You can still find those online,there are even a couple places that still have the 8spds. That price is a little high,although the bike has all the extra racks. You could always convert it to an 8 or even 11spd,the rear spacing is correct. Keep the 3spd hub for the husband for when his knees tell him to give up the SS.

sareybelle, I don't have any advice for you (looks like others have got you well taken care of though), I just want to say that just reading your post made me happy. How cool that, not only are you riding, but you're riding through pregnancy, and planning to ride with a baby! Too many would take the easy way out and just bail out to the car. I'm not saying you might not still need to use a car sometimes (check carefully about when it is OK for a baby's head/neck/spine to bounce around in a trailer), but in any case, Good on ya!

Been thinking about the safest way to bike transport an infant, and one of those cargo bikes (bakfiets or long john) with the bin low to the ground or a trailer with an infant carrier/car seat or equivalent secured in it seems like it would be the safest way. I know lots of people use the Topeak type seats and don't worry about the safety, but lots of people do lots of things.

I then went and searched for some articles to see how infants could be carried safely. Both that I found were fairly negative on it citing the bouncing not being good for them no matter how they were secured.
https://www.ibike.org/education/infant.htm
https://bikeportland.org/2009/08/24/c...oo-young-22374

I realize you can't avoid doing everything out of fear, but it appears to be a legitimate risk benefit analysis.

I agree with RubeRad though, bravo to you for your efforts.

Thanks for passing those along... I probably should have made it clear that the compatibility with child carrying systems is a long term concern rather than a short one. My on site day care doesn't have room for infants so we're trying to find someone in the neighborhood. On the off chance we get into the infant room in the on site day care sooner than we think, I'm going to have to use public transportation one way, and maybe a stroller in the other direction if the weather is good. I'm hoping to transition around a year, but we'll see. Who knows what will be available then in terms of new technology and/or research? That will be December 2014... Anyway, rest assured we're not in a huge rush. We did put my 9 month old niece in a car seat in a trailer on a recent trip to Idaho, but it was a beautifully paved trail, and kind of a "one off" experience, not a daily bone shaking commute.

Good articles nonetheless, and lots more to think about.

UPDATE: Talked it over with my husband and the Soma Buena Vista build up was a non starter. I straight up, legitimately cried on the ride home from a taco shop. Not really about the bike so much as being suddenly overwhelmed by the consequences of our life choices. On one level, I've always been very thrifty, pragmatic, and not in the least bit acquisitive. Most of our home furnishings are care of Craigslist, my wedding dress was used, hell I wash ziploc bags and tin foil for reuse. But suddenly I was overtaken by the urge to have something new, nice, and uniquely mine, maybe because the possibility of having anything like that in the future seems so remote. I'm over it now, but wow... I guess it was a mid pregnancy crisis. Technically the baby will be new and uniquely mine/ours, so I'll have to settle for that.

Upwards and onwards, I decided to order a Civia Twin City from my favorite local bicycle shop and will stop by there later today. Now I'm just waffling between the 5 and 7 speed internal hub. I spoke to a fellow at the shop about it and he described the difference as such: the 5 speed has 80% of the gearing of the 7 speed, losing 10% at the low and high ends. Unfortunately, they don't have any Civias built at the store and the other 5/7 speeds they do carry don't use the same hubs, but he said I could try what they have, and he'd check the gear ratios to give me a better idea of what I could expect. Why did I ever doubt buying new from a bike shop? When they're good, they're great.

So, any advice on the 5/7 issue? I ride the Capital Bikeshares beasts frequently and NEVER use the 1st gear, it's like clown college. I do fine with 2nd/3rd, so would 5 be plenty?

Also, does anyone know if the integrated (welded on) rack on the Civia Twin City would be compatible with a child seat, if I ever wanted to put one on?

ALSO, people on here have noted the odd rear "roller" brakes on the Civias, and my husband pointed that out in the specs as well. Someone also noted that it's possible to switch them out if desired. Probably my husband could do that and he gets parts wholesale. Furthermore, the geometry as I've seen it pictured is not quite as upright as I'd like it at the moment, though I will probably prefer it in the long term. Do you think I could add a different stem to raise the handlebars a bit? Any other thoughts on the practicality of such upgrades would be welcome. I'm already getting a different saddle, grips and kickstand. Don't want the little fixes to put me up in Soma territory. OR DO I? It would make a good O'Henry story.

Thanks everyone!

we bought my wife a schwinn voyageur step through. works great, and relatively cheap. no IGH typical shimano derailleur system.

The general rule of thumb is not before a year... but as with all things baby-related, this will depend on the baby. Our son was doing short trailer rides at 10 months or so. Our tiny little girl was a little after a year, maybe 13 months.

BUT I know Chariot makes car seat holders for their single trailers... or you could just take that car seat base and bolt it to the front of your Bakfiets.

