As a kid in the 50s I lived on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in an old industrial town, Merthyr Tydfil, and when I got my first "proper" bike at the age of 11 it opened for me and my friends a whole new world. Instead of a radius of around 5 miles and a playground that consisted of derelict industrial sites and coal tips we could get on the bikes, take sandwiches and water and spend all day exploring country roads and tracks up to 25 miles away from home. If we forgot or ran out of water we could drink from streams or knock on the doors of remote farms and cottages (no coffee shops in those days), and usually get given some food as well as we looked so thin!

I continued cycling through my teens and early 20s, until eventually university, girls, work, family, mortgages led to me moving away and stopping my cycling.

About 7 years ago, at the age of 62 and semi-retired, I decided to get back in the saddle and now it's a very important part of my life again. In the last couple of years I have found myself being drawn back to my old riding grounds, even though I no longer live near there, and realise that they mean as much to me as they did before. The scenery is just as beautiful, but the hills are longer and steeper, and I find I appreciate the pure beauty of the rides more than I used to as a kid, when I just wanted laughs and adventure. (plus there are now coffee shops and I'm old enough to go into pubs so no scrounging food). I now try to get up there a couple of times a month in the summer and autumn. And there's a bonus in that my best friend since the age of 8, who now lives in Stratford-on-Avon, is coming to stay with me in my late father's house for a couple of days and we're going to go round the old places we used to (though with more gears and lighter bikes).

Perhaps it's just a yearning for the simplicity of youth, but I found that through my father's illness and death a month ago, these rides helped me deal with the stress and bring home to me what a great childhood I had, and I'm going to continue them now that he's gone.

Forgive the slightly maudlin tone of this post, but do other people on this forum have rides that they still do, that are more than just for exercise, and that keep them in touch with their past.

For a moment I was going to point out that if you are in your 50's you are a kid. Then I kept reading.

The area in which I grew up (suburban Cincinnati) has become so urbanized that when I drove by our old house some years ago, I had to read the numbers to figure out which it was. On the other hand back in the 50's it was relatively rural although it grew rapidly in the 60's. I didn't have a bike but we did a lot of running around. We also had a good hill for sledding. From the top of our drive through the neighbors yards. "Skyline Chili" for which I still get cravings, is about the only thing that I still miss.

Nostalgic rides

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerryattrick

As a kid in the 50s I lived on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in anold industrial town, Merthyr Tydfil, and when I got my first "proper"bike at the age of 11 it opened for me and my friends a whole new world.Instead of a radius of around 5 miles and a playground that consisted of derelictindustrial sites and coal tips we could get on the bikes, take sandwiches and water and spend all day exploring country roads and tracks up to 25 miles awayfrom home…

I continued cycling through my teens and early 20s, until eventually university, girls, work, family, mortgages led to me moving away and stoppingmy cycling.

About 7 years ago, at the age of 62 and semi-retired, I decided to get back in the saddle and now it's a very important part of my life again. In the last couple of years I have found myself being drawn back to my old riding grounds,even though I no longer live near there, and realise that they mean as much to me as they did before…
Perhaps it's just a yearning for the simplicity of youth, but I found that through my father's illness and death a month ago, these rides helped me deal with the stress and bring home to me what a great childhood I had, and I'm going to continue them now that he's gone.

Forgive the slightly maudlin tone of this post, but do other people on this forum have rides that they still do, that are more than just for exercise, and that keep them in touch with their past.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

…Back in the 60’s in the Motor City, I had an “English Racer,’ and longed to tour at about age 14, but then joined the car culture. In Ann Arbor MI in the 70’s I really realized the utility of bicycles for commuting, and began touring on a five-speed Schwinn Suburban, but soon bought a Mercier as did my girlfriend,later my wife. We toured in Michigan and Ontario.

In 1977 we moved to Boston on our bikes, as a bicycling honeymoon from Los Angeles to Washington, DC and then took the train up to Boston…

Thanks for this thread, and the chance to reminisce. Since my most recent decades have been spent in Boston, I consider the whole riding environment here “contemporary,” though I have nostalgic memories of earlier rides. I guess my real “nostalgia”in the usual sense would harken back to my early riding days in Michigan. At that time in the 1970s we lived in the city of Detroit proper and most of the riding was done there, or else in Ann Arbor, 50 miles to the west.

