Sprightly and sociable, members of the Bella Vista Bike Club get their kicks on winding
Ozarks highways
BELLA VISTA — A group here often debates whether it’s a bicycle club that socializes or a social club that bicycles.
That group is the Bella Vista Bike Club, which formed about 20 years ago. The youngest member is 49, but most are in their 60 s, 70 s and 80 s. Though the club has more than 30 members, only about a dozen regularly ride.
They ride with artificial joints; they’ve survived cancer; they have blown-out knees and back pains.
But they don’t let any of that stop them.
They keep in contact through e-mail, sharing birthdays, family news, cycling activities and photographs in regular newsletters. The friendship, potluck dinners and humor they share are as much a part of this club as is the exercise.
In mid-September, nine riders took off one Friday morning at 9 under overcast skies, in windy, 64-degree weather, for a 23-mile ride. They headed to Gravette, where they made their usual stop at a drugstore for coffee before heading back to Bella Vista.
They wear biking jerseys with the club’s logo, biking shorts, gloves and safety helmets. They ride road bikes that range from $ 300 steel-frame puddle jumpers to $ 4, 000 carbonfiber chariots.
They ride at an average speed of 13 miles per hour. They don’t ride in the rain, snow, fog or when temperatures drop below 40 degrees.
The group goes about 25 to 30 miles on each ride, averaging 75 to (maybe ) 100 miles a week. Some members log upward of 5, 000 miles a year.
Bob McBride, 86, has been riding a bike for seven decades. When he was 15, he used his bike to deliver prescriptions for a drugstore and then to deliver telegraphs for Western Union.
He moved from Chillicothe, Mo., to Bella Vista in 1988 and met another rider, Ed Pugsley. McBride was attracted to the town’s many golf courses, but he doesn’t play golf anymore.
“I like the sociability with other bicyclists,” says McBride, whose calves are sculpted. “It keeps me trim, and I can eat about anything I want to.”
McBride enjoys the club’s regular routes to Centerton and Pea Ridge and to Southwest City, Mo.
Pugsley started riding a bicycle in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1963, the same year he quit smoking. He had smoked for 25 of his 38 years then.
“I like to ride with somebody,” says Pugsley, who moved to Bella Vista in 1987. He circulated a bulletin in the summer of 1988, just a couple of months after he and McBride started riding together. They soon found more people to join them.
MEMBERS OF THE PACK When they ride, they spread out and go at their own paces. But they typically arrive at their destination within just a few minutes of one another, Pugsley says. After that Friday morning ride last month, George Heist, 71, planned to drive to St. Charles, Mo., just outside St. Louis. He was going to attend a Cubs-Cardinals baseball game on Saturday and then run a half-marathon early Sunday. His daughter was to run the full marathon. When Heist first joined the group, he had an old Schwinn. “These guys were leaving me in the dust,” he says. So he updated to a lighter bike with more speeds.
Another member also had to upgrade to keep up. Loretta Wilson, 75, loved bikes as a child but gave up somewhere along the way. For a while she did nothing for exercise. About 20 years ago she found cycling.
A neighbor who saw her riding down the street one day told her about the bike club.
“I had a real cheap bike, and I couldn’t keep up with them,” she says.
So she upgraded to a new model with handlebar and seat suspension and more gears so it became easier to go uphill.
Though bicycling is good exercise, it also connected her with this new group of friends. “We just have a lot of fun and everybody takes care of everybody else,” Wilson says.
They also give her a hard time about the time — “only once,” she says — that she showed up to ride and realized she’d left her bike at home. Others have forgotten their riding shoes many times, but she’s the only one of the bunch to have left behind her bicycle.
SHARING THE ROAD Many of their routes are on rural state highways, and they’re grateful to the motorists who share the road. The biggest problem is gravel trucks that don’t allow the cyclists much space. The riders have adjusted their routes as the area’s growing population has increased traffic. “A lot of those routes we were taking 20 years ago are really off limits because of the increased traffic,” Pugsley says. Pugsley says he likes it any time they cycle to a location where they rendezvous with their spouses and friends for a picnic and drinks. Then the motorists give the cyclists a ride back home. Club members often have potlucks to celebrate holidays — or “anytime we can think of something,” Wilson says with a laugh. In addition to their traditional rides, the 70-year-olds go on a 70-mile ride that also loops through Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. The first one back gets an award. A few weeks ago, four cyclists took an 80-mile ride through Grove and Jay, Okla., Southwest City, Mo., and Gravette. Some club members are also familiar with RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa ), a nearly 500-mile, seven-day tour sponsored by the Des Moines Register that draws more than 10, 000 cyclists. Pugsley rode the first RAGBRAI 34 years ago with just 300 riders, and then did it one other time. Heist has done it three times, and McBride has done it 10 times.
BEGINNERS WELCOME Heist says it’s never too late to take up cycling, unless someone has major physical problems. Beginners should start off slowly and work up to longer distances and more challenging courses.
“It’s like everything else. You’ve got to get out there and do it,” Heist says.
Heist recommends fast walking and jogging as additional training for cycling.
Three times a week, Pugsley leads an exercise class at his church, The Presbyterian Church of Bella Vista. Bike club members also meet there to start their rides.
For Pugsley, cycling has been a good alternative to running. His knees went out when he was in his 60 s. Heist agrees that cycling is much easier on joints. And it’s easier to coast on a bike than when running, he jokes.
This group is full of jokesters and laughter, particularly at the puns provided by Bill Cole. The 76-year-old retired English professor contributes to the intellectual and silly discussions among the group. A Houston native, he moved to Bella Vista from Iowa 11 years ago.
He says he has been riding for “years and years,” sometimes for transportation in addition to exercise. “It’s a very fine alternative to the automobile,” he says.
Dave and Glenda Wolfe, both 63, are new members of the club. He says he’s a “late bloomer,” having taken up cycling two years ago and swimming a year ago. He has been a runner for many years, and now participates in triathlons and duathlons, including recent events at Beaver Lake and Lake Wedington.
He considers cycling “really good exercise,” especially for his heart.
He also says he lost 15 pounds in about as many months after he started riding. And he has had a lot more energy than before.
People typically think of retirees as being pretty inactive.
“This is an energetic bunch of people,” he says, pointing to the 70- and 80-year-olds around him.
Glenda Wolfe started cycling a year ago and enjoys being outside.
“I have a hard time keeping up with them,” she says.
Jack Hillyer, a retired doctor, moved to Bella Vista 16 years ago from Dubai in the Middle East.
The 81-year-old is a cancer survivor, and he likes the group for the exercise, fellowship and fun. He also does tai chi once a week with his wife.
“I attribute part of my longevity to this club,” he says.
He has cracked three safety helmets — either he’s clumsy or it’s the potholes. His wife doesn’t want him riding alone, which isn’t a problem in this group.
“There’s always somebody that’ll ride with you,” he says. “I miss it when I can’t do it.”
Lois Ault moved to Bella Vista 26 years ago from Hawaii and has been cycling off and on for the last 20. She always enjoyed riding a bicycle and took it up regularly when she decided she needed some exercise.
Being part of the club suits this retired elementary school teacher. “I love the camaraderie, the support, the caring and the fun,” she says.
Ault played golf when she first arrived in Bella Vista, but not anymore.
“This is a lot less stressful and less expensive and a whole lot more fun,” she says of cycling. “And you can do it forever.”
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