2 Years of Carfree living as a family

Yesterday was our two year anniversary of going carfree, all of which has been tracked here on this blog. That being said, I figured it was appropriate to post some thoughts on that time, as well as some thoughts regarding this blog.

Overall, our experience has been very good in the two years since we sold our last car. I won't pretend that there haven't been some challenging moments along the way, or a couple times when in a fit of frustration car ownership crept back in as a thought. Everything has its moments.

When we first sold our car, it was partially to make a statement about the need for societal change towards more sustainable methods. It was also partially because we felt that in order to be a part of the solution in figuring out more sustainable ways to live in suburban America we needed to cut the cord so to speak, and go all out. We also wanted to take away people's typical excuses and we knew that owning a car even if we didn't drive it would be something of an out for people in how they viewed our lifestyle.

I certainly don't want to give the impression that we're out to make anyone feel bad for their current lifestyle, but we do want to show unapologetically that another way is not only possible, but also profitable, and hopefully in that process encourage others to take steps of their own. We are all on this journey together, simply at different phases in the process of sustainable living.

We started this blog back when we were learning how to apply car lite living to parenthood. I'd been car free when we got married, and Nickie and I both tended to get around largely by bike up until our first child, but felt a bit like we were starting over once kiddo #1 came onto the scene, then the next challenge was not just how to get out by bike with kids, but how to actually displace errands. This blog was and is about trying to figure this, within the greater picture of sustainable living, out collectively. Basically its about being part of an open source society, where we share our ideas and resources and try to figure this new way of living out together. Hopefully our blog has been and will continue to be an encouragement and source of info from time to time on how to make this lifestyle work.

Below are some things we've learned in this time.

1)Cargo bikes and electric assists can be real lifesavers with mediocre mass transit plus kids. Nickie and I have been tremendously grateful for cargo bikes currently on the market. We have two young kids too close together in age for one to be vastly further ahead regarding what he can contribute than the other which means, at this point they are both cargo, when you add long distances, diaper bag, groceries etc. Cargo bikes and electric assists become a tremendous commodity. There are also the times when one of us is sick, but still needs to cover a great distance, or when Nickie was injured last year, and I was toting her on the back of the bike plus the kids in the trailer, for 1.5 months.

2)Living carfree in suburban America requires a pretty significant mindset change. We've blogged about this before, but your world becomes smaller and bigger at the same time. You may not stray far and wide as you do with a car, but because you see so much more and experience the world in a different way, your local world seems bigger. The other big shift along these lines is thinking differently about seasons and weather. We've become much more seasonally adaptive, keeping our thermostat at 60-62 in the winter during the daytime, and letting temps get into the high 70's to 80 in our house during the summer, and adjusting more to the seasons as we're consistently exposed to them.

3)Living carfree is very healthy for our kids. They are much more engaged with their surroundings and as we now take steps with our older child to involve him more in the process of getting around (tag alongs, sitting on the rear rack/deck) it seems to have a very positive effect on maturity and self esteem to have more responsibility and to be able to contribute in some way to something Mom and Dad do. They are also much more in touch with their surroundings which can only be good. They see so much more, smell so much more, notice so much more than when they go someplace via car. Being able to snuggle your kids on the bus and read a book together is also so much nicer than sticking them in a car seat in the back seat of a car.

4)Living carfree with kids in suburban USA requires a VERY flexible attitude, and A LOT of creativity. We are not advocating via this blog that all folks go carfree, but that they do endeavor to live carlite. Like most things there is a point of diminishing returns. Living 80% carfree is VERY doable, going the next 20% up to totally car free requires at least as much effort if not more than the first 80%. Does that mean we don't think its worth it, well, thats a question only the individual can answer, but as we've said, we'd rather figure it out all the way, so that most can more easily go that 80% than not. Besides we've found there are few experiences that we don't enjoy more by bike than we did by car.

