In Which I Share A Tale of Two Wheels

 

Pretty day Saturday Oct. 12 for ride on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail north of Urbana.

It was the best of rides; it was the worst of rides.

Fall has finally come to Iowa. We had a hard freeze this week, and it has been very dry lately, so everything has a sort of drab fall look to it. Which is not as bad as it sounds—fall can be pretty, and as the underbrush leaves leave, the shape of the brown land can emerge and be pleasing to look at. On the whole, I prefer a lush, green look to my scenery but I still enjoy when the scenery of the land can be seen.

Anyway, I had some interesting bike adventures over Fall Break, last week. I had hoped to get some miles in, and I did, but there were complications. Best and worst and all that.

On Thursday, Oct. 10, I put on my biking outfit, including bike shorts. My personal rule of thumb is to wear biking shorts for rides of about 20 miles—the bike shorts are worth wearing if I am going to roll 20 miles or more, otherwise, regular clothes are fine for biking. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going to go on this ride, but I vaguely thought of the ride south to Morgan Creek Park.

Anyway, it was a fine day, not yet as chilly as it would get this week, and I rode off. But about 6 miles from home, as I rode on the trail beside Cedar Lake, I noted a funny and familiar noise and feeling, so I stopped and felt my rear tyre.

Bike with flat tyre parked at Cedar Lake.

Yup. Flat. There was a lot of broken glass on the bike lanes in town I had used to get to the lake, and I assumed I probably got a puncture close to the lake. My wife was out of town (one reason I had planned a longer ride), and I was 6 miles from home.

It seemed like there would be a long walk was going to be my afternoon agenda. But I called my daughter who works downtown, and she called me back in a few minutes. Yes, she was on her lunch hour. She had walked from her office to the public library, but could walk back to her car and them give me a ride.

I locked my crippled bike, waited for a few minutes and then was rescued, which I greatly appreciated. Once home, I had lunch and then drove my van down to Cedar Lake to pick up the bike for a trip to Goldfinch Cyclery, where I got a new tube for the road bike (and a new tube and tyre for the hybrid bike—its back tyre was worn and needed replacing). Later in the day, I rode my mountain bike for a pleasant 10-mile jaunt to Lowe Park so the day wasn’t so lost for rolling even if I never made the 20-mile goal.

Fixing bikes on Friday. It didn't take as long as I thought.

The Fancy Beast at Lowe Park on late-day ride.

Friday for me was a work day, mostly. I had plans for a longer bike ride on Saturday, and I needed to get some grading under my belt—so it was a day for checking mid-term exams. Still, I needed to pick up some prescription drugs, so I fixed the road bike and  the hybrid bike during a grading break, and rode the rode bike up to HyVee Drug store, a ride of just over a mile. Later, I used the hybrid bike for a quick late trip on the Lindale Trail.

Saturday was the adventure. And the best and worst ride. In the afternoon, I loaded my road bike Argent into my van, picked up my sister and her recumbent trike, and then drove to Urbana. This summer, they had paved the final stretches of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail north, and we planned to check out the new trial paving north of Urbana.

Prettiest part of the trail Oct. 12, above and below.

The day was sunny, and pretty. We made good time, rolling north through Brandon, where we had made a stop. Along the way, we speculated whether we would see the bluff by the river—we had ridden this part of the trail in previous years, but not often, so we could not recall if the bluffs were north or south of LaPorte City, where we tentatively planned to turn around.

Turns out, it’s south of LaPorte City, which was nice. While we taking a snack/restroom break in Brandon, another group of bikers rode up and told us a bridge was out north of Brandon, and that they planned to leave the trail and take county roads to go around the break.

Well, we decided just to see how far north we got before the closed bridge. A few miles later, we crossed a road where there was a big “trail closed ahead” sign, and assumed it was the last road before the bridge, and that the bridge was not far ahead. We were both right and wrong. There wasn’t another road that we saw, but we crossed first one and then another bridge, and the one that was always a ways ahead. And it was north of Brandon along this ride where we reached the prettiest part of the trail, with the low rocky bluff to our right and the river off through the woods on our left.

