In Which I Play Catch-Up During Spring-Summer

April 21--The Fancy Beast on the Rohde Family Plaza as I arrive on campus after a sunny, pleasant morning commute.

Iowa in late April, early May: We had frost last night. A week ago we had several days where the sunny temperature flirted with 90. It’s been a dry spring, and on my biking commute to campus, I note that the grass is starting to shift from it’s fresh, lush green spring hue to the more dull look of high summer.

August is in the air, even if we’re not even there. Rather than our usual spring, we’re having a spring-summer season.

May 7--On Friday ride home, I stop not far from campus to enjoy the spring blooms beside someone's walkway.

I’ve not been chronicling many recent bicycle adventures, due to the regular spring semester sprint to May. I have maybe four years left in my working life, and, if God and health are willing, I look forward to some springs where I can roll around the planet taking in the springtime sights at a more leisurely pace on longer bicycle rides.

But a dry spring is a good one for riding a bike to work. And for others rides. Last weekend, I hitched up the Tag-A-Long seat and took a 5-year-old grandson to a playground while his mom and his grandmother went furniture shopping. It was a second or third tube on that bike’s back wheel in just a couple of weeks, but it had held air for several ride, so I had hopes that this dry spring of excess flat tyres was a mere memory.

Sadly, no. We rode to a nearby school, played there, were met there by mom and grandma, and then grandson was sad when it was time to go. I suggested he ride on the bike home, which perked him up, and so we did.

May 2--We arrive at Bowman Woods School on bicycle. Not sure why 5-year-old grandson thought a victory dance was appropriate for a 1-mile ride. Tyre not flat yet.

Just as I pulled into his driveway, the familiar noise and wobble hit. Flat tyre. Again. I’m thinking it’s time to take the hybrid bike to a shop and let the pros have a crack at that back wheel. Maybe it’s the wrong type of tyre. Maybe there is a flaw in the rim or tyre that I keep looking for and not seeing. I don’t know, but I am tired of the new tyre that won’t stay inflated.

Well, the road bike still has to got to the shop, too. Thank goodness for the trusty old mountain bike, oldest (besides a much older tandem) and slowest of my bikes. It had a flat earlier this spring, too—but since then, the new tyre and tube on the Fancy Beast have been just fine, thank you.

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote about my biking adventures. I’ll probably post a bit more regularly this summer—after the semester ends. Here is a gallery of the not-chronicled rides:

April 21: Some images from daily commute, pond on C Avenue and closing of C Avenue bridge for a few days for some utility project:

 April 22--Some road work, mostly images from quick ride to Lowe Park in Marion.

 

April 28--Late work on campus leads to view of full moon:

Not sure of Date: Going on group bike ride (with grandson, wife and daughter, not all bikes shown--an earlier ride to Bowman Woods School to play)

In Which A Near Star Shines and Hides

April 17--Clarence at Cedar Lake near sunset.

April in Iowa: This one has been a nice once, although freezing temperatures and even a small chance of snow are in the forecast for next week. This time of year can be breezy, cool, cloudy, sunny, warm, cold—whatever weather you want, might get it in April in Iowa.

The week started with some late commutes from work, due to my role as an advisor to a student newspaper.

April 11--Bike on Rohde Plaza, MMU (above and below) as I have some late commutes.

Then, most of the week was windy and cool. I rode Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather was nice Thursday, but I was also scheduled to go off campus for my second Bill Gates microchip implant, so I rode in with my wife. Friday I had arranged to work from home anyway, anticipating my body would be a bit wonky as its immune system fought the false coronavirus foe.

As it turned out, I was lucky. I did feel very tired and had a mild headache, but that was it. Chip enabled. Body restored. A fortnight to the fullest available immunity—with the caveat that nobody knows for sure yet what that means.

Saturday was a gorgeous day that mostly I did not spend in the saddle. In the morning, a grandson was finishing a sleepover. Then it was my least favorite day all all—New Car Day. Our Dodge Dart had been smashed while it was parked, and the insurance rental was returned on COVID-shot day, so here we were, test driving unpleasant hunks of metal with four wheels. We bought one. It’s OK, but nowhere near as fun as any vehicle with a derailleur.

