How is the bicycle riding going?

So, how is the bicycle riding going? Surprisingly, we are still at it even though the weather has turned cooler and it seems to be going well.

I had feared my 8-yearold grandson would no longer want to ride his bike once the weather cooled off, but making sure he has a warm coat and gloves has kept him going.

There was a morning or two, before the frost, that I failed to pay heed and he complained of being frozen and numb before we got to his school. Even though I was still wearing sandals and a shortsleeved shirt, I barely noticed, probably because numbness has become the norm, at least in my legs and feet. And, when we did have frost last week, he didn’t say a word about being cold on our short ride because he had on a winter hat and gloves.

Though it hurt a lot to ride at first, the pain in my legs, knees and posterior has subsided and I actually feel better when I get in our rides to and from his school each day. The little, slightly uphill stretches of our rides that were killers are a breeze now. I actually missed those daily rides when he missed a few days of school because of illness.

I had another flat, this one on the big beach cruiser. I thought I might have hit a nail or some other sharp object, but it was a split in the tube — I am guessing the stress of carrying a 280-pound grandpa was too much for it. Yes, I’m hoping that number will go down if I keep riding when I can instead of driving.

For quite a while, I rode the beach cruiser even though I had a new 21-speed mountain bike my grandson was begging me to ride so I could keep up with him. The mountain bike was just so uncomfortable even though the extra gears did help a bit on those inclines.

The first and biggest problem was the seat. I think it was designed from the head of an axe with the sharp side facing up. That bike seat seemed to go places no one has ever gone before — except maybe my doctor, but he used anesthesia and looked around in there with a tiny scope. I decided a wider seat was in order if I was ever going to go places on that bike and changed it out.

The second problem was the handlebars being so far down there in the front that I kind of had to knee myself in the gut to ride it. A new stem set allowed me to raise them up a few inches and make riding much more comfortable — so comfortable, in fact, that I have been riding it every day and giving the beach cruiser a rest. Besides, I already put a heavy-duty tube in the back tire of the mountain bike, which helps it to bear my weight.

I was asked by a dad at my grandson’s school what we would do when the snow began to fly.

“Will you put on studded tires?” he asked.

My response must have come more from my truck-driving days than reality, because I told him, “We’ll just have to chain ‘em up!”

Now I’m researching whether they actually make chains for bicycle tires. I’m sure someone on the internet must be selling them.

Yes! They do make chains for bike tires!

I wonder if they are easier to put on than the ones I sometimes carried on my 18-wheeler.