Somewhere around the last week of August, it happens. You walk out to the shed at 5pm and it’s not dark. The washing on the line actually dried. And the kids, who have spent two months migrating between the heater and the iPad, are suddenly feral in a way that no loungeroom can contain.
Spring is coming. And in our house, spring is when the cargo bike stops being transport and goes back to being the thing the whole week gets planned around.
The light comes back first
What spring really gives a riding family is the daylight, more than the warmth. Through winter, school pickup runs straight into dinner and the window for a ride just isn’t there. Come September that window creaks open, half an hour at first and then more, and by the time daylight saving arrives in early October there’s a whole second day bolted onto the afternoon.
That’s when the after-school detour comes back: the long way home past the park, or the quick lap that turns into an hour because somebody spotted a dog. None of it needs planning, because the bike is already out and the kids are already strapped in, so the detour costs you nothing except daylight you now have spare.
A word about magpies
There is one thing we should probably mention. Spring in Australia comes with air support.
If you’ve ridden anywhere near a nesting magpie in September you already know the drill. What you might not know until it happens is that the birds almost never bother the kids in the box, because it’s the adult on the back they’re interested in. So your children get a front row seat watching mum or dad duck and weave, entirely unbothered themselves and cackling the whole way. Consider it a core memory in the making.
The school run, take two
Term 4 is where the school run redeems itself. The same 850 metres that felt like a slog in July turns into the best fifteen minutes of the day come October, with no school car park to negotiate and no circling for a spot. You also arrive with kids who have already burned off the first layer of morning energy, which their teacher will quietly thank you for.
If you’ve been thinking about making the switch, spring is the season to start, because every ride between now and Christmas will talk you into keeping it up.
Weekends get bigger
This is the season the bike shows off. Farmers market runs where the box swallows the whole shop plus a bunch of flowers somebody insisted on, or the first beach trip of the year with towels and buckets and a boogie board strapped on and no sandy boot to vacuum out afterwards. Whale season starts along the coast about now too, and a lookout stop stops being a detour and becomes the destination.
The mid-drive motor is what turns all of that from a maybe into a yes, because the hills between your place and the good stuff stop being a reason to take the car.
Get the bike ready before the season gets busy
A bike that sat out most of winter deserves ten minutes of attention before spring starts asking a lot of it. Get the tyres back up to pressure, run a full charge cycle through the battery, check the brakes, and wipe and lube the chain.
If it’s been a while between services, book one now rather than in the October rush.
Thinking about joining in?
Spring is when most families take the leap, and the reason is a simple one: you get the whole warm half of the year as your first season with the bike. If you’re still weighing it up, our guide to electric cargo bikes walks through the differences between a front box, a longtail and a trishaw, and the bikes themselves are only a scroll away.
