Bikey T-shirts & More at Dark Cycle Clothing

My Dark Cycle Grizzly tee

If you've ever read anything on this blog, I'm sure you know that I love cycling & kind of have a bike t-shirt problem. I think N+1 applies to bikey tees because I can go for more than a week without having to do laundry & I'll still have clean bike t-shirts to wear. Heh.

However, most of my cycling themed shirts are from HUB Cycling, sort of a suggested work uniform (I use the term very loosely here). It's great to have a job where I can wear comfy clothes & not have to worry about conforming to business casual, or worse, wearing--ack--pantyhose! But, some of my work tshirts are, well, a bit logo-ey, even slightly dorky. So I'm always on the lookout for cycling themed shirts that feature cool art, or something that's just a little weird.

I was introduced to Dark Cycle Clothing by my friend Anny, who started up a group of riders called Team Mama Bear, in Seattle. This shirt that you see me wearing in the image on the right is their unofficial uniform, & she gave me one when we visited her last year. I love the drawing & can relate to this bear so much. DO NOT MESS WITH A MAMA BEAR, amirite, ladies?!?

The kids' Dark Cycles tees: tabby & axolotl, front & back

When I went to take a look at Dark Cycle's website, I was blown away by the huge variety of animals on bikes that you can get on a t-shirt or sticker. & not just your run-of-the-mill ordinary common animals, like cats & dogs & bears. They've got OVER 75 different creatures on t-shirts, including such things as pangolins, pelicans, & platypus.

Not too long ago, I entered an Instagram contest & won a sticker from Dark Cycles, so when I went to their site to claim my prize, I also bought shirts for the kids. I chose a tabby on a bike for Bronte & an axolotl on a bike for Linnaeus.

The shirts arrived soon after, & they fit my skinny kids well. 5.5-year-old B is in a size 6, 8.5-year-old L is in a youth medium. The fabric is a cotton blend, super soft & the print is made with a lightweight ink, which means it's also nice & soft, not plasticky. Once the kids got them on, I noticed a little bonus: Dark Cycle prints their logo on the upper back of the t-shirt in reflective ink. Makes the kids just a wee bit more visible on warm summer nights. :)

Unicorn on a bike sticker!

Fast forward to this summer & I heard Dark Cycle was starting an affiliate program, so of course I signed up! So, if you're thinking about picking up a bikey t-shirt for back to school season or a gift or just for you, because you need to have a unicorn on a bike on your chest... if you use my affiliate link, I'll get a wee commission & you'll be helping to support my blog. Thanks!

If you don't need a t-shirt or a sticker, Dark Cycle also makes housewares like hats, mugs, pillows, & trivets. So you could geek out your entire home with weird animals on bikes on stuff!

If you really do need t-shirts, you could also consider their t-shirt subscription--the more months you sign up for with Shirt of the Month Club, the more you save.



Disclaimer: As an affiliate for Dark Cycle Clothing, I receive a small commission if you make a purchase via my affiliate links in the above post. Thanks for supporting Spokesmama!

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Vancouver Christmas Market 2018 Tips

Bring a little European flavour to your holiday season at the Vancouver Christmas Market. If you've still got a long way to go on your Christmas list, shopping at the market is so much more enjoyable than the mall. Who wouldn't love being able to sip hot mulled wine--aka Glühwein or the brandy-spiked version, Feuerzangenbowle--while you peruse the shops??

Here are my top tips for this year's Vancouver Christmas Market:

1. Ich bin ein Berliner! If you're a bit peckish, don't pass by the Berliners at the Schnappsl Kaffee Haus. These beautiful jelly doughnuts are fluffy, not too sweet, but still crammed with a good amount of delicious strawberry or apricot jam so you get a little in every bite. 
2. Oh the weather outside is frightful... If the weather is a bit wet or cold when you go, remember there's the Alpine Lounge: a large heated & covered area at the north end of the market with benches & tables where you can warm up a bit with hot drinks & a wurst or some raclette.
3. FREE fun for the whole family. If you're bringing kids with you, bring them to the new heated Kinder Kraft Igloo for them to make snowflakes, decorations & colour to their heart's content, as well as a scavenger hunt activity which earns a free carousel ride if you get all the stamps! 
4. Selfie your heart out! If you're an Instagram addict, be sure to charge your phone ahead of time--there are tonnes of great spots for photos all throughout the market, inside the huge walk-in Christmas tree & the tunnel of lights. There are lights & decorations everywhere you look--it's honestly hard to find a spot without a cute seasonal backdrop. 
5. Getting there. I recommend taking transit or biking to the market, though pay parking is easily available in nearby lots. The market is close to Burrard & Waterfront Skytrain stations, as well as bus routes 22, 19 & anything that goes down Granville to Hastings. Biking to the market is easy--the seawall connects with it from the west, or the Hornby protected bike lane from the south (with a jog at Hastings over to the lane on Burrard) There is well-lit bike parking outside the busy lobby of the Shaw Tower across the street from the Vancouver Christmas Market.

