“Not necessarily people who want to go out and ride 50 miles at a time. “We have seen the most amazing increase in recreational cycling,” Cottom said. Tuesday morning, a stone’s throw from the Lansing River Trail, knots of masked, socially distancing customers hovered around Spin Bicycle Shop in North Lansing, waiting on the sidewalk and in the street for service.Ĭo-owner Nicole Cottom said it’s like this at the shop all day. It’s no wonder that this spring, a lot of people are rediscovering the bicycle as a glorious way to shake off the stink of quarantine. Nothing in this world combines exercise, diversion, travel, philosophy and safely fleeting human contact better than biking. “First time on a bike in 40 years,” he said. He gracefully made the curve north of the Saginaw Street underpass, leaving room for a speedier biker heading south, and turned to me with a smile.

In mid-April, a few weeks into the quarantine era, a large man on a skinny bike wobbled along a downtown stretch of the Lansing River Trail with impressive dignity.

Trail bike riding in meridian township