I recently posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

Thanks for that nice tribute to Detroit. I grew up there from the 1950s to the 1970s on the East Side near the City Airport and I learned of the bicycling lifestyle there.

A favorite long ride used to be on weekends riding from Ann Arbor across the length of Metro Detroit from West to East, and I used to consider the Grosse Pointes as a “Cycling Park.”

Since then, the entire family, indeed the entire neighborhood has since moved up to Northern Macomb and Oakland counties, near the Hall Road corridor.Whenever I visit, about twice a year, I always bring a bike, though the major roads out there are not as bike friendly as are the long, wide thoroughfares of the City proper…

Again, those new roads in the suburbs I consider more contemporary than nostalgic, and I really never go back by bike to the old neighborhood, since it's pretty far away.

One truly nostalgic ride was in 2011. I used to ride Huron River Drive in Ann Arbor almost every week back in the 1970s. In 2011 we held a 50+ Annual Ride in the Ann Arbor area, and our host @Road Fan took us on a ride there the day before the big event. It was familiar, yet different after 40 years.

Anyways, besides wistful nostalgia, a bike ride almost anywhere can be soothing to the troubled mind. This year, within a week of each other, two close relatives died,and we had to travel afar for the funerals. Each time I took my bike as a good way to pass the time without dwelling on the loss.

BTW,@Geriatric I recall a thread by you that introduced me to the term MAMIL. I recently used that term in a conversation and wrote about it to Bike Forums:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldsCOOL

Fantastic! Seems to me we 50+ers own this sport. We raced and toured back in the bike boom heydey and many of us are still going. Good to see you hook up with an oldfriend.

So it seems; I started as a tourist on a five speed Schwinn Suburban in 1971.Yesterday a colleague was telling me that her husband was taking up cycling,and I told her about MAMILS (Middle-Aged Men in Lycra); though I think cycling keeps us at least "middle-aged"
She said he's not not into Lycra, and I replied, "But he will be."

Wonderful story.
I aspire to ride with an old friend of 60 years, unfortunately it will not be in our old hometown. It may not be for a few years.

Sorry for the loss of your father. Really where i grew up is not safe anymore to ride. Its to bad because we rode all over Toledo back then in the 60s and 70s. Like Jim, i have been transplanted and have good memories of the rides i have been on. And that Huron river ride Jim mentioned was a great ride.

My nostalgia rides would include San Diego and Shelter Island, NY (far end of Long Island). Maybe some day.

SBRA Bike-Boat-Bike perhaps?


-Tim-

Dunno, haven't been back there in years. Occasionally I read the Islander online just to see what folks are up to. Looks pretty much the same, which is a good thing. If I ever get back there I might contact SBRA.

I get a different sort of nostalgia on certain rides. Grew up in upstate NY but now live and ride in north Florida. But on a few roads at the right time of day and year, the flora and sandy soil combine to create a scent that is very reminiscent of the area around my grandfathers farm. It's a very evocative sensation.

I grew up (well, got older anyway) in the hills of the (L)east bay near Oakland, CA. My friends and I rode all over those hills, reservoirs and even down in the populated flats, first on sting-rays and then on ten-speeds. Pavement, gravel or clay, it made no difference to us, we just rode and rode and rode.

I don't go back there often. The scenery has changed to a much drier backdrop and there are many-fold more people driving for recreation where we used to ride. However, I have something even better. I now live near the same coast range, just 500 miles north, which conveniently means that the moisture content here and now is very similar to what I rode in back in the day.

Every week I go for wonderful rides in hills that have a familiar feel to them. It's as close to a spiritual experience as I'll ever have. Lucky me, now I get to do many of these rides with my wife on a tandem. Just like kids, we'll pack some food and beverage and just go explore. We don't even have to be home in time for dinner any more.


Boy, you can say that again. It seems like each and every year someone cranks up the length and steepness of familiar old hills. Annoyingly, the mapping software just ignores these changes.

One of the great realizations of my adulthood is the sacrifices my parents made for their children. Their main focus was on the family so I have no problem with "maudlin" memories of the life that formed me.

I've been thinking about this thread for awhile, and I don't know if I truly have any rides I would call nostalgic. My first rides were around the neighborhood on my stingray in central California. The roads there were bordered by almond orchards most of the way to school. I have looked at the area that I lived at on Google earth, and it looks very much the same, except the city is much closer now. If, I had the chance to ride those road again, I'm not sure that I would. Back in the day it was a big ride, now, there is really nothing that would draw me to it.

