Biker395 

The daughter unit spent 5 years in architecture school being taught the virtues of sustainable lifestyle planning and the like. She also believes herself to be getting flabby and out of shape, tired of the traffic hassles, and needs to train for a metric century in a month or two.

Yesterday Her first day of commuting by bike. Yea baby.

DiabloScott

<sniff>... they grow up so fast.

Cool parking racks.

Biker395 

She has a wisdom that belies her years ... she's already referring to her seat as an "ass hatchet."

Shamrock

I thought you were posting another scenic ride in the hills of California while the east coast is getting hit wth another 3-5 inches of snow.How long is her ride?So now Mom sits home and worries about the two of you!

Biker395 

About 13 miles one way, I think.

The cool thing is that her home is just a small detour from my route, as is her employer. So I should be seeing a lot more of her for a while.

I probably shouldn't do this, but here is what it looked like on the way home:



Looks great, eh? The ying/yang part of it is that everyone here is bemoaning the lack of water and snow. Typically, our Sierra ski resorts have a solid 8+ feet of snow on the ground this time of year. This is what that looked like yesterday ... ugh:

BlazingPedals

That's the first warning sign that she's leaning toward the dark side (recumbents.)

h2oxtc

I'm glad to see that your kids have adopted your love of cycling, or at least the seed has germinated. I'm not holding my breath that either of our kids will follow any of my interests, including cycling. I stand corrected, our daughter loves to slalom waterski. That's my girl!

Congratulations!

NOS88

Good on her. But she has her work cut out for her. Getting her peers to fill the rest of those neat, but empty, bike racks is the next challenge.

qcpmsame 

You raised that one right, Vic, looks like you have another riding partner. Our daughter is a rider, up in Atlanta, she is car free (completely, no vehicle ownership at all.) she has commuted some as she is close to the downtown area, she is in Cabbagetown, and its not too bad, if she doesn't have too much to carry. I need to outfit her Schwinn commuter with some racks and maybe panniers so that she can keep up her commutes. The train service, and bus, is pretty good up there, too.

Great to know that another cyclist is getting started off with some good background. Now she needs to get hooked up at BF, too.

Bill

rumrunn6

there should be a "like" button on the forum

John E

Concur. We recently got one on Passatworld -- very handy.

John E

My younger son, who graduated in biology/pre-med in December at UC Santa Cruz, took up bicycle commuting on his 1980s Centurion Ironman and was able to take advantage of that city's great network of bike lanes, paths, and trails. I recently helped my elder son adapt my old Peugeot PKN-10 for commuting to work and UC San Diego, where he is finishing his PhD. Both boys have ridden with me at various times while they were growing up, and we have spent a lot of quality time together wrenching on bicycles and cars. Now that my elder son is a new father, we look forward to breaking in the next generation.

az_cyclist

Great deal, Biker395! more cyclists!

freedomrider1

Beautiful,and the bike ain't bad either.

dbg

Most excellent. Score yourself 100 points.

(Just thinking about my own kids... my two boys seem to listen to me but then do the opposite of what I say --while my two girls don't listen to a thing I say but usually end up doing things they way I would have advised. Hmmm.)

Regarding those pictures: I want your life situation.

KenshiBiker

If she considers herself "flabby and out of shape", please don't let her see pics of me .

Good job passing on the healthy lifestyle. All together now: "One of us. One of us . . ."

dbg

just noticing those parking racks. I love them. Most racks I encounter (the old playground style, the wavy pipes style, etc) usually don't play well with fenders.
THOSE in your pict look nice, arrange bikes in an aesthetic manner, make good use of space, offer good lockability, and don't mess with the fenders... Very nice. Did some architect come up with those?

Did I mention I love them?

Biker395 

Thanks, everyone! We did it again this morning.

Some interesting tidbits from the ride:

• On her first commute, she immediately noticed a healthy endorphine glow.
• She likes the new seat (an old Specialized saddle I've had laying around for a while) much better.
• A lot of her colleagues commute by bike as well. That pix was taken before most of them came in. Her company (Arup) is going to participate in a charity ride and is sponsoring a lot of the riders with jerseys and the like. Nice, eh?
• Those bike racks are kinda cool. I dunno who designed them, but there are a lot of local industrial designers in the area. The daughter unit is herself an architect.
• My next purchase for her is a good U-lock. The cable lock she has now is probably inadequate for the job.
• It's a great privilege to start your day with a full hour of chewing the fat with your kid!

Off to pick her up for the ride home. I sure hope we miss the gale winds I had yesterday.

Biker395 

Oh, and another little tidbit from last night. She was reveling in the fact that her commute burns 350+ calories ... each way, and that means that when she's home, there is no need to go work out. That means the commute is actually saving her time. Plus:

"I'm having mashed potatoes tonight."

I think I'm getting through.

alcjphil

It is very nice to be able to watch your kids living an active lifestyle. I got a real rush last year watching my daughter breeze across the finish line of the Montreal marathon looking as fresh as if she was doing a little jog around the block. I also get to go out riding on the road and in the woods with my son

tarwheel 

I've been trying to hook my daughter on cycling for a while, and recently bought her a used Bianchi hybrid to assist in that effort. She rode 20 miles with me on her first ride and kept telling me to go faster, so maybe it will take. Tomorrow we are riding a tour of local brewpubs that's a fund-raiser for a nonprofit. I thought she would back out because the forecast is calling for cold, windy weather but she still wants to go. Maybe she'll take up bike commuting in time.

Red Rider

Love it!

TiHabanero

My son, a soon to be grad, is selling his car when he moves to Seattle for a job. he did two internships there and all he needed was his bike for the 40 mile round trip commute. Says he can't wait to be rid of the money pit. Like father, like son. So happy more kids are catching on to what our parents knew back in the thirties! Bikes present solutions!

Biker395 

Update on the commuting daughter:

She gets it. She's finding out that her office has a whole community of commuting cyclists she knew nothing about before ... and she is now a member. And chatting this AM on the way to work, she told me she's decided to keep commuting by bike a couple of days a week (Wednesday and Thursday ... the worst traffic days), even when her metric century is done.

Yea, baby.