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Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby jamesn184 » Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:10 pm
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby Venus62 » Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:26 pm
il padrone wrote:Classic knee-jerk reaction. Riding a bicycle on the roads is sooooo dangerous![]()
It may be a knee jerk reaction but while I'm prepared to risk my own safety, I would never forgive myself if something happened to the precious cargo within one of the carriages. To me it just isn't worth the risk, no matter how small.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby RonK » Tue Jan 01, 2013 5:48 pm
As the kids get older you may be able to share some interests, and eventually they grow up and branch out on their own.
Then you may rediscover some of your former interests, and you'll probably be able to afford to do them properly, but of course you will be accused of having a mid-life crisis.

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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby Venus62 » Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:02 pm
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby rkelsen » Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:36 pm
My eldest just turned 5 recently (school this year!

The other thing I do is to use my bike for running errands, emergency milk runs, etc.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby find_bruce » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:08 pm
Venus62 wrote:It may be a knee jerk reaction but while I'm prepared to risk my own safety, I would never forgive myself if something happened to the precious cargo within one of the carriages. To me it just isn't worth the risk, no matter how small.
While I understand the sentiment, it is a function of not recognising "normal" risks and overstating unusual risks.
You might think you are safe on the footpath - nope sorry, cars mount footpaths and kill children in prams & on foot. Perhaps they would be safer sitting in a solidly built brick child-care centre. Unfortunately cars have driven through the front walls and killed children.
The far more dangerous hidden dangers is is clearly demonstrated by the figures in Annual loss recorded: a year in the life death Of 143,473 deaths in Australia in 2010, 39 people died on bicycles, compared to 21,708 from coronary heart disease, 3,945 from heart disease, 221 from drowning, including 10 drowned in a bath.
Part of the distorted perception is what is newsworthy - 2 deaths by croc are newsworthy, 2,359 suicides are not.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby Venus62 » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:24 pm
find_bruce wrote:Venus62 wrote:It may be a knee jerk reaction but while I'm prepared to risk my own safety, I would never forgive myself if something happened to the precious cargo within one of the carriages. To me it just isn't worth the risk, no matter how small.
While I understand the sentiment, it is a function of not recognising "normal" risks and overstating unusual risks.
Yep, I completely understand. I have friends from overseas who will not swim in the ocean for fear of sharks... This is just my opinion on something I would not feel comfortable doing. I try to minimise avoidable risks when I can as long as it doesn't become a phobia.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby drubie » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:27 pm
but really, that's rubbish. We get none of it because the choices are illusory.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby il padrone » Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:50 pm
Venus62 wrote:il padrone wrote:Classic knee-jerk reaction. Riding a bicycle on the roads is sooooo dangerous![]()
It may be a knee jerk reaction but while I'm prepared to risk my own safety, I would never forgive myself if something happened to the precious cargo within one of the carriages. To me it just isn't worth the risk, no matter how small.
LIFE is a risk.
To deny taking calculated risk (yes, even taken on behalf of a child, as a good parent does.... must) is to deny life. Many, many (far too many) have taken on this 'parental paranoia' thing in the past 20 years and it is not doing our next generation any favours at all.
Venus62 wrote:To me it just isn't worth the risk, no matter how small.
So you don't take your kids out driving? Don't let them play team games like basketball, footy, rugby? Don't leave them in the care of other family members? OMGosh, how could you let them go off to school

