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| Tyler Gillies & Davey Oil among the great selection of family bikes & gear they sell & service at G & O Cyclery in Seattle |
If you're a parent who wants to bike with your young children, it can be tough to find the right gear or to get decent advice or even test out cargo bikes. Here in Vancouver there is no bike shop that specializes in family biking, so you need to spend a lot of time & energy going from one shop to another to, say, test out four or five different models of cargo bike.
Seattle families are fortunate to have a bike shop where the kids have a play area & the owners are parents of young kids with a great selection of cargo bikes & child seats. One of those places that people go just to say hi & hang out. I heard about G & O Family Cyclery when they opened in Greenwood a few years ago & looked forward to visiting them next time we got down to Seattle.
Then about a week ago, Greenwood blew up. Literally. A gas leak & subsequent explosion destroyed several businesses, causing heavy damage to G & O. Thankfully it happened in the middle of the night & only the firefighters who were on scene sustained minor injuries. However, recovering from this disaster quickly is not going to be easy. Insurance money will be a long time coming. Davey & Tyler want to avoid laying off their employees, plus they want to keep doing what they love: providing family bikes & great service to the riders of Seattle. Well, not even just Seattle--I know a Vancouver family that travels all the way to Seattle to get biking gear at G & O.
Edit: If my words don't convince you, maybe Shannon Evans' video about G&O will:
Follow Spokesmama here too:
We are just starting our search for a cargo bike in Vancouver and quickly realised that there is no one stop shop for families wanting to get kitted out. Can you recommend some good local bike shops that would be worth us checking out? I'd really like to try before I buy. Right now leaning towards a midtail as we only have one kid and a small dog..
ReplyDeleteMighty Riders is also a good shop to pop in. They can build you an Xtracycle Edgerunner or Surly Big Dummy. Make sure you ask for Ed.
DeleteLook at the Bike Doctor--they usually have Yuba Boda Bodas & Mundos in stock. I'm not actually sure who else sells midtails in Vancouver. If you want to try them & be able to compare right next to each other, come to our Vancouver Family Biking Ride on the 27th--there will likely be a variety of longtails there & probably one midtail or more. We meet up about a half hour before riding so we have time to talk & do things like test ride each other's bikes. :) Here's the FB event page for info: https://www.facebook.com/events/538904236268102/
ReplyDeleteIf that date doesn't work for you, email me & I can connect you with families that would let you test ride their bikes. I've got a list of a few so far. :)
Great! I will try and come on Sunday. My wife's away for a couple of days so looking for fun stuff to do with a four year old, plus it has the bonus of being bike related. I'll check out Bike Doctor. I know the place that used to be Dizzy on 4th has Yuba's too, and Dream Cycle has a Big Dummy build right now, but was looking for somewhere to check out an Edgerunner.
ReplyDeleteCurious to know how many YVR cargo families go electric? My wife is slightly less enthusiastic about biking up hills than me.
E-assist is pretty popular. Maybe half of the cargo bikes I can think of are e-assist? I'd suggest trying without it first. She might find she's stronger than she thinks. We got our Yuba Mundo with the intention of maybe adding assist later. I have osteoarthritis in my hip, but I can still get the kids &/or a Costco load up Ontario Street to 10th Ave. :)
DeleteAlso, I'm not sure that Ed has longtails on the floor at Mighty Riders, but I bet Tonya Louie, who got her BionX assist Big Dummy there, would let you try hers on the ride Sunday. There could likely be an Edgerunner there too. :)
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