That's some serious miles to rack up with them tires, Striker. I'm a year behind you and only been out a couple of times along the ocean where it's not busy yet but it is still stinking cold out there.

I just turned 70 a few months ago, don't feel old, still ride about 6,000 miles a year. Then I see photos of myself and wonder how my old man came back to life and got in the shot!
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e3d56582ba.jpg

Will be 82 in less than a month and i am three months from my knee replacement today so i went out on this 88 Cannondale i had never ridden. Picked it up six months ago as a shed find. Under Thirty years of dirt and oil it was close to mint. Had to adjust seat and tighten shifting cable to get it into big gear. As soon as i did that i got up the hill that starts at our parking lot. 10% for 1/4 mile. Never did bother my knee. Ridding is easer than walking with out cane.
Ed

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...09f6edb18.jpeg

Sheer joy, in a good vintage find.
 

congratulations Ed! I share your joy in an ace shed find! Hope your knee op goes well. My son found a 91, Peugeot st. gothard p100s in my local 'recycle' store. He gifted it to me. I, just about, rode it to the next village and back, 5 Kms total, but it was stuck in a difficult gear. So, only on the downhill and straight bits.

Uphill, I used it like a Zimmer frame, carrying the weight of my shopping.
I'm used to using my ebike for all transport, so felt quite pleased with myself for riding it at all.
Very happy to report that cleaning off 30 years of grease and dirt, like yours, its almost like new, although it has straight handlebars and an ordinary roadbike saddle.. Light as a feather, after my weighty ebike.
I thought the gears must be permanently broken, but close inspection showed that the cogs were caked in ancient grease that was like dried glue. Hot water and strong cleaner have given me great hopes for my next trial run.
I don't see me zooming up any hills yet, my ebike is always good for exercise, but only of quite a relaxed kind compared to taking a road racer up a hill.
I feel inspired to try again now I think the gears are perfectly in order.
It won't be easy!!

Drawing attention of those charged with the elderly?
 

I'm sorry to have missed your response! I think there must be very wide differences of care and attention offered to elderly/diminished capacity, folk, around the world. I'm sure that there must be many that would be very grateful to be watched at all. It may well be the case that in your own locality "it takes a lot to draw attention" as you describe.
Here, it is simply a matter of age..

*Real* care, always begins with making contact, communication, asking questions. Not in thinking of people as mindless sheep to be herded, or controlled.

Ebike/road racer
 

Use both...looks the best way for me now
I think you might enjoy that too.
It's several years since pedalling, under my own power, was my second choice to driving my car. Running a car in the countryside, seemed to me at that time, an absolute necessity, and my road bike, I had no ebike then, was a best choice, before the local gym, for best, not-boring, keep fit time..
​​​​
It occurred to me that IF ebiking to nearby towns, was possible, there could be huge savings to be made, although I have always loved driving, and giving up, entirely was a sad thought.
. Everything has, so far, worked out perfectly.
I can hire a car for a few days whenever I need to make a long trip or a delivery, too heavy for my ebike..

For almost every trip, now, my ebike has proved to be pure joy.
I have slowly discovered how to take best care of it, and fitted it with chunky tyres that cope with all surfaces.
Once, I had to ride home on completely flat tyres, but the chunky protection was unblemished!
I can visit two favourite towns, each about 40kms return trip, under my rain poncho, in wet weather, and trips to all three, nearby, local stores, in three different villages, are far better than tedious gym-time exercises. And of course, cost free

Still, the better exercise, greater energy required for NO E-POWER biking, had a lot of appeal, and I thought seriously about trying out my son's abandoned road racer. He gave it to me, but it was almost Impossible for me to ride, until recently.
Now, I'm hoping to ride short distances, without E-POWER.
I have fully serviced the lightweight road racer, it is ready to go!
I should be able to ride it to the nearest village.
Before I found out how to use the gears properly, it was hopeless to attempt a hill ..but I could use the light bike as a kind of Zimmer frame, to carry shopping.

Happy biking, everyone.

Took a very strange fall last week just after the above picture was taken. I am hesitant to put this here as it may discourage some but I will call it a none moving accident . I never get on my bike from standing on a curb. but after a hour riding and several stops along the way I needed to get to front door of our building so I got on my bike next to the curb and pushed off but I did not have enough motion so I started to put my left foot down and it got caught between the curb and my bike. My left lean got over so there was no correcting it. I must say here I have gone over to the left many times and always fall to the left side shoulder and have never hit my head. Most of the time just a few scratches on the elbow and wondering how I ended up on the ground.
This time my foot was trapped into the curb and bent my foot bad just behind the toes. My wife picked the bike up of me and I got over and sat on a bench. Foot hurt bad but nothing else was bothering me. There was a lot more wrong later that night. Did not break any toes but they can get black and blue fast and also up the bottom of my foot half way back. Just above the right ankle very large bruise. Just below the right knee and on the lower right side of the knee no bruise but sore like don't touch me. I was wearing my Russian dive watch and the metal band took a bite out of my left wrist just above my glove.
I put this here as it is not the kind of accident you think of with a bicycle. I really has nothing to do with age but not thinking out what you are doing . I was a dumb accident I will not repeat
I am going to mention another now funny accident I had 15 years ago. I was at a rural intersection and I did not want to loosen my toe clip so I reached over to balance my self on a mailbox and the mailbox pushed off the top of the pole it was mounted on ,I slid down the 4x4 pole into a lump between two mailboxes, ouch.:50:
Ed

Thanks EddyR, I for one need reminders to avoid being cavalier when cycling.

