WillynHook

So who else commutes with their kids this time of year? Makes for some interesting extras to carry along during the commute. Babydolls, stuffed animals, juice boxes, snacks, and is often accompanied with sing-alongs of "you are my sunshine" and "we are the tiny ugly germs" and what not.

Got a couple honks along the ride this morning.

M. Rhoten

I take one kid to preschool and then his brother to 1st grade. I'd thought I was getting into decent shape before doing this. Pulling a trailer is humbling.

sggoodri

Awesome. My youngest son and daughter are 2 year old twins. I pull them to and from preschool in the Burley D'Lite when I get the chance. It's about 1.5 miles from home. I double back to drop off the trailer at home and bike another 6.5 miles to work.

My 7 year old son rides a trail-a-bike with me on many outings. He's not ready to ride his own bike in traffic yet.

I only wish I could transport all three at once, since most days I drop all three off or pick up all three. Maybe a tandem with the trailer. I'm not about to attach the D'Lite to the trail-a-bike.

noisebeam

I take & pick up my 1.5yr old to school a several times a week - 9.3mi RT. While it could be done on the way to work I prefer to drop him off with trailer, go home to drop off trailer then go to work. That adds about 5mi each way, but I'd rather do that take the empty trailer for 15mi RT to work and have to leave it there all day.

Itsjustb

Loved the pics. Cute kids, great setup, and it's so encouraging to see people out there showing their kids that they don't have to drive everywhere.

I have 2 major complaints with my daughter's trailer.

1. The thing weighs a ton (and the fact that the model is called the "Light and Fast" is just rubbing salt in my wounds).

2. The back panel against which she sits is a solid piece of nylon taller than her head. This means that if she wears her helmet in the trailer she hast to sit with her chin on her chest the entire time.

I need a better trailer, but considering this one was free and I hope to have her on a trail-a-bike soon (she's 3 years and 3 months old).

Pedaleur

I've done that a couple of times. You need good brakes. ;-)

Otherwise, let's see... I take the 9-year-old 7 km to school on the ride behind, ride 7 km to the office and then reverse it in the afternoon. My wife takes the 5-year-old to and from school four days a week (4 km each way) in the d'Lite.

Sometimes we swap.

HardyWeinberg

I'm really looking forward to fall when my 5 yr old starts K and commutes w/ her brother (who will be in 4th grade) rather than going to preschool 4 miles the other way. It'll be the first time they share a destination since that brief shining moment before he started K, 4 yrs ago, when I put them both in the trailer for their daycare.





She came in 2nd on our bike-to-work month team, 230 miles in May between the trailer and trail-a-bike.

livin4eternity

These stories are all fantastic. I love the family commitment to cycling. Also, love the pictures. My wife home schools our daughter, so I'm the only one who commutes in our family.

chandltp

I don't regularly commute with my kids, but we do have a tandem with a trailer attached. My son wants to take it to school on the last day of school to show his class, and the teacher agreed.

Kojak

Don't commute with the kids yet. Our son goes to pre-school mid-day so it's not yet practical. Also, when he does start school full time, the local elementary school is only a block away, so we'll maybe ride together, lock up his bike, and then I'll continue on. Our daughter is 9 weeks old; no commuting for her for at least a couple of years.

One thing I know for sure; for as long as my son can remember, "dad" gets up in the morning, puts on his kit, and rides to work. It's completely normal to him that someone rides their bike to work. As he gets older, I hope to impress upon him that riding a bike is a viable alternative to using a car, especially in a town the size of Victoria where virtually nothing is more than 5 miles away.

BTW.... love the creme Fat Franks. It's one of my favorite tires.

freefallkev

Just the other day, riding home from watching some friends riding in a local crit, my six year old says to me "Daddy, this is so cool... everyone is in cars but we're in a BIKE"



Pulling her and all four panniers full of groceries uphill, in the rain, the next day was rough tough

HardyWeinberg

Yeah they grow faster than you can add lower gears or increase conditioning

aley

I do - it works quite well. I have done it with my road bike, but it's much easier on my mountain bike (better gearing, and MUCH better brakes!). You get a lot of odd looks from people who are stuck in their cars.

mihlbach

Been commuting year-round with kids for over five years now. These days, I walk the six-year-old to kindergarten, which is only a few blocks away, then pull the two-year-old to day care (2.5 miles) in his Burley, then continue on to work.

