In Which All Bikes Add to 58 Spring Miles

April 11--Spring signs. Greener grass and more bikes in bike racks. The Fancy Beast is the Raleigh in the rear.

My bike ride mile totals still aren’t all that fantastic—weather in Iowa has been cool and rainy, and during the semester my time is too constrained. It may be late May before I ever top 40 miles for a ride, but I will get there. And while I’ll ride in cold weather, I do have a thing about trying to stay dry.

But this cool spring, in which the first half of April was mostly March weather (rain and snow, freezing nights), things are slowly starting to shift. Days are growing longer, early flowers bloom, trees are still bare but grass is starting to be greener than brown. And I’m moving on to other bicycles.

For much of the winter, only one of my three bicycles has been ride-able due to flat tyres. However, since I usually only ride my mountain bike in winter anyway, that’s not a big deal. I stopped by a bike shop a couple of weeks ago and purchased the tubes, and Saturday, I took the time to put the new tubes on Argent, my road bike; and Clarence, my hybrid bike.

On Saturday, after I repaired the bikes, I took a 5-year-old grandson on a ride using my Tag-A-Long seat with the hybrid bike. It was cool and windy, and he was ready to head back home after a short ride, so we only went one mile. I rode a few more miles later using the road bike.

April 16--Stop at school on Saturday, finally on the road bike.

April 16--Sunshine on afternoon ride on Cedar River Trail, went to Robins park on the way home.

April 19--Argent parked in bike rack at Warde Hall.

After my winter riding on the Fancy Beast (my mountain bike), it felt both weird and exhilarating to be on Argent, my road bike. It seems like it just zips along if you just sit on it, which is literally true on downhills.

I am grateful for having my mountain bike. It makes some local trails, like the downhill on Mount Trashmore or the Sac and Fox Trail, much more fun. And it’s a nice to have that bike for winter commutes. But the main pleasure of recent days has been zipping along the rides on my nimble road bike.

Weather willing, I’ll be able to take it out for some real miles soon.

Besides riding all three of my bikes, I also got out the old tandem bicycle on Easter Sunday for a short afternoon ride with a 13-year-old granddaughter. (I have not named that tandem bike, it belongs to me and my wife and she is a not a bike namer--it's the oldest bike I ride, dating back to the late 1970s). The granddaughter's parents run a nearby martial arts school, and she wanted to show me the new robot vacuum cleaner they use there.

Easter Sunday afternoon selfie. We're sitting on the tandem bike and have just arrived back home after a quick visit to see Fred.

They named the vacuum “Fred,” a bit of an inside joke. They had purchased the school from its previous owner and wanted to rename it, and had people submit ideas for a new name. I suggested “Fred.” Maybe subconsciously I was honoring the founder of SDBC (Social Distance Bike Club started by Fred Zelt). My daughter who co-owns the school is skilled with graphics and created the new school logo, as well as fake logos she posted on Facebook in the weeks leading up to the name unveiling open house. Even if they didn’t name the school “Fred,” (it’s called Guardian Institute of Martial Arts) at least the name lives robotically on.

The Fred logo above, and the name and logo my daughter and son-in-law actually chose, below.

Anyway, the ride to and from the school was about 5 miles. It was warmer on Easter Sunday than it had been Saturday, and the granddaughter seemed to enjoy the ride.

I didn’t commute by bike today—rain. But Monday and Tuesday were road bike days, which were enjoyable. From April 10 to April 19, I rode 58 miles on four different bicycles. I have 139.18 for April so far, and 559.6 miles for the year.