Grrr, rant time.

This morning’s ride (commute) consisted of the following:

• Being cut off by the same car twice, 3 blocks from home
• Being cut off by a courier blindly turning right
• Being confronted by a recycling truck coming at me the wrong way through a traffic circle
• Being confronted by a car coming at me in the wrong lane on campus
• Being behind a car that came to a stop at a 4 way stop, and stayed there.  I went around her and three blocks later I could still see she was stopped there.  The passenger didn’t seem concerned.

So, seriously?  A 10 km ride in the gorgeous sunshine and mild temperatures complete and utterly destroyed by idiot drivers.

There are some things I really dislike about Vancouver and the dumbass car (and bike) drivers rate highly.

Here’s a quick shot of the boy riding his bike last weekend at Douglas Park:

Today we went back to West Point Cycles to look at the Compact Trail-A-Bike. After sitting Aidan on it and adjusting it as much as possible, we made the decision that it was just too big for him. And so, the decision was to get a seat for the back of Gwen’s bike. We got it installed, took it home, had some lunch, and took a bike ride as a family. After some initial uncertainty, it was pretty clear that the boy was thoroughly enjoying himself. Gwen seemed to be having fun too.

So the problem we have now is that due to the odd shape of Gwen’s bike’s frame, it has to be mounted upside down in the bike carrier for the truck. This makes it impossible to have another bike on the carrier (you know, like mine) at the same time because the handlebars of the two bike interfere with each other. We’re still working on that one.

Gwen’s birthday came early today. We bought her a new bike. It’s the one shown to the right, a Norco Corsa 2. She got a pretty helmet and a basket to put on the front too.

It met all her requirements: Easy to get in and out of, lighter than her previous bike, and ridable on a number of different surfaces. Plus it has a number of other features: fenders, a full chain guard, V-brakes, trigger shifters (rather than the typical thumb or grip shifters), front shocks, and a seat post shock. She says it’s the softest bike ride she’s ever had.

So now, we need to figure out how to transport Aidan around until he’s proficient on his bike. We’ve looked at seats that sit over the rear tire — but they max out at 40 lbs and Aidan’s about 37 right now. We’ve looked at trailers, but MEC’s write up on them seems to indicate that 12-18 mo age is the sweet spot for trailers. We’ve looked at Trail-A-Bikes (left) and while it’s the alternative I favour, Gwen’s not so thrilled about them and we haven’t been able to try Aidan on one that’s the proper size. A bike shop is bringing some more in and will call us when one of the smaller ones is in so that we can give it a go.

So, hopefully sooner than later we can be a stereotypical Vancouver family toodling around on the seawall with our bikes.