The Vancouver Christmas Market is open daily from 11:30am to 9:30pm until December 23, then 11:30am to 6pm on December 24. It's located at Jack Poole Plaza, 1055 Canada Place (home of the Olympic Cauldron) in beautiful downtown Vancouver. Admission is $5-10 per person, which gets you a season's pass, so you can go back again for free!


Disclaimer: I received free admission, drink, & food at the family media night to facilitate this review. I was not otherwise compensated for writing this review.

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Where to Buy a Cargo Bike in Vancouver

Cargo bike party outside Velo Star Cafe!

If you're looking to buy a cargo bike in Vancouver, the options are getting bettter & better. But, there's no one stop shop to test ride different brands. Quite a few brands of cargo bike, like our Bakfiets, aren't even sold here in brick & mortar stores--your only option is buying online.

Until we get a great family & cargo biking shop (like Seattle's G&O Cyclery) here in Vancouver, you'll have to pound the pavement a bit.

In the interests of making that easier for you, I've updated my list of bike shops that sell cargo bikes here in Vancouver. There are a few disappearances from my previous list--Grin Technologies has stopped carrying complete cargo bikes & is focussing on adding electric assist, or regular e-bikes. Dandy Lion Cargo has also stopped selling Bullitts, & Phil from Metrofiets has stopped building his gorgeous long johns.

Cit-E-Cycles 3466 West Broadway Vancouver 604-734-2717
Riese & Mueller Load; Tern GSD; Benno Boost
Their Surrey location has Pedego cargo bikes on the floor to test ride as well. Read about the daily school dropoff run on an electric Pedego Stretch by Lee-Anne Ekland on Mom Pardigm.

Dream Cycle 1010 Commercial Drive Vancouver 604-253-3737
Surly Big Dummy; Bilenky custom longjohn
Dream focuses on custom bikes, but they do sell Surly longtails--they usually don't have a floor model, so give them a call if you're hoping for a test ride.

Mac Talla Cycles 2626 East Hastings Vancouver 604-707-0822
Babboe
Mac Talla has no floor models available for test rides, you can order Babboe through them.

Mighty Riders 10 East Broadway Vancouver 604-879-8705
Surly Big Dummy; Xtracycle Edgerunner
Ed generally has both bikes in stock for test rides, but call ahead to make sure they're ready for a test ride.

Rad Power Bikes 3296 E 29th Avenue Vancouver 1-800-939-0310
Rad Power ebikes
Note that you can test ride bikes at this location, but they are currently not offering ebike purchases from the Vancouver retail store. All ebike purchases must be made online.

Reckless Bike Stores 110 Davie Street Vancouver 604-648-2600
Babboe City; Urban Arrow
Reckless has two locations, but the Davie Street location has Babboe & Urban Arrow on the floor.

Sidesaddle Bikes 2496 Victoria Drive Vancouver 604-428-2453
Bike Friday Haul A Day, Yuba Spicy Curry, can order Tern & Surly
Andrea opened Sidesaddle specifically as a women-friendly shop. They have at least one Haul A Day & a Spicy Curry available for test rides. I posted about the shop not long after they opened.

Velo Star Cafe 3195 Heather Street Vancouver 604-376-8223
CETMA; Douze Cargo; Yuba various models; Bullitt; Triobike; Bike Friday; custom longtails
Velo Star carries the widest variety of brands of cargobike... but the small shop doesn't have room for floor models. Owner Clint's personal CETMA is  available for test rides most days--call ahead to be sure it's at the shop. Here's a short review I wrote after borrowing Clint's CETMA for an afternoon.

Pro tip: this is where we go for service on all our bikes--the mechanics here really know & love cargo bikes.

UPDATE: (January 2019) Tandem Bike Cafe has been renamed & is currently undergoing renovations but is still doing bike repair & sales. 

That about wraps up my updates to the list. Please let me know if you know of other cargo bike selling shops in the city that I've missed!

Disclaimer: I was not compensated in any way to list these bike shops & have no affiliation with them, other than being friends with Clint from Tandem. The above information is correct as of the writing of this post & opinions above are my own, as always.

