It still looks like winter here in Ames; snow is on the ground and coats are a must. But after nearly nine months of waiting, I finally ordered a cargo bike to be delivered to
Skunk River Cycles to be built and tuned up. It is due to arrive via FedEx Ground on Monday of next week. I figure it will take about a week for it to be assembled. That gives the snow plenty of time to melt and me plenty of time to develop my bike legs in time for
Ames' Kidical Mass inaugural 2013 family ride at the end of the month.
How did you choose your bike?
Originally, when we moved to Ames, Tim and I just planned to get regular bikes and a trailer for the boys. Having gone down to a one-car family with the move to Iowa, we wanted to challenge ourselves with going car-lite. This was made even more possible by buying a house that is about a mile from pretty much everywhere we usually go: park, school, church, grocery, etc. Before you get too impressed, Ames isn't that big and everything is within about a 3-mile radius of our centrally located house.
I hemmed and hawed and read about two thousand blogs about all the various trailers and trail-a-bike systems. I was a little nervous about the trailers because our one-car garage is rather full with our one car. I also doubted that a trailer would really be useful for much longer as the boys get bigger and older. Would it be "cool" to be in a kid trailer to go to kindergarten? Would they beat each other black and blue in the confines of a trailer?
Somewhere along my web surfing I cam across the cargo bikes and my real obsession began. I mooned over xtracycles, Madsens and Yubas. I considered the Big Dummy and even the big clunky box bikes. Since Tim and I are backpackers, we dreamed of being able to go bike camping with the boys which made the xtracycle and Yubas more attractive for their handling. Ultimately I decided to go with the Yuba...it seemed the most sturdy and simple for a novice like me. Also it seemed to be the one that more moms with lots o' kids were using in the blogosphere. I really liked the fact that it was possible for the boys to ride their own bikes and then hop on mine when they got tired. Bottom line, if it wasn't going to make towing two kids easy, I wouldn't have much time to use it.
Where did you buy your bike?
I had a choice to make: buy online and have it built locally or buy in Des Moines and purchase a tandem bike carrier to bring it home. Ultimately I decided that it was better to stick with the local folks as I figured we'd be needing lots of service and accessories through the years if we were really going to go car-lite. I cringed at not being able to buy it locally though. I have no idea if bike shops make their margin on large or small items, but it sure would have been nicer to let some local salesperson get the commission on my purchase. Skunk River Cycles was my choice: they support a lot of the same charities we do and they have a shop cat. Oh, and they are within walking distance of our house. And I like shopping on Main Street in general. Even our closing attorney recommended them!
How much is this bike costing you?
Well, if you really want to know, go to the Yuba website and check out the prices yourself. It isn't cheap, but compared to a car or a year-long gym membership it is more than reasonable. Now you see why we saved up for nine months for this purchase. Since we've gone down to one car we've seen our gas expenses go from $400 per month to about $125--most of that being trips to the Science Museum. Our insurance has been reduced by about 75%. Obviously with less wear and tear on the Subaru, our maintenance costs are also significantly lower. If I prorate our gas, insurance and taxes on the car (excluding repairs) the Yuba Mundo will cost about the equivalent of six months of car ownership. So I figure in the course of about 2.5 years we will recoup the costs.
Now I just play the waiting game. I watch the Weather Channel and the FedEx Tracking website more often than necessary. I dream of popping boys on the back and tooling around town.