5)While it is true that biking does save money over driving a car, it takes time and initial investment before you begin to see the returns on it. Buying and/or building setups for toting kids in all condition with the ability to do errands year round with our wild climate variations, has not been what I would call cheap. It has certainly been cheapER than car ownership. Here's some perspective. My wife and I had one car as I was car free when we got married, we maintained that model up until going car free as I typically bike commuted. The one car we had was paid for, and I did most of the repairs myself, and our insurance was cheap. Back in the day when gas cost $1.80/gal we generally spent around $3,500 a year on car ownership. In the two years since going carfree we have spent around $2,500 out of pocket a year on transportation. I would say we are now getting to the point where that will settle down to about half to 1/3rd of that amount. The most complicated solutions are now paid for, and henceforth, its kids bikes and maintaining our current fleet.

6)Carshare's a great model of car ownership for the coming generations.

7)Relax and enjoy the journey.

8)Know that you really don't know it all... :)

Surly Big Dummy for sale

Not to steal Nickie's thunder with that wonderful post regarding food and sustainability, but if someone's in the market for a used Big Dummy we're putting ours up for sale. The listing can be found here and the ebay listing now here.

Sustainability and Food

Why don't we do more programs like this in the US? Not sure, but here is a link a to a great program put on by BBC called "The Farm of the Future". Aside from having *amazing* videography, this film does an excellent job of explaining exactly what the problem is with the way we produce food now compared with regards to sustainability. I often times have a hard time explaining to folks I come across why I believe it is worth the effort to buy local or buy organic or grow food or plant fruit trees. I can certainly see their point, it is a lot more work than it's worth from any monetary sense or time sense. It is hard to explain that the entire system from seed, to the soil it grows in, to the process of watering it, fertilizing it, harvesting it, transporting it, processing it, transporting it again, marketing it, cooking it and finally eating it are all intimate bed-fellows with petroleum. This video, however, makes it quite clear how dire the situation is and exactly why it can't go on like this. For me, this is all intimately connected to our need for peace and justice in the world as well.

The video also goes a step further to suggest some possible alternatives and provides a glimpse of what food production might look like in the next century. One thing that particularly struck me about the "alternatives" to oil-dependent agriculture is that they truly are very much in their infancy. We can't go back to horse and plow, where do we go from here? Some of the innovative ideas included permaculture and forest gardening with some great interviews of people who are doing this on a small to medium scale. They focused on working with nature to reduce the amount of work necessary to produce food. Ideas included nearly eliminating weeding by creating plant eco-systems, improving the soil starting with the "life" in the soil, the insects and micro organisms and inviting bio-diversity in the garden.

The truth about oil-free agriculture is that there aren't a lot of current large scale examples of oil-free farming. This is very exciting because it is a real opportunity for innovation. Even home-scale agriculture could play a part. Back in the second world war, Americans produced about 40% of our food in "Victory Gardens" in their own yards. There is nothing more local than your own yard! This also re-defines the idea of wealth to a more sustainable model as well. Perhaps the Forest Garden or the vegetable garden may take on more status than the most pristine, dandelion-free green lawn. A fruit-tree may become more a sign of wealth than an Audi. Honestly, we need this. We really need this. If our kids and our grandchildren (and even us for that matter!) are to have a future in which they can drink the water, and eat food and breath the air and not be killed by wars over diminishing land and resources, than we need to redefine the idea of wealth. It can't be how much stuff can you buy anymore. Wealth and success have to be re-defined.

Longtail for the heavy user...

We've been using our Yuba full force now for a couple months, and figured were overdue for a follow up.

Yuba Mundos are in a word surprising. I remember first reading about the homely Yuba Mundo. It weighed in at a portly 60lbs without any bags or accoutrements. It came with intro level componentry, and wasn't even made of cro-moly steel, just hi-tensile steel. To top this all off, its sticker price is right at $1,000 which just screams of cheap when you're expecting to pay at least that much for a decent single bike let alone a serious cargo bike.

The frame looks reasonably well thought through regarding triangulation and seat tube angle, but really its just seemed like the Huffy of cargo bikes.

This is precisely why I titled my initial review of the Yuba Mundo, Yuba Mundo - wow....

