The Agony and the Ecstasy of Family Biking (Part 1)

The Agony

We finally had our Murphy's Law ride on Saturday morning. We embarked on a 10 mile ride (one way) to a friend's house for brunch. I was feeling wiped out already, and considered driving while Kevin rode with the kids. "Go on, it's sunny! Exercise will do you good," offered an encouraging, angelic voice in my psyche. So I dragged myself out to the garage and hoisted myself onto my regular bike.

A spoke broke on the rear wheel of the box bike (aka The Beest) about halfway though our ride. We couldn't really single out a traumatic event that caused it, so we chalked it up to possible prior damage from our cafe lock. However, the wheel was visibly out of true, making The Beest wobble like crazy for approximately four miles (not fun for Kevin).

Within a mile of our destination, the rear wheel just shredded; ultimately a total of 5 spokes broke. We were a 15 minute walk from our friends' house, so we disembarked and started walking. Fortunately the kids were fairly well rested for the walk, having ridden in the box bike for quite a while. I texted another friend attending the brunch who was just leaving home. She split up with her husband so they could bring an extra car for us in case we needed a ride home (it is a good thing that they did).

A couple of months ago, we joined AAA because they offer a ride for you and your bike: free for the first 7 miles and a nominal fee for further distances. Kevin called AAA, explained that we had a cargo bike in need of transportation, and walked The Beest to our friend's house so it would be ready to load when AAA arrived.

I'm not sure what the dispacher thought "cargo bike" meant, but they certainly were not prepared for The Beest.

There goes plan B.

The AAA driver exclaimed at least 50 times that he had never seen anything like this in his life.

We determined that The Beest could fit in our friends' SUV while I went with the AAA driver and shredded rear wheel (with my own regular bike on the standard bike rack) to our cycle repair shop, Campus Cycles. We love a lot of bike shops in the area but Campus Cycles has a spoke cutter, which allows them to repair our non-standard wheel quickly. It is an easy ride home from Campus Cycles, so I could get the car and drive back to brunch to retrieve the kids. Kevin went home with our friend in the vehicle carrying The Beest.

Bottom line: we all got home and no one died of exposure... thanks to our vehicle-driving friends, lots of delicious food and beverage* at our destination, and AAA. Next time, we will be sure to emphasize to the AAA dispatcher that a cargo bike cannot fit on a standard bike rack, nor in the back of a van. We'll measure the full length and offer that for clarity, and mention that the thing weighs about 100 lbs. Hopefully, the wheel will be rebuilt superbly and there won't be a next time.

*We always pack lots of food and water for long rides. Juice boxes were key in getting the kids to walk to our destination. Still, it helped immensely to have a comfortable, cool place to rest and eat while we waited for AAA.