Enjoying the Fall Weather

Just enjoying some great Fall weather, hanging out with the kids and cruising around town on the Madsen!

Madsen Box Playhouse

In case you were wondering ... Yes, the enormous box they use to ship the Madsen bike makes an excellent playhouse!  :-)

So, we bought a Madsen kg271 Cargo Bike

And here it is!...

Yes, that's me on our new Madsen Kg271 cargo bike. (If you're not familiar, see the Madsen site here). The bike is awesome so far (3 days). We were all able to go out this morning for a test ride with DH behind taking pics and making sure everything was going a-ok with the littles in the bucket.

I am so excited about this because up until now I've been walking the kids everywhere in my BOB duallie. And when I say WALKING and EVERYWHERE I mean... to and from preschool 2x/day, to the grocery store (with "miss A" kicking a gallon of milk the whole way home because there's nowhere to put groceries on the BOB), to the library, park, etc. and a 5 mile roundtrip to the Children's Museum about every other week. (Yes, I agree, a five mile trip deserves a bike!)

Not that I don't love walking, mind you, it's just so fun to ride a bike. And now that I can take the tots along with me it, well, it's just that much more fun! (BTW - miss A is only 12 months and I'm relieved to say she did great seatbelted in the Madsen bucket just like big bro!)

And, of course, after owning the Madsen for only a day I just couldn't wait to sew up an accessory for it... so I made up this soft cover for the bucket...

I first thought I'd make the cover out of a nice outdoor fabric, like Sunbrella. But then I found this buttery piece of heavyweight cotton twill in my fabric stash and I just couldn't resist. I love how it turned out! I'm sure it won't hold up as well as outdoor fabric, but now that I've made one, it'll be easy to whip up another should I fancy an upgrade down the line.

I'll be writing more about my experiences with the Madsen as time passes. In the meantime if you're interested in a couple of reviews by more experienced cyclists, there's a nice one here at A2W and another from Julian + family at Totcycle.

Happy riding!