By Allison Perrine
HOLMDEL – Holmdel resident Dena Orfanitopoulos wanted to make a donation in her grandfather’s name to Monmouth Conservation Foundation to help build a park in Sea Bright.
After all, it’s a place where 95-year-old Edgar Badan loves to ride his bike – an activity he partakes in daily for about two hours at a time.
“As a principle, I don’t come back ’til I have 20 miles,” the smooth-skinned cyclist said in a melodic accent with a gentle smile.
It’s a passion he’s grown to love over the years. It started in the streets of Switzerland where Badan grew up, when bikes were “the only transportation” available before the war. His father was a wood worker or “wagon maker” who built various pieces of equipment, including ladders. Badan and his brother were tasked with delivering those ladders and did so on wheels; Edgar would cycle in the back, his brother in the front, and the two would hoist a ladder onto their shoulders and cycle from one village to the next to deliver their father’s homemade wooden equipment.
That tradition continued until Badan was about 16 or 17 years old when he started working at a local hotel. The job consumed his weekends and left minimal time for cycling. A few years later, he found himself occupied by something else – a young Canadian woman named Noella who would later become his wife of 65 years and the mother of their two children, Andre and Nathalie, who were born in Canada.
In 1955 the family moved to the U.S. Their first home was in New York City where Badan picked up his cycling habit again. He would often ride with other cyclists and bike clubs; for eight years, he made an annual voyage from Manhattan to Montauk – a 125-mile trip. But his favorite place to cycle was in Central Park not far from his home.
“Every weekend it was something,” he said.
Some years later, Badan moved to Lakewood to the Four Seasons 55-plus retirement community. It was there that he started his own bike club. In the summers, he spends time in Florida and has a group of friends who like to ride their bikes with him. And while Badan is “always the oldest” on group rides, “he can go the farthest,” said Orfanitopoulos.
Badan now resides in Holmdel with his daughter Nathalie and her husband Demetrois. They and other family members go on bike rides with Badan on weekends.
Well, “we try,” Orfanitopoulos said with a laugh. “He goes for a long time. He’ll go for two hours in the morning; he’ll go all over,” she said. “We go by the Henry Hudson Trail or Thompson Park.”
Badan has five or six bikes, but lately he often reaches for his black Trek when heading out on his morning routes. He does own one electric bike that Nathalie and Demetrois bought for him, but he doesn’t use it.
“He refuses to use it. He says that if he uses that, he’s going to lose his legs,” Orfanitopoulos said.
In his spare time, Badan enjoys watching tennis or golf, spending time on Facebook and playing sol- itaire on his computer. But his real passion is cycling. When asked what he loves about the activity the most, he said “the freedom of the view.”
“I see things that I would not see,” he said.
As Orfanitopoulos noted, “When you ride in your car you might drive the same road, but when you ride the bike, you might see something brand new.”
“That’s it!” Badan exclaimed. “I explore.”
This article originally appeared in the Sept. 30 – Oct. 6, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
