Mars

I am turning 50 in 4 months, and milestone birthdays like that have a way of making people think about how their lives are going to change as they get older. I have been thinking about my cycling in the coming decades.

I believe that i will continue to ride to work for years to come. I feel totally committed to the concept of bicycle commuting in all weather. I think that I will be able to ride regular bikes (barring accidents or disease, of course) well into my 60's. Eventually, though, the risk of a fall or loss of strength, balance, reflexes may lead me to other cycling options. Recumbents seem popular with older cyclists and they claim that they are more comfortable on the butt and neck. The fall would be a lot shorter too. There are also trikes. I saw a guy on a lowrider trike that looked pretty cool and he claimed was fast. Fairing makes them faster and offers some protection fromt he elements. Longhorn uses a bike that has an electric assist (not implying that she is elderly or feeble in any way) and that is interesting. So, maybe I will eventually be riding a trike, with fairing, and an electric motor to help up hills or into the wind.

Do any of you think of these things? How do you imagine your later years as a cyclist? Are you going to keep riding, do you think, and if so, what kind of bike do you see yourself on?

tibikefor2

Mars: Congrats on alomost to the half century mark. I think about these topics all of the time, as I will turn 45 next month. I see myself riding my Ti frame until it hits 150,000 miles, which should be in another two years. Then I will retire that frame and buy another Ti frame, on top of all of the other road bikes that I would like to own.

Well this is off topic, as I would like give a ride report on the Nightmare Double Centruy that I attempted yesterday. Nightmare is aptly named for the terrain that one goes over and it was compounded by the weather. The ride consist of a 177 mile loop and then a 26 mile loop. The people with inclonmeters were reporting a net gain of 1,000 per 10 miles for the first 100 miles. This is probably a little on the high side.

The ride started at 4:00am and with staggered later times for other people. 60 people started at 4:00am with 45 other people through 5:30 am. The ride was brutal, as the temperature on the road was 102 degrees with high humidity. By mile 56, 30 people had dropped out of the ride. By then we had climbed over 5,000 feet with many grades hitting 15%. At mile 72, I tossed my cookies for the first time, at mile 77 my second time. I made it to the rest stop at mile 87 and sat for an hour. At mile 92 I tossed my cookies for the third time and then at mile 102 I tossed my cookies for the fourth time and abandoned the ride. Over 50% of the riders ended up abndoning the ride and only 1 person of the 105 completed the full 203 miles.

The riding conditions were so bad that the organizer did not want anybody to do the 26 mile loop. Only the one person was adamant about doing the whole ride. The abandon rate was incredibly high for this caliber of athlete. The story goes that everyone will have a bad day at one time or another.

Hope everyone has a great week.

JavaMan

Mars: I turned 50 in February of this year. Yes, I have thought about riding in my later years. I want to be the old guy on the classic bike with a super-smooth pedal stroke that the young guys try to keep up with. When they talk among themselves, I hope they say they want to be like me when they get older.

tibikefor2: That ride was a nightmare for sure! Glad you survived without a heat stroke.

After commuting on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a while, I'm shooting for 3 commutes this week. That will give me 100+ commuting miles. I'm taking clothes and food to work later today, so I won't have to carry anything with me.

christie133

Mars, congrats on the upcoming birthday! I love your common-sense thinking and flexibility regarding cycling in the future. I think my vision of myself cycling in the future is similar to javaman's, but then I'd also like to be one of those older women who toodles around on a crusier with a giant basket on the front that is brimming with baguettes, a thermos of coffee, and copies of the New Yorker. Wait, come to think of it, I suppose I've never seen one of those women. Seems like I've watched too many movies or something...

Anyway, tomorrow will be my first bike into my new job. I've made friends w/ the maintenance guy who will let me into the shower each a.m., and with the woman whose office houses the shower I will use. I've also managed to frighten everyone else who has found out that I'll be riding to work, including the principal, who seems to think I'm completely insane and is probably wondering why she hired me. BTW, I am a little insane, but I don't think it has anything to do w/ biking to work.

One good thing is that a friend of mine will be teaching in a school just around the corner from where I'll be. He's just gotten into biking and we're going to try to ride home together tomorrow!

