Cycling with Visitors

Okay, so here's the deal: if you come visit us at our house, we're going to ask if you want to ride a bike. We're bike-nuts, we have enough bikes and helmets for everyone to be outfitted, and we remember enough what it's like to be at the beginning stage that we stick to slow speeds and short distances (no professionals here!).
At Christmastime, Andy's parents rode our two folding bikes on a trip around our subdivision to the little neighborhood park.

But there's no pressure: if you aren't interested, we'll save a bike adventure for another time. We just find that most of our houseguests will respond to the bike riding question with a "Hmm, sure!" and that most folks are too shy or worry too much about their two-wheel inexperience to request a test-ride. So let us ask, and feel free to say no.
Our most recent visitor was game for a park trip by bike, even though like my sister, she had not ridden a bike since probably her elementary school years!

Jamie and I have been friends since junior high school, and I was so excited for her to visit with us for the weekend. She came up solo for some "girl time," but when she looked around at Andy's kickass custom-made workbench and beer-brewing setup, she bit her lip and pondered whether she should have encouraged her husband to come on this trip, too! On our sunny Sunday morning, Jamie buckled her helmet and test-rode both of my full-size bikes to see which one felt more comfortable to her. She elected to ride the xtracycle Radish, with its easy upright handlebar positioning and step-through frame, and carefully wove her way up and down our residential street, managing to relax enough to smile for Andy's camera. She set aside her bike-newbie jitters the longer we rode, although at one point on our trip she said, "You guys are crazy: taking pictures and riding with only one hand!" It's okay not to want to pop any wheelies just yet.
Our trip was through residential streets to the big city park that's only one mile away: a good stretch of the legs that takes less than 10 minutes to complete, with no challenging hills for riders with less experience. I rode alongside Jamie on my hybrid bike, the one that Andy upgraded with comfortable new components for my birthday. In addition to all his previous work, this winter he also installed twist-grip shifters on the swept-back handlebars, which make changing gears a quick flick of the wrist, rather than the previous shifters where I had to take time and really push hard to switch gears.

Andy and Alton rode to the park on Andy's Brompton folding bike, with Alton's little balance bike strapped to the front of the frame for fun park time. Once we were at the park, Jamie and I locked up our bikes to walk the trails while Alton zipped ahead of us on his balance bike, and Andy scoped out the terrain on his folding bike (at Alton's request: he wanted to ride bikes with his daddy).

We reveled in the sunny, warm (60s!) day and communed with nature. Alton was so delighted when we spotted this banana slug slowly cruising across the trail.

Farther into the park, the water level in the creeks had risen to cover the rest of the paved trail, so we couldn't walk or ride any farther. That didn't stop Andy and Alton from hopping on the Brompton together to do some doughnuts in the shallow water.

Alton spent some time on the swings before our group split up to multi-task: Andy, Alton and Jamie rode the mile back home, while I rode a mile in the other direction to hit up Subway to get sandwiches for everyone!

And despite a little bit of saddle soreness from being unaccustomed to sitting on a bike, Jamie asserted that the bike ride to and from the park was an adventure for her and her favorite part of the day.
So future visitors: keep it in mind! Which one of our bikes are you dying to try out? Where would you like to go on a ride? If you're too nervous, we can work with you to make you comfortable, or save the bike ride for another time altogether. So far, I'm full of enthusiasm for our varied roster of cycling visitors and the diverse types of bike trips they've logged:
--Julie: My East Coast friend who suggested that we ride to the post office to ship home the 10+ pounds of books she'd acquired on her trip to Portland's Powell's Bookstore.
--Grammy and Grandpa: Andy's parents Jennifer and Charlie hopped upon the nimble little folding bikes (as my cousin Louise said: they can turn on a dime!) for a zip around the block in December.
--Aunt Cici, Uncle Julio, and baby cousin *S: My sister and her husband quizzed us about kid-carrying bike options for their almost-one-year-old, and got to test out one of our bike seats when we all rode to the park. They ended up getting the same baby bike seat for their bike back home!
--Louise: My cousin Louise, reacquainting herself with riding on the preschool dropoff, and happy to burn off calories on a long (more than 13 miles!) ride with me.
--Jamie: Back on a bike for the first time since grade school, proud of her successful trip to and from the local park.

Will you be next?