St. Paul Classic Bike Tour – by Cargo Bike!

We rode the 30 mile St. Paul Classic Bike Tour in September, 2021. It was soooo fun! I encourage any family with a cargo to sign up for the Tour!

One obstacle for us in choosing to participate was that we do not currently have a way to haul our bike, and I didn’t think our battery range – nor my fitness level – would make it the 30 miles PLUS an additional 12 miles biking up to the Como Park registration area and back home at the end. So in the end I drove up to Como to pick up registration materials, went home and grabbed kids and bike, and we joined the route near the first rest stop. This worked slick. Plus we got a quick snack in the beginning.

We relied mightily on our electric and I was overjoyed to have it. The kids saw parts of St. Paul they hadn’t seen in a long time – if ever! I was pleased to experience some new trails that were really nice, especially Johnson Parkway and the new Como Ave. trail. And, there were other areas that definitely need some updating.

We carried along and ended up at Como Park for the dancing and booths, then we completed the remainder of the route on our own as we rode home. So we ended up riding the whole route, just not completely in tandem with the rest of the riders.

Another lesson learned – bring an extension cord! We found an outlet on the outside of the building at the Como pavilion, and it was a teensy bit tight to get the bike sidled up to it to use the charger, which thankfully I had brought because I guess I used the electric at pretty max capacity and would not have made it all 27.62 miles without a short top up before we rode the last 6 miles home (we must have cut off a few at the end, but I’ll call it close enough. 🙂 )

We had so much fun and plan to do it again next year. Maybe by then we’ll have a supplemental individual adult electric bike so hubby can join in as well. 🙂

How about you? Have you done any special events on your cargo bike, especially ones not specifically billed as cargo events? Or ones that are? I’d love to hear about it!

Sign up for our mailing list to get tips, news, and to hear when our Choosing the Right Cargo Bike for Your Family course opens!