On my part, I have included my children in our cycling activities, from the time they were safe to sit up in a trailer (about 10-12 months) and they have accompanied us on many tours - day-length and later on mutli-day camping tours. We have had no concerns about traffic risks, but of course we choose exactly where and when we ride to have the best experience. Today they are 19 and 21 years old. My son will be joining me on a 6 day tour through the Otways and Port Campbell coast starting on Thursday and he really enjoys his cycling. My daughter has her own life, but did complete a 19 day tour of Tasmania last summer. Our tours are all self-sustained BTW, no support cars.
"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby booge » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:13 pm
Anyway, the forums are good for us all to vent!
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby Venus62 » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:36 pm
il padrone wrote:So you don't take your kids out driving? Don't let them play team games like basketball, footy, rugby? Don't leave them in the care of other family members? OMGosh, how could you let them go off to schoolRisks are everywhere..... just isn't worth the risk no matter how small ???
You are clearly taking this very personally. I can assure you I am not a "helicopter" parent. In MY case, MY decision NOT to place my child in a carriage behind a bicycle on the road did not effect either my nor their quality of life. If you feel differently, good for you.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby ozstriker » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:42 pm
I'm the proud dad of a one yr old, and don't find it all that difficult to find time, and find it pretty unreasonable for people to give up there interests just because they have children, getting roasted by the wife for going out for a few hours on the weekend is ridiculous.
My tips wait until kiddies go to bed jump on the trainer round 8, most of us own lights so just go out anyway, get up early...
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby il padrone » Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:56 pm
Venus62 wrote:il padrone wrote:So you don't take your kids out driving? Don't let them play team games like basketball, footy, rugby? Don't leave them in the care of other family members? OMGosh, how could you let them go off to schoolRisks are everywhere..... just isn't worth the risk no matter how small ???
You are clearly taking this very personally.
Not personal at all. I've just observed, over the life of my children, the withdrawal of kids from the streets all over our suburbs. We were at least lucky enough that we had a trailer in the early days of their introduction to the market, before any bureaucratic restrictions were applied. Still waiting for the time when ideas as you espouse lead to them being banned

I made a choice about my kids and our cycling (my wife is a keen cyclist too), when on a Great Melbourne Bike Ride (10,000 rider mass day ride) a lady riding near me, at slow speed (<15kmh) hooked a tram track and fell off. She was fine, stepped off the bike, but her son in the kiddy-seat was not. The bike fell and his head crashed onto the pavement. He had a helmet on so was OK, but screamed from the shock nonetheless. I decided that kiddy-seats were just 'not worth the risk' - MY decision - so our choice for including the kids in cycling was going to be a trailer.
We used the trailer with care, but you have to ride on roads, even when there is a bike path down the street. In use I soon discovered that it stands out to drivers like dog's balls and we never had any concerns about placing the kids in it. Talking of the kids being a bumper to traffic is just simple scare-mongering - please don't do it. Talk of 'risks' and 'no risk no matter how small' is just ignoring the risk in the rest of the life we live.
As I said, just describing my POV. No personal grief involved

"An unjustified and unethical imposition on a healthy activity."
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby jacks1071 » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:04 am
booge wrote:This will apply to any dads on here. What tips/advice can you give on getting more bike time with a baby in the house? Ours is 10months now, hardly ride now as we're more time poor, doesn't help that I'm also a shift worker. With the good weather it's killing me seeing people out for their ride!
Baby sittings never been so much fun:

http://www.chariotcarriers.com.au/
Baby needs to be strong enough to hold their head up which for my kids was around 12 months. Kids pretty much fall asleep in the back pretty quick. Its pretty rare I've had to pull up with a crying baby.
Looks like the price has come down a lot, I paid over $2k for my CX-2 about 4-5 years ago.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby _mike_ » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:34 am

Since i cant commute to work i dont get a week day ride in since my wife went back to work. I bought a stationary trainer (jetblack fluid z1) and use that once or twice during the week. It hurts / boring / and makes you sweat a lot but its a good workout. There's better alternatives out there but it does the job.
Hope this helps
Mike
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby iaintas » Wed Jan 02, 2013 6:10 am
On my early shift i wake up at 0500 and park a bit closer to work but then ride the long route so this gives me a 60km round trip and doesn't impact my travel time by much (as by the time i drive through traffic and park and then walk to work it only ads about 15min each way). In summary i get up early ride in poor weather when i need to and make sure my wife is allowed time to either have a sleep or do her own thing for at least an hour or two a day. Enjoy your new family member!

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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby tubby74 » Fri Jan 04, 2013 5:51 pm
Mtb time can be harder to arrange, tht either up before dawn on a weekend to be home by 930 or I'll get ahead in my work, pull some late nights and then give myself the day off.
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby skull » Fri Jan 04, 2013 6:26 pm
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby Joltman » Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:04 am
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Re: Advice on getting more km's with baby in the house
Postby warthog1 » Mon Jan 07, 2013 3:37 pm
booge wrote:I commute about 2-3 times per week when I'm working a morning shift, but it's only a 16km round trip.
Does it have to be just a 16km round trip though? I change my route so that it takes an hour for a day shift and 1.5 hrs to work on a night shift. I have plenty of routes worked out so that I can change it up as required.
The commute option is the best solution I reckon so long as you can change the route and have shower facilities.
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