That's awesome JP!

Can't believe how big Oscar is getting. I see he has his dad's flowing locks

JP man, cant wait to ride like that with my kid. Or anything so involved, whatever they're interested in.

You are the only person I know who refers to bagels as "fast food" and I am terrified of your judgement on my horrible pizza and bagels and baked dessert goods addictions.

You are the only person I know who refers to bagels as "fast food" 

That stuck out to me also 

David Yang said:

JP man, cant wait to ride like that with my kid. Or anything so involved, whatever they're interested in.

You are the only person I know who refers to bagels as "fast food" and I am terrified of your judgement on my horrible pizza and bagels and baked dessert goods addictions.

Surprising.

 I love bagels.  

They've been a regular part of my diet since I was six or possibly younger.  At my first bike shop gig there was a bagel shop three doors down and there was hardly anything better than finishing a ride, grabbing a bagel and a small orange juice and heading for work. That first bite through the flesh of a warm bagel is almost impossible to beat.  I still have this yen, and stopping at Mike's bagels on Broadway at 168th is a constant pull at the end of my rides (they're ok, not as good as Absolute's, but that's out of the way (Broadway at 108th) and there's often a line).  Some days, I get two, one for the ride home, one for after.  

I also love pizza and desserts.  Pizza hits so many right notes for so little money.  And desserts; I grew up with a father who enjoyed making them. the more challenging the better.  

I didn't think it was a judgement.  I also enjoy White Castle sliders and am in awe of the engineering that must have gone on to create the McDonald's French Fry.  

JP one of my favorite post-post race routines after the obligatory team Konditori regroup - I would ride over to Bagel Hole, get half a dozen + CC + lox, stuff the paper bag under my jersey if I didn't have a backpack and spend quality pre-child weekend morning time with the wife and cat.

Now, my local bagel place out here is pretty good, maybe a bit too large, but the crust is solid and my kid loves them, so I now have a slightly different, race-less routine.

Three kids on mtn bikes means I’ve got a fair share of bent derailleur maintenance in my past and ahead of me, so I’m resigned to buying the tool.

any favorites?

https://www.parktool.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-dag-3

That's the tool. Do it.

Jules said:

Three kids on mtn bikes means I’ve got a fair share of bent derailleur maintenance in my past and ahead of me, so I’m resigned to buying the tool.

any favorites?

https://www.parktool.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-dag-3

The Abbey takes the style prize, and looks a good bit slimmer, but the Park is cheaper and probably works as well if not better

https://www.abbeybiketools.com/collections/tools/products/hag

The Park DAG 2 is cheaper and probably works as well as the DAG 3

https://www.parktool.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-dag-2-2?category=Frame & Fork

Yeah I can't see the difference between Dag 2, 2.2 or 3 other than price...

The Dag 3 has a better set up for the wheel gauge to stay in place as you navigate the frame and any other frame attachments. Like dramatically better, as you can flip it. The Dag 2s have little rubber donuts that mark the gauge position (this is the one I own), works, but not as nice or efficient or precise. Once you've seen how the Dag 3 does it, the Dag 2s feels completely primitive.

Any of the park dag will do the job.

David Yang said:

 I would ride over to Bagel Hole, get half a dozen + CC + lox, stuff the paper bag under my jersey if I didn't have a backpack .

all i could picture while reading this 

Not gonna lie, 6 bagels + tubs of cream cheese and lox is not the easiest to cram under a tight race jersey.

Does anyone have experience with a front child seat on their bike?  I have the Thule model that attaches to the steerer tube, and all is good except that there is almost no room for me to stand over the top tube when stopped.  I have to lower the seat post enough so my feet hit the ground while seated.  Wondering if anyone has dealt with this issue.  Other than riding super low, the only solution i can think of is a dropper post but curious if there are less expensive options.

Yeah I think it's just not designed for road bike geo unfortunately (assuming that's what it's on).

Putting a big precious cargo on the headset of my bike always seemed horrifying to me.

Jules said:

Putting a big precious cargo on the headset of my bike always seemed horrifying to me.

Having Hugo on the back-mounted Thule felt sketchier. It totally threw off the C-of-G, resulting in some wrestling the bike to stop tip-over moments. Also, it's hard to have "look at that cute thing FFS" conversations. Instead I'd look back and he's nodded off again, or doing his best to slip out of the harness. Dada not like.

