Trail Report - 5/29/10 - East Bay Bike Path - Barrington to Bristol - RI

From Patrick...

- Trailhead: My driveway
- Riders: Patrick & Ruby (when she WAS pedaling)
- Passengers: Ruby (when she WASN'T!!!) & Piper
- Distance: ?
- Weather: beautiful
- Temp: HOT
- Trail Conditions: mostly smooth pavement
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: 1 whoops for Piper when her trailer got pinned up against a curb.

Notes: I'm not sure whether my handle should be YMMB (young man of the mountain bike) or COTOB (chip off the old block), so I'll write this report in the first person...

After months of deliberation and pleading from the people who are less than 4 feet tall, I decided to make a triple whammy of the kids' bike attachments. 

It went something like this...

Kids trailer for Piper (age 4) connected to...
Tow behind bike for Ruby (age 8) connected to...
Trek single speed Cruiser Classic for me (age younger than OMMB).
So helmets strapped on the kids and water bottles filled to the brim, we started our adventure.
The ride started out uphill. OOOF!  Ruby earned her keep, pedaling just as hard as me to pull her kid sister up Cherry Lane.

The next concern was whether I had enough braking power to stop this caravan as we barreled downhill on Upland Way towards the safe pasture of the bike path. (only coaster brakes on this puppy and no brakes on either of the kids' attachments) I'm writing this report with no bumps or bruises and all children accounted for, so as you can see, the brakes worked.  Once onto the bike path, the only concern was avoiding as many bumps as possible as they transfer all the way down to the caboose. I'd yell. "BUMP!" and the next thing you'd hear was an "UGH!" from Ruby and then you had to wait for the next outburst as it would be one of two things... a "WHOA! / OW!" from Pip or an explosion of "Piper Laughter". If you've heard it before, you know exactly what I'm talking about. LOL!  After a quick stop at Grandad's house (OMMB) to snap this pic and prove that we actually made this crazy trip, we were off to spend the rest of the afternoon in the park in Bristol. Impending thunderstorms (and my burnt out legs) forced us to postpone our ride home and the caravan was dropped off at my in-laws house in Bristol. Consolation for the lack of ride home was a family dinner at Aidan's and a dry car ride home with Mrs. YMMB.  All in all, it was a great maiden voyage of the Patrick-Ruby-Piper tandem +1 (what do you call a bicycle built for THREE?!?!). We'll definitely do it again.

Patrick...