Jeff Adkins / Dispatch Jane Heins, left, and Kathleen Boston ride their bikes across a bridge on Amity Pike near Plain City on a recent outing with Columbus Outdoor Pursuits.

Wheel impressing

Cycling grannies find they have miles of common ground

Wednesday, May 3, 2000

Nancy J. Smeltzer
Dispatch Staff Reporter

In biker parlance, granny gears are for wimps. But a group of central Ohio women who call themselves the Granny Gears are anything but wimpy.

The granny gear is the third ring on a bicycle crank that helps the rider pedal up hills.

The Granny Gears are women between the ages of 55 and 75 who have a common passion for bicycling.

They met eight years ago on a seven-day Ohio ride and camping trip. In a caravan of about 3,000 people they found each other and formed a friendship that has evolved into weekly lunches and updates on their lives, interests and challenges.

Aside from a few shared activities, they each have their own projects. If no one joins them, they go alone. That's how they met Evelyn Murray, 72, of Clintonville, who thought a weeklong bike trip sounded like fun, signed up and went along.

"We're very independent women," said Jan Staats, 62, of the Northeast Side. "We're not somebody's wife or somebody's girlfriend. We are ourselves. We have evolved to be what we are."

The Granny Gears are proud of their achievements, and that includes the families they have raised. Among them, they have 26 children, 43 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. They began climbing their personal Mount Everests after their children were grown. For them, aging is an opportunity not a nemesis.

Jeff Adkins / Dispatch The Granny Gears, from left, are Kathleen Boston, Jane Heins, Laurel Tigner, Jan Staats, Evelyn Murray and Ellen Baumgartner. The women bicyclists share a love for life and the world around them.

Laurel Tigner of the North Side, who at 71 bikes, hikes, backpacks, camps, cross-country skis and dances, first tried windsurfing about 11 years ago.

Her daughter, Gretchen, 37, recalled how her mom said it was "really hard."

"She doesn't think in terms of what she can't do. She just does."

Kathleen Boston, 67, of Clintonville returned to college when she was 41 and received bachelor's and master's degrees in social work. Her mantra is "you're never too old."

Boston used to knit and crochet. "Now I don't do much inside the house," she said.

Ellen Baumgartner, 66, of Worthington began riding a bicycle when she was in her 50s. "I'm much more active now than I was in my 40s," she said.

Tigner went on her first 5-mile bike ride when she was 56. Since then, she and Jane Heins, 64, of Upper Arlington have biked and camped in Europe, Australia and Asia.

What amazes them is that they are going places and doing things they never thought possible. Tigner recalled seing a picture of the Great Wall of China when she was in the third grade.

"In 1992, I actually stood on the Wall of China," she said. "It's like telling me at the age of 100 I'll be flying to the moon."

Many of them attended schools that didn't have sports programs for women. Or if they did, they were intramural.

Maybe that's why the women are more inclined to test their physical mettle. The talk at their weekly lunches is a barrage of stories about biking in sleet, hiking with 50 pounds of gear on their backs, camping two weeks in Australia and hurtling head first over handlebars.

Jeff Hinckley / Dispatch Heins sings during a rehearsal of the Scioto Valley Chorus at Northwest Presbyterian Church in Dublin.

Tigner and Staats spent two weeks backpacking on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Between them they had 102 pounds of gear.

Heins took her 15-year-old nephew on a bike trip across Ohio. After several hours of nonstop cycling, he posed a question: "Don't you guys ever stop?"

Baumgartner rides her bike all winter and uses it for errands around town as well transportation to the Clintonville Community Market where she volunteers.

Heins started a ride on a chilly November morning. It was marred by an unexpected blast of freezing rain. She returned home safely but "glazed."

Tigner suffered a concussion when she fell off her bike several years ago.

"What do you do when you're out on the bike and it's raining," someone once asked Murray.

"Get wet," she told them with a laugh that gives an insight to spirit that can't be dampened by the weather.

"A bed-and-breakfast tour is an old folks tour," three of the women said after telling of a 15-day trip from Melbourne to Sidney, Australia, where it rained 13 of the days.

"Although we barely knew each other, we certainly earned each other's respect," Staats said.

They, too, find inspiration in other people. They rallied behind 90-year-old Doris Haddock, known as Granny D, who walked from the Pacific to the Atlantic to call attention to the need for campaign-finance reform.

In February, 7 of the Granny Gears went to Washington to march the final steps with the woman who had been walking since Jan. 1, 1999.

"She's my hero," Boston said.

The women, too, have been inspirational. Boston encouraged a former co-worker at the Ohio Department of Health to get back on her bicycle.

Murray showed her 12-year-old grandson, Jerry Petroskey, how much fun bicycling could be when she took him on his first long ride from Upper Arlington to Sawmill Road for doughnuts. When it rained, they ducked into a bowling alley and bowled a few games until the weather cleared.

"She was an adventurous grandma," said Petroskey, who is now 32 and lives in Las Vegas. "She was full of life, and fun to hang out with."

The women marvel a bit at the things they are doing, but tip their hats to many other people their age who are equally active.

Greg A. Cooper / Dispatch Ellen Baumgartner works the cash register at Clintonville Community Market for Darcy Hartman and her son, Kelton Vaeth. Baumgartner's varied interests include volunteering at the market and working with Simply Living, a group that advocates ecology and economy in all aspects of life.

"We are blessed at having good health and we're working to maintain our good health," Staats said. "We are fortunate."

Their interests are varied. Tigner is a folk dancer; Heins sings with the Scioto Valley Chorus; Murray volunteers at Maple Grove United Methodist Church. Staats works with the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Boston is a volunteer at the Franklin Park Conservatory. They are all "bag ladies" at the Picnic at the Pops. The list goes on.

The women have retired from such careers as nursing, social work, medical technology and computers.

Tigner, who developed computer skills during her career with the Ohio Department of Taxation, recently learned to design Web pages. She made a page for the Granny Gears (www.geocities.com/grannygear01/ and has given each woman her own page.

"We are the modern woman," they said. "And we change our own tires."

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