In Which Biking Is a Family Affair

Flag on Mount Mercy University campus blows in stiff, cold wind Nov. 25. Winter is coming, but I am still biking. 

Fall is starting to transition into winter here in Iowa. Our weirdly warm and dry autumn changed to a more normal, damper pattern in November. The weather service says this has still been a warmer than normal month, but the outlook for the coming winter is an average weather pattern—which in Iowa means we should see some genuine cold and some snow.

We had our first hint of that, when a white dusting fell Nov. 20 and there was a bit of snow visible in a few spots on my morning commute on Nov. 21.

Nov. 21--Crossing C Avenue Bridge on morning ride. Despite the track I made in the snow, the bridge didn't seem slippery--but I was still glad to be riding The Fancy Beast mountain bike.

Yet, despite the cold, biking weather overall has been decent. Today I did wear full winter gear for the first time—a hat, hood, two long-sleeved shirts (a T and a thick sweatshirt), two pairs of socks including an outer pair intended for winter insulation, warm winter boots, long underwear, mittens—pretty much, the works. It was in 20s with a wind chill supposedly in the teens, although, to me, the wind wasn’t all that biting on my sunny morning ride.

Then again, I was very well insulated.

Well, despite winter, many recent rides have warmed my heart. The other theme this cool (but still unseasonably warm) November has been rolling with grandsons. A young boy, almost 5, is visiting Iowa from the Bay Area of California, and it’s nice to have this little San Franciscan staying with us. On Sunday, Nov. 17, he and his father and his third-grader cousin and I went on a bike ride. The older grandson and I used the tandem bike, the Cali kid and his dad used Clarence (my hybrid bike) with the Tag-A-Long seat.

California boy, ready for a ride.

We cycled up to the Lindale Trail, rode out to the Subway end, and then doubled back. We had to briefly pause—the tandem is heavy and I faded for a minute—but after a brief rest we proceeded at a slower pace. We headed east into Marion, pausing for a break at the Marion Public Library. I had my library card and was willing to check out a DVD or some books, but the boys were more interested in the chance to play, so after a while, and an announcement that the library would be closing soon, we left sans checkouts and headed back home.

It’s colder now, and I don’t know how well the child from the West Coast would tolerate it, but I hope I can attach that Tag-A-Long again and do at least one more ride with him before he wings west. We’ll see.

Nov. 19--Dandelion on cool fall morning. And that's my bike parked at rack in background, just rode to campus.

Seen Nov. 18 on C Avenue during morning commute--dinosaur session on wires.

Meanwhile, the day before that pleasant Sunday ride, my wife and I drove down to the Chain Reaction Bike Hub in Cedar Rapids with one of our daughters and her teen son. His 15th birthday is this week, and he needed an adult-size bike for his birthday. The Hub is a great local non-profit organization that offers bike-shop quality used bicycles, which have been repaired and are in great condition to ride, at reasonable prices.

We spoke on the drive downtown, and he was thinking he would like a mountain bike. He doesn’t care for the narrow tyres of road bikes, and wanted a bike to peddle on short rides around town, not really a long-range RAGBRAI bike.

The first bike he tried was a mountain bike that seemed a bit too small. The second bike was OK, but the chain slipped off when he tried to shift—not a serious problem, but not good PR for that bike. The third bike wasn’t a mountain bike—it was a hybrid, with slightly wider tyres than some hybrids. It was the largest of the three bikes that he rode, although it seemed to fit him well and given that he’s already tall and probably not done growing, I think it was a great choice.

And on Sunday, one week after the first grandson-themed ride, the teenager called me. “Want to go for a ride today?” Well, yes I did.

He rode over, and we briefly discussed routes. We could use the Lindale and Grant Wood trails for a tour de Marion, we could do the ride north to Lafayette, or we could head south.

Grandson looks at bridge we just crossed over Cedar River Nov. 24 on Edgewood Road.

He said he didn’t care, so I chose south. I had seen a note online that the new bike lane that crosses the Cedar River on Edgewood Road was open, and I was curious to see it. I also thought he would enjoy the ride down to Ellis Park.

Well, I was partly right. We rode to the Cedar River Trail and headed south. At Third Avenue, we turned off the trail and took the bike lane to cross the river, and then double back west along the trail by the river.

Little did I know that our way along that river trail would be blocked by a street construction project. The grandson had wanted a trail ride, but we ended snaking around the construction area on streets, although he seemed to be doing fine. And so we went, via street and sidewalk, back towards the river and the park that was our goal.

Ellis Park was pleasant, and the bridge turned out to be quite nice. It’s still marked with a “bikeway narrows, walk bicycles” sign—which made a lot of sense when the walkway was narrow before it was widened in a street project that is still ongoing in the traffic lanes, but there were no walkers on the bridge and there was plenty of room, so we pretended not to see the sign and simply cycled across the river.

View of Cedar River from new, wider walkway-bike lane on Edgewood Road bridge.

We paused. I had brought food for us, and ate a bag of nuts and some plantain chips. I brought some for the grandson, but he declined and simply waiting while I wolfed down my snack.

We were over 10 miles into our ride—by far the longest ride he says he remembers ever doing. And he had originally requested a “trail ride.” I had planned a ride that was going to be mostly trail and turned to be more street riding because of the closed river trail—and the question was, how would we get back? I was reluctant to retrace our steps—the detour around the project had not been all that easy. And we already were across the river to the northeast side again.

Despite there being a hill in that direction, I suggested we continued going north on the wide new sidewalk beside Edgewood Road.

Argent, my road bike, on the north end of the Edgewood Road wider walkway. Work continues on the road lanes, but this is now open.

The sidewalk ended at Glass Road, but I knew I could drive home easily at that point. Never had biked from there, however. Glass Road is a bit busy and narrow, and the grandson does most of his biking on sidewalks, so used the sidewalk as we turned east on Glass Road and rode to Wenig Road, where we turned north. Again, we were on a fairly narrow, fairly busy street so we continued our sidewalk trek.

And got to 42nd Street near Kennedy High School, where a bike lane led us back east to the Cedar River Trail.

So, my grandson’s “trail” ride turned out to be a 19-mile (close to 20, 19.67 miles according to the GPS app on my phone) adventure with less than half of it on trails. And, as it happens, when you diverge from bike trials, especially on Wenig Road and Edgewood Road, you also do more hill riding, although I think those climbs were harder on my old body than on his young one.

Still, the birthday bicycle boy got an introduction to longer rides. I hope the grandsons (and granddaughters) will want future rides, because I thoroughly enjoy such family rides.

As aforementioned, they warm my heart, even as the weather turns cold. As of midday today, I have ridden 160.11 miles in November, with the longest ride being the 19.67 with the teen grandson. So far for 2024, I’ve rolled 2,834.32 miles across this bumpy, pretty planet.