Happy riding everyone. Javaman, good luck w/ your 3xs a week goal; and Tibike, congratulations on your noble attempt. Sounds like you did really well considering the conditions. Do you think you'll try it again next year? The tossing your cookies thing reminds me of a 100 mile mtn bike race I did last year. Someone got a picture of me doubled over by the side of the course, trying as hard as I could NOT to puke!

jur

I'm 45 and been commuting for 7 months now, rain and shine. From the beginnening I decided I don't want to be a fair weather commuter, and I haven't missed a day. This morning rain bucketed down again, arrived at work a bit wet, but people no longer look strange at me.

Likewise I like to see myself commuting for years to come. On the balance aspect, apparently once you got it, you don't lose it, in Holland I have seen people way past retirement age riding. In fact my aunt, who was in her 70s at the time, once invited me to go to the local supermarket with her, I was not a rider at the time, I thought cool let's go. Well she jumped on her bike and pulled away from me immediately, I had to put in real effort to keep up!! On the way back we took a short detour through a rural area for some sight seeing, I kept up a good front trying not to blow too much, but arriving back home I was bushed and threw off all my warm clothing. She looked at me surprised, she was fresh as a daisy!! I laugh looking back at that time, and take comfort from it.

Longhorn

Hooray for 1955! I'll be 50 next Saturday!

Since I just started cycling, I've been more focused on increasing competency and hadn't thought about how long I'll be able to keep it going. However, I'm sure it's partly due to my age and physical condition that I got the electric bike. I'm just too impatient to spend months getting into shape for my commute. The e-bike allows me to ride it now and get stronger at the same time. It would be great for someone who isn't up to a lot of pedaling to ride in a relatively flat area, but riding in the hills takes almost as much strength and stamina as riding my hybrid. However, they make more powerful (and more expensive!) bikes than mine.

I'll be out practicing my commute this week, getting ready for going back to school at the end of this month. Hope everyone has a great week!

mtn_chick

Good topic - timely for me, as I just celebrated my 35th yesterday! And oddly enough, I think I'm in the best shape & spirits I've ever been in - mostly due to biking.

I see myself getting more into the road bikes in the next few years. I'm SO glad I took up biking in a big way once again this summer. It's been a long time since I've ridden so much. Too bad the summers are fairly short up here, but I do plan on doing my share of winter riding. Heck, I may get one of those inside-trainer-thingys so I can keep up the biking shape and endurance for next summer!

Christie - love that visual of the baquette-in-basket-riding woman!!

dave ford

I'm 39 and don't think about age too much (maybe I should), although collegues just love to keep reminding me that 'Hey, but Dave your'e what nearly 40 and messing around on bikes all the time, trying to prolong your youth eh?' - i just think they are jealous of an active mind and body, as most of them smoke, drink 10 cups of coffe a day, and are over weight. I reckon they would love to be fitter but that takes effort and thats something they are not prepared to get off their arses and do. I guess i will be slowing up soonish, but at the moment i feel as fit as i ever was, it helps that one of my riding buddies was 2001 World singlespeed champ and it is always tough riding with him (imagine riding on weekends with Travis Brown, well you get the idea!).

I'm with Javaman, I'd like to be just a fit old guy with years of miles under his belt, with a perfect pedalstroke and my sallow cheeks cutting through the air like a knife. At the moment i don't feel threatened by any rider on rides - i'm always up for a burn up (and often lose!), but there will be a time when i will just have to say 'carry on mate, been there, done that'!
Its like a great novel, pages and pages of intrigue, happiness, pain, and snippetts of seemingly unimportant details, all coming together for the last chapter when everything just makes sense, and your left with a huge sense of satisfaction and greater knowledge.

Oh btw, today was another lovely day on the bike!!!!

jur

For the first time ever, I got rained on both ways.

Longhorn: Congrats!! Have a blast of a party.

tibikefor2

I think that it is great that everyone is so active no matter what their age is. I like to think of myself as 44 years young, soon to be 45 years young.

Mtn_chick sums it up nicely, 35 and in the best shape of her life, that statement is an inspiration for all.

Longhorn, your approach to getting in better shape is also a nice inspiration.

Dave, you should ask your office mates to go on a short bike ride with you and then let them determine if playing with bikes is a good thing or a bad thing. When they are coughing up a storm, you can just sit back and smile.

Christie, yes I will be doing the Nightmare ride again next year.

