Welcome to the Two Wheel Family!

Hello everyone!

Since this is my first post on Two Wheel Family, I want to introduce myself and tell you a little about the origins of this blog. I'm the mother of 5 year old twins living in San Francisco, and my husband and I try to incorporate bicycling into our lives as much as possible. Biking for us is more than just way to get around.... for us it's a statement about health, about the environment, and about our belief that cars should not be the focus of our cities. We still own a car (we're not THAT hard core) but we want our children to share our values about health and biking as well.

Even though San Francisco is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, city biking with a family is sometimes dangerous and often logistically challenging. The dangerous part is probably obvious to everyone (and I won't try to convince you otherwise about biking in a major city). But the sheer difficulty of moving a family around by bike may not be clear until you try it. Every age in children's lives requires different bicycle options: bike seats for babies, trailers for toddlers, tagalongs for school-age kids, and finally biking on their own two wheels. There are also a lot of safety issues to consider, including knowing what your child is ready for (and what s/he is capable of on a given day), what routes to choose, how to cross streets, sidewalk vs. street riding, and on and on. Getting the right gear and an understanding of best practices is the only way to keep your children safe and the ride enjoyable.

A while ago my husband and I came up with a fairly original solution to transporting out kids to preschool, and I can't count the number of times people have commented on our bike or asked where they could buy one like it. Furthermore, I have had numerous conversations with other parents sharing tips and strategies for safe biking with a family. In this blog I hope to chronicle my family's bicycle solutions and adventures, as well as showcase how other families are getting it done. Hopefully I can help the scores of daring folks who are trying to encourage family biking.

Keep the rubber side down-
dani