Background: I've been commuting in the DC area for 16 years, riding a German Kettler Silverstar with a step-through frame, Nexus 7 speed, and front and rear roller brakes. I figure I've put around 50,000 all-weather miles on it. That's included five years pulling my daughter in a trailer and five years on a Trail-A-Bike. The bike is similar to the Twin City except it has hub dynamo lights and front and rear rollerbrakes.

My understanding is that the five speed Nexus has a smaller range of gear ratios than does the seven. There's no way I'd want less than the seven, given some of the hills here. That is even more true when pulling a child. Get the Nexus 7; don't even think twice about it. I've never ridden a CaBi bike, so I can't comment upon their gearing.

Before I got my Kettler, I rode a hybrid with rim brakes. I went through a front rim every winter, due to all the sand and salt they dump on the roads. Replacing brake pads was a hassle, and braking in the wet and snow was not satisfactory. The Kettler was a big relief. I'd stick with the rollerbrake.

Most of the Dutch and German commuter bikes have integral rear racks and child seats are compatible with them.

Bike shops raise stems all the time; it's an easy fix.

Panniers are also a good idea. Some stuff does not like to be lashed to a rack.

The only other upgrade I would recommend is lights. A good dynamo system will put you in Soma territory. I think the convenience makes them a bargain. (I started riding because it was more convenient than driving, so I will always make "easy" choices.) However, a rear blinky and battery headlight, inconvenient and fiddly as they may be, are a cheap way to get a useful bike.

Paul

If you can give specific tooth counts for front chainrings/rear cogs for your Jamis Aurora (or maybe that's available online?), and can describe which gears you typically need to use, and which you (almost) never have to use, I think the collective can boil that down to a range of gear-inches, and compare to the 5- or 7-spd range of the Civia.

this answer is so much magic I don't even know where to begin. THANK YOU, esp for the gearing & brake questions but for all them really.

I do have 4 panniers but don't find them useful on a day to day basis because they're so awkward as handbags... however this could change. I guess I could park my bike in the garage and just leave them on. Probably not a bad idea if I'm getting a nice saddle & other nifty extras anyway. And speaking of which...

I am REALLY interested in dynamo lighting, especially this time of year. I will ask about that at the shop today. It might be a long term upgrade but one I hope to make someday. I have a very nice rechargable niterider that doesn't get a lot of use now because it doesn't fit well on my current bike, and I don't want to forget it and risk theft. So, I'm so glad you mentioned it because I can ask about mounting options while I'm there.

who are you, with your sensible solutions? please run for Congress.

(seriously, that makes good sense. I'll see if I can run outside in a bit...)

Who are you, with your sensible solutions? Please run for Congress.

(Seriously, I'll see if I can run outside a little later because I don't know off the top of my head. )

Ha, not a chance you'd ever catch me running for office!

But PaulH's experienced recommendation sounds good to me, I think you should probably just go for the 7. Information can't hurt though, if you want to know more about the gear ratios you use/need.

IMHO,better to have it and not need it,than need it and not have it,so I'd get the 7spd. I live across the street from the National Cathedral,so crank up Wisc and Mass Ave all the time. I ditched a 3spd,7spd,and a couple 8spds because I like being 44 without knee probs(also why I've never ridden fixed). Note;changing the gearing on an IGH is as simple as swapping the cog. If the gearing's too low or high you can always shift it up/down.

This is Sheldon's excellent gear calculator:
https://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

Plug in the numbers for your current bike,then plug in the numbers for the bikes you're considering. This will help you figure out what you need.

The Soma looks cool. I don't know how much of a tinkerer you or your husband are. But if you keep an eye on CL, you'll run across vintage mixte bikes for $150-200. Wouldn't be hard to swap in a 5 or 7 speed hub and powder coat the frame to your favorite unique, groovy color.

Believe me, I was considering that right up until I pulled the trigger. But, nothing was quite right and I sort of need it now. I started looking at 20 weeks, but really felt fine on my regular bike and ended up traveling a lot in August so finding something suitable fell off my radar. Suddenly my belly is nearly hitting the stem when I stop suddenly, among some other issues. So, I put it off too long. There were a couple of neat mixtes but really, step through felt right. Swinging my leg over the seat is sort of ok, stepping through is great but lifting the leg halfway to step through a mixte frame felt the most awkward for me. There were a couple good looking step throughs on CL, but the ones that weren't rust buckets were 21". Who were these leggy bike riding supermodels of the 70s and 80s? I don't know. It's possible the sellers measured wrong but with the belly rapidly outgrowing the frame, I didn't have the energy to figure it out. I definitely want a project bike someday though. Eric's really the tinkerer but it's starting to fascinate me.

Makes sense. You need it now, not in six months.

(I thought the Soma you mentioned was a mixte, but I may have looked at the wrong model.)

https://simplybikeblog.com/?page_id=6293

It would be too cool to find neighborhood day care where you could leave the trailer, then breeze on to work.