And there was the front parking, the area between the sidewalk and the street. Last year, a large ash tree was knocked down by the derecho storm, and when the city came to cut and remove its tree, their equipment (and the tree) had pretty much stripped the lawn and left it there an uneven mess.

So Saturday I was playing with a spade, moving dirt, spreading around some new topsoil, planting grass and clover seeds (I’m not sure why people freak over clove and try to get ride of it—it’s a lawn seed one can buy, makes pretty little plants that have nice flowers, feeds the bees—I’m a clover planter, not a clover fighter). My wife aided me, but the effort took some hours.

Well, it was done by 6:30, and the day was still gorgeous, another sunny day in this otherwise cloudy week, so I got Clarence (my hybrid bike) out and took a quick spin down to Cedar Lake. The detour on the trail is still there, but now one can circle the lake, which is nice.

It was getting dark and I was running with lights by the end of the ride. Still, even on this too busy Saturday, a ride was nice. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, a health crisis due to an accident was brewing in the narrative of a loved one, and that put a sad punctuation on an otherwise nice Saturday. Be grateful for modern medicine—it can be a literal life saver.

Note: Discovered on May 8 I had not posted. And the health crisis was not mine, but a relative, and although recovery is a long road, the person in question is doing well.

In Which Some Additional Bikes Appear

Damp and cool weather has returned, but it is now spring in Iowa. A magnolia bush located by the building where my office is started blooming this week.

Cooler weather is settling in—not winter cold (snow is still possible in Iowa in April, but doesn’t seem to be a thing this  year), but normal spring cool.

Along with the shift from an unusual taste of summer is the return of the Gulf of Mexico. Water vapor sweeping up the plains from the south makes for grey skies and rain in Iowa. Oh well, April showers and May flowers and all that.

Partly cloudy sky as I pass the C Avenue Pond during my morning commute early this week.

Which also means my biking has been a bit limited. I know that there are bikers who brave the wet by wearing the right clothes. I’m like that with winter cold—I’ll ride basically all year round in Iowa because I can wear layers and dress for cold.

But I want my bike and myself to be dry. I’ll gamble with quick passing storms or with light morning mist—but rain will take me off of two wheels.

Morning bike ride to work, Monday or Tuesday. Clouds and sprinkles on this ride, but dry enough for two wheels.

It rained Friday, and I was working from home for other reasons on Thursday. But I did get rides in earlier in the week, and early this week saw what is a bit of a rare sight—other bikes parked at campus bike racks.

At one time, the university where I teach had an active bike club and a fleet of bicycles that students could borrow. Unfortunately, the bicycles were mostly stolen one summer, the student who was the organizer of the club had graduated and the club fell apart.

A short side ride down the Lindale Trail on the afternoon commute home. Spring comes from the ground up--grass is green now, trees still have bare look. That will dramatically change soon, as a close look shows the tree leaf buds are swelling.

Yet here we were, spring of 2021, after a year of pandemic biking—one outdoor thing one can do in this weird year of moving through the planet masked and avoiding human contact is rolling through it on two wheels. Bicycle sales were way up and some other bicycles appeared on racks on campus.

Not as many as I would like. Too often, my bicycle is all alone in a long bike rack behind the oldest building on campus. But other bikes are nice to see.

Lots of room left in bike rack behind Warde Hall where the Fancy Beast is tethered.

Meanwhile, at a bike rack near the library--bikes! That others rode to campus!

In Which Spring Turns Suddenly Warm

Sunday night-Fancy Beast ready for ride home around 10 p.m.

C Avenue Pond looks pretty on Tuesday morning ride to work.

 

Biking at the end of March and start of April in Iowa has been pleasant. I’ve mostly been using my mountain bicycle because I trust the back tyre of the Fancy Beast more than I trust the back tyre of Clarence (and Argent needs a trip to a bike shop before summer riding starts).

The commutes to work this week included some night riding. My role as an advisor to a university student newspaper involves some late nights. Some of the nights have been, but the was dry and the biking fine.

 

Moon reflected on C Avenue Pond during ride home about 11 p.m. Monday.

Milky sunshine over Warde Hall in the morning.

