In Which I Do Early Spring Bike Maintenance

Bike pump and three bikes--Fancy Beast, the winter mountain bike; Argent, the road bike; and Clarence, the hybrid commuting bike. Why does a biker need 3 bikes? Why does an adult need more than one pair of shoes?

Tuesday—the student newspaper has been sent to the printer and I’m wasting a bit of time before a staff meeting. Snow is coming late tomorrow, so winter isn’t completely done with Iowa, but I plan a quick bike ride in the nice early evening before the meeting takes place.

It’s been a pretty good biking week, even if much of my riding is early in the cool mornings or well after dark. This is a time of year I don’t think I’ll struggle much with what do when I finally retire, as long as I can ride a bike.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon I had to go to campus, but before leaving home, I took all three bikes out, aired up their tyres and lubed their chains. The surprise is that neither the road bike nor the hybrid bike actually needed much air—despite not being ridden a lot lately, the warmer day probably boosted tyre pressure a bit.

I also swapped out worn brake shoes on my mountain bike with relatively new ones that were on The Beast, the old Schwinn bike that isn’t rideable anymore. There is also a frame pump on that old bike that I’m planning to take off and attach to the hybrid, one of these days, but I did not quite get that done.

My plan was to ride Clarence, the hybrid bike, but with all three bikes out of the garage, I fell under the spell of the road bike, so I instead flew to campus on Argent. Naturally, I took the 10-mile trail route rather than the 4-mile direct route. There was a cool wind, but despite that, it was still a sunny, cheerful afternoon.

Sunday--Read to head out on Argent. Cedar Lake, below, with what I think is an eagle resting on the ice.

Monday and Tuesday, the pavement was clear enough to use the hybrid bike, which meant riding without a backpack, which I enjoy.

Spring! It’s not really here yet—all is brown, with barren trees, and any water is ice each morning. But the change is in the air. February is about to give way to March, the transition month from nasty to nice in Iowa. March can go either way, and will start with snow—but if there are days like there were this week, there will be nice, too.

Monday--Sunshine on the bike rack by the library at MMU. It's cool like winter, but pretty like spring.