Bike Hero Birthdays
Thank you Jerry! You Betcha!
Thanks Rebel56, we did get in more riding
Thanks Old Goat, glad you enjoyed it!
Hello Duchess! WOW 102! That's awesome, sorry to hear he didn't have the childhood joy of riding. What a great pair of centurians: your Grandpa and Iver Johnson! Don't give up hope though. We have a lot of those 4 wheel bicycles for rent at the parks around here. Maybe you could find one locally and get him on those just to get the vibe. No balance required just maybe a few extra pedalers on the 4 seat version. Thanks for writing in
Thanks for all the "Likes". There are appreciated
Well we got some bonus days of summer in September. And then there is the birthdays, but I get to that later. So we did a fair amount of riding in Sep. Labor day we got a ride in and it was really nice!! As I had mentioned before, he hasn't been talking much while we ride but I can still tell he enjoys it.
Got to DQ but the Open sign wasn't on so I think they weren't open. Everybody needs a holiday once in a while. Did Plan B and got some ice cream sandwiches (made with choco chip cookies) and went down to the park by the river. FIL was not too impressed with the treats but I thought they were pretty good. Lots of people out riding and many stopped at the hand-pump water fountain (behind us).
We took our normal river road route home and enjoyed the warmth and sunshine
After a cold and rainy weekend, we got summer back, Yeah!! Riding in a T shirt in Sept is pretty awesome in Mpls
Even the plants went wild this year as you can see in the crazy tall flowers on the boulevard. A few years back the city started saying that people shouldn't have to use water and mow the boulevard grass and that people can choose to grow more weather tolerant plants. Here is what happens when they get mega rain and sun LOL
FIL started talking more this day and so it was kinda interesting. Without any prompting he said "The sunshine feels really good" . It totally made my day!! Got an artsy shadow shot shortly afterwards.
Got to DQ and ordered up the usual. There is a guy on the right that liked our bikes, he thought they were repops at first, but I convinced him otherwise. After talking a bit, he said he was a hot rodder and described his cool machines. I told him I liked them too but now I'm going with the less expensive rat rod bicycles (LOL)
Always kind wondered how FIL was doing at the bottom of the hill when he was going about 15mph. It looks like fine, but I need to keep checking.
No incidents in the last few trips and I try to monitor his mounts and dismounts a little better just in case.
So here is the Bike Hero Birthday spin.
FIL turned 84 last week and still is riding. Happy Birthday FIL!! I hope I'm so lucky!!!
I also have to give a big shout out to my
Friend's Dad "Buzz" who turned 90 last week. Happy Birthday Buddy!! He still rides but I'm not sure how much anymore.
He was riding several thousand miles a year up to a few years ago . He credits his good health to riding and he is another one of my bike heroes!!!
So kinda as a FIL Bday tradition, FIL and me went to the MN Antique and Classic Fall Ride last Sunday. My Wife was out of town so it was just him and me (which is sometimes kinda a challenge). It was another gorgeous day in the low 80s!! I promised FIL DQ afterwards or I'm not sure if he would have wanted to go for sure. I think he forgets what its all about, but after he is there, I think he enjoys himself. He was checking out the beautiful paint job Tim did on his bike (super sweet!!)
FIL hung out by RRB member BogMonster and Crew with their herd of aluminum Silver Kings/Hawthorne's (5 of them!!).
Once about 40 bikes showed up and we all stopped gabbing (ha, ha), we took off on our 5 mile route. Really fun to ride on some of the old wooden bridges.
What a great day and a cool site to see a bunch of people enjoying their old bikes in this older part of Mpls. The first timber and flour mills were built along here on the Mississippi River.
We had a bit of an incident but not a wipe-out (thankfully). This part of the trip has the orginal cobblestone street and it's really bumpy
. FIL hit enough of them and his feet came off the pedals and I heard a yelp behind me. The bike kept rolling straight and he got his feet back on and he wasn't going too fast to begin with but it was a bit scary. Then he just kept plugging along so I decided not to make an issue out of it. This shot was shortly after things quickly calmed down (pheww!) . I don't think it was too much of a big deal but it took him by surprise. The roughness of the cobblestones made the pic OOF.
We parked on the stone arch bridge again and it was awesome! This is the same spot I took the picture of 56T for the calendar. Lots of people out enjoying the weather and lots of them really liked our old bikes. It's like a rolling museum.
Heading back FIL lost his footing slightly on a bigger hill. He didn't get upset but I think I'll mount some larger BMX pedals that will keep his feet planted a little more. The Plymouth bridge is always fun (shot below) but on the downhill, FIL just coasted and wasn't slowing down. Then I panicked a bit and tried to yell for him to slow down but he couldn't hear me. At the bottom he braked just fine but it was a bit scary.
So we all parked our bikes for the contest and FIL started talking out how more fun his Harley and Square Four were than bikes. So I showed him the Wizzers a few people brought and he thought the were really cool (yeah, but he can't have one
). The motorized blue bike on the right is the first bike he has voted for other than his own, NICE.
Nickinator's Mom, Darcy won the grand prize. She said she was going to send the prize picture to the original owner and said it would make her really happy!!
There were some other RRB members there including first timers cthomps (Sweet Leaf BO10) and his wife. He brought an awesome pair of bikes and they tied each other for 3rd place. Congrats!!! #25 had grey metal flake paint job and orange powder coated skip tooth chain (too cool!!)
I have to give a shout out and big Thanks to the organizers for another great ride!!! They have some videos of past events on their youtube channel at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpawW-VzqN-0LH-EDNmB_TQ
So goes another month and I'm glad we got more warm weather and riding in. I did talk with my Wife about the incidents during the Fall Ride and we are not sure if FIL will be able to ride it anymore. He thinks like a kid but an accident at his age could be pretty bad. We think that the normal DQ runs with the flat (non big bumpy) streets should be okay but we need to keep monitoring him. I think the bigger pedals may help but any type of "suggestions" we make to him will quickly be forgotten. We may be thinking of having him wear a helmet again but he really hates it and it won't help his limbs from injury if he falls. We always have the next option of a 3 wheeler but that will be another adjustment and probably not riding up any bigger hills (slower but lots of pedaling). We'll play it by ear but for now he is still okay.
Well, on to October and Fall riding until the wet leaves get too crazy.
Thanks for Looking
Steve