Wheels

Choosing Wheels

We had a car when we arrived in Amsterdam. A lovely big right-hand drive seven-seater Renault Scenic. It is great, except everyone cycles in Amsterdam and cycling is much more fun. 

So we looked into all sorts of options. Short bakfiets (tricycles), long bakfiets, cycles where you have one child seat in the front or one at the back. We settled on a long bakfiets. 

Last Saturday, we visited a local bike shop to try out the long Bakfiets. I was very wobbly at first and couldn't stop looking at the little front wheel. How would it work? When you turn the handle bars, the wheel looks like it doesn't turn very much. It's a big heavy bike too, especially when you've got two children in it. So I cycled round the block and it was surprisingly fine. I can't remember the last time I rode a bike and then there's the added worry of carrying little ones in a box on the bike. I went out on a 'normal bike' a few days ago and managed to fall off! 

Safety

What would happen to the children if I fell off this bike?

http://bakfiets.nl/nl/zie-in-actie/video/1/

I've extensively web researched safety and security of the bakfiets. Apparently many of the bakfiets are stolen each year. We have a very heavy lock to use when we aren't using the bakfiets.  The bakfiets is positioned very low to the ground, so if the bike does fall over, the children don't have far to go and are also protected by seat belts and a wooden box. 

Learning

We did a practice trip to the children's school today. All was fine until we hit A CORNER and A HILL. AT THE SAME TIME. I sadly had to dismount and push the bike along. Hopefully as time goes on I will get more confidence with hills and corners. 

We have three children. The oldest has just learnt to cycle, but apparently (according to a Dutch man) children need to hitch a ride until they are 10 years old. 

A New Friend

I'm writing this three weeks after we bought our Bakfiets. I had a love/hate relationship with it. I really liked it as it gave me freedom with the children for the first time ever. Freedom to do some excercise. Louis clearly enjoyed siting in it as he can see much more than he can from the car. I had begun to hate it as it is so heavy with both boys sitting in it. A couple of times, as I stopped it tipped over. It fell in a slow motion way and neither of the boys were hurt. While I used my body to prevent the Bakfiets from falling and was covered in big bruises.  The first time we were due to use the Bakfiets to do a school run, there was a massive storm with 120 mile an hour winds. We did try and brave it and ride the Bakfiets to school, but soon turned round. Ava is very keen to cycle and rides quite slowly. It is very difficult to ride the Bakfiets slowly as it becomes more wobbly. 

There are stoppers underneath the Bakfiets. You have to heave the bike backwards to engage the stoppers and forwards to set them free. This requires a lot of strength, especially with both boys in the bakfiets, but it is becoming easier now.

In the last few days, it's suddenly not quite so scary. We've now had the bakfiets for about four weeks. I am very conscious of cars, other cyclists and motorbikes, which are allowed to use the cycle lanes. I'm also becoming less wobbly. I can just about let go of one of the handle bars if I have an itch or need to signal right or left. I'm really starting to enjoy it and love my new school run. Here's a picture of what our school run is like now, quite different from my old 3 mile school run of sitting in traffic.

Five on Bikes

We've also enjoyed some family cycle rides, which is a brilliant new family activity. I love the fact that we can do exercise and go exploring together. Ava, my 7 year old is amazing, yesterday she cycled over 10K. Here's a picture us on our long cycle ride to the goat farm in the Amsterdam Bos (forest).

Pimped

We had fun sticking some daffodil stickers. The skateboard sticker I bought online arrived disappointingly small.