You’re never too old to be excited about a new bike!

  

Old bike; old body

I broke down and did it. I bought an ebike. After promising myself I would wait until I was an old man of 75 before making such a purchase, I decided I was an old enough man at 71 that I could use the motivation, if not the assist, provided by these popular new-ish modes of transportation.

A few things convinced me. I’ve rented ebikes on the last three boat/bike trips I’ve taken, making the tours actually feel recreational rather than arduous. I found that last summer, I was struggling to do longer bike rides and uphills were a growing challenge. But perhaps what really helped me make up my mind was a comment made by a fellow rider. When I asked how he liked his ebike, he replied, “It makes me feel like I have the energy of a 12 year old again!” Just how many things will do THAT for you?

This will be the fourth new bike I’ve had in my 65+ years of biking. As I remember…

Coast King 1960

My first new bike was a 26” red, single speed, coaster-braking Coast King, purchased from the local Coast to Coast Hardware store around 1960. The bike cost $29. This bike lasted through my high school years. It was the bike that could be ridden quite easily with no hands - as a small group of us boys loved to do - as well as tackle the “rolly-polly” hills in my grandmother’s town. 

Oh, I have my sister to thank for my learning to ride a bike at all. I resisted practicing until Becky, three years younger than me, started to ride. I could not, of course, let a little girl learn to ride before I could!

Schwinn 1977

My second new bike I bought just out of college, having ridden a used 3-speed during my undergrad years. I splurged (making an amazing professional salary of about $8000 as a beginning teacher) on a large framed orange Schwinn Le Tour in 1977. The $165 was a steep price, but the 25” frame and 10 speeds lasted me 20 years. It took me on the first of my many week-long bike rides, traveled with me to Saudi Arabia, and supported a child seat behind the saddle that carried both my kids when they were small. 

Cannondale 1998

My third purchase was a blue large frame, 21 speed Cannondale H300 CAD road bike in 1998 - the bicycle I have been riding for the past 25 years. I think I paid about $500 for it ($20 a year - not bad.) It’s taken me on multiple week and multi-week bike trips, including two in Europe, being disassembled and boxed to take as airline baggage. Except for the frame, I think I have replaced about every part on it over the years. 

Gazelle 2024

My new bike is the one pictured above, purchased from a local bike shop for about what I paid for my first new car in 1976.* It’s a blue “type 1” ebike with a 70 mile range, upright riding position, and a large step-through frame. Gazelle bikes get good reviews, and as ebikes go, it is fairly light at 50 pounds. I will also be purchasing a new bike rack for the car hitch that will carry this thing. Picking it up sometime this week once it is assembled. Our strange Minnesota weather is looking good for a weekend break-in ride.

The experts say that money will make you happy if you use it purchase experiences rather than things. I agree with that. So far my bike purchases have allowed me to have experiences that I would not otherwise have had without them. Hoping my new bike results in the same.

* I once heard a statement that if you pay for a cheaply made product, the happiest you will be will be the day you purchase it. If you buy quality, the saddest you will be will be the day you purchase it and get happier thereafter.

Hoping the love of biking will be multi-genersational 

See also

The lure of the ebike

Two kinds of bikers

Bike Northwoods

10 photos from the Czech Republic bike trip

Allora! Hiking and biking in Italy

Cycling the backroads of SE Asia

Riding the Katy Trail

Biking Holland

 Some Lessons Learned from Bicycling:

1. It's usually uphill and against the wind. (Murphy's Law of Bicycling)

2. Most big hills that look impossible are usually a series of small hills that are possible.

3. I've never met a hill I couldn't walk up.

4. It's better to shift to a lower gear than to stop all together.

5. Sometimes it's nice to be able to have equipment to blame things on.

6. You really can't make your own weather.

7. Coasting feels good, but you don't get much exercise doing it.

8. A beer at the end of a long day of riding tastes better than a beer when just sitting around (or at breakfast, I'm guessing).

9. Don't drink at lunch time and expect to enjoy the afternoon.

10. Bike helmets are a sure sign that natural selection is still a force of nature.

11. The five minutes putting air in your tires at the beginning of the day is time well spent.

12. There will always be others who are faster and riders who are slower.

13. Watching as old people zip by you should be encouraging, not discouraging.

14. Too often we quit because our spirit fails, not our legs or lungs.

15. Spouses (or entire families) who dress alike should not expect the rest of us to consider them normal human beings.

16. Too much padding between you and a bike seat is impossible.

17. Before you wear Spandex in public, look at your backside in the mirror. Please.

18. The happiest people are the ones who consider life a ride, not a race.

19. The more expensive the gear, the higher the expectations.

20. The 500 calories burnt exercising do not compensate for the 2000 calories from beer drunk celebrating your accomplishment.

21. Everyone can look buxom on a bicycle - guys included.

22. You always feel the headwind, but never the tailwind. But it's there.

23. Most forms of travel involve some degree of discomfort. But keep moving anyway.

24. Cows always have the right of way.

25. You will eventually dry out even after the biggest downpour.

Belize and Guatemala: Playing with one’s peers

oo 

Lamani Mayan site

My friend Heidi and I spent 10 days in Belize and Guatemala on a Road Scholar tour. Rated “spirited”, the 13 participants hiked, swam, crawled, and snorkeled with not a lot of downtime. Unlike many of my past trips, I was in my own age group with others ranging (in my estimate) from 65 to 75 years old. I was proud that, other than the guides, I was the only male who still had hair on his legs.