Bike parked at Warde Hall before ride home.

 

April 1--Bike parked in the morning behind Warde Hall.

 

On April 3, I finally took Clarence out for a ride. A grandson was staying with me Saturday, and he and I decided to go play at a park. I used my bike with the Tag-A-Long seat, and only Clarence has the hitch.

His mom and my wife met us at the park, and the 5-year-old decided to go home with grandma and mom, so I got to ride some miles by myself. I cycled out to Lowe Park, pausing now and then to check the back tyre.

It kept pressure. It also has a bit of a wobble, and I checked for a broken spoke, but found none.

Well, at least maybe I have a tube in there that is intact. Hold it together, back wheel!

At Willow Park in Marion, how my grandson and I got there.

Bike at Lowe Park, I think of this artwork (below) as kickstand art.

Daffodils at Lowe Park, above and below.

In Which I Hope 13 Is Lucky

Just before 3 Saturday afternoon. I've replaced the rear tube in Clarence, my blue hybrid bike, and am getting ready to ride the Fancy Beast, my mountain bike, on a quick "CR Biker hates to use tools because they always stress him" bike ride. To be fair, I understand it's my own incompetence with tools that causes the stress, not the tools.

 

My wife heard it—I did not. Our “new” car, a late model Dodge Dart, was parked up Devonshire Drive, two blocks from our house.

We’ve hired a contractor to replace our back fence, destroyed by the derecho last summer, and he was working today, so we had moved our vehicles out of our driveway while he was hauling stuff back to our backyard.

Then, tonight, a 17-year-old girl who lives in our neighborhood embarked on a quick trip to the store to buy her dad a soft drink. Her mission failed. Somehow, her wallet fell down the floor of her car, and she reached for it, while driving.

BAM! Two cars totaled, including one I own. Not the best news, Universe, although, to be truthful, not the most impactful bad news of this pandemic year, either. No democracies were endangered nor animal viruses spread in this particular tragedy.

Still, the accident heard by a wife but not by a husband was impactful enough. I liked that Dodge, it was comfortable to drive, had manual transmission—which I prefer, although it’s an increasingly rare choice. It was a small 4-door sedan, easy to set grandchildren into the back and drive off.

It, and the car the girl was driving, are probably totaled. She smacked her left front into my car’s left front, destroying her tire (tyre is for bikes) and two of mine. Although her engine still runs (her father drove it a short way on the rim to get it out of the street), both cars would need extensive, expensive body work.

Fortunately, although she had to be going at a pretty good clip, the girl herself was apparently undamaged. And I am glad that she has insurance.

So next week looks like a biking week for me. The weather should be cooperative, and now there is more of a need. I just hope my tyres (bike this time) hold up—it’s been the spring of flats for me, and I don’t want that trend to continue.

Today, I fixed, yet again, the back flat tyre on Clarence, my hybrid bike. The old tube (which was only a fortnight “old”) had a little tear about 4 inches from the valve—a tear that was on the inside of the tube, so it could not have been a wire or nail. I checked and double checked the wheel—the spoke tape is new, and the rim feels quite smooth. As soft as a baby’s behind, if the baby were made of metal covered in tape.

Back wheel of Clarence, post fixing. Note the tyre holding up the bike as it should. Long may it be so inflated.

I’ve had way too much experience with fixing flats this spring. The Fancy Beast mountain bike has a new tyre on the rear, too. This is the second time in recent weeks that I’ve replaced the back tyre on Clarence.

I’m getting better at this whole swapping inner tube things, it probably only took about 20 minutes or so, and I’m hoping that my skills in this area have more of a chance to atrophy. I am not used to three flats in one spring—my usual rate is probably one flat every few years.

After repairing the tyre, I thought I would take a stress-reducing bike ride. Maybe I was flash forwarding to the accident tonight. Anyway, I didn’t want to chance using Clarence, so I decided that bike could sit for an hour or so. Plus we had plenty of rain overnight and the streets were quite damp in spots—more of a day for the winter beater mountain bike than the commuting bike.

