Son riding bike, maintaining grand airs (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
song cycle
'airs' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'son riding bike maintaining grand' is the wordplay.
'riding' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (in a down clue, some letters go on top of others).
'bike' becomes 'cycle' (synonyms).
'maintaining' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are held or maintained).
'grand' becomes 'g' (G is short for grand as in a thousand).
'son'+'cycle'='soncycle'
'soncycle' placed around 'g' is 'SONG CYCLE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for song cycle that I've seen before include "Series of compositions" , "representation of Daisy's transport?" , "Vocal work" , "Series of musical settings" , "Winter journey, for example" .)