Supper with our travel companions

Some highlights:

Climbing a temple 

Exploring Mayan ruins. Besides the massive Guatemalan site of Tikal, we also spent time hiking through Lamani and Yaxha sites. While not as extensive as Tikal, the smaller sites were quieter and proved to be just as interesting. Our excellent guides led us on hikes and encouraged all of us to climb to the top of a pyramid or two to gain a commanding view of the region. One guide recommended the book Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston and I read while on the tour. Had I read it before the trip, I may have been more careful when strolling through the jungle. 

 Tackling the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave. The program describes the activity:

Jungle and river walk/hike about 45 minutes. At cave entrance swim a short distance through the mouth of the cave to enter site. Cave floor mostly wet/rocky. Some wading in ankle-to-shoulder-deep water required. In fragile sections, participants will need to remove shoes so as not to damage the cave floor and/or artifacts. … This arduous but rewarding activity will begin with 45 minutes of hiking that includes river crossings and wading in knee-high water. Once at the cave entrance, we will swim through the opening and start a 3.5-hour journey in the cave. This activity will require endurance, strength, agility and balance. 

Yup - the description nailed it. Cameras were not allowed so to see photos of this amazing place, you’ll need to visit the web. What is not mentioned are the extremely narrow passages that less-limber tall people like me found challenging. It was quite the experience!

 Not my photo but a good idea of the cave experience. Except it was much darker

Snorkeling the cayes. We spent two days in Placencia on the coast, taking short drives each day to the harbor where we boarded a small boat that took us to islands (Laughing Bird and Moho) from which we snorkeled. I was saddened by the amount of bleaching shown in the coral formations compared to my last snorkel in Costa Rica in 2019. The wind was strong both days, the boat rides rough, and the shores comprised of sharp rock and gravel. My dad would have questioned my judgment to do this.

Checking out the fins and masks

Enjoying the wildlife. Over the course of the trip, we saw monkeys, iguanas, bats, crocodiles, coatimundi, and lots and lots of birdlife. One of my biggest delights was hearing howler monkeys emit their ferocious roar at both Mayan ruins and at our lodging. You’d swear you were about to be attacked and eaten by a very, very large animal. At the small Belize Zoo - devoted to providing homes for rescue animals - we also saw tapirs, jaguars, and other endemic beasts.

 

Our cabana at Jaguar Creek

Staying in ecolodges. Two of the four resorts we stayed at billed themselves as eco-lodges. My favorite was Jaguar Creek. With a feeling of being deep in the Belizian jungle, our “bungalow” was reached by a wooden walkway, had fans but no AC, no TV or phone, and mosquito netting over the bed. Howler monkeys provided our lullaby each night. 

Crossing the swinging bridge, Ixpanpajul Nature Park

The trip has other interesting aspects including a hike in a park with high swinging bridges, a visit to a botanical garden, and a foot crossing over the Belize/Guatemala border. Our meals were interesting (rice, beans, and chicken 80% of the time) and our van transportation comfortable, if rather long some days. Our fellow travelers were a congenial group with no stragglers or trouble-makers. I guess most of us read the program description before signing on.

Sign at Belize Zoo.

I’m not terribly sure I need to go back to this area, but I am glad I did go this time. (I am up to 62 countries visited now.) There will be more Road Scholar trips in my future.

Sunrise in Placencia

More photos here.

Tikal from the top

Traditions burned into memory

AP Photo Fire destroys the historic Lutsen Lodge. Star Tribune, February 6, 2024.

“It's all happenin' at the Polar Bear lounge”

My friend and I along with our sons would sing this original ditty each time we entered the bar at Lutsen Resort. Just outside the entrance was the very large stuffed polar bear after which the lounge was named. Cary and I would order beers; the boys would order Roy Rogers. And we all looked quite manly perched on our bar stools, quaffing our pre-dinner cocktails. We were "Les Hommes du Nord"!

A visit to the Polar Bear Lounge was just one of the many traditions we established on our yearly spring trips to the North Shore. Often taking advantage of the long weekend provided by school Easter break, Cary and his two sons and I with my one son would stay in cabin G2 in the Sea Villas, just a mile or so from the lodge. The villas sat on the shoreline of Lake Superior, with pounding waves often providing a dramatic view from the dining room windows. I got the bedroom. Cary got the living room couch. The boys got the loft. We usually swam at the pool. The boys would scramble over the shoreline rocks. Given whether Easter came earlier or later, we skied the nearby resort or hiked one of the many sections of the Superior Hiking Trail. We took meals at Blue Fin, the Angry Trout, or Coho Cafe.

But Easter morning breakfast was always eaten at the Lutsen Lodge where we could indulge in the hearty buffet while looking at the foot bridge crossing the Poplar River. On the shore, trout fishermen cast their lures, often successfully. Not only did we eat breakfast each Sunday in the Lusen restaurant, we sat at the same table each time. Except one morning, the table had already been taken by another family. The boys were not happy.

Their unhappiness was a vivid reminder of just how important tradition can be to people -especially children. Traditions are reassurance that in a quickly changing world, some things will remain the same: the fun we have with our friends, the love of our parents, the comforts of a small cabin visited but once a year.

Like many other Minnesotans, I was deeply saddened to learn of the fire that destroyed the Lutsen Lodge this week. The polar bear, the buffet table, the game room, the log paneled lobby - all now ashes.

But memories, strengthened by tradition, cannot be incinerated. I hope Lutsen will be rebuilt in a way that provides happy experiences for young and future wilderness explorers. 

 

Les Hommes du Nord (circa 1991)