Lake_Tom

Half of people age 50 or older have developed a hiatal hernia even if they are asymptomatic. Being hunched over pressurizes the abdominal cavity and pushes on the hernia. The redress is cycling on an empty stomach, no tight spandex, and higher handlebars. Symptoms are reflux, heartburn, and throat problems. Once the symptoms start, one must change their diet and sleep habits, cut out alcohol and caffeine, and medicate with antacids. You don't want that.

Today, I am shopping for a new fork with an uncut riser and a whole bunch of spacers.

smontanaro 

One more comment from this section of the peanut gallery. From time-to-time I see vintage bikes outed on the C&V forum where the owner (sometimes now deceased) has modified their treasured steed from the 50s, 60s, or 70s so they could keep riding it. That often provokes snickers from some, but I'm always impressed with how the owner kept riding it.

In Italy (in particular), it seems many old race bikes were turned into city bikes, outfitted with manubrio condorino, fenders, maybe even a newspaper clip on the fenders or a chain guard. This was probably as much out of necessity as a labor of love, but offers another example of continuing to ride a bike your body has aged out of. I have an early 70s Atala Super Professional that's currently hanging in the basement in nearly bare frame form, but it will get a similar treatment when I get back to it.

Long story short, get whatever you want. If you out-age it but still love it, modify it in whatever way you want to keep riding it.

Wildwood

Don't hunch, rotate hips and extend body and arms.
Simple if one has an appropriate saddle and has no limiting injuries or degeneration.
YMMV.

Wildwood

@SurferRosa - don't I wish, many internet images exceed my reality, but not my lustful eyes.

TejanoTrackie 

This was my main racing bike in the 1980s and 1990s, and originally had a very long and low stem. I could no longer ride it comfortably, and revised it as shown below:


1983 Mark Nobilette custom frameset

MinnMan

Why stop at one new bike? Buy the Allez. And then buy something more "sensible". And on any given day, ride the one you feel like riding.

Most of all, enjoy the ride.

Tomm Willians

I’m thinking this might be similar to purchasing a Corvette or such as an older person. No you don’t need to go 160 but the heart wants what it wants. I’d like to think when it’s my time I’ll have dang few “I wish I would have’s”.

Buy the bike

Calsun

Many studies have shown that ones chronological age and their body age as measured by health can vary greatly depending on ones diet and level of regular physical activity. Bicycling and swimming are two exercise activities that are kind to older bodies and joints.

I have never cared for the geometry of bikes meant for criterium racers. Not even pro racers use such frames on longer stages or going through the mountains. Today's "endurance" bikes are nothing more than ones with a more stable geometry that is less demanding of the rider's attention and safer on steep downhill sections.

The old Jeep Wrangler vehicles were made with two different frames and the CJ7 was sufficiently longer than the CJ5 as to be far more stable on the highways and far less likely to be spun around 180 degrees by its driver. The same applies to bikes with a longer wheelbase and greater fork rake. The criterium bikes of the 1980's had what today would be referred to as endurance or relaxed geometry. There is no performance penalty for the rider with these frames except for the wider tires often provided with something like the Specialized Roubaix and similar bikes.

Hermes

I am not sure about the boat but why limit oneself to just a new S5?

SurferRosa

I tend to agree, and I have to say "dilemma" is one of my favorite words. It's up there with "yes" and "foreboding."

With a dilemma, you usually have two choices, and they both sorta suck.

Choosing to live (ie, aging), can itself be thought of as as a kind of dilemma. Do I suffer now and die later, or do I just end it now? You're gonna die either way. So, you might as well buy a nice bike before that final choice.

oldbobcat

If the Defy is the right size you should be able to flip the stem and some spacers and try a lower handlebar position before you buy. Or you might just decide you like it that way.

I rented a Defy a few years back, flipped and dropped the stem, and had a blast with it. It wasn't as aggressive as my Madone, but with a 13 cm stem I could have bought the bike and been none the wiser.

winston63 

Are you able to test ride the Allez before buying? If you can, give it a ride and see how it feels. If you ride it, it’s money well spent.

I’m 60 and just added a new bike, not a race bike (and I don’t race) but do already own a nice Scott Solace when I want a light, fast road bike. The new one is for rougher surfaces and maybe some bike packing

jon c. 

buying a Racing Bike vs Aging

As the choice is presented the conclusion is inescapable. There are a lot of positives to buying a racing bike. Not a whole lot positive about aging. And more than a few downsides.

Screw aging and buy the racing bike.

guelphite

I ride a Lynksey Ti bike but it has Easton carbon shallow drop bars on it. I won't go 'flat' due to more hand positions which is good for my hands/forearms.
It's an racing frame but its better for me than aluminum.
I also ride a touring Marinoni with SPX lugged tubing plus a Pashley Clubman, both have Campy Centaur.

downtube42

I just rode a 300k on my Soma Fog Cutter. Over the coastal range, up and down some rollers down the coast, back over the range. Steel frame and fork, alloy wheels. Weighs a crap-ton.

So do I, come to think of it.

Nonetheless, I've a hankering for carbon. As much for the purported smoothness as any weight difference. Since long rides are my thing, I'm testing out a Trek Domane this week. Room for 32mm tires with fender mounts makes it audax capable.

Should I be looking at a stupid expensive carbon bike at 62? Why not - things hurt more now than they did at any previous age.

