GrannyGear

You can tell a "good", pull out the stops ride, at least in spring/summer, because your face gets crusty. Got back from the Delta Metric, an organized ride in the San Joaquin Delta--lots of greenery (don't laugh, this is CA where much is burnt brown in a few months) and little farm cottages covered in rose trellises.

Anyway, was talking to the ride photographer who's been at it for 30 years. Done RAGBRAI, BRAG, etc. He was telling me that ride directors tell him that organized ride participation, except for stellar rides like the Markleeville Death Ride, etc. is falling off. It seems true if you look around: most riders are middle aged; younger people aren't doing those bread and butter, everyday organized rides put on by bike clubs, rotaries, etc. What a pity if true........you meet a lot of cool people out there you wouldn't normally meet--and most of them have gray hair: for a BF50Plusser, its like a pig happily rolling in "leftovers"...which, BTW, happen to be peope who are interesting, seasoned, and have many stories to tell-- many of which are even true.

mollusk

I know what you are saying! I hadn't done an organized ride since the late 1980's until I did our local century ride last fall. I wanted to do it because I used to organize it back in the day and an old friend said he was going to be doing it. (He didn't show, dagnabbit!) I was really astounded in the change in demographics! The rides I went on in the 1980's were dominated by riders 30 years old and younger. The ride I went on last fall had three times the number of riders it used to have, but it was dominated by the middle aged crowd on super-lux bikes. I felt really out of place with a friction shifting/toeclip bike with an old leather saddle that was worth about 5% of the average cost of the bikes on the ride. Out of the 700 or so riders I think I might have been the only one in toe clips and wearing bike shorts with a real leather chamois.

Blackberry

Krusty sez, "! never ride a bike, and I'm in great shape. You should watch more TV and get off that stoopid bike."

Mojo Slim

My buddies and I have noticed this "grey beard" effect, too. And I mean actual grey beards. Our total age (4 of us) is about 250 years. But we know how to ride a century. It's a ride, not a race.

jppe

I agree on the the organized rides and the enjoyment taken from them. Around here I'm known as the junkie that does one just about every weekend. I really enjoy going to different towns, seeing different roads and meeting new riders. I've meet some really neat people doing the bread and butter circuit!! Around here those rides continue to grow by 25% a year......

NOS88

Truman Capote was fond of telling stories. Once, it's reported, he was at a party telling a story and someone said: "Truman, that's not how it happened, I was there." Truman didn't miss a beat and replied, "Well, that's the way it should have happened."