In Which I Visit a Hub and Ride my Coming Age

Attending volunteer orientation at Chain Reaction Bike Hub in Cedar Rapids.

I went on a journey last weekend, with the goal of riding my birthday. Each year, my goal is to ride the number of miles that I turn old on a day in the month of my birthday—August. For logistical reasons, I did things differently this year—more on the birthday ride, soon.

But first, another recent biking adventure. It was at some community event, I’m not sure exactly what (I’ve been to several this summer), but not long ago, I paused at a booth where someone was giving out information about Chain Reaction Bike Hub.

Their mission seemed pretty cool to me—to repurpose bikes, selling them at a reasonable cost, and donating some to local agencies for people in need. It seems a way to make bicycling more accessible by putting quality bikes in the hands of anybody. So, I put my name and email down on their list, and received an invitation to a volunteer orientation, which I attended Wednesday, Aug. 14.

At the event, I met two leaders of the organization. They described how Chain Reaction Bike Hub receives donated bicycles from individuals and from the local Solid Waste Agency. The bikes are evaluated—not all are worth fixing. If a bike goes into the “reject” pile, it’s disassembled and any useful parts kept, while the rest is recycled, so besides providing bike transport to more people, the Hub is also preventing more materials going to the landfill.

Refurbished bikes are available for sale, with shop hours being Wednesday 4 to 7 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m. to noon, and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. They are located at 1010 Third Ave. SW.

Anyway, I’ll have to think of when I can volunteer—I told them that I would be more available after the school year, but hope to get a bit involved even before I retire.

It seems like a good group with an important goal. I aspire to be more engaged with them in the future. Read more about them here and here.

On a bike ride Aug. 13, pausing to make image of Eagle roosting in a large tree on the other side of the Cedar River.

Meanwhile, my birthday is coming up. I turn 66 years old at the end of this week. I was hoping to do my annual birthday ride this month, but it’s been both crazy busy, and, honestly, I’m not the rider I once was. In that, I really, really struggle with rising early. I’m doing a little better with that now that my final year as a university faculty member is underway, but August has just been very packed.

Yet, on Saturday, Aug. 17, I thought maybe I was ready for my ride, except I didn’t get a very early start. At my age, 66 miles would take all day, and it was close to 10 when I was ready t head out. My wife hinted that maybe riding 66 miles in a weekend could count this year. I thought that wasn’t crazy talk, but thought I would give the ride my best shot that fine day.

Flat tyre on road bike. I got the flat Aug. 17, although I made this image early in the morning (7 a.m. or so) when I was getting ready to fix this.

So, I headed out, riding to the Lindale Trail, planning the first leg of my journey to be out to Waldo’s Rock Park in Marion. And just after I crossed Lindale Road, about 1.5 miles from home, my bike started to make an odd noise, a sort of thump-thump-thump. I was just thinking I should check it, when there was a soft pop followed by a woosh.

I stopped, hopped off, and checked my tyres. The front one was clearly and quickly deflating. So I had a 1.5 mile walk back home.

And it was getting well past 11 a.m. Do I fix the flat and take my lightest bike on my journey, or do I use my hybrid bike, heavier and slower but with air in its tyres? I decided I was in the mood to ride, and although I felt a little like Tom Hanks in “Apollo 13,” (we just lost the moon), I decided to just enjoy the ride I could do rather than fret over the ride I had imagined.

The backup bike I used for the bulk of my riding on Aug. 17. Getting ready to start riding it that day.

And I rolled over 30 miles that day, getting about half of my birthday ride. I decided my wife was right—I knew what the rest of the month would present, and with school starting, this year a split ride would have to count.

The next day, Sunday, I awoke early and fixed the flat on the road bike. Looking back, the 20-minutes to swap out the tube (I don’t know what I rolled over, but there was clearly a small tear in it) would have been a good investment on Saturday, considering that I roll just enough faster on the road bike that I would have picked up more miles. Anyway, I rode to church in the morning, came home, changed into biking gear, and took off. I rode in the Boyson Trail area, headed up to Lowe Park and then cut over to the Cedar River Trail.

Aug. 18--Have not seen many Monarch butterflies this year, but I saw this on along the Cedar River as I was riding from Cedar Lake to home. I was in a hurry, but I have to stop for Monarchs.

On Sunday, Aug. 18, my grandson and I are parked so he can play for a bit in area beside art museum at Lowe Park.

Waldo's Rock Park on Aug. 17. Got sprinkled on a bit--it was just not fated for me to do full birthday ride this day.

I rode north to Robins and turned around. While I was hunting for miles, I also knew that a daughter and grandson had gotten back from a short trip to Milwaukee (he’s a big baseball fan and the Dodgers were playing the Brewers there, although his beloved Dodgers didn’t win that game). We had arranged that he and his mom would join us in the afternoon for a meal, but didn’t specify exactly when. Well, I rode form Robins down to Cedar Lake, when I got a call from my wife to come home for lunch with the Dodgers fan and his mom.

We enjoyed a visit, and he wanted to go play with his grandparents at a park. We decided that he would pick up his bicycle, we would meet at Lowe Park and do some riding together. So I rode my bicycle to the park, my wife drove the van with the grandson, daughter and bicycle in it. We met at the playground, and he and I rode a loop around the art building before heading back to the playground where he played. As the afternoon wore on, my wife suggested ice cream at the Freeze in Marion. I was calculating my miles, and figured if I rode my bike there and then home from there, I could reach my mileage total.

That’s what I did. On Aug. 17, I rode 32.27 miles (1.5 on my road bike, the rest on the hybrid). On Aug. 18, my morning church/post-church solo ride added up to 22.99 miles. The afternoon post-lunch ride was 13.76 miles—in two days, I rode 69.02 miles, exceeding the 66-mile goal. It wasn’t exactly my traditional birthday ride, although in recent years I’ve always tackled this goal as a sequence of rides anyway; I just usually have time to complete all rides on the same day.

So far this year, I’ve rolled 2,064.68 miles. Over 314 of those have been in August. The month is not over yet—but I work all this week so that’s the bulk of my rides in the eighth month of this year, 66 years after I entered this biking life. On my actual birthday, this Friday, Aug. 30, my small RAGBRAI team should gather. Part of Team Joe is my sister Brigid, who was born on my fourth birthday, so Friday will be a special ride even if it’s doesn’t quite reach 66 (or 62) miles.

Aug. 20, hybrid bike parked by library at MMU. I've been riding my road bike to work most days, now that school has started, but I have better lights on the hybrid bike, and I knew it would be twilight by the time I rode home this day.