74 and still riding any season.
 

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...08f9e8929d.jpg
Winter riding along with my Labrador who does better with the cold than I do. The cold is fine as long as I don't go too fast. Anything above about 12-15 mph the wind chill makes the riding much less fun. 74 and no plans to stop riding.

doubt if I'm putting out more than ~50-75 watts (/hr?) over a total duration of about an hour and a half (~12 mph)... My efficiency is kind of like Frederick Taylor and the coal shovel, putting out more energy and only flying along when there's a wind at my back.

Away from the forums as I passed 65. Now almost 67. Can still do twenty for a mile, so it's still good.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2c9c0f608e.png


Such an inspiration...

I studied this…
 

Biden was clipped in and pulled a Captain Crash. Could have happened to anybody.

yup...

I totally detest those cages. Just as I'm not inclined to lock my feet onto the pedals with those special shoes. Half clips. Position your feet correctly on the pedals but still let you plant your foot on the ground. I can only hope that Joe has those cages taken off the pedals.

I fell off my bike a time or two. Would have been nice to have SS to back me up that one time.

Hell, I’d be doing that on a regular basis, if clipped in.
Tim

I rode with clipless pedals for years. It isn't just about positioning you feet on the pedals, though that is important. They allow you, with a little practice, to use your legs to spin the crank rather than just push down. It's more efficient. I stopped using them last year when age made them less safe.

Half clips allow you to do the same as you were doing with clipless. As long as they aren't flimsy plastic. You can, indeed, pull with your quads using half clips.

Clipless pedals don't allow midfoot pedal positioning and require specialized shoes but, it helps to have shorter cranks when using long toe clips...

Ol Joe doing a good job of promoting the safe aspects of cycling.

I use half clips on all my bikes. I have purchased both the Wahoo and Shimano clipless systems, but always feel more comfortable with the half clips. There are at least two styles. I get the ones with the wider opening for your shoes/toes. The narrower ones seem to age my bike shoes.
At 70 the last thing I need is to fall on my hip. I ride about 7,000 miles a year, and don't like change! LOL
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bc77aa6d10.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b22d494af0.jpg
A good strategy for those who'd rather ride a bike than walk - two spare tubes, spare tire, patch kit, pump and tools.

Knocking on 70 years old!
 

back on the bike again 21 miles in Wild Blue

Have you ever seen half clips in various lengths?
 

Now well in my 70s I am very aware of my balance issues and have experimented with clips w/o the straps that came with some of my vintage bikes and am impressed. I suspect they are more flexible than half clips but have noticed going to these clips has not materially changed the feel in climbing or my times in my favorite 20 mile ride. I would like to try half clips but as my left foot is a full size shorter shoe size and clipless let me dial in the individual sweet spot on the pedal and my Christophe clips vary in length so I get close. I see MKS makes different size clips for height but only offer cumbersome looking spacers for half clip length.

I will be 70 on 9/6/22, 6 weeks from today. This morning I got in 35 miles to put me at around 700 for the month, and somewhere just over 3000 miles for the year. On May 1, I only 600 miles ytd due to health issues. I have officially caught up and am ahead of the pace for 5000 miles for 2022.

I'm now 75 and have been trying to ride more after not riding for a few years. I switched to Mt Bikes back in the 80s when I lived in Marin County, Calif near lots of dirt fire roads on Mt Tamalpais. I'm still riding my '85 Fisher Mt Tam that I bought from Gary Fisher at his little bike shop in San Anselmo.

I stopped most of my riding for several years when I moved to an area that didn't have good bike trails nearby, and was also very hot most of the summer. But now I try to go for a ride early mornings, or when it's cool. I got rid of my toe clips, but went to the plastic half clips mainly to keep my foot from slipping around on the pedals. I can sympathize with ol' Joe; I've had a couple of minor falls myself due to age, I'm sure. I don't feel nearly as stable as I used to, so I'm more careful. Still enjoy riding, though, I just avoid crossing rocky creek beds, etc. Not to mention tight turns onto bike trails. :bike2:

Denver and Nora in their mid-80s out for a neighborhood bike ride! Later I rode the Baldwin Gulch trail. Here is one of several tunnels on the trail.https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5e283e3444.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fda3a292c5.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d1f956facd.jpg

Rode a metric century on a fixed gear bike-no free wheel, though I was wishing for one toward the end. Mostly flat Santa Ana River Trail is just about sixty two miles end to end and back. I actually started midway since that's where the Metrolink commuter train gets me too.
https://www.strava.com/activities/7566724905

Kudos! I got a single-speed flat bar bike a couple of years ago and set it up originally as a fixie. That lasted until the time I tried to bunny hop over some bad pavement. :eek: I flipped the rear wheel over to the freewheel side before I rode it again. I don't think I could've made a metric with the fixed rear wheel.