Recent Rides

The kids and I have been on several rides lately. Because of their different sizes (and my affinity for bikes) we have multiple tandems. The original tandem is a 2009 Cannondale Road tandem. This is the one my son has named the Unity Bike. My wife and I bought this used in the beginning of 2012. She and I rode it regularly when we lived in Georgia, but we have not done much riding since we moved to Baltimore in 2017; childcare became much more difficult. When we were in Georgia I bought another Cannondale, this one a mid-90s Los Dos, but that bike was stolen about a year after we moved to Maryland. We replaced that bike with two Co-Motion Periscope tandems, probably from the mid-aughts. One was a Periscope Scout and the other a Periscope Hammerhead. I ended up selling the Hammerhead a year or so later, but we still have the Scout. That's the bike my son and I use for getting around town. It has platform pedals, flat bars, and fenders, so it's pretty good as a run-about, though I am fixing it up to be a sort of gravel/touring tandem for us to take on some mixed terrain. We have one other tandem, a Bike Friday Triplet/Tandem convertible. My wife and daughter and I have taken it for rides in its triplet form, but right now it's set up as a tandem for just my daughter and me. 

The Cannondale is the bike my son and I ride the most these days. We try to go out 2-3 times a week for rides as short as 15 miles to as long as 40 miles. Last week we went to the B &A Trail near BWI airport. We rode out about 12 miles and then back. It's a flat tarmac trail that passes through some pleasant communities between Glen Burnie and Annapolis. It is definitely best to go during the week because it can get a little too crowded on weekends. A little earlier we took the bike to the NCR Trail a little north of Baltimore. This is a flat crushed gravel trail, which can also get crowded on the weekends. This is a beautiful trail that runs along the Big Gunpowder Falls. We really like to start at the trailhead off of Ashland Rd and ride north to one of the stops along the way, say Monkton. Then we'll hop off the trail to ride on some country roads and loop back around to the trail around Sparks. The trail itself is pretty flat, but the country roads have some nice rolling hills and even a few steeper ones. 

The rail trails are nice, but by far the most common riding I do with my son starts and stops at our house. We have several routes in and around Baltimore. We have a route (~27 miles) that takes us south to the harbor and then west to Leakin Park along the Gwynn's Falls Trail and then back home via Mt Washington along the Jones Falls Trail. We have another route (~38 miles) that takes us to the Grist Mill Trail in Pataspsco Valley State Park and then along the Trolley Trail #9  in Catonsville and back through Carroll Park in southwest Baltimore. We also have a bunch of routes that just take us through many of the neighborhoods and parks in Baltimore. My daughter and I stick a little closer to home. We ride the Bike Friday around Lake Montebello and the Herring Run Park. Usually our rides are in the 4-7 mile range. Since our rides are so short, we like to ride as often as we can, so some weeks that might be 4-5 times. The more I ride with both my kids the easier it is to get out the door, especially with my daughter on our 45-minute afternoon jaunts. In addition to all of the parenting benefits and so on, we just have a great time. My daughter and I often see wildlife near Herring Run. There are a ton of deer, including a bunch of cute fawns, and there is a neighborhood groundhog we see almost every afternoon in the same spot. We've seen a beaver and some snakes and lots of birds.

Both my kids ride with clipless shoes on SPD pedals. This is a lot more convenient since I don't have to worry about their feet slipping off of the pedals. That's not really an issue with my son, but it certainly was for my daughter. I use clipless pedals too on the Cannondale, but not on the other tandems. On the Co-Motion the stoker pedals are dual sided, so if we go on longer rides my son can clip in, but if we're just running across town he can wear regular shoes or sandals. On the BF in triplet configuration, my wife uses toe clips, which work fine, but she prefers clipless pedals when it's just the two of us. On the Cannondale both captain and stoker have Brooks saddles, but only the captain has a Brooks on the Co-Motion, which is partially why my son prefers the Cannondale. Admittedly, the stoker saddle on the Co-Motion is not very comfortable. On the BF we just use the stock saddles, which are not particularly comfortable, but are fine for rides under an hour.

We have been going out on as many rides as the weather permits. It is pretty common, on my days off of work, to do a long ride with my son in the morning and a short ride with my daughter in the late afternoon. My wife and I also take our daughter on a bunch of hikes at the various trails along the Little Gunpowder Falls and around the Loch Raven reservoir in the afternoons; my son hates hiking in the summer because of the bugs and the still humid air, but he goes with us when it's cooler and less buggy. The whole family is a real delight.

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