weather. I had imagined that we'd be able to continue biking until there was snow on the ground (and the only reason I thought we'd have to stop then is because they don't plow the bike path, which is the only safe way for us to get anywhere from our new house). But already the cold morning air has been causing some biking resistance on behalf of my passengers. It's been about 40° most mornings, and the wind once we start going is a bit chilly. We bundle the kids up really well, but their faces still get cold. And the ride becomes less of a "oh what a beautiful mor-ning!" experience, and more of a "Are we there yet? I'm freezing!" nightmare. Partially it's just that the novelty of zooming around in the box has worn off, but the kids are still pretty happy (or at least willing) to ride in the afternoons when it's warmer out. So we've mostly not been riding in the mornings. Which is both sad (because I love riding in the mornings, it reminds me of crew practice my first semester in college, with the mist rising off the river, and feeling like such a strange mixture of freezing and sweaty. I can hear the voice of my coach in my head, saying, "your body can do this. Your mind is the first to give up, but your body won't quit on its own"), and a bit of a relief (because we no longer have to rush, rush, rush to get out the door on time). We do have the rain/cold weather cover for the bakfiets, but unfortunately the kids don't fit under it with their helmets on (Zeb fits, but not the big kids). I'd be fine with them going without helmets since we're mostly riding on the bike path, but in MA, kids under 12 have to wear helmets, and I get enough attention with the bakfiets that I don't feel comfortable breaking the law with it just yet (not to mention the difficulty of convincing the kids--especially Lukas, the hall monitor--to break the law too).

Here's a short video Lena made of us leaving for school one morning a few weeks ago:



And then, 15 minutes later, after we'd stopped to rebundle due to excessive complaints:



So, in short, I love the bike more than ever and am in better physical shape than I've been in since college. The kids love the bike somewhat less than before, though they're also starting to understand and appreciate why we choose to bike when we can. We're riding further distances, but driving more too, and the cold weather definitely puts a damper on things. If anyone has any suggestions for how to keep kids warm in the box, minus the rain cover, they'd be much appreciated!