A couple months later, after daily use and a bike move involving thousands of pounds of stuff, it all comes back to "surprising". My friend Randy and I intentionally TRIED to induce torsional flex on these rigs, going so far as the load you see below in our attempt to do so. Even at that point, the only real squirm was coming from inadequate tire pressure for the load, not frame flex.



Another surprising thing about this rig in the experience of Nickie and myself as well as Randy and his SO all of whom have thousands of miles logs on xtracycles, is how smooth this thing is. That seems so contradictory considering how little that frame flexes under any load we've dared to try. After much pontification on the matter we've finally (I think) hit the nail on the head. Its like a car with good shocks vs. bad. When you hit a road irregularity with bad shocks the reverberations live on for a time after. With good shocks, you take the hit and its done. The Yuba is not unsettled by road irregularities loaded or not. So when you hit a bump, thats all there is. With our Big Dummy, you hit the bump and if you're loaded much at all, it lives on for just a few moments longer in various reverberations.

One other nice thing about this bike and this one is a bit telling, is that it comes with horizontal dropouts. We run an IGH on it (Nuvinci), and its just nice not having to run a chain tensioner. When I said this is telling, I mean that they are able to do this at all BECAUSE this frame does not flex. adjusting chain tension absolutely is only possible because of it. It really does make for a smoother more efficient drivetrain.

I've sung a lot of praises of this bike, and I think those are rightly deserved. Does that mean it does not come with its downfalls, of course not. I still stand by the comment about cheap componentry. At this point the only component on the bike that is stock is the seatpost. If you are picky about the parts you use, do yourself a favor and just buy the frameset and build from there.

Also the welds seriously look like they were done with a buzz box. I don't have any concerns about them holding up, but its worth pointing out to a crowd whose used to the beautiful little tig beads prevalent on most bikes these days.

Lastly, and this is a biggie for many, at present it is still really more for the DIY or tie down strap kinda person. Its quickly getting better in this area, but has a ways to go compared to the likes of Xtracycle who has spent over a decade now fleshing out the accessories to make their kit do A LOT of things.

My main gripe on the accessories front is the lack of a useful centerstand. Once again I rolled my own. which you can faintly see in the photo above. It still needs a little tweaking, but its at least as good as the stand I made for the Big Dummy. I've seen little tidbits that hint at a heavy duty centerstand which is coming out this year, but at present it does not yet exist. They should not sell a bike without one in my opinion.

Thus far my list of modifications is as follows:

Brazed in spacers to reduce the rear dropouts from 14mm to 10mm
Added Nuvinci drive train after modifying dropouts
Swapped out front fork for Surly Instigator fork
Went threadless with FSA DH Pro pig headset
Added front disc brake (Avid BB7)
swapped out front wheel for disc compatible build
added albatross bars
added Velo Orange leather saddle (which btw, we both like as much or more than brooks)
Added Ergon Grips
Added Berthoud 60mm stainless fenders
Homemade bags
EDIT: forgot to list custom centerstand

I should make a little comment about our bags. First off I'll give credit where credit is due (thank you Xtracycle!!!). We shamelessly took a few cues from your design. We love the idea of the xtracycle freeloaders, but often find they just dont go as big as we'd like. I'd rather not have to carry tie down straps unless I'm gonna carry a washer and dryer. Consequently we decided to use a very similar sling design as the freeloaders, but made the sling about 8" longer, made the straps total length about 6-7" longer, and lastly, made the two end pouches out of a solid fabric (silnylon) and made them a couple inches taller.

They work "like a charm" We have not needed tie down straps yet.

Successful Bike Move, thanks to many!!!

We've spent the last two weeks simultaneously remodeling the house we just bought and moving a bit everyday and capping it all off with a large group move yesterday.

I owe thanks to many people all along the way and on the day of the official bike move. One that stands out is my good friend Randy Burgess, who took several days of his two week break from classes to load up our respective rigs and tote thousands of pounds of stuff between places, the most memorable load being a washer AND dryer both on one Yuba (these are intense bikes). He was also a tremendous help on move day on many levels.

