howsteepisit

I remember working on this guys tandems when I was in high school, but its a real testament on 50 being mid-life.

Thomas W. Dickey, who spent much of his life taking chances and doing the unexpected, died Saturday in Memorial Hospital of Carbondale. He was 100.

The retired faculty member from the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Rehabilitation Institute was legally blind, with less than 10 percent vision, but that didn't keep him off his bike.

Well into his 80s, Dickey was still riding - coast to coast at times - on the back of a tandem bike. He would place newspaper ads seeking cyclists to ride in front of him on the tandem, for $2.50 an hour. Generations of SIUC students learned about Southern Illinois' back roads from Tom Dickey. They earned their pay; many couldn't keep up Dickey's pace and he sometimes took delight in needling them about it.

He pedaled from Carbondale to Amherst, Mass., to attend his 50th college reunion, a 1,400-mile journey. He did the same for the 55th reunion of the Class of 1931.

At 82, Dickey rode from Los Angeles to Boston, 3,300 miles, to raise funds for Recording for the Blind. The organization had provided recordings of textbooks for him when he went back to college at age 51 to receive a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling.

Dickey first began riding his bike in 1937 when he was 27, unemployed and living in Florida. Later, cycling was a good way to commute to his job at SIUC, but as his vision continued to go, he "began hitting parked cars and potholes," he told The Southern Illinoisan. Many people would have given up; Dickey simply switched to a tandem.

Mark Robinson of Carbondale, one of those who rode with Dickey, wasn't surprised that Dickey lived to be 100. "It was all that bike riding he did," Robinson said. "He was in great shape."

Dickey not only rode with members of his cycling club; he also shared pizza, pitchers and outrageous stories with them.

In bad weather, he reluctantly worked out on a stationary bike. The idea of taking a day off never occur red to him.

A medical researcher at Washington University in St. Louis enrolled Dickey in a study of the effects of aging on older athletes. It revealed that, at age 75, Dickey had an ability to utilize oxygen during strenuous exercise roughly equivalent to that of a high school student without a regular exercise program.

closetbiker

I may be 50, but I've always maintained that by riding my bike regularly, my body stays much younger while my mind continues to mature.

I always shake my head at those who say I'm risking my life by riding a bike.

zonatandem

Only 23 years to go and I'll be 100 . . .
Still riding 100 miles a week, much of it on a tandem.
My wife/stoker Kay has in 225,000+ miles riding with me on our 2-seater, but then she's a youngster of only 74.
Can hardly wait 'til I get older!
Pedal on!
Rudy/zonatandem

'47

Awesome man! (Make that 2 men and a woman...which includes you, Zonatandem, and your stokerette.)

JanMM

Does Kay needle you when you can't keep up with her pace?

oilman_15106

Man, I would have liked to met that guy when I was only making $0.50 an hour trimming Christmas trees! Good story.

cyclinfool

Good story. I have met several amazing folks like this and it is always a thrill. Gives me something to make me rethink when I start getting into looking at my age from the half empty perspective.