I am not talking about dumping the kids off at school, or a dumping the kids off for a play date.
I am referring to dumping the kids while riding a cargo bike. Most people who ride cargo bikes will tell you that they have dumped their kids (or cargo) at least once. At least the honest parents will. Don’t worry. It has happened to the best of us. And if it has not happened to you, it will.
It is worth noting that dumping the kids seems to happens in the most crowed of places where people are already looking at you because your bike is loaded down with kids.
The on-lookers look on, mesmerized by the cool bike, and amazed at how many kids are being carried and then it happens … You dump the bike with kids in it. What do you do?
For me, it was the Tweed Ride of 2010. My sons and I were dressed in our most dapper fashion as we cruised downtown in my Madsen cargo bike. We pulled up, I got off the seat, straddled the bike, prepared for unloading, and the weight in back was just too much, and too top heavy. The front lifted, and the bike fell sideways to my left.
Fear was my first reaction–are my kids okay? My second reaction was embarrassment.
All three kids crawled out on hands and knees, then they all took bows, my eldest yelling, in his best circus voice, “Thank you, thank you! More stunts as the evening progresses.” Thankfully I have kids that roll with the situation, and put a smile on my face.
Last month, twitter conversations popped up around the topic of dumping kids. The idea must be on the minds of parents. For the record, kids are never fully “dumped.” the bike usually tips to one side and the kids are lowered, less-then-gracefully, to the ground.
People could judge. People could say, “What a terrible parent” or “Bikes are unsafe” or “I would never do that to my kids.”
But guess what? I will carry my kids on a cargo bike. I am not ashamed. I am not going to apologize.
It happens. It does. It goes with the territory like skinned knees and skateboarding. Like grass stains and playing frisbee. The best thing to do is be prepared, know it will happen, and have a game plan to lighten the mood.
If this has happened to you, what was the situation and how did you handle it?
Tweed Ride scene is below. And for the record, the first photo–no Asas were harmed in the making of that photo.
My first dump was entering the Arbor Lodge NS parking lot. The super cute bamboo sunshade limited my turning ability and we gently tipped over. Kids were scared but not scarred. One of my knees suffered mild road rash. They didn’t refuse to get back in bike for ride home, maybe the ice cream bars helped?
Carie
Hilarious! I like the phrase, Scared but not Scarred.
When my daughter was dumped off a long tail she was very excited to report that her helmet worked.
Turning the negative into a positive. Super!
Once early on with the bakfiets– all three boys and too sharp of a turn out our driveway.
Once, early on with the bakfiets with all three boys aboard–> too sharp of a turn out of our driveway. I had a bloody knee. The boys were fine.
Later, on our Xtracycle with one boy aboard–> went off a ramp (construction on a walkway) in a weird way. We fell over and both of us were none to worse for wear. We did have to jimmy the footrests back into place and we went on our merry way.
Yes, once I knew the boys were fine, I looked around both times to see if anyone had ‘caught us.’ Oh well. A few more shared family memories!
My daughter and I were at the naked bike ride. We were riding along half an hour into the ride, when a drunkard came from out of nowhere behind us, sideswiped us, and knocked us clean over. It all happened so fast I couldn’t stop the bike from falling sideways. Fortunately, my daughter was seat-belted into the bike and she never came out of the box. She did sustain a little bit of road-rash injury to her little arm, and got a big scare. My naked ass (literally) was less fortunate and It met the asphalt with full force. I had a few bruises but it was not too bad. As a result, we ended the ride short and headed for voodoo donuts for a doughnut Band-Aid for my daughter.
Doughnuts usually make all things better. Thanks for sharing your bail. It happens to us all. Not necessarily naked, although that is quite cool.
I wiped out with my bakfiets taking a corner too sharp…son sleeping on the floor woke up for a sec, then went back to sleep…
Fully loaded xtracycle fell over with kid in kid seat – son just asked “how mom could do something so stupid”…
Here we are, talking about dumping our kids in the open… have you ever heard about a deadly accident with a cargo bike? Not me…
On the other hand, papers don’t even mention anymore how many kids are killed in cars…
I think we are doing just fine…
Nope, no deadly collisions as a result of cargo bikes. We are doing just fine. In time, more people will see that and want the doing-fine that we are all doing.
[...] but fine. For some reason bikes with the weight on the back are much easier for us to tip. Sure, everybody does it sometimes, but twice in one week was a little more often than I like to [...]