Mars, there are so many more accomplishments that I would like to do on a bike, so I will be at this for a long time.

Today was a nice commute in, not too hot and muggy. Temperatures in DC are supposed to cool off this week.

Jenifer

Great thread!

I'm 35 too, mtn_chick, and I hope to keep biking as long as I can stay active. I may be slow -- I already am! -- but however long it takes, I'll get there, and I'll enjoy the ride. (Or the hike, climb, ski, whatever.) I just read about someone in his 80's who rode the Pan-Mass Challenge last week, and if someone can do that, why can't I?

Speaking of which, I'm starting to get a little thought that... maybe I could ride the PMC next year. I've got a new bike which can handle it, and if I keep up a training schedule... hmm. But it's just a thought.

mars, you're crazy for attempting a double century in that heat, but in a good way! Congrats on getting as far as you did. Quite an accomplishment.

Anyway, no bikey for me today. It's raining in Boston Metro West. Supposed to be cool and dry tomorrow...

-=(8)=-

Mars, Javaman, et al....Congrats on reaching the 1/2 century mark and being an
inspiration to us youngsters . Im 46 and the only thing I see changing about
my riding is that it will be slower and on a Rivendell .

****Random thoughts and observations of a lowly Gutter Ninja******

TiBikefor2 : Im very sorry to hear of your miserable outing in my erstwhile neighborhood.
I thought given the roads it would be nice run but the heat
we had here was soooo oppresive it made my Saturday run miserable too.
The hills one gets used to in varying degrees.....In some of my posts I mention
my nemisis 'The Hill'...it's about 10 -11 degrees for about a mile and a half.
Some days I could do it in second, other days I asked why I do this ?

I applaud all of you who commute on a Mountin' bike ! I have converted my
dirt jumper, Brutus(Spec P2) into commuter action and can flatly aver it
is the sloooooowest bike Ive ever ridden. Pedaling it seems like one of those
nightmares you have when your a kid and the closet monster is chasing you
but you just cant run I am going to twist this into being my raison 'd etre
for membership in the VLC right now.....pedaling this bike 5 miles is really 15
worth of torture !
I almost believe those guys in the MTB forum

My Cygo-Lite is a miracle ! I dont see how I rode without this for so long !
I had an old Union generator that I really liked but dont really miss it now that
I have light even on hills, and lots of it !!! Good stuff !

Be safe

Lem in ??

tibikefor2

Lem:

I actually enjoyed the hills and was surprised to learn how steep the grades that I was climbing, as I did not have any problems getting over them. I did have a low gear of 30X26, but mostly used the 30X23 pedalling a cadence of 75 on the steep sections. I was able to climb most of the grades in my 42 ring chain ring.

The countryside was amazing, I enjoyed crossing the reservoir and going through the amish farms. I just wish that the Amish and the Menonites would house break thier horses, so one does not have weave on the road too much. A friend of mine told me that an Amish family was handing out watermellon to us foolhardy souls, but that the well had run dry by the time that I got there.

The only part of the terrain that I did not like, was that the route had many turns half way down a hill. After one made the run, you would climb some more.

Lem are you part mountain goat?

Longhorn

It really amazes me how "old" some younger people think that 50 is! My first "midlife crisis" was at age 25! That's the only time I remember feeling depressed about a birthday, because I would no longer be in my early 20's.

When I was in my mid-40s, I was beginning to feel old. I had gained weight and was having knee problems. I was dressing in matronly clothes and making a mental list of "things I would never do again." Then I held my grandmother's hand as she died on her 85th birthday and it dawned on me that if I lived as long as she did, I had only lived about half my life. Was I going to spend half my life as an "old" person?

So I began to change my attitude. I lost weight, became a blond, got a master's degree, bought a Saleen Mustang convertible, and now I ride a bike. I'm not pretending to be a kid -- I'm acting my age as far as I'm concerned and having a blast!

-=(8)=-

No mountain goat.....just old goat !

Im glad you did have a good ride afterall. It is some nice country. Maybe a trip
back in the fall would be nice too....cooler, leaves turning, etc...If you do, make
Rt. 372 through the Susquehannock park a journey. The trip down the hill and
over the bridge to York county will take your breath away. You could even dip
into MD where the roads are glass smooth and nice wide shoulders to Gettysburg
if you where ambitious.
I can tell you are an Amish country noob.....after a while you dont bother veering
for the road fertilizer

tibikefor2

Longhorn, if I come down to Tejas, can I drive the Saleen?

