FREE Puppet Play and Open House this Saturday, April 27, 9:30 to 10:30 am at Tucson Waldorf School? 3349 E. Presidio Rd. RSVP to presidio@tucsonwaldorf.org. 520.325.5514. Visit www.tucsonwaldorf.org for more information.

This Sunday, April 28th! If you missed the last one, or if you loved it and want to get some more, join lots of happy people on bikes for Cyclovia!!!

Ignore the unsafely fitting helmet. She has a new one now that fits properly. Merci.

About a year ago Mike McKisson and I participated with a few other people at an informal workshop on “biking with kids” at the Mercado San Agustin.

Last weekend was Cyclovia, and there’s another in a couple weeks.

So let’s talk about bikes, baby!

What are your options for biking with kids? Training wheels, yay or nay?

This is a timely topic because this weekend is the GABA bike swap–a great opportunity to outfit your family with cycling gear. (Don’t worry–you don’t have to have items to swap–it’s just the name of the event.) It’s Sunday, 7am to 2pm, on 5th Ave and 7th St.

This is a great chance to pick up a trail a bike (our method of choice for hauling around a kiddo who is too big for a “baby seat” and not ready to ride confidently/safely alone yet. They’re affordable, and don’t require a bunch of adjustments to your existing grown up bike. Easy on, easy off–not permanently attached.

Lincoln, our six-year-old started off on a Skuut balance bike at about 3 years old (little bike with no pedals which they use Fred-Flinstone like, pushing with their feet, and then they glide a bit, and soon they’re keeping up with you on your grown up bike and you realize it’s time to get a “real” bike). We used a trail-a-bike at about four, and never used a training-wheels bike. We figured the balancing part was the hardest. Between the balance bike and his time spent on the trail-a-bike, when we gave him a “real” bike (purchased for $10 at BICAS–score) at the age of five, he just took off and rode it, no falling. He didn’t feel comfortable braking, though, so it was only a few months ago that he started riding like a grown up–longer distances, around traffic.

We still are very safe about things. Helmets and reflectors for all. Tucson Daddo, Mr. Cool guy himself, even bought those bright orange flags for the back of the bikes, the ones we made fun of as kids.

Clementine’s on the trail-a-bike now, and will stay there for a while I think. She outgrew the “baby seat” before she turned four.

Total spent on our bike set up for the family? $10. The baby seat and trail-a-bike were hand me downs (thank you Margaret, Dean, and Owen, and Diana, David, and Nathan!) and the balance bike was Linc’s birthday gift from Nana and Papa when he was (three?)

There are lots of awesome options, like cargo bikes, and things like that, lots of which have cool Dutch names (multiple “a”s in a row and “j”s and stuff) and I love those too. You can ask Mike all about them because he’s an expert.