And the bikers form Brandon passed us as we rode, but we never saw them again. Where they disappeared and how they got to their alternative route when no roads cross the trail will forever be a mystery. Anyway, we never made it to LaPorte City, which is one of the towns near the north end of the trail. As advertised by the Brandon bikers and via the sign some miles bike, a long bridge over the Cedar River was closed. So now the trial all the way to Waterloo is paved, but you cannot ride that full route yet.

Pretty rustic rest area with bench, bike art and sign between Brandon and LaPorte City.

Yeah, trail closed ahead. Maybe more than 5 miles ahead.

End of the trail, for now--we calculated we were only 3 miles or so from LaPorte City. I hope this is open next summer for a long adventure ride north on the now paved trail there.

Well, no matter, the afternoon was getting on and it was time for us to ride back to Urbana. The ride back passed pleasantly—it is a very pretty trail, always was, but is so much easier and more pleasant to ride now that the surface is asphalt rather than limestone.

So, it was the best of rides. Until we approached Urbana.

At a county highway on the north side of town, we waited for a car to pass, and then started across the intersection, my sister in front, me close behind. As I crossed the highway, I was more or less glancing back and forth to the side, as one does when one is astride a bicycle and wary of tons of motorized metal on a cross path.

Somehow, my sister heard the departing car and mistook the noise for an approaching one. Although no car was heading in our direction, she slammed on her brakes. Compared with bikes, trikes have a braking advantage, which led to a breaking disadvantage for me and my bike. My sister’s trike also doesn’t have brake lights, and I discovered that she had stopped in the worse possible way.

Crunch. The worst of rides.

Well, that’s an overstatement. I ran hard into her rear wheel, badly bending her fender, which we assumed was the worst of the damage. Until we started to ride, and an odd twinkly tune was being played by my front wheel. Because I had snapped a spoke, which was banging on Argent’s front fork with every turn of the wheel.

A spoke is broke, oh no!

It still wasn’t the worst of rides for two reasons—one, neither my sister nor I was in any way physically harmed. The other happy happenstance was we were close to the end of the ride. My front wheel was wobbly, no longer true, but I just slowed way down and rolled slowly to the ride’s end only a mile or so away.

Well, shucks. One day after fixing Argent’s tyre, I broke its front wheel. So Argent is again lame, and it will take some dollars to get it fixed. But my hybrid bike Clarence and my mountain bike The Fancy Beast are both ride-able.

Well, OK, the ride had an unhappy ending but wasn’t really the worst of rides. It was the best of days and not as good of a ride as it could have been, but still well over 30 miles on a newly paved, gorgeous trail. And in the next week, frost and freeze arrived and fall in Iowa is now looking more fall-like. Which is OK for a bike rider—it’s still a great time to be rolling on two wheels. As long as both of your two wheels work. So far in October, 169.75 miles. And the year so far, 2,568.4 miles. Not the best mileage total, maybe, but happily, not the worst.

C Avenue Pond Oct. 16--freezing morning, but pretty day fora bike ride to work.

In Which the Witch of November Comes Early

Oct. 30--Ready for morning bike ride, first ride in full winter gear.

Oct. 30—the eve of All Hallow’s Eve—and I was getting ready to ride my bicycle to work.

Two days earlier, I rode on a cold, windy Saturday, and planned to put in more than 20 miles but gave up and came home and rode just a bit over 14 ½ miles. I had planned to ride north to Lafayette, but my feet were letting me know that my bicycle sandals were totally inadequate, despite warm socks, when I got out to County Home Road, so I sat for a minute, ate my Lafayette snack, and turned back.

I rode again Sunday, a shorter ride, and it wasn’t as windy, so despite being cool, it was OK. But Sunday into Monday true cold weather, a genuine hard freeze, settled into Iowa. The witch of November came stealing a bit early.

So Monday was my first long johns commute—the first day of riding with warm winter boots, long underwear, my biking hat, my hood, coat and gloves.

Oct. 28--Cool bike ride, colorful Sumac bush beside Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Robins.