Its a little surreal and at the same time perfectly natural to be on the trailing end of doing this process by bike. Its strange to watch a video like the one below (courtesy of my friend Del) of our very own bike move, yet at the same it feels so perfectly natural to have done this process exactly how we do everything else, as well as very rewarding.

It was a bit odd to have the local paper for our town of 80k people, show up, interview us and many others, photograph the whole shebang and post it as a front page story on the Sunday paper. We're flattered but at the same time, wish it was a bit less newsworthy...

Anyway, it was a blast and would definitely do it all over again.

Thanks Del for putting the video together down below.

The Stout Family Bike Move from Happy Thursday on Vimeo.

Bike Move!!!!

Photo courtesy of www.streetfilms.org

Well its looking like we're actually going to close on that house, only 2 months later than we initially planned. I guess the news was accurate in stating that the pendulum had gone the other way and that banks are slow and SUPER cautious about lending money...

Anyway, on to the point, at this point we're leaning strongly towards a bike move. I know we've got some Longmont and Boulder readership, so if any of you local folk would be interested in doing a bike move across town with us (around 5 miles) on a weekend about 3 weeks out, please either comment here or email us.

If you don't have a bike that can carry stuff, we do have at least a couple friends with either trailers or cargo bikes that are at our disposal for this move.

Of course yummy food will be provided, likely some kind of breakfast treats, and pizza round lunchtime.

The good news is that most of the route we'll be taking is a very very gradual downhill, AND about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the route will be along path (st.vrain greenway).

Thanks!!!!!
Anthony

A Chariot For All Seasons

This post is a little overdue, but perhaps it will be of use to someone for next year... After using the Chariot kid trailer last winter, we decided it needed a little modification for winter use. The main issues we had with it were the lack on insulation for cold weather. The really cold wet rain would saturate the fabric on the bottom of the trailer and then saturate Samuel's pants, making for a very cold little boy. Also, he would kick it open and then cold air would flow right threw and we'd have to stop, velcro it closed and keep going, then repeat all over. In the snow, when there wasn't precipitation to wet the bottom of the chariot, the cold would get through the fabric and chill the kiddos. This isn't really a design flaw in the Chariot, I understand that it's not designed for the kind of use we put it through. We needed to modify. I was shocked at how inexpensive (free) it was to modify it! We had all the necessary materials laying around and even if we hadn't, the materials were not too bad. :)

For insulating the bottom of the Chariot, we took 3 double thick strips of closed cell foam and encased them inside a double thick layer of polar fleece. Construction is simple. It's essentially a giant rectangle of fleece with the foam inside. The closed cell foam is unique in that it is really stiff and doesn't compress flat and so it makes a really good insulator. We put a nylon panel across the bottom so we could easily wipe off boot grunge. We then encased a double layer of 6 oz Primaloft in down-proof nylon to make a super warm quilt and attached this too the bottom of the insulated fleece/foam panel. this way you can flip the blanket forward, insert kiddos without dropping the blanket on the dirty floor and then flip the blanket back. We made this blanket extra wide so as to tuck in around the sides of their hips where there is no insulation. To block the draft through the netting at the back, we just stuffed a down jacket in the back pocket. Finally, we attached a hook to the velcro and tied some shock cord around the front wheel attachment place to secure the Chariot closed, so no more kicking it open. :) In reality, we only had to use this a few times until the little guy gave up. It's nice to have that secure closure as an option though, in case there is cold weather and a child gets into a "kick the door open" mood.

We've used this set-up all winter in Colorado. The coldest rides were about 4 degrees Fahrenheit for extended periods of time (1.5 hrs +) and the kids are so warm, they are taking off their mittens! Yay! One nice thing about the trailer in the winter is that it can't fall over if I do. This makes me more relaxed in the ice, even though it's highly unlikely that I'll fall with all the studs on the tires and the slow speeds I carry. The down-side is that it can be very slow in deep snow. With the motor working again I don't worry about it as much though!

Happy modifying!

Nickie