Sunday 17 October 2010

On your Bike.

16-09-10
The Batribike is still up and running, so far so good I guess. I'm going out of my way to ride it at every opportunity, this is supposed to replace my car over the next 4 years while I'm living the life of a penny-less student. So far I think it's paying off. My monthly diesel bill is down a bit this month but with the incoming winter that's likely to be short lived.

Jack loves the Batribike, though he's pretty bummed that he can't have a ride on it by himself. Every now and again he asks me to help him sit on it. I hold him up while he stretches himself from the seat to the handle bars and pretends it's a motorcycle.

Jack has a bicycle of his own, while he likes to ride it he doesn't ever like to ride it very far. We've recently got a gator-bar that we can use to attach it to Helen's bike, he really likes it but were struggling to get a stable attachment. It's still a work in progress, I've made a couple of modifications for which I have high hopes but we haven't had a chance to test it out again yet. We do, however have a trail-a-tot chariot, basically a trailer for a bicycle. This was initially intended for the dogs but they really don't like it, so I've been using it for Jack instead.

The pedal assist makes towing him a lot easier than you might think. I think the sensors on the bike detect and compensate for the extra weight so aside from the hook-up, which is a bit of a process, it's not much trouble for us to go out for a ride. He really likes the chariot, he sits strapped in while we cruise around town. We take little rides down to the park and he screams as we go down the big hills and converses with me about whatever profound subject is on his mind at that moment. I think he likes it most because there are lots of pockets inside in which he can put whatever toy he happened to bring along. It's like his own little car. I think he also likes that everyone stares and points as we sail by in out little convoy. People seem to really get a kick out of the concept and Jack just likes people to be looking at him.

The winter so far has put the damper on any real bike rides, the constantly imminent rain is quite discouraging when you have a child that detests getting wet as much as Jack does. It's a shame that the bike wasn't sorted out earlier in the year. All the same I'm looking forward to next summer when Jack and I can ride more often.

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