bikelovejones

As you know, dear readers, I currently own three bikes, two of which I use all the time. The third bike is an ATB which has not been serving me well, largely due to the relationship between the saddle fore/aft setting and the placement of the cranks.
While I have often contemplated finding a new home for this bike there is something which stops me cold each time.

Today it was the consideration of cargo-hauling.

This morning Sweetie and I made our triennial pilgrimage to Overlook Park for the Metro Plastics Recycling Roundup. Three times a year, Metro Master Recyclers staff a parking lot where Portlanders can bring the plastics recycleables that currently cannot be taken curbside. As we have gotten good at both sorting the plastics we use AND at getting away with purchasing fewer items packaged in plastic, the amount of plastic we bring each season has grown slightly smaller. Today's load, with some judicious bungee-cording, might have fit in my Burley trailer. Indeed, I noted two bicycle-riders with trailers in tow, piled high with recycleables; and declared to Sweetie that next time I really wanted to take it all in the trailer. She nodded her assent and that was the end of the discussion.

Back at home, while storing something in the shed, I saw the Peugeot, hanging forlorn in the corner and waiting for me to Do Something Real with it. A handlebar and stem change and some additional tweaking with the saddle position MIGHT solve the fit issues enough for me to keep the bike, but why would I do that? I have an upright bike and a drop-bar bike and most days that seems like all the bikes I really need.

But if I could put an Xtracycle on the back of the Peugeot... Well, I could sell the Burley trailer and still have cargo-hauling capacity on those occasions when I need it.
Only thing is, when do I really need to haul cargo? And if I swapped the trailer for an Xtracycle, would I find more reasons to haul cargo this way than I do with the trailer? The truth is that I use the trailer less than three times a year now. Originally purchased when Sweetie and I were trying to have a baby, it now hangs in the shed as a silent reminder -- to me, anyway -- of our inability to acheive parenthood. Why would I want to hang onto it at this point?

What's really at issue here is how often I want to use the bike as a beast of burden. Riding a "normal" bike gives me the option of tossing it on transit, something I've needed to do quite a lot this winter and spring as the weather and my allergies have wreaked havoc. Converting a regular bike into an Xtracycle is a commitment to Ride The Whole Way There, And Back Again, anytime I take the thing out. By selling off the Burley trailer I would certainly clear out some (enough?) space in which to store an Xtracycle, since I wouldn't be able to hang it up. I'd have to work on it in the yard, because it wouldn't fit on the repair stand inside the shed. So then the question becomes, do I have room in my physical life for one of these things? And so far, the answer seems to be a qualified Maybe, which isn't enough of an answer for me to take the step just now.

But still, it's pretty darned appealing...