Friday, January 29, 2010

Slowly Changing Our Way Of Life...

Our venture into Utility Cycling came about from our goal of doing bike touring in a few years. We knew we would be taking at least one dog in a trailer, so, we explored the world of bike trailers. We found the "utility cycling" thread on Bike Forums and off we went to explore this new world! It has been so rewarding to do an errand on our bikes that we used to do in the truck... our next errand will be this Sunday to bring back 3 recycling bins from our WalMart SuperCenter in East Palmdale. We are finally starting our home recycling of plastics and paper and look forward to our first run to the recycle station with a trailer full of plastic!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Our First Grocery Run...




This was our first grocery run with the temporary wheel/axle set-up and my first use of the SmartBin. Underneath the top layer were two 40 lb. bags of rock salt. The estimated load weight - 140 lbs!! This was a very exciting milestone for us - doing the grocery run on our bikes!!

Our Car Free Errands & "The Trailer"...

So far we have eliminated driving to our local errands - the Littlerock Post Office (10 miles round trip with a side stop at the local park on the way); grocery runs to the East Palmdale Stater Bros. (18 miles round trip) and the big one - the dog food run to High Country Feed in Palmdale (28 miles round trip w/ 2 bags - 70 lbs. minimum run). We are in a rural area, so our errands are a little longer than most folks, but, it's all about eliminating the car runs and having a good time doing the errands.

Here is the final version of my homemade  utility flat bed trailer:

It's all aluminum and with the SmartBin on it weighs about 30 lbs.

I pull the trailer with my '84 Sweetheart Cycles Motocruiser that has been customized from my former racing days, here she is:




The whole concept of living the utility cycling way of life is very exciting - doing our part to help the planet out and getting our exercise at the same time! Both my wife and I are really looking forward to the time when we are out touring on our bikes... that will be really exciting!!

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Beginning...

Our first trailer & Pepper's first ride...

We found an old Bell kids trailer on Craigslist (of course) and retro fitted it to be our first utility trailer and Pepper's (my wife's Havanese) first chariot. This was our first trip towing him for any distance... we had done some practice runs around the neighborhood, but this run took us to the park - about a 5 1/2 mile round trip. Pepper turned out to be a natural traveller, he takes to the trailer (chariot) very well. This summer he will get his own DoggyRide 'Novel' trailer and that is the one we will use when we start touring with him.