A bike built for me!

No one has ever built a bike for me. I've never built a bike for me!

I've owned mountain bikes and road bikes, new bikes and old bikes. This one is the best one I've ever rode!

I've been struggling with the whole mommy-bike stage of my life. Two summers ago I put an iBert on my road bike (front carry baby seat), which worked fine while Lilly was little. Last summer I bought a 3 speed ladies' Schwinn, which was even better with the iBert and was step-through, but Lilly was growing out of it. That bike weighs a TON and the shifting is pretty much non-existent. At the end of the summer we tried putting a seatpost mounted Yepp (a version of the orange seat we are using now) on my bike... and it was a disaster. So incredibly unstable, and it made a heavy bike just impossibly heavy. We sent it back.

David built it from a trek frame he built on Ebay. It is amazingly light... well, when the Yepp is not mounted, and especially when Lilly is not in it! The shifting is totally smooth, with a great granny gear. It has a great back track (to carry the Yepp) and a great front rack. And it looks totally cool!

It is an incredible hill climbing bike. When Lilly isn't on it, I can climb up a steep windy road to Cornell sitting down, not even using the granny gear the whole way. On my road bike I almost always have to stand to get up this hill. When I have Lilly on it I can still make it, with liberal use of the granny gear!

David says it climbs so well because of the geometry of the frame, long chainstay, 26 inch wheels and special times that helpe maintain the momentum. I wouldn't have believed it was possible, but it is!