My daughter is 2.5 and we've used a Burley trailer up until now, exclusively going to and from prospect park or Coney Island because the trailer sits too low for much non-protected lane use.  I recently put a Thule ridealong on the back of my bikepacking bike with 650b wheels and drop bars (Salsa Journeyman) and, while it took a second to get used to, the COG wasn't unbearable.  Margot definitely more engaged back there than in the trailer.  But I think a rear-mounted seat would be very challenging on a road bike in terms of steadiness and COG. 

Since my son was old enough to ride a little, I've been intrigued by the idea of creating a bike park within a NYC park. Kind of like a skate park or bmx park, but made for small kids to play on bikes, but without the risk/fear of jumps.  

In The Netherlands, they have things called "traffic gardens" to teach safety on the road to kids.  That would be part of my idea, but I'd want it more to be a "bike garden," with more fun designed in.  I'm thinking of something that might have a perimeter loop that kids could just ride fast on and then having an interior with wavy lines to follow, corners to ride around, lumps to ride over, that sort of thing.

Saris, the trainer-maker, is making an effort to spread the word on how to build such bike facilities for kids.  Possibly it indirectly benefits them, as they make bike parking for schools and municipalities.  But it's a good idea regardless.

Take a look.

https://www.saris.com/Uploads/Saris/2021/12/Guide-to-Creating-Community-Bike-Parks.pdf

Used to be such a thing in Williamsburg ,no?

Mark Taylor said:

Used to be such a thing in Williamsburg ,no?

Really?  No idea.

https://pumptrack.com/track/velosolutions-pump-track-brooklyn-ny-usa/

Closed , sadly , I think it was a developer concession for the dominos factory condo project 

Off topic ,but remember the time when some dude was going to build a velodrome in brooklyn and we all go so exicted 

There was a pump track in the middle of wWilliamsburg, looked super awesome. Closed in 2019.

Wow.  I had no idea.  Way better than the little thing up in Highbridge

Went there multiple times with the kids. You only had to make a donation. I was disappointed to see it go.

We also went several times. It seemed clear it was a construction site with a timeline though

Paging Mr JP… Does there exist a guide for NYC parents to safely start street riding with their kids?

I"ve got a page in my Where To Bike NYC book on it.  And I need to update it and put it on the website.  Will get to that shortly.

NYC and NYS have web pages on it.  NYC has some booklets as well.  Hugo might have outgrown them though.

https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/biketips.shtml

https://www.dot.ny.gov/display/programs/bicycle/safety_laws/childrens

A couple things I've picked up along the way.  

We, as adults, might not realize how dynamic the environment of bike riding is, but it is extremely so.  There is so much to look out for, and so much that one has to be able to both recognize and ignore.  I had a funny moment with Oscar on one of his first multi-mile street rides where he remarked, 'wow, there's a lot to pay attention to.'  

Kids depth perception is still developing.  As a result, they're not naturally good at estimating speed or distance or necessity.  This is a reason not to run lights.  Also a reason to be advising them on slowing down in some situations. 

One suggestion I tried and found worked is the following.  On streets where you estimate the risk to be too great for street riding, have Hugo ride the sidewalk while you parallel ride on the street.  With Oscar, my biggest fear was him hitting a pedestrian, because he was loath to use his bell or shout out--this might be common with kids.  Shouting at grownups is probably scary.  

In terms of riding on streets, I developed a lead-from-behind strategy.  That is, because of our size differential, I'd ride behind Oscar.  That way, drivers might have an easier time seeing me than seeing him.  Simultaneously, I can see what he's doing and direct him--move right, move left, watch out for the car, pothole, etc.  If there was something in the way, I'd be the person to swing out and then tell him it was safe to do so.  

Oscar has never been good about removing one arm from the handlebars to signal.  He crashed a few times doing so and that has stayed with him. It's definitely something to work on in a low-stress environment.  

   @JohnMalcolmson BikeNY has pretty good youth and adult safe riding courses. I did some trainings with them and learned a lot of good things that I use when training my high school bike clubbers to ride safely in NYV.

https://www.bike.nyc/education/programs/