Saturday, February 28, 2009

Our other car is a bakfiets

It has been a long month. It turns out that our youngest got sick as well so we spent a third week caring for a miserable-feeling little guy and struggling tremendously with childcare coverage. It now appears that one of the twins is moving into his second round of illness as he now has a dry, hacking cough with a fever. We are going to just hang this weekend, hoping, just hoping we can all recover and get back on schedule this coming week-- the week of admissions decision making for me and a week of mid-terms for Peter. Is my desperation coming through in this post?

One wonderful bright spot, however, has been the arrival of our bakfiets! She (I am hoping to christen her a girl's name but we are in negotiation at the moment) arrived on Thursday and is absolutely gorgeous. P and I have each taken her out a few times. Yesterday, P went for a long ride on our local bike path with F for about 1 1/2 hours and then this morning used it for the bagel run and to get S to his guitar lesson. Even though I read this on the numerous reviews of bakiets I tracked down, I am still amazed how smoothly this bike rides and no, it is not hard to balance. I still need to figure out just how wide a turn I need to make, but I do think this investment (and yes, it was a hefty one) will allow us to remain a one-car, well--minivan family for at least another year.

One reviewer said you should not buy a bakfiets if you are not a social person because he gets stopped and engaged in conversation constantly about his cargo bike. I see this already with the number of folks who have asked questions while I was out riding. It reminds me a bit of when the twins were babes and we had the awesome double decker carseat stroller that gave me such a measure of freedom with the boys. People always got a kick out of seeing us, walking along the streets of NYC, and often commented or stopped to chat. The bakfiets does get a similiar reaction, but I am happy to discuss it because maybe some other folks will get inspired and soon New Haven will have a fleet of family bikes.






7 comments:

Anonymous said...

ow many kids fit in there?

Anonymous said...

Congrats. There is probably another Bakfiets in New Haven. About four years ago, before we had any official import channels, an attorney there imported one. Maybe you'll cross paths one day.

Jennifer said...

I love the pics of the boys helping to open it up. Do they like riding in it?

Anonymous said...

Can I ask how much that cost you with importing/shipping cost? I would love one of those...

sara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Sarah, please meet my friend Vanessa-http://suburbanbikemama.blogspot.com/ I think if you'd overlapped in New Haven you would have been good friends.

MamaVee said...

Hi Sarah!! I can't believe you got that from the west coast. I had been coveting them but shy'd away from the shipping. I was overjoyed when I found someone nearby who sells Sorte Jernhest's.

I wish we had overlapped in CT!!! I'm also glad to see someone with 6 yr olds using one. My daughter is 5 and I worried about the "shelf life" but I think I'll be fine.

Yay- I'll be reading your blog and missing New Hay Hay. I'd love to compare notes and see how your travels are as you see mine.

xx in solidarity. and give Laura a hug for me.