It's beyond time to introduce Kara and, by extension, her daughter Evie. We have been dating for almost two years and living together for one. While there are many things I hope to say and share about our relationship, this post will focus on one aspect that I didn't go into the relationship expecting. The joy of riding bicycles together. Any believers in "bike magic" are probably chuckling right now.

I didn't want to put any expectations on our new relationship beyond learning to discover who we are. We do our best to practice grace and open communication with each other.

I didn't outright push her to ride a bicycle, but I did leave the door cracked open with some breadcrumbs leading in. So what made her step through that opening and go for a ride? I'm hoping we can get that answer in her own words, but I don't have to guess, and you probably don't have to guess either. The answer is simple. It was an opportunity to quality spend time with me. This is true for any healthy relationship.

It only took a few rides around the neighborhood to see that she didn't hate it. We built up to riding around the Boomer lake trail. A three-mile ride. Then we rode from the house to the Boomer lake trail and back. A five-mile ride. She was blown away by her own efforts. I knew she was hooked when she got up at 6 am to get a ride in by herself. Recording ride data and stats in Strava has also helped her motivation by seeing those numbers add up.

At the time, Kara was riding a borrowed fitness style road bike with skinny tires. Which aren't bad on pavement or paved trails, but they were not going to cut it for any rougher road surface, like gravel :) She was also ready to invest in her own bike.

I had just sold my gravel race bike and purchased the minivan of bikes. A used electric-assisted mid-tail cargo bike that allowed me to commute to work on and haul the kids to school on. There will be a future post sharing my full experience with the RadWagon, but to sum it up, riding an eBike is the same as a regular bike. You can cover more distance with the same amount of effort. Or you can arrive at your destination quicker. It's up to you. No different than an acoustic bicycle in my experience.

Kara is deceivingly full of adventure. She wanted to be able to do longer rides, which around here means riding on gravel roads. Go on some bike packing trips, which was another thing I had been wanting to do for years. So we started looking for a bicycle that could be a commuter and adventure bike. Seeing my eBike experience, she wanted to go that route as well.

We found the Aventon Pace 500 that had a small enough frame with room for large tires, enough speed to keep up with car traffic, and it was also within the budget.

One of the first long in town rides was to Theta Pond on campus for a picnic, then to Downtown, then to Couch Park, and back home for a total of seventeen miles. Stillwater got much smaller with our eBikes. The ability to also carry whatever we wanted without a weight penalty was tremendous. Especially when she discovered we had room for wine.

For me, this was also a new bicycle experience. Riding was no longer just about long distances and seeing how much pain I could ride through to get to the finish line. Riding was now about us and the moments spent together.

We found having a destination was also crucial to our experience. Our first destination ride took us to Keith's Bike Fort in Perkins, Oklahoma. This thirty-mile ride consisted of in-town roads with a long gravel stretch and a brief yet scary section of the highway.

At the Bike Fort, we enjoyed the best wood oven-baked pizzas in Payne County and learned about bike magic from Keith. It was a beautiful day together that solidified our love for bike adventures together.

It's been amazing to watch Kara grow as a cyclist. I have no doubt she could do whatever distance/time she wanted. She sets goals and achieves them. I'm just along for the ride. Like a bicycle concierge that makes sure she is set up for success.

This is just the beginning. Kara has already begun building up a second bike that will be the ultimate adventure (or whatever else she wants/needs it to be) eBike. I'm going to be so jealous. I hope I'll be able to keep up with her. ⚡️🚲+ 🍷=😻