Yea, I think 1% is closer to the truth than all the other numbers mentioned... EDIT; OH, I think that it would rise to 10% of the total population that could actually do 20 miles...

Every one of the non-cycling people I know seem to think that 15 miles is amazing, though I do that without even thinking about it. I don't pack water bottles for trips that short! And I'm not the most speedy and fit person out there, and my bike, along with all the crud I carry in those el-cheapo heavy grocery panniers, weighs in at about 50lb!

30 miles, and I start feeling it, toward the end.

I once gave an old car away to a young couple - he had just started where I work after getting out of the Marines... Anyway, on the day he was to pick it up I had ridden my bike as usual - 10.7 miles one way commute. About a half-hour later he had collected his wife for the trip out to my place. When they were only half-way here, the wife says to him "We must have missed the turn (to my street) - no way could he have ridden that far." Yet by that time, I was already home - it only took me 35 -40 minutes to ride the 10.7 miles. They continued on, finally getting to my place. His young wife was amazed "that anyone [inferred especially at MY age] could ride a bike that far!" I looked at this young 20-something and said that I ride to work at least three times per week, and that I've gone on 100-mile rides in a day, sometimes even back-to-back centuries like TOSRV - I explained what it was. She thought I was pulling her leg!

Anyway, back to the post at hand: I think tsl and 350thrr nailed it. Probably less than 5% of the population could ride 20 miles in under three hours, and 1-2% in less than two hours.

I would have to agree. I see people all the time who can barely walk a football field, much less balance on a bike and pedal. I know, given enough food, I can do a century, I mentioned it to someone not too long ago (and I have done centuries before) and they were in shock with the idea that someone on a spur of the moment would choose to go that far. The truth what happened was I went about 15 miles, stopped at a bakery, then I decided to go to the next bakery, and then the next bakery and then I broke it up with lunch, and then another bakery... well you get the idea.

I may want to hire you to plan my next solo unsupported century.

Now that's quotable!

21 miles , just have to ride at 7mph for 3 hours.. thats long been my pootling bike touring pace .

Enjoy the ride..

I think I was too optimistic too. The pessimists have persuaded me.

Congrats, you're pretty fit for a Older Person!

I don't think that about half the people or less, without an athletic background, in their 20s could probably do any reasonably brisk 20 their first time out and if they could probably wouldn't do another.

Around here the new PC term is

"Aging Adult Person" or "Active Aging Adult"

But all adults of any age are aging

With a quick visual image of the people on my block I estimate 85% could not do it. 15% might be able to but 50% of those would whine till they dropped and only 50% would actually finish leaving my wife, the woman next door, myself and a dark horse. But no one else owns a bike.

That's why it is so stupid. But there it is in the Rec Center brochure/catalog.

I ride to eat...

Hi,

What you can do once if you have to is surprising.

But you will severely know about it the next day,
and the day after it will be even worse, typically.

The older you are the more severely if you do it.

21 miles in 3 hours is a walk in the park if there
are no hills and the fit would take < 2 hours,
me about 1.5 hours, no hills and no wind.

Still 21 miles is far too far for anyone not used
to riding a bike regularly, any age, nevermind 60.

Muscles doing things they are not used to don't
initially complain, they let you damage them,
its assumed to be an emergency situation.

10 miles is too much for most people, though
most people could do it, they will strain bits.

rgds, sreten.

There is a huge difference between bike owners and bike riders. Way to many people get the great idea to start riding and then get discouraged if they can't cruise at 20 mphs after 3 or 4 rides. Then many try restarting riding 3 or 4 times a year. Of us older riders who get 10-12 rides in a month, I bet 20 miles is a nice leisurely number. I rode 60+ last Saturday to compete in a Photo Scavenger Hunt. My 30 year old daughter was blown away. It wasn't that bad. It took @5 hours, but was a blast.

I want to hook up a bike, generator and battery to the microwave. No one can use the microwave unless they have already generated the power to run it. My wife won't let me. Stinking pudgy kids @ the house.

As Bluesdawg said you can't do what you won't or even don't do. Looking at the national statistics it seems as if less than 2 percent of the population admits to riding a bicycle. That leaves 98 percent that simply do not ride. So I can't say what they could do if they wanted because it seems than 98 percent simply don't want to so they won't.

Yes, everything is relative. Everyone I know who considers himself or herself to be a cyclist can go faster and further than I can. I can't really ride with my friends who like to go out every weekend with at least one 100 mile spin a month, I can't keep up with their speed, and I can't do these 100 mile 10,000+ foot elevation gain rides without working up to it and even then I am completely wiped out. I'm 53, but except for people riding heavy bikes with fat tires and flat handlebars, I never pass people in their 60's on the road, but plenty of them pass me. Relative to them, I'm in crappy shape.

Everyone I know who does not consider himself or herself to be a cyclist thinks I am in amazing shape for an old fart of 53 because I can go 35-50 miles with a couple thousand feet elevation gain and not be completely wiped out, and heck, I've even done 60 miles with 4,700 feet elevation gain when I've been riding a lot. That is unfathomable to so many people I know. Compared to many of them, I AM in great shape. On the other hand, some of them would completely wipe me out running, they could go run 5 miles and I'd be done long before that (although some of those I could dust hiking up steep hills).

In any event, I think 90% of people age 61 is too low a number, not too high, if you think the number is too low, you are probably hanging out with the right or the wrong crowd, depending on your point of view.

Thread cleaned up now that we know the OP is still with us.

Haven't been on the list recently so haven't read all the comments. So if I repeat what has been said my apologies. In the US 36% of us are obese. And, 69% are overweight. I'm guessing that is also close to accurate for the 60 and over crowd. So just from that perspective I'm betting he is more right than you.

Now if you are talking about what people could do IF they started exercising over time the story would be different.

Just after I got out of the service, I was in SC visiting relatives. My cousin, about 18, decided he and I would ride to their lake house over on Lake Murray, about 10 miles away.

i had no issues having been a cyclist for several years. That ride nearly killed him....SC summer hot, SC summer humidity. He talks about that ride every time I see him....35 years later.

61 years nonriders doing 21 miles today? Doubtful.

I remember at as a teenager on a whim going from Henrietta to Lake Ontario (in New York), about 40 miles each way, and I didn't think I was in shape. We also did it using 3 speed bikes, with lousy seats. I would also go 15 miles, every Saturday, to work with someone in ceramics. Thought nothing of it.

Then again, when I was 12, I had a bike route for papers, with 100 customers, many who lived up a flight of stairs.

Also, Junior High was 10 miles away, and at least once a year, I would walk it, especially when spring would finally be real.

We didn't think this was anything special - nor did the school officials or our parents. I remember being at a park, for a school trip, and many of us deciding to walk back, about 15 miles.

I often wonder if in the fear that kids might be abducted, we have doomed an entire generation to early death from inactivity.

One other thing, here in Costa Rica, there is a year pilgrimage to Cartago, and many people from our area walk to Cartago. Costa Rica is very mountaneous, and it is probably 150 kilometers from here to there. They estimate some where around 2 million people per year do the minimum, which is 22 kilometers, which is incredible when you figure Costa Rica only has 4 million people in total.