This July I will have lived 61 years.
Three years ago I gave away my car and made a commitment to ride a bike 24/7/365.
I have two bikes.
I have a Bianchi Pista, of which only the frame survives.
I've replaced everything else, starting with the headset.
I like to think the Bianchi decals give me a little protection from bike theft.
Probably not.
When I go to the movies, I talk the manager into letting me put my bike in his office.
I have a Geared-Studded-Tire-Ice-Bike my son calls the Millenium Falcon.
I ride my Ice Bike in snow storms that stop the cars from driving.
Sometimes the derailieurs freeze up and I figure I might as well build a fixed-gear Ice Bike.
I have some ideas about that.
I believe I have perfected the street fixed-gear bike...for my purposes (not anyone else's).
Maintaining my body in fixed-gear working-order now consumes most of my attention, energy and money.
During my 20's, 30's and 40's, I exercised hard, all the time, perhaps to excess.
Well, absolutely to excess.
My wife says I can do anything to excess and nothing in moderation.
Anyway, as I approached 50, I started suffering disabling athletic injuries.
My therapists and doctors attributed it to age and over-training.
So, I devoted some time to studying the aging process.
I learned this:
If a person at age 18 maintains his body perfectly, meaning, if he eats perfectly and exercises perfectly; avoids sunlight, recreational drugs, injury and illness; and, if he sleeps adequately, drinks enough water, and takes care of his mental health; then, a person does not really start to age until he reaches 63 years.
However, we all start aging much earlier than that because of wear and tear and imperfect management.
We call the outer and inner signs of this wear and tear, this imperfect management, aging.
Believe me, though, when I say real aging doesn't begin for men until 63 years of age.
If I could send a message by time-machine to my younger self, I would tell myself to study yoga, tai chi, and every/any other movement/flexibility discipline I could find: if a man can't move gracefully and without pain, he stops doing all the things he loves to do and he quickly ages and dies.
If a man can keep moving he will do the things he loves, stay healthy, and have a lot of fun.
I would also tell myself to stop smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol, the sooner the better, and leave the car in the garage (except for dating).
An older man who can still move like like a young man, and who has not destroyed his looks and health with smoking and drinking, has a tremendous advantage with women of all ages...and with people in general, regardless of gender.
It only gets better, as long as one has his health (and a little, just a little, spending money helps, too).
It seems to me someone told me all this sometime around my 18th or 19th birthday, and I believed it but decided to keep on partying and living to excess until it became a problem.
The problems started for me around 35 years of age.
Happily, I have a job that gives me the time, money and medical-insurance to address my aging issues.
Some person younger than myself who does not have a reasonable expectation of time, money and medical-insurance might then consider putting tobacco and alcohol aside, learning yoga and tai chi (or some other movement discipline), and riding a fixed-gear bike instead of driving a car.
A co-worker once described unsolicited advice as an act of hostility and disrespect.
I certainly don't have any hostile nor disrespectful intentions towards anyone on this forum.
Since the subject of age came up, and since I seem the oldest person on this forum (at least the oldest to so far admit it), I figured it wouldn't offend anyone for me to share my opinions about age (and, if it has, well, life goes on).
In the meantime, I love riding my fixed-gear bike.
I mean, I LOVE it.