For Mother's Day, here's a tribute to some moms who ride bikes,
and a look at how cycling fits with their roles as parents.
A
lot depends on the children's ages. Trailers make it possible to take babies,
toddlers or preschoolers along, and "trail-a-bike" attachments -- adding a
wheel, seat, pedals and handlebars on the back to turn a single bike into a
tandem of sorts -- are good for older children who aren't ready to go it alone.
Marie Kolanda of Sterling, starting when her daughter was 11
months old, used a trailer to take the baby on seacoast rides where they lived
in New Hampshire, and on family vacations on Martha's Vineyard.
"She was good," said Kolanda, 39. "We'd pack her up with goodies, juice and
water, books and games -- and lather her up with sunscreen -- and she'd be happy
in there for hours. A lot of times she'd just fall asleep."
Kolanda and her husband would take turns pulling the extra weight. When they
moved to Sterling and MacKenzie was 2, Kolanda's goal was to bike up the Maple
Street hill without stopping, 30-pound trailer and all. "We did it once, toward
the end of the summer," she said.
Last summer Kolanda was
pregnant with her second child and didn't bike. Now she's waiting for
7-month-old Kenan to grow into a helmet before she'll put him in the trailer;
the smallest sizes typically fit at 12 months, and children have to be able to
hold their heads up.
Meanwhile, MacKenzie, going on 4, has her
own wheels -- a tricycle. "She's raring to go for a two-wheeler," Kolanda said,
but needs more practice pedaling, braking and steering.
"I want
to look into one of those (trail-a-bike attachments) when she has some two-wheel
experience," Kolanda said.
Nanyee Keyes of Acton, a physician
at Bolton Family Medicine, said her family does "ice cream trips" by bike,
taking all-day outings of up to 25 miles to Concord or Carlisle with her son,
13, and daughter, 9. Her husband, Philip, used to pull their daughter in a
buggy. When she got too heavy, the family had to wait a year or two until she
could keep up on her own bike (actually a hand-me-down from her brother).
The Keyes' son also has helped maintain trails as a volunteer
with the New England Mountain Bike
Association; Philip Keyes is executive director. Now the couple has an
off-road tandem, which "is a blast," said Nanyee, 37. "Our son can keep up, but
not our daughter."
For some mothers, cycling isn't always kid
stuff. Lisa Monsen of Clinton goes for road rides every other weekend, when her
children, ages 2 and 3 1/2, are at their father's, and during two-hour lunch
breaks from her job as receptionist at Bolton Family Medicine -- sometimes with
Dr. Keyes.
Monsen used to have a child seat for the back of her
road bike but said she was never really comfortable with that. "I have a
mountain bike now and would like to get a trailer" for more stability, she said.
"I don't ride every day or every week," said Monsen, 32,
although she has been a "serious" rider for 10 years and enjoys long tours. "I'm
thinking of doing the Boston-New York AIDS Ride this year or another charity
ride," she said.
Last year she and boyfriend Mark Reid did a
two-day, 150-mile fund-raising bike ride from Boston to Provincetown for the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Cycling is "a lot of fun," she said, "and
you don't have to be a Skinny Minnie, either -- you can be any shape and ride a
bike."
Peg Bissell of Templeton has her son, now 20, to thanks
for getting her into mountain biking. Five years ago, she had a new cross bike
with knobby tires but no one to go off-road with her. As a Mother's Day treat,
son Kyle took her riding on the trails at Barre Falls Dam.
"I
was kind of anxious. As a kid, I was always on asphalt," said Bissell, 45. The
trail was "just exhilarating. I giggled the whole way," she said. "That was a
turning point in terms of my attitude about biking. On-road had gotten a little
boring, and uncomfortable."
Bissell, in turn, turned her roadie
husband on to the dirt scene, and now they ride almost every weekend, on the
Barre-Templeton rail trail, in state parks, "anyplace that has cross-country
skiing," she said.
Judy Kane of Auburn, mother of four and
grandmother of eight, started biking with her husband, Dennis, when their
youngest children were pre-teens. Back then, cycling was an escape from hectic
duties such as driving the children to ballgames. "It gave us some very nice
special time together away from the kids," said Kane, 55.
The
Kanes bought three of their children mountain bikes for graduation gifts, and
now they take three-generation off-road rides during family vacations in
Jamaica, Vt., and on the Cape. The youngest grandchild, age 5 months, went on
his first bike trailer ride last month on the Minuteman Bikeway in Arlington,
strapped into his car seat. His sister, age 3, rode along on a two-wheeler for
two miles.
"It's really nice to see something we love so much
and value so much carried on through the generations," Kane said.
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