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Eating My Way Through the Vancouver Christmas Market

Christmas is just a month away, so it's time again to eat, drink & be merry at Vancouver's Christmas Market!

This year's market returns to Jack Poole Plaza, home of the Olympic Cauldron next to Vancouver Convention Centre West. This year's Christmas market is bigger & tastier than ever with more than 55,000 square feet of space, live entertainment, & new hands-on activities for children around the market.

For more info on the market with kids, see 6 Things To Do With Kids at the Vancouver Christmas Market.

For our household, going to the Vancouver Christmas Market has been an annual tradition since the start back in 2010. For Oliver, aka Spokespapa, it's a way to share a wee bit of his German heritage with the kids.

It's also one of the few events in the city where you can order an alcoholic beverage & wander around drinking & shopping. If you drink alcohol, don't miss out on the Feuerzangenbowle, which is basically hot, mulled wine spiked with a shot of extra brandy. For the kids & non-drinkers, check out the hot apple cider from Das Apfelhaus.

Last week I got the chance to try out many of the Vancouver Christmas Market's culinary delights & I have to say, I left completely stuffed. There's a lot of fabulous (read: meat-centred) traditional European fare on offer, but there's also many vegetarian & vegan options as well.


I pretty much ate one or two of everything in sight, so here are my highlights:

Gulasch

Das Gulasch Haus serves delish Hungarian gulasch in a bread bowl, with both beef & vegan options of this European comfort food available. 

Mushroom soup

At Taste the Wild I had a sample of their wild mushroom soup. Creamy & packed with tender mushrooms, I really wished I had room in my belly for more. They also sell a wide variety of dried mushroom products so you can make your own at home.

Raclette

I don't know how I managed to get to this point in my life never having tried raclette, but now that I have, I'll be back to Cheese Me Raclette. This is a typical Swiss dish, essentially melted cheese scraped from a wheel onto potatoes, served with pickles & pepper on the side. Great for a damp, Vancouver evening!

Bratwurst

To me, nothing screams traditional German street food like a big sausage on a little bun (with sauerkraut, of course!). Head over to Freybe Brat Haus for a meaty delight with just enough bread to keep your fingers clean, as the Germans do it.

Chimney Cake eating technique

Pretzels 

Okay, maybe it's a tie for The Most German Street Food: pretzels! Pretzel Haus serves up warm, chewy, face-sized Pretzels, which are something we always get at the market. Get some mustard on the side for dipping for an authentic snack.

Chimney Cake

Last but definitely not least, I had seen the Transylvanian Bakery Chimney Cake before, but never tried one until this year. I was definitely missing out. a long strip of soft dough, wrapped around a wooden roller, rolled in sugar, then baked to caramelize the outside, then sprinkled with coconut or walnut. It's a great treat to share--take turns peeling strips off to eat, or eat it straight off your arm, a la Bronte.


The Vancouver Christmas Market is on til December 24 at Jack Poole Plaza, next to the Vancouver Convention Centre, surrounding the Olympic Cauldron. It's easy to reach by transit--near Waterfront Station & the #19 bus route. Biking there is a cinch as well--the seawall & the Hornby bike route lead there. There isn't any additional bike parking for the event, but you can generally find a rack nearby at the convention centre, or the office building across the street. Tickets are $5-10, free for kids under six years old.

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New Bike Day: Kid Edition

It wasn't that long ago that Linnaeus learned to ride his green 16" Norco bike without training wheels, but he's already too big for it. He's had it over two years, so that's not bad in terms of longevity. It's also a single speed with coaster brakes, which is okay for learning to ride, but inadequate for commuting 4km uphill to school. So I started looking for a decent 20" commuter bike for him.

My wish list included:

• front & rear hand brakes
• fenders
• rear rack
• short reach brake levers
• internal gear hub with at least three speeds
• easy to shift grip shifters
• light frame
• dynamo lights

There are a few companies in Europe that make great kids bikes with all of the above--the German company Puky, for example--but getting one to Canada is difficult & expensive. Woom & Islabikes--both American--make some fantastic models for kids that tick most of the boxes on my wish list, but they're also quite expensive given the exchange rate & shipping.

The next best option seemed to be to get a decent light frame bike & modify it to add as many of the above features as possible. I settled on a Trek Precalibur single speed. It's fairly light, comes with front & rear hand brakes. The brake levers on it have an adjustable reach & Linnaeus can use them easily. The cranks actually have two positions for the pedals to allow for more adjustment as his legs grow. I like the full chain case too so we don't have to worry about his pant legs getting grease stains or getting caught in the chain.

