Rolling from Cahaba

Outfitted with a black and yellow cycling kit, Wayne Spooner walked through the motions to prepare for his traditional Tuesday evening bike ride. 

He strapped on his helmet, pulled gloves over his hands and slid two freshly filled bottles of electrolyte-enhanced water into slots on the frame of his bicycle. 

Spooner was ready to roll. 

Alongside two riding partners, Leslie Ledbetter and David Langford, he clipped into his pedals and veered left out of the Cahaba Cycles parking lot in Trussville. Spooner, 61, has repeated a similar routine twice a week for the past five years. 

In 2012, he started the Tuesday and Thursday evening bike rides that depart from the cycle shop at 5:30 p.m., and he has served as the ride leader ever since.

“I thought it was good for Trussville. I thought it was good for the bike shop. I thought it was good for me,” said Spooner, who estimated that he cycles about 6,000 miles per year. “It was a good thing for all of us to promote it here.”

Spooner, a Trussville resident, used to trek to Mountain Brook a couple of nights per week to cycle with groups that took off from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Crestline Village. 

Now, Spooner’s group meets up with the Mountain Brook crew midway through their respective rides. 

“I work here in Trussville, and I decided to start doing this from this location because I’m right here,” he said. 

Counting Spooner, three to four cyclists typically embark from the Cahaba Cycles location. The group, on average, covers a 20- to 30- mile route that winds through Trussville, Irondale, Leeds and part of Mountain Brook. It takes a couple of hours to complete the ride, which can be fairly hilly. 

And that’s OK with Ledbetter. Spooner called his fellow Trussville cyclist “an incredible hill climber.”

“When you’re a little kid riding a bike, it’s just so much fun,” Ledbetter said. “You forget about that until you get back on a bike when you’re grown up.”

Ledbetter began riding with the group about a year and a half ago and has since evolved into a skilled cyclist. She even qualified for a race in France this August. 

“She’s done real well on a bicycle,” Spooner said. “She fell in love with it.”

But qualifying for an overseas competition and riding 6,000 miles per year aren’t compulsory requirements for those who want to join the group on its twice-weekly treks. Spooner labels them “no-drop rides,” meaning that if somebody falls behind, the group will stop to wait for that person. 

Experience and stamina, however, are advantageous traits. 

Spooner and his crew average anywhere from 14 to 20 mph, depending on the terrain, and spurts of up-tempo intervals are sprinkled throughout. 

“It has a real positive effect on everybody’s lives from a standpoint of physical fitness,” Spooner said. 

He certainly has found this to be true. Spooner in October 2016 was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma skin cancer, but he has continued to cycle throughout the ups and downs of treatment. In May, he biked 260 miles during a trip to Italy. 

The Birmingham Bicycle Club, of which Spooner is a longtime member, is holding a cross-state ride in his honor this September. 

“Cycling has been a lifesaver for me, as far as things I’ve been able to do with it and the friends I’ve been able to make,” Spooner said. 

Cahaba Cycles is located at 183 Main St. For more information, call 655-6090.