There had been some frosty nights by Oct. 28, and few flowers were to be seen--but a few still hang on.

Yet, it was still a good day to ride. Even with a temperature in the 20s and wind chill in the teens, I was OK. Partly, it was because it was a north wind I’d been feeling, and most of my commute involved riding south.

Cold weather bike season came for a visit. It didn’t really stay long, as the first days of November, according to my weather app, will feature cool nights, but not the bitter cold that visited us both Oct. 30 and Oct. 31.

Well, I get more miles in during the warm months, and I do like the flowers and butterflies of that time of year. I’ll still ride some miles during the chill months, too.

Must be the warlock in me. I wasn’t ever that scared of witches.

As of Oct. 31, I had 235 miles for the month. I finished October with 2, 972 miles for 2023, just 328 from my 3,300-mile goal for the year. November is here now, and I missed riding Nov. 2 because I had a blood draw that morning (routine checkup blood tests for an old man), and didn’t have time for biking. But on Nov. 1 and 3, I managed commutes that totaled 14.6 miles. Not bad for a cold, old man.

Sunset Oct. 23 sunset, seen on bike ride home. More night rides coming as time change is this weekend.

 

In Which It’s a Gray, Cold, Beautiful Day

Grey day in Iowa. A blackbird was yelling at me--they get very territorial during nesting season--but flew off when I got my camera out.

North on Cedar Valley Nature Trail--at least the cloud cover has interesting shapes.

Argent parked at Lafayette. 12 miles into the ride, and the tube is still holding air.

Looking west from the trail as I ride south back towards Hiawatha and Cedar Rapids.

The cold drops of rain felt a bit like pellets, blowing in a stiff breeze. Not frozen, but a bit painful to my face.

The up side is that there were not many of them. It was cool, in the 40s, and windy, which made it feel cold. Grey clouds and a headwind greeted me as I headed north.

And it was a beautiful day.

It has been a while, friends, since I last reported my biking adventures. It is just the way my life is in April—the semester starts heating up and time becomes more precious.

But even if I have been too preoccupied to document my biking adventures, they continue. As of today, I’ve ridden a bit over 720 miles this year. In March, I totaled 248 miles, compared with 157 last year in March. My goal this year is 3,300 miles, and I know, the year is 1/3 over and I’m not 1/3 of the way there. Not a problem, most of my miles most years are in the summer when school is not in session, and being ahead of where I was last year makes me feel I’m in good shape.

And I have been doing a GHC on most rides—a GHC is a gratuitous hill climb, something I do to prep for RAGBRAI. And for the past fortnight, those GHCs have been on my bike least useful for climbing hills—my old mountain bike.

Above and below, rode some extra miles home April 27, stopping by Cedar Lake.

Ironic, to me, that the mountain bike is worst at a task its name implies it should be good at, but that bike is heavier and slower than my road bike or my hybrid bike. I think my hybrid is the best hill climber, although, because it’s lighter and so much faster on flats, the RAGBRAI bike will be the road bike.

On April 14, I was zooming along on the road bike, headed for home, when I hit a pothole by Kenwood School. My back tyre became immediately flat. Since my hybrid bike was already out of service—I had discovered a broken axle when trying to put the back wheel back on after mending a flat several week ago—so I was down to one bike. And, just as I have not had time to write about biking, I have not had time to avail myself of the services of a bike shop to ease my woes.

On Friday, a Lavender Ceremony, honoring LGBTQ+ graduating seniors, was held at the graduate center, located two miles and a stiff hill climb from the main campus where I teach. And I went there to support the students, riding my Fancy Beast old mountain bike.

Even with two of three bikes out of commission, I have been riding miles and climbing hills.

April 14--Bike by Kenwood School, 1.5 miles into a 3.5 mile ride. Back tyre flat. At least it was a nice, warm afternoon for a 2-mile hike pushing the bike home.

The flat tyre.

Bird watching while I hike home.

