[eminva]

Still a skating rink on my driveway out here in ‘burbia . . . I’m splitting the difference and riding the MTB with regular MTB tires, not studded. I trust you all that it will be smooth sailing if I can just get through the first six miles.

Liz

[eminva]

@mllwhnp 45432 wrote:

So isn’t that roughly your size? So, here’s what you do. Get him a bike that you’d like for yourself (perhaps as a backup)! That way if he grows out of it at some point, you’ve got a new/spare bike!

Oh how you tempt me!

[eminva]

@DismalScientist 45428 wrote:

This appears to be a low information CL seller:

Indeed, the bikes were sold by the time I emailed them. Thanks anyway.

He has been measured now and the fit calculators suggest a frame size of 52 to 53-ish for a road bike. I guess that corresponds to about 18″ for the bikes sized that way.

Thanks for your help!

Liz

[eminva]

Not this morning. It was just a brief ride through slush so I used the regular mountain bike tires. But I do have a set of Kenda Klondike that fit that bike. If I suspect ice may be on the trail when I return to work (tomorrow? Friday?), I will mount those.

Liz

[eminva]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2481[/ATTACH]

About an hour ago on the W&OD at Vienna Community Center

[eminva]

Apparently, AAA has not been deaf to these concerns:

http://vimeo.com/60585187#at=0

Liz

(P.S. Am I the only one who lives dangerously, without anyone pre-contracted to come haul off my car or bike if needed?)

[eminva]

I can do individual Hains Point laps, too. So all you who were thinking of challenging Arlingtonrider, go for it. It is going to be an AWESOME prize.

I can do others, but I’ll see what gets spoken for and then pick from the leftovers.

I thought we were going to do the awards/happy hour at the Phoenix Bikes thing?

Thanks, acl, for posting this.

Liz

[eminva]

Excellent advice, all. There seem to be a lot of good options and several ways you can go. We will start with the measuring and go from there. Thanks!

Liz

[eminva]

@KayakCyndi 45297 wrote:

And I had a nice ride home with her! Thanks for the company.

Nice riding with you, too!

It’s so nice to see so many people I know out on the trails.

Liz

[eminva]

@ShawnoftheDread 45260 wrote:

Had a nice ride in with eminva this morning.

Yes, very nice! Glad to see you out there, especially on a cold and windy day.

Liz

[eminva]

Well, extending acc’s religion metaphor, I recently became a League Cycling Instructor, so I guess I’m not just an evangelist, I’m full on televangelist with the big hair and excessive makeup. That said, I take a low key approach outside of class. I do get questions and try to answer them. Other than that, I often try to encourage recreational cyclists to give commuting or utility cycling a try. I never raise it with someone who has no obvious interest or attachment to cycling.

A note to all of you trying to raise the younguns’ right — best wishes. My 12-year-old is starting to show some interest, but that may be process of elimination — he is getting burned out on swimming at the moment. Also, the exact moment your kid displays enough stamina and speed to be a good riding partner for you, spending quality time with mom or dad will be the last thing in the world that he or she is interested in.

Liz

[eminva]

Hello elcee —

The photos on your website are beautiful. I was going to suggest you look at the Post pics of your bike thread, but I see you already found your way there with the photo of your daughter’s bike build. There are some classic and interesting bikes on that thread — maybe you could approach the owners of the bikes you find interesting to make portraits of them with their bike?

Liz

P.S. I will vouch for elcee! He’s not a creeper.

[eminva]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2457[/ATTACH]

Here is a photo from the days before anyone had heard of a balance bike — my kid on his first bike. He was three. I have no idea how much the bike weighed. I think they had smaller sizes. But then, he was never human sized, as Dirt would put it, then or now (always way over the 95th percentile).

He had no trouble getting around on it. If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken the pedals off and put something protective over the bottom bracket, and omitted the training wheels altogether. It did take him a while to graduate from the training wheels.

Liz

(Yes, he would kill me if he knew I was posting a photo from when he was a little kid).

[eminva]

Just out of curiosity, can you not take a really small kids bicycle, take off the pedals and get the same effect? Trek and Specialized, at least, probably make some very small two-wheelers. I would think the sturctural integrity would be a bit better.

Also, that way you can graduate them to pedals without having to buy something new.

Liz

[eminva]

Just an FYI re: Gallows @ W&OD:

I have served as a bicycle counter at that intersection on several occasions, which means I’ve sat there for two hour shifts watching cycle after cycle. Being a daily W&OD commuter, I was curious about just how long that light is, so I timed it. Here is what I observed. The light is green for Gallows/red for the W&OD for 2 minutes 30 seconds. Then it reverses for about 15 seconds. Repeat ad infinitum.

Time of day, day of week, didn’t matter. There is a call button that a trail user can activate, but it makes no difference — the cycle was exactly the same regardless of whether a user pushed the button. The button is a placebo.

Liz

[Author]

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