When we moved to Oregon the roads were, and still are lined with grass seed fields. My favorite ride was to a decommissioned WWII military base. The foundations, big empty roads, and a few remaining structures intrigued my young mind at the time. I still go and ride there now and again. The place still has intrigue for me, but now it is more from a historical view point. So, if that were to count as a nostalgic ride, then that would be as close as I get.

I live and work in the town in which I was born and raised, so just about every local ride for me is nostalgic.

Growing up here was just one long summer afternoon on a junky single-speed bicycle, getting out of the neighborhood with my friends and riding to ridiculously far away places without ever having to "explain" to our parents. At ten years old, we were bicycling to malls and parks that I barely feel comfortable driving to all these decades later. Often, I will be in my car, stopped at a traffic light on a busy six-lane turnpike, and I will think to myself "I can't believe I used to ride my Schwinn Stingray on this road." Other times, I'll be biking to work on a skinny blacktop path through my local town park and I'll envision my seven-year-old legs struggling to pedal up those gigantic hills that now feel flat as pancakes.

Mostly, I am keenly aware that the ride I took yesterday and the ride I will take tomorrow will someday be among the nostalgic rides of "the good old days," so I never take a single pedal stroke for granted.

On our way back home at the end of a ride today, my wife and I saw a ~7-year-old boy working very hard to catch up to his parents on his sting-ray. My wife commented on how she remembers her first bike being so much harder to make move than later bikes.

Though I grew up in Nassau County we visited friends on Shelter Island it was beautiful. In the mid 60s our neighbor who was a contractor had some work out there. He liked it so much he packed up his family and moved there,&uneven came back

Sorry,I meant " never came back"

Yes, Shelter Island - and its neighbor, North Haven, are beautiful places to ride. I don't know if you are aware of this, but much of Rt. 114 is now striped as a bicycle lane.

One of my favorite rides during my adult years has been to start at the North Ferry from Greenport to Shelter Island, ride across Shelter Island, take the South Ferry to North Haven, then ride into Sag Harbor or East Hampton. This is one of those rides I described earlier as a ride that will be "nostalgic" another 10-20 years from now.

My mother just passed away (this morning), so I'm going back home this week.

I'm hoping I can borrow or rent a bike and get my bother and brother in law who both just rode the STP last weekend to go ride some of my old Seattle haunts while I'm there. I planned on doing the same last trip but it didn't work out. I at least hope to do the Burke-Gilman/Sammamish River paths if I can.

I'm going to bring my stuff just in case it can happen.

Hey, good to hear from other folks who know Shelter Island. Thanks for the updated info as well.

BTW, like so many insular communities Shelter Island has -- or had -- it's own patois and shibboleths for discerning between native Islanders, known as hareleggers (etymology uncertain) and outsiders.

The story goes that a man, who was born in the Greenport hospital but lived his entire life on Shelter Island, died at a ripe old age. At his funeral the 27 year old pastor, who'd been born at home on the Island, began "Although he wasn't one of us..."

Old joke, but true-ish. However I always found the Islanders to be very tolerant of us outsiders, despite our strange ways.

Please accept my condolences.

We all have to go through this, but it doesn't make it any easier.

Good luck with the riding, and I hope the good memories will help.

Sorry about your mom, Wileyrat.

Many of the rides I wrote about in a previous post bring back memories of my own mom, who died this past April, and her welcoming eyes when I returned from an entire day of bicycling who-knows-where.

Mine would be Boise, Idaho to Ontario, Oregon if I were to do one. A shorter one would be Boise to Nampa.

Used to ride in the English Lakes preteen and beyond. Ravenglass wi the little trains, Harter Fell and Kirkstone Pass (the struggle) was my faves, but a three speed Sturmey Archer wouldnt handle it, and nor could I at that age.

The rocks and places where we stopped on the way up are all unchanged. And I rode Kirkstone a couple years ago.

But could I do it now? Hmmmmm. Im waiting for a nice day.. .

A couple of times a year I will ride up to my old 'hood and check out the house where I grew up in Philly. There is a tree outside that was planted the year I was born. That makes it 51 now. It's large for where it is, so I expect it will be gone one day during my lifetime. The alley out back is where I first learned to ride a bike. It was a purple bike from Sears. I can remember my dad helping me balance when the training wheels came off.