Today, I decided I needed to get the road bike back. While I am willing to ride the mountain bike, it is not the steed for longer rides. So, I loaded the two back wheels of the two broken bikes, drove to NewBo and had a conversation with a mechanic at the bike shop there.

I was not sure what was wrong with the hybrid wheel, and it was nice, in a way, to confirm that axle was actually broken—it means I hadn’t done anything wrong when I tried to put that wheel back on, failed, and scattered a lot of ball bearings in my garage.

The wheel could be repaired, but it is old and worn and it is just about as cheap to order a new wheel, so that’s what I did. By next weekend, probably, the hybrid bike will be on the road again.

As for Argent, my road bike, the only reason I took the second wheel to the shop is that size is listed on the tyre in black lettering on black rubber—hard for me to read, impossible for me to record my usual way of noting bike tyre sizes, by photographing then with my cell phone.

As the mechanic was inspecting the hybrid’s crippled wheel, another employee helped me get two tubes—on to put on, one to carry. Getting ready for RAGBRAI—I have a pump with me now and a spare tube, too.

April 24--Hard freeze this morning. C Avenue pond on a chilly morning.

April 24--Dry Creek Valley is gray with frost.

April 24--Ice on the clover in my front yard. (I planted the clover, it's not a weed).

Anyway, I had an interesting experience when I got home. I hate changing tyres on my road bike, but I happened to read the detailed instructions on the tube box. It said to put one side of the tyre on the wheel, then partly inflate the tube and put it in the tyre, then work the second edge of the tyre onto the rim.

In the past, I had put the tube inside the tyre and then worked the tyre onto the rim. And hated it. This time, I followed the directions, and damn. I still do not like changing tubes on a road bike, but if you follow the directions that come with the tube, it’s a whole lot easier.

Well, it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. But I had a new tube on my road bike’s back wheel, what was I to do? I went inside, put on bike shorts under my blue jeans (yeah, I know, totally against the biker code, but I do not give a hoot—it was cold in Iowa today) and donned, for the first time in two weeks, my biking shoes.

It was grey, chilly, damp, and I headed out. I decided to ride north on the Cedar River Trail, heading to Lafayette.

April 13--Pretty spring sunset seen on my commute home.

April 13--Sunshine on C Avenue Pond.

April 12--Windy day, bike blown over. No harm done.

The sprinkles, nasty as they were, were very intermittent. I was on my road bike, headed into a stiff headwind, comforted by the knowledge that a headwind on the way out is a tailwind on the way back in.

It worked out that way. The ride felt great. I had to head a bit south on the trail to add a little distance—the ride to Lafayette and back is typically under 24 miles but I was determined to get to 25 miles.

I did. And it is spring. Sometimes chilly, often windy, sometimes sunny, but biking weather is getting better. In two weeks, school will be over and longer rides can begin.

The future is so bright I have to wear shades. For a little while, anyway, today. Then I took them off.

It was too cloudy for shades. And yet, still a nice day.

In Which A Birthday Ride Reaches Its Goal

First ride on Sept. 4--Clarence, my hybrid bike, at new trail that will extend Lindale Trail to the west.

Second ride--The Fancy Beast, my mountain bike, at Waldos Rock Park (that's Waldo's Rock, a boulder dumped by a glacier, in the background).

Third ride--Argent, my road bike, on Cedar Valley Nature Trail north of Hiawatha. I'm almost back in town again, I think this is when I stopped to make images of a snake.

OK, I implied on an earlier post that I was unsure about riding my birthday this year, and I was.

But this Saturday I purchased new tyres and installed them on two of my bikes. So Sunday they wanted to go somewhere, and I obliged.

Worn back tyre on Argent. Time for a new one, which I got Saturday.

Clarence has the worn tyre blues. Front tyre needs a change.

Saturday after visit to bike shop--new tyres (and a little pump to take with me on rides).

Besides tyres, I got this little pump Saturday. I tested it when changing the tyres, and it's much nicer than most frame pumps. I put it in a bag on Argent, have the bracket to hold it on The Fancy Beast, and use this bungee when taking it on Clarence.