I wheeled out the Fancy Beast and took off. The west wind was rather brisk, but despite that, I feel that I made good time. I averaged a bit over 9 mph—slow, I know, to most bikers, but even though there were a few trail miles, half the ride was in town, so there was a fair amount of starting and stopping in that average velocity.

I rode to the Cedar River Trail and headed north to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, doing a quick loop around the Robins city park located on the side trail. It was a bit more than 13 miles in total, and despite the wind, was a ride I enjoyed.

The Fancy Beast in Robins on the side trail near the park. Some little creeks run in these woods, and overflowed from last night's rain. I stopped here to drink, make this image, and to go slowly through the wet. I had passed a mom and son headed the other way on their bikes, and I think that's their tracks.

 

Fast forward a few hours. I starting to write a quiz tonight, when there was a 10 p.m. knock on my door.

From a neighbor with bad news. Well, I enjoyed my bicycle ride today, which did take more than an hour. And maybe the ride helped me stay calm.

At least nobody was hurt. And there was still air in the rear tyre of Clarence when I got home on the Fancy Beast.

Knock on wood. But not on cars, please.

My ride today. Badly drawn picture of a parked bicycle.

In Which Six Miles Ends When Bike Repair Fails

Wire stuck in back tyre of hybrid bike.

Patch on tyre tube.

New tyre installed.

What a difference a day makes!

Despite rain in the forecast, none actually fell today, although it was cloudy, windy and much cooler than yesterday. I spent some time midday fixing the flat tyre on the hybrid bike. As it turned out, I mistakenly got the wrong tube—the hybrid bike, unlike the road bike, has the older, fatter valve, and I had gotten the right sized tube, but with the wrong valve.

So I decided to try a patch. When I looked at the tyre, there was a small wire stuck in it—so my theory that I was merely unlucky may not be so. Months after our big storm, random bits of metal are probably more common the mean streets of Cedar Rapids.

Well, I took the old tube out, and placed it in water in the kitchen sink. I found the leak fairly quickly. It was small, so I thought a patch would work. I applied said patch, reassembled the bike and aired it up. I decided to let it sit for a while as a test, and so went on a shopping errand with my wife before, about 3 p.m., pulling the hybrid bike out of the garage. The new tyre was still inflated, so I felt pretty good.

I decided to do my delayed Marion trail inspection. I had read in the local paper that the south end of a nearby trail, cut off from me by a construction project, was now paved, and I wanted to see that.

Riding towards downtown Marion on 11th Street. Rumble, rumble, rumble.

I rode through the town of Marion, stopping at the cute art alley downtown for some image making and to check the tyre, which seemed to be doing fine.

Downtown Marion. The coffee shop is closed Sunday afternoon, but I like their bike decoration out front.

Art alley in downtown Marion, this and next two images.

 

 

Then I rode down Grand Avenue to get to the trail—which was closed. So I backtracked and rode via streets to Hanna Park. The Boyson Trail was open, but very rough. While the limestone surface was dry, it was pockmarked with tyre tracks and footprints from when it was recently mushy.

I crossed Indian Creek and the trail ended where it branches to go to Menards. There was indeed new pavement, on a closed stretch of the trail. Well, the trail inspection did not end with the hoped for ride on a new surface—but it’s good to see this paving, a promise of smooth future rides. That surface will sure beat the limestone.

I made some images and then got ready to leave—but wait. The back tyre. At the end of 6 miles, it was suddenly again flat. I don’t know if it was punctured on the rough limestone surface or the rough passage proved too much for the new patch, but there you have it, a flat.

South end of trail--which is not open. They are paving it, I assume.

I hop off bike to make image of end of pavement, which I do not ride on. In this image, it appears to me that the back tyre is inflated. A few minutes later, after I shot a few more images, it was flat.

Flat back tyre at Hanna Park. I walked back there to await rescue.

I had originally planned to possibly head across town to the Grant Wood Trail, but instead called my wife again for a rescue.

So yesterday I claimed the slow pace of the ride was due to the slow bike—but today’s ride was slower. Of course, it was all in town, and in-town miles, which their frequent stops and starts, are always slower.

Then again, maybe yesterday it was the rider than the bike that was the slow one ….

Pi Day ride. Was rescued, went home and ate pie.