I live in Berkeley.  I am a mother.  It’s a simple equation really.  I am a Berkeley mom.  We’re a thing, apparently.  I had known about it on a low level, but something another mom said yesterday made me Google it.  Apparently there is a whole blog dedicated to cherishing/mocking Berkeley moms, Your Mom Is So Berkeley.

The brief conversation with the other mom happened outside of my younger son’s preschool.  There are three bike racks and a handful of street signs to which you can typically find an assortment of adult and children’s bikes attached.  Yesterday the three racks were all filled with family bikes.  Think this:

Only parked.   With multiple children crawling all around.   Xtracycle has been making cargo bikes for a decade or so, but they really seem to have nailed it with their latest model, the Edgerunner.   You see them all over town.

Still, to see three outside of one preschool was notable.  All three were the newer model (bikes and moms both).  I, older model (bike and mom both), hooked up next to a street sign.

I smiled and commented on the sight of all three of the bikes.  She chuckled and said that when someone asks her what kind of bike she rides she just says, “Oh, you know, the Berkeley Mom bike,”  and everyone knows what she means.

Apparently, Berkeley moms are recognizable by their bikeware, now.

I have been riding my kid(s) around via bike for 9 years.  First with a trailer, and then when Xtracycle came out with their Radish, I converted to a cargo bike.  I’ve upgraded a few pieces along the way, including adding the Hooptie (the guard rails) a couple of years ago, but admittedly my first generation bike is showing its age: the faded homemade child’s seat (fashioned from an old jogging stroller), the cracks in the extra wide seat, the chipped paint and the rusty fenders.  Most days, I am torn between being embarrassed and being proud.

One thing I’ve noticed about the newer generation of family bikers is that they don’t ring their bell with you.  The protocol when you pass another cargo bike or family bike is to ring your bell, and they ding you back.  It is a statement of solidarity.

Maybe no one told them this.  Perhaps these newer models are self-sufficient.