Edit: on the other hand, I could upgrade the wheels and fork to carbon, and keep the Soma rolling.

staehpj1

Different strokes! I still love my old 1990 Cannondale crit bike. I rode it across the country on the AC southern Tier route when I was 62. It was lightly loaded with some ultralight camping gear (14# of gear). I started off from my riding partner for the ride's home in San Diego which was an immediate steep descent. I wasn't used to the bike with the gear and thought "what did I get myself in to." Pretty quickly I adjusted and I really enjoyed the bike on the ride. At almost 72 now I'd still use the bike for an UL tour in some conditions. Granted, some of that is sentimentality, but some is that I enjoy that bike's handling (I never liked an actual touring bike's handling and no longer own one). I don't mind an endurance bike though and do own a bike that would probably qualify as one. I haven't ridden it in ages though.

I'd love to have a modern race bike, but I probably don't road ride enough to justify the expense these days. I ride daily, but it is mostly on trails with just some road to get to the trail. The trails I usually ride are a bit more suited to a MTB than a gravel bike, but thre are lots of other trails that would suit one so If I were to get something to ride on asphalt it would likely be doing double duty and be a gravel bike. My pavement riding these days is likely to be on tours, running errands, and getting to trails.

Bob Ross

I had a similar discussion w/ the framebuilder who my wife commissioned for her latest road bike, because I anticipate reaching out to him sometime in the future for yet another road bike for me, and his opinion was that so long as I don't have any dramatic restrictions on flexibility/mobility/range-of-motion -- i.e., not the typical changes associated w/ aging, but rather more catastrophic limitations based on surgery etc. -- there is nothing that can't be addressed with a different stem height/angle and/or some extra spacers. So he recommends ordering your Post-Retirement Age road bikes with an extra centimeter or two of uncut steerer above the stem, just in case.

MoAlpha

I carry 2 cm in case of a sudden attack of decrepitude.

Salmonchaser

I'm still riding my 2019 TCR carbon bike and loving it. The stem isn't slammed though, with a spacer under it, and there is some steerer tube left above the stem for the inevitable raise that will come some day. I never could ride in a very slammed position even in my younger years due to extreme inflexibility, and that hasn't gotten any better with age. I do prefer a more relaxed position for longer rides though.

79pmooney

One of the reasons we rode quill stems. They allow for aging. And yes, my threadless TiCycles has an extra 1.5 cm on top.

MoAlpha

I am actually getting a few degrees lower on the bike these days and noticing the aero benefit. I've always been horribly inflexible, I have significant degeneration at all spinal levels, and I never stretch. I attribute the change to all the squats and deadlifts I'm doing now to fend off sarcopenia, something about the glutes being strong enough to support the lower back.

05 fuji

Life’s short - buy the bike.

joesch

This is the best plan.
Try to improve your riding position to increase, not decrease, flexibility as one ages.
Do it correctly as suggested above.
Do it in increments, not too much change to fast.
Yoga and/or stretching will also help your body not age soo fast.
Same for weight / strength training, if you do it, it will improve your current condition.
The sooner, the better, dont delay improvement training.
Conclusion, add a more aggressive road bike to your stable.

Road Fan

69 ¾ here, I have my pair of Mondonicos (Mondonicii?), one 53 cm c-c and the other 54 cm c-c. The way it all works out on these frames I can find a comfortable position on each bike using the Greg Lemond method in his book with Kent Gordis, showing us what Greg learned racing on several pro teams, with Eddie Merkcx and other greats. It refines a lot of our conventional wisdom and ends up with a better fit, for me. Effective seat tube angle 69 degrees, saddle height 71.7 cm, setback 27 cm from BB Plumb to my saddle/sitbone pressure points. The reach to the hoods from the sitbone point is 869 mm, and the saddle to bar drop is 4 cm. This position feels moderately upright to me, for trainer riding, and good in as-yet short forays out into the wide open real world.

I can't say if this is aggressive or not, nor can I say I will like it after a month out of doors. I can say, after 10 years of relatively strenuous yoga, it is not a positioning that feels like it will be harmful, based on having learned that some mistakes will hurt, and could cause harm. So I'm not worried about my "racing" bikes.

Antonio Mondonico designed bikes for racers to use in long multi-day events such as Le Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, at least so says the old Torelli literature. So I submit these can be termed "racing bikes," because that is what I think they were intended for. Several (lol) were sold in USA as well, by Torelli, and by another company before that. I bought my first one from a Denver student when he decided to focus on med school rather than local road racing, and I think my second one was originally ordered by a Seattle gent who just wanted to experience a wonderful bike made at the peak of its maker's skills. At the moment I'm confident I can keep riding both of them with the body and fitting I now have.

But if I'm wrong, I'll just change it until it works. That exercise will tell me when I need to buy something more tame.

At the same time my 1952 Rudge reconstruction (Return to Road Trialing) continues apace, and it will put me in a similar position on the bike. But the 69 degree effective seat tube will be implemented on a frame with an actual seat tube actual angle of about 70 degrees, when my two genuine Eytalians measure to 74 or 75 degrees, and my little Masi is even steeper than that. We'll see how this works out. Maybe I'll end up joining forces with Doug Fattic as has Skip, and build myself a more laid-back modern, strong, durable frame. We'll see!

Road Fan

I would love to be able to patch a nice used Boxster onto that S5 (or maybe a Pogh instead) deal! I also think a Norton Commando belongs on that menu, as well!