Mamil - middle aged men in lycra. Ever wondered why you'll see more middle aged men and older take up cycling?

Here's my explanation for it -:

1. Surplus energy - If there's a marriage there's very little sex left - wifey is tired of providing services.
2. more time to oneself - the kids have grown up so require less fatherly input or influence

Almost every sport is seeing an aging of it's participant base.

It reflects mainly differences in income and free time. For some it also reflects a drop in new participants, often because the cost of starting out has gotten so high.

lycra is comfortable for bike riding, I'm not sure much more explanation is needed than that.

I'm trying to keep in reasonable shape without destroying my knees.
I think you find more and more folks our age taking up cycling both because many of us start to have more free time and because the consequences of not paying attention to fitness start to increase dramatically.

Oh, and I simply enjoy the feel of lycra shorts.

This is an amazingly cynical and disgusting thing to post.


-Tim-

yes - but isn't this the over-50 discussions section? we're to old to accept BS anymore...... And it does reflect my 'own' personal experience. yes it's sad....but that's the way a cookie crumbles.

Not surprising given your outdated and immature attitude towards sex.

Middle age men take up cycling because it's a relatively time consuming social activity that younger men with kids often don't have time for.

I don't know about Number 1 personally, but Number 2 definitely applies to me. I started riding when my youngest was in high school, but had a lot more time to ride after he graduated and went off to college.

And I think maybe TimH doesn't like the post because Number 1 hits too close to home.

That's too bad. One of the things which aging emphasizes is that life is all about choices . . . the results of which may not be known for 20-30 years which makes it interesting. I look pretty good in Lycra except that I think men's shorts legs are too long to allow my wife to properly appreciate my legs when I'm riding. But that's OK. They come off on demand.

I think for most of us, cycling is a social activity which, as a cycling buddy says, is about the most fun we can have with our clothes on. The group of 50+ cyclists I've been riding with for 20+ years is also known internally as "Peyton Flock."

I wouldn't say, "more time to oneself," rather "more time for one's friends." That's how it's been for us. Joy time.

I'm also not so sure about "take up cycling," either. Most of those in our group have been lifetime cyclists. I started commuting to school on my bike at 8, 64 years ago.

Lycra? What's that? Sounds like something fit only for straining yak urine to be drunk by real men.

I wear the chain mail pantyhose of virtue, worn only by the initiates to the mysteries of the perpendicular universe.

Troll

I think there's a lot more going on here. Strokes are hammering people in their forties. Type 2 diabetes, formerly known as adult onset diabetes, is now becoming common among children as young as twelve and is a serious public health issue for people in their twenties and thirties. Obesity is out of control; by some estimates it has claimed nearly two-thirds of American adults. People simply aren't moving and aren't placing any value on exercise and fitness. Remember Jane Fonda and her jazzercise thing in the eighties? How about the jogging craze of the seventies? Backpacking in the seventies and sixties? And let's not forget that the record year for bike sales is still 1974, in spite of a rather noticeable increase in the population.

Now we oldies, who were riding when that record year for bike sales occurred, are looking square at mortality through our progressive lenses. Most of us are educated enough to realize that being physically active is important for our health, and with what few years we have left we want them to be healthy ones. Younger men are still under the illusion that they are immortal, so they have no urgency to rebuild their bodies.

Cycling just happens to be the easiest sport to take on for fitness. It requires very little equipment compared to something like swimming. It doesn't batter one's knees and hips like jogging. It doesn't require extensive organization to play like team sports. It even has a low barrier to entry, both in terms of cost and effort (one can sit on a bike and barely pedal while still going forward, albeit slowly). As an added bonus, one can do it while going to work or on errands. No wonder there are many mamils, even some who were formerly teenagers in wool with leather chamois before they underwent metamorphosis (including changing hair lines and color while adding wrinkles).

Projection of one's prejudices, experiences and follies on others is a symptom of age in some.

I just smile and say, wear your bermudas and let's go ride 30 right now...that usually ends the discussion. 😜

So how old do you have to be to consider sex with your spouse a "service" from her? Jeez, I hope I never get that old.
It reminds of the story of two guys peeing in a restroom urinals and one says to the other "man, that's better than sex" the other guy responds with "well then you ain't SEXING right". (You can replace SEXING with another word but story remains the same).

Very true.

Thanks for that

No Mamils in this forum, just Omils

lol ... true dat!

It was a sorry day when I realized I graduated from middle age to seniordom. God help me, I just don't feel that old.

Anyway, I think mamils are a good thing.

I've been at this serious cycling thing for over 30 years now with no real lapse at all, so I'm not one of the late adopters. But every late adopter is another potential friend, another adventuremate, and another person who's gonna live happier and healthier. That be a good thing.

Oh, and little by little, SoCal traffic is pushing my daughter unit in the same direction as her old man. With any luck, I'll have her commuting at least 2 days a week through the winter. She would be a ywil.

Huh?

As much as I hate swimming, one of the primary virtues I see is it requires no investment (apart from swim trunks, which are technically optional).

When we're biking together, my wife thinks that women are ogling, "worship" is the word she uses, even as I approximate the "mamil". Complete hyperbolic nonsense of course, but regardless that aforementioned "#1 reason" ... is just weird.

Swimming generally requires a pool that you have to drive to. Then you have to share the pool and lanes with others. Logistically, it's not trivial to swim 5-10 hrs/wk. Much simpler to just hop on a bike and ride from your garage.

Whaaaaaat? I've been 39 twenty-two times😜

82° and sunny here. I just back from riding 35 miles in my cotton briefs, hiking shorts and hi-vis wicking T-shirt. I feel just fine, thankyouverymuch. Just call me Fred.

LoL, and I'm sure you would be, noting the only people who've ever commented to me about my bike shorts were those who hadn't done anything in years more athletic than trotting from the bed to the bathroom. Cheers!