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Cargo Bike Ride in memory of Val Kleitz (VIDEO)


The Labor Day Cargo Bike Ride in memory of Val Kleitz was an incredible showing of bicycle engineering, creativity, utility and fun. People from many different bicycle scenes riding bikes designed for many different purposes all came out to honor the Seattle bike legend who passed away in early August.

Friends brought a cardboard cutout of Val along for the ride, and Val’s legendary Xtracycle bike — the Dread Nought — was ridden by Val’s widow Connie.

The ride started at 20/20 Cycles at 21st and Union and went through Capitol Hill, down to the University District and finally to Ravenna Park, making a scene the whole way. Here’s the group swarming the Dick’s on Broadway:


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The video above was shot by Russ from the Path Less Pedaled. Russ interviewed Kent from Kent’s Bike Blog, who also wrote about the ride.

I shot some video as well, which I slapped together here:

Any other posts from the ride out there that I missed? Leave links in the comments below.


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6 responses to “Cargo Bike Ride in memory of Val Kleitz (VIDEO)”

  1. Andres

    On the topic of cargo bikes.. Does anyone have suggestions for where to pick some up locally, and what they’ve used for hauling (youngish) kids around? My wife’s expecting, and I’d love to be able to find a nice slow (dutch-style?) cargo bike that would both take a child safety seat, and be suitable for safely transporting a toddler when the kid is older. I’m not interested in trailers.

  2. Leya

    Hi Andres –

    I have a Madsen that I LOVE for hauling our 1.5 and 4.5 year old kids. There’s a great blog/website that goes into great detail about schlepping your kids around town in style (in other words, on two wheels) – http://totcycle.com/

    Happy riding.

  3. Hi Andres –
    I’m the totcycle guy. Come on over and poke around, but don’t miss these:
    http://totcycle.com/blog/family-biking-ages-stages.html
    http://totcycle.com/blog/baby-on-a-bicycle.html
    http://totcycle.com/blog/why-we-ride.html

    Local stores to visit include:
    Aaron’s Bike Repair (xtracycle, mundo, etc)
    Dutch Bike Seattle (bakfiets, Yepp seats)
    JRA Bikes in Ballard (xtracycle, Sun atlas cargo, mundo, and an old christiania that needs work)

    Or head down to Portland to drool and demo at Clever Cycles, Splendid Cycles and Joe-Bike, which have a lot more options to try (Bullitt, trikes, Joe-Bike bakfiets, Metrofiets, etc).

    If I ever get my blogging/Kidical Mass self back together then come on a KM ride, but until then check out Morgan’s Family Bike Expo next weekend at the Moving Planet thing at SLU Park. Great info and demo’s there.

    Good luck!

    1. Andres

      Thanks for all the great info, everyone!

  4. Hi Andres — I’ll second the motion of Julian at Totcycle (http://totcycle.com) being *the* place (local or not) for info about riding with really small children. Lots of inspiration, wisdom, and gear reviews. Maddie at Family Ride (http://familyride.wordpress.com/) is also super enthusiastic about getting out there all year ’round.

    I can’t help you much with young kids — ours started on the Xtracycle at 3-1/2 and 5-1/2. Once you get to that point feel free to pop over to our blog and learn from our mistakes ;-)

    FWIW, we’re big Xtracycle/Big Dummy fans. They’ve got all sorts of great seat and carrier options these days. One advantage of the Xtracycle long bike over many of the other cargo bikes is that they ride like a normal bike. I ride mine daily, cargo or not. It’s great *always* having your cargo bike. I can do an impromptu kid pick up or drop off and not worry about either not having a trailer when I need it, or being stuck with it when I don’t. It’s also nice having a bike that’s enjoyable to ride — laden or empty. Something that can’t always be said of the “wider” cargo bikes.

    Though I have to admit, watching Julian tote his family on the Madsen made us realize it’s a pretty awesome option for toddlers — just plop them in (out of the weather) and go.

    Seattle proper is a little short on cargo/family-specific shops. We’ve got no one here the can touch complete package of community, knowledge, enthusiasm, and friendliness of something like Clever Cycles in Portland. However most of local shops can get just about any gear (and service anything you want) — and then just count on getting you tribal knowledge from the local family bike community.

    Holler if you’ve got other questions and I’m sure some of us family bikers can help.

  5. […] and Laura are no strangers to Seattle. Then again, they aren’t strangers to many places, considering they travel the world with […]

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