Trek makes several versions of the Precalibur, but the horizontal dropouts on the single speed model we bought mean we can easily adjust chain tension by moving the rear wheel back or forward, so we can add an internal gear hub. Fenders shouldn't be too bad to find in this size & hopefully we can work out a way to attach a rear rack without having any eyelets on the rear of the frame.

It looks as if Trek is phasing out this particular version of the Precalibur, so we had to hunt a bit to find a dealer with one in stock. We picked up the bike from Cap's Westwood in Burnaby on our way home from a trip to Maplewood Farm recently (with a Modo minivan). Linny tried it out in the parking lot & I have to say, I'm glad we didn't bike train bike home with it, like I was originally planning. He rode straight into a curb & nearly crashed because he has no experience with hand brakes & tried to backpedal to stop. Happy to have the option of booking a Modo minivan whenever we need to transport things like this.

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Where can you buy a cargo bike in Vancouver?

Tandem Bike Cafe, one of a growing number of cargo bike dealers in Vancouver

EDIT: The cargo bike market in Vancouver has shifted a bit, & a few of the players are out of the game, so I've written an updated post on Where you can get a cargo bike in Vancouver here.

If you're looking to buy a cargo bike in Vancouver, there's no one stop shop to test ride different brands. Quite a few brands of cargo bike, like our Bakfiets, aren't even sold here in brick & mortar stores--your only option is buying online. Until we get a great family & cargo biking shop (like Seattle's G&O Cyclery) here in Vancouver, you'll have to pound the pavement a bit.

In the interests of making that easier for you, I've compiled a list of bike shops that sell cargo bikes here in Greater Vancouver.

Cit-E-Cycles 3466 West Broadway Vancouver 604-734-2717
Pedego Stretch, Juiced Riders ODK 
Read about the daily school dropoff run on an electric Pedego Stretch by Lee-Anne Ekland on Mom Pardigm.

Dandy Lion Cargo  1793 West 61st Avenue Vancouver 604-355-1898
Larry vs. Harry Bullitt
Jordon & Amy sell out of their home--you'll need to call to make an appointment to test ride their bike.

Dream Cycle 1010 Commercial Drive Vancouver 604-253-3737
Surly Big Dummy
Dream focuses on custome bikes, but they do sells Surly longtails--they may not have a floor model, so give them a call if you're hoping for a test ride.

Grin Technologies 205-950 Powell Street Vancouver 604-569-0902
Xtracycle Edgerunner, Ezee Expedir, Juiced ODK
Grin specializes in e-assist, so all their cargo bikes are electric assist models.

Mac Talla Cycles 2626 East Hastings Vancouver 604-707-0822
Kona Ute, Yuba?, Babboe?
Mac Talla didn't have any floor models available for test rides last time I was in--call ahead to ask.

Mighty Riders 10 East Broadway Vancouver 604-879-8705
Surly Big Dummy; Xtracycle Edgerunner
Ed generally has Xtracycles on the floor for test rides, Surlys might need to be ordered.

More Bikes 1856 West 4th Avenue Vancouver 778-379-9168
Yuba Boda Boda
More Bikes also has a location in Wesbrook Village at UBC.

Reckless Bike Stores 110 Davie Street Vancouver 604-648-2600
Babboe Big & Babboe City
Reckless has three locations downtown & in Kitsilano, the Davie Street location has Babboe on the floor.

Sidesaddle Bikes 2496 Victoria Drive Vancouver 604-428-2453
Bike Friday Haul A Day 
Andrea & Lucas opened Sidesaddle specifically as a women-friendly shop. They have at least one Haul A Day available for test rides. I posted about the shop not long after they opened.

Tandem 3195 Heather Street Vancouver 604-376-8223
CETMA; Metrofiets; custom longtails
Clint's personal Metrofiets & CETMAs are available for test rides most days--call ahead to be sure they're at the shop. This is where we go for service on our bikes--the mechanics here really know & love cargo bikes. Here's a short review I wrote after borrowing Clint's CETMA for an afternoon.

The Bike Doctor  137 West Broadway Vancouver  604-873-2453
Babboe City Cargo; Wike Cargo Box; Yuba Mundo, Boda Boda, Spicy Curry
Bike Doctor usually has a floor model of most of their cargo bikes available to test ride. We bought our Yuba Mundo there in 2014--you can read much more on that on my cargo bike FAQ page.

That about wraps up my list. Please let me know if you know of other cargo bike selling shops in the city that I've missed!

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