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.