Pedaleur

[w.r.t. three at once] The other day I saw a woman with one in the child seat in front of her and two in the trailer heading off to the børnehave (Danish pre-school). There another woman I see occasionally with two in the Christiania bike and one in a seat. Alas, I only have two, so no direct experience...

incitatus

The worst year and a half of my commuting life was between our son's birth and his finally being big enough to ride to daycare in the CoPilot - had to rely on Boston's MBTA for those miserable 18 months. From the CoPilot, we moved to the Chariot (same model as yours, but the single version) for two years and are about to switch to the Trail-a-Bike.

What I really liked about the Chariot trailer was that I could tow it the 1 mile to daycare, fold it up and leave it there in the 'stroller storage' corner, and continue on the 5 miles to the office. Then my wife, who is not a cyclist, could pick our son up, convert the chariot into its stroller mode and walk it or take it on the T home. Definitely one of the best investments we made.

sjt78

Dr. Joe,
Great pics of the kids! How old are they? My son is 2.5 and loves our Chariot trailer. His daycare is only about .5-.75 miles away so I've often thought about trailering him there. The only snag is there is no room there to leave the trailer so I'd have to double back to drop the trailer off. Not really a big deal, but I usually don't allow myself too much extra time in the morning. My wife has to drive by the daycare anyway so it's not a big hassle for her to drop him off. Definitely would attract some stares from the other parents. I'm sure my son would think it was *really* cool. I think I just talked myself into doing it!

noisebeam

There is lots of positive feedback and interaction with dropping off and picking up with the trailer. Other kids are engaged immediately (the drop off is right in front of playground), cars are isolated as the pull up and leave and ignored, but the waving and hellos start as soon as I pull up. The teachers ask him about the bike ride over. Did you see a bus? A puppy? Did you like the bike ride? Other parents don't say anything to me unless it is positive, like, oh, my husband rides his bike to work every day, we should get a trailer. Or that looks like so much fun. The ride back home can feel loney, no one saying 'hi' to every person we pass, or getting excited about seeing dogs or buses.

trekx01

I bike to work 4 miles in the early morning and my wife drops of our three year old son at day care in the car. I ride 4 miles home after work and hook up the Chariot. I then bike 2 miles and pick him up and take him home. He loves riding in it. I've done a 30 mile and several 20 mile trips and he has a great time.

DataJunkie

I used to when the kid was in day care and I did not work from home. When school is in session I ride almost a mile with the kid to school and back.
Not much of a ride but one of the highlights of my day. I do not comprehend the gaggle of motorists waiting in a line outside his school. It is so much easier to ride.

Standalone 

I hop off the train a stop early on my way home twice a week and pick up my three year old and the bike seat and head out for the last 7.5 miles home. We're good down to forty degrees Fahrenheit. I hate seeing "30% chance of thunderstorms" in the evening forecast on weather.com... it means I have to drive.

We have a trailer, too, but I feel safer with the seat than the trailer.

I just refitted our big cruiser tandem as a sort of longtail with a spare kid seat over the rear wheel and a small BMX seat all the way down for my 5 year old to ride on the back. It doesn't feel so safe, though. But fiddling with it yesterday afternoon served its purpose: getting me to not pull out the credit card and buy the madsen sitting at my LBS.

HardyWeinberg

On the one hand the bike rack is right by the door at one end of my son's school, so he can spend less time in the rain running from bike to school (net of uh biking in the rain in the first place) than other kids do from the parking lot to the door at the other end of the school.

On the other hand, they lock the school up pretty tight after the school day which means the 2 doors convenient to the bike rack when I come to get him from his afterschool activity tend to be locked and I often need to trudge all the way around the building to where I can get in to get him. I have wondered about having him lock up at the car side of the building that stays unlocked later but they are pretty uptight about clearance or whatever other issues relate to things not being where they're supposed to be.

CrossCountry50

Great stories about cycling and family! I am trying to figure out how to work the commute for my son this fall. I recently went "car free" and my son's school is about 8 miles from my home. It is a charter school and they don't provide bus service. It requires riding on some very busy streets and the distance is too far for him to do the ride on his own (he is 11). May have to go back to a car this fall

asharx

In August I am planning on bringing my son to Daycare in our chariot. Our daycare provider is letting me leave the trailer in her garage during the day. Right now I am commuting with my road bike, so at that time I will see if I can still do it with my road bike or go to the mtb.

He is still a little bit to young (9 1/2 months) to go into the trailer.

Kimmitt 

I'm a big fan of xtracycles for kid transport. Those panniers make for good storage, and trailers can be tiring to pull.