BTW, great story about you grandmother and I definitely like you outlook on life.....

Longhorn

Sure you can, tibikefor2! I'm sure it's the only one around with a bike rack on the back.

Your ride this weekend was amazing! I'm glad you were able to enjoy it in between the grueling parts!

Mars

tibikefor2, you are one crazy dude! You vomited 4 times before you quit? Yikes! I can't imigine putting myself through something like that. Sheesh.

Well, I got another flat today. I was riding about 18 mph, looking at some big trees at the side of the road, and I hit something on the pavement. there was a bang sound and impact, then I immediately heard hissing and the bike swerved all over. When I stopped, I saw a nail sticking out of my rear tire. I thought, no probs, I have a patch kit and 2 CO2 cyclinders. Well, I took the tire off and the tube was shredded. I used all 5 patches in my kit, but it still wouldn't hold air. What could I have hit to do that? What voodoo curse is on me that I got 3 flats in four trips? So, there I was, in the middle of nowhere with another flat. I stuffed grass in the tube and hobbled home.

Tonight, I took the armidillos off my cyclocross bike and put them on my roadbike. They are fat and ugly, and definitely uncool. But, my wife asked, how cool do I look hobbling down the road with grass in my racing tires?

Longhorn

Mars: Grass in your tires! That's a new one for me!

I'm cautiously optimistic as I took my bike out tonight and road about 13.5 miles with no battery cut-out. Even though I asked the bike shop to be sure to charge the battery and they told my husband that they had charged it, I'm now convinced that they hadn't charged it after their one-hour test under load. So before I took it back, I decided to charge it and give it another try. Success!

Tomorrow I'm going to try my commute route and see how far I get. I also rode for about half an hour after dark and my Cygo-Lite Night Rover worked great. Really lit up these dark, country roads!

It looks like my commute is going to work out after all.

dave ford

I like your ways Longhorn.

Mars that is so bad luck, the grass thing works, i've even heard an urban myth (?) about pumping milk into the tube and in the heat and the rolling action it stiffens up and goes firm!!!

Today was another lovely day with almost no wind and clear blue skies. The grass is getting more dewy in the mornings now - autumn cometh. Definately going for a five dayer this week.

Cheers all.

tibikefor2

Longhorn, glad you are back in the saddle again

Mars: Bad things usually come in three, so hopefully your bad karma will be behind you. Maybe the cycling gods are getting even with you for sailing over the summer. As a side note on my ride, I had to try to finish as, the old saying goes pain is temporary, but quitting is permanent.

Jenifer

Oh, what a beautiful mooooooor-niiiiiiing! Come on, sing it with me...

The new red Dolce Comp came out to play this morning. I rode it to work for the first time. And I LOVE IT! It makes flats exciting, uphills fun, and downhills terrifying. Cracked 30mph on Trapelo Road and on Wellesley's Hill from Hell (speed limit 25). That much fun should be illegal.

And I think I finally understand what the big deal is about having one's feet locked down on the pedals -- between that, the light weight, and so many choices of hand positions, I can really move around. Shift weight, stand up, pull back on the hoods, lean into turns... I felt like I was riding something instead of just hauling a load.

capejohn

Hmmmm**********

JavaMan

Mars, have you ever tried tying a knot in your tube to isolate the hole(s)? I have heard this works but have not tried it myself. The cyclocross tires sound like a good idea until your luck changes.

Jenifer, just reading your post made me happy, too! New Bike Syndrome - Enjoy!

Longhorn, glad your saga is finally approaching the happy ending. Anxious to hear how it goes on the commute.

dave ford, a five dayer is a lot of miles! You must be in great shape. You might have said before, but how long does it take each way?

Lem, glad you are still with us! Sorry about the torture factor from riding a mountain bike!

This morning it was cool and overcast in Southern CA, and I even got misted a little along the coast. Pretty routine ride, but I enjoyed every bit of it. It should be warm and sunny for the ride home. Too bad I have to work in-between!

mtn_chick

Jenifer - you sure make a compelling case for the type of bike you have! Sounds more fun to be riding than I have with my ol' heavy hybrid.

That's it. I'm definitely new bike shopping for next year!