I got the hybrid bike out early, went to church, and then added about 15 miles by swinging down to Cedar Lake and stopping at campus before going home.

This first ride featured some nice sights—in particular, pelicans, which visit us twice a year headed north (spring) or south (fall) were visiting Cedar Lake this Sunday. Very nice.

Here and next images, pelicans on Cedar Lake.

 

 

Hybrid bike at Cedar Lake.

Before the lake, I checked out the new trail that is being built to take the Lindale Tral farther west into Cedar Rapids. It’s a short trail going nowhere right now, but should be tied into the Lindale Trail yet this fall.

Paved part of new trail heading west of Lindale Trail.

Same trail, but looking east at incomplete part.

Noelridge Park--people walking dogs are not the most dangerous thing on two legs you might encounter.

After the lake, I paused at the Plaster Athletic Complex to watch a bit of baseball and softball. Then I rode to the main campus of Mount Mercy University, where I work, and on campus, I was pleased to spot several monarch butterflies on Swamp Milkweed by the library. And I made some images of the Grotto, just because it was there.

This, and next image, caterpillars on campus.

Bike at Plaster Complex.

Softball.

Baseball.

After I got home, I was hatching the plan. If I rode all three bikes today, could I do it? It’s just that 17 was a chunk of miles, and 64 didn’t seem that far way. I was checking out some new routes, and I have intended for a while to ride my mountain bike to Waldo’s Rock Park to check out some grassy trails. I suppose they are for hiking, but I figured the mountain bike could navigate them.

Grassy trail through a natural flower meadow at Waldos Rock.

I was taking a very RAGBRAI approach to riding my birthday—dividing the ride into segments where I got a treat in between each segment. Only the “town” I kept visiting was my own home. All of the riding I did on the mountain bike added another 17 or so, so I was up to 34 miles—I exceeded Bon Jovi, I was more than halfway there.

The lunch break was a while—I fixed myself a feast (home-style thick cut potato chips and tuna salad wraps), figuring I was burning some calories. And I paused to swap some things around on my bikes—put on a new bell and some new lights my wife got me for my birthday. It felt like the bikes should have their birthday swag for birthday rides. The lunch break, by the way, was between the hybrid bike—Clarence—and the mountain bike—The Fancy Beast.

New bell on The Fancy Beast.

New lights on Argent.

After the ride to Waldo’s Rock, I had another break. What with one thing and another, it was getting a bit late, but I only had 30 miles to go. And the final bike, Argent, is my road bike, the bike on which I can move the fastest.

Of course, I had already moved myself 34 miles, and I’m never a racer, so “fast” is a relative term. I rode north on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, figuring if I went to Center Point and back, I would be close to my goal. I didn’t make it. It was cloudy and dim, and by the time I got close to Schultz Road (10 miles north of Hiawatha) I was worried about riding the trail in full dark, so I turned back.

Turn-around point on ride north, 10-mile mark just short of Schultz Road.

Where you wondering if you would see the snake? Yes you would. It crawled off into the grass, scared, apparently, of a photographer although my bike seemed to have made no impression at all.

But a 20-miles round trip on the trail, plus the few miles I rode to get to the trail, meant my goal was in reach. I had to do some deliberate indirectness, some inefficient moving around in the neighborhood north of Boyson Road between Council Street C Avenue, but I thought getting a few extra miles in the full dark of night was smarter on lit city streets than on a dark rural trail.

When I turned on to Devonshire Drive for the final half mile, I didn’t quite have enough distance. In the area of Devonshire north of Boyson, there are some planters in the middle of the street, and anybody looking out their window then might have wondered at the crazy old man who, at about 8:15 p.m., kept circling those planters. I was getting the couple of tenths of a mile I was missing.

Sunday ride.

Is it a bird? A plane? No, it's my Labor Day ride.

And when I got home, I had 0.19 miles more than I needed—but then again, I was a few days after my 64th birthday, so maybe I needed to exceed 64 miles just a bit. With a 10-mile journey today, I’m at 99.54 for September and 2,017.11 for the year so far. But mostly, let's recall that I made it 64!