My 21-Mile Birthday Ride on My New Aventon Bike — with Kyle

My 21-Mile Birthday Ride on My New Aventon Bike — with Kyle

What better way to celebrate my birthday than with a 21-mile ride on my new Aventon Pace 5!

My son-in-law Kyle led the way from Folsom on a beautiful ride around the iconic American River, giving me the perfect opportunity to put my new e-bike through its paces.

On our return, we crossed the historic truss bridge into Folsom, stopped at the Johnny Cash Trail’s artistic guitar memorial for a photo, and continued across the impressive Johnny Cash Bridge — a fitting finale to a memorable birthday ride.

The story of this bike actually began with my longtime biking partner and friend Bill Rothenberg. Bill first spotted the colorful Koi Aventon at Sports Basement in the Pruneyard in San Jose and encouraged me to give it a test ride. I liked it so much that it eventually became my birthday gift to myself — and a bike I can keep in Folsom and enjoy whenever we visit the kids and grandkids.

And Bill had one more birthday surprise. He secretly gave my wife Cecile a framed gift to present to me on my birthday, featuring a few familiar and notable faces offering their own humorous words of encouragement — including, appropriately enough, “Keep riding, Dennis!”