73 have been riding a fat tire bicycle since April 2016, at least 5 miles every day weather permitting. Over 13,600 miles, one improvement I made was putting on ape hanger handlebar. Constant riding bent over was a pain, now I'm cruising straight up. Mostly neighborhood roads, sometimes we go to a park. Don't know how many years I can continue but I'm in good health, only medication is for cholesterol. Good blood pressure and 170 lbs on a 6 foot frame.

Gone through both extremes myself but rather than busting a kneecap due to spinning, I remember more, giving myself chondromalacia from pushing too hard. Currently, I'm thinking for me at least, anything over 70 is 'spinning' which is good and not 'pushing' which is bad cuz... never had knee issues from spinning too fast.

Thankful to post this thread
 

Nothing special like some of the places other folks been riding. But it’s still sweet!

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Share, the only way.
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1st day of Autumn. Bring on the pumpkin patch.

edit: Ooopps, wrong thread, senior moment. Too lazy to care.

Perfect.

You left out the very important word "uphill" in the phrase "uphill cycling speed." Duh. I think everyone knows that. You don't need a physicist to tell you that the steeper the grade, the less the wind speed and direction matters.

In still air on the flat, power goes up as the cube of the speed. https://aerosensor.tech/pages/the-sc...rag-in-cycling

If you ride at a speed equal to your tailwind, it still takes effort - losses in the drivetrain, rolling resistance, and aero drag on the spokes. That adds up to more than one would expect. You'd have to experiment to see what your power numbers would be - depends on a lot of things. Once riding a century which included a flat section of Hwy 1 heading north, our tandem had a headwind of 25 mph. We held a steady 9.3 mph for at least 20 miles, had a heckuva long line of singles behind us. We turned around and found still air at 25 mph, which is how I knew what the wind velocity was. Strong single riders passed us because we had more drag than a single in still air: more spokes, more rolling resistance, more drivetrain drag. Our advantage of having only 1.5* the aero drag of a single went away. So it's complicated.

The takeaway is don't major in physics at East Carolina University. None of the rest of this actually matters, though it does explain why it's so hard to hold 30 mph in still air when 25 is not that bad and yet we could ride into a 34 mph wind. We did have aero bars on the bike, both positions. That helped.

My usual human interest story: we came upon a woman in obvious distress, going as hard as she could. I asked her if she was OK. She said, "No, I feel like my soul is dying." There was a large male rider about 20' ahead of her. I figured that was her male other. We rode up to him and asked. Yes, that was his female other. I told him that she said her soul was dying and he'd better drop back and shelter her. He did. My good deed for the day.

That's called "pushing" and it's inefficient and hard on your knees. If you are passing people with a better cadence, then either they are not trying, or you are way stronger than they are. But you are using your strength very badly like that.

You don't need to spin like mad to cycle efficiently. At my age spinning like a racer has little appeal to me, but I actively use ALL the gears on all my bikes to keep a steady, moderate cadence and steady torque as I go up and down hills. Immensely grateful to be so lucky as to still have good knees at my age, pushing is the very LAST thing I do on a bike.

:thumb::thumb::thumb:

Time to clear this up a bit for those that don't seem to understand the concept:

My knees are damaged beyond the point of any rehabilitation through physical therapy, or exercise.
If pushing was as hard as some make out to be, I wouldn't be capable of it in my condition.
I doubt I'm "pushing" all that hard.
I hope this makes sense.

-D.S.

:). I have oft ridden (in the past) Hwy 1 North into a headwind on a tandem; then to have the pleasure of a tailwind homeward. My Hwy1 was north out of Santa Cruz, CA. Memories. :)
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the big red sled

I remember well the headwind on that exact stretch of road. My first century (actually nearly a metric double) was in 1971, with my cousin and one of my UCLA classmates. We left my cousin's house in Palo Alto (my uncle was a Hewlett-Packard "lifer"), went through Big Basin/Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz, then fought the infamous Hwy 101 headwind in low gear back to San Gregorio, then over the hill to La Honda, and Woodside enroute back to Palo Alto. (My college chum took off ahead of us and took a wrong turn north onto Hwy 35.Fortunately a kindly gas station owner who was closing up shop for the evening drove him a few miles back to the proper route.) I slept for a solid 12 hours after the ordeal, which itself had taken us just over 12 hours. A year later I did the Los Angeles Wheelmen Double Century / Grand Tour in the same amount of time, because of a flatter course and far less headwind resistance.

(When we stopped at a small store along Hwy 17 for some snacks, the shop owner was astonished that my cousin had paid a whopping $300 for his Pogliaghi. "Did the guy who sold it to you have a mask?")

:lol: Nice bike for the start of Fall - I'm so ready for it !

I guess since I qualify for this thread by almost 2 years I should hop in. 4 of the 5 in this photo of our small riding group do as well.

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...on the 85 side of things, I'm so impressed by so many of the riders in our area and here on BF. My neuorlogist suggested Yoga as a good thing to persue to help with flexibility. In conversation with a very good 85 year old cyclist in a neighboring town, I found out he's a local yoga instructor and has a YouTube channel. I hope I can do as well.

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New bar and tape
 

Just installed this new bar. It’s wide and shallow,just what I wanted. I put wide riser bars on my road bike a while back and really like the feel,so when I ride my hybrid with the regular stock bars I feel hemmed in kinda.I’ll give em’ a go tomorrow and fine tune the angles.
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Topshelf riser bars from Redshift Sports
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Genetic brand wide flared drop bars
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Ditto- went with an aggressive stem extender, riser and spacers on a bike with a tall alloy head/steerer tube to begin with that gets the top of the bars up level w/ the seat... George Hincapie would break it off like he did in the Paris-Roubaix but seems plenty safe for a non-cannibal sourdough home bread baker like me. Cheers!

Yup. I lived in Santa Cruz long ago. Fun ride - head north in the morning for Half Moon Bay. Get there, head for the harbor and buy lunch. Eat it, then sail back to Santa Cruz! (With a much stronger wind than I rode against. That morning start was important!)

Remembering... a nice climb from Santa Clara to Santa Cruz. Memory a bit hazy but seems like I'm recollecting... getting poison oak on that ride.

Nice metric century along the Morro Bay coast on Saturday.
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Ha, ha, ride in the Sacramento Delta north of San Francisco... the tail wind gives you such a boost... after 1hr... you cannot believe the distance you cycled and on the way back... it was more than 90mins to face the headwind...

A zillions years ago (1976), riding in Ireland, with luggage... uphill and headwind... I was really struggling... a truck stopped and the driver mumbled something... then pointed the bike and the back of the truck... too tired to reply fast enough... the driver picked up the bike and I was glad... it was a long twisted uphill...

always a funny head-shaker back in the day when riders toured the Seattle to San Diego Pacific Coast Bicycle Route (staying in hiker/biker campsites along the route for 50¢ /night) to see the occasional fully-loaded lone contrarian heading north instead of south.

Agree. Not as exciting as it used to be. On the slopes, I don't take it straight anymore. On the bike, I'm not dicing with anyone anymore. More pain on the hikes. I'm thinking maybe be more people centered, less performance. On our 10-day, I fell madly in love with a gay 28 y.o. French thru-hiker, which was really fun. She did have quite a large partner with her. :) She is a professor of climate change, but is moving on. No point in being a professor of climate change at this point, so she's looking for something more interesting. So there's still fun out there, but maybe that's people, who are endlessly interesting. I'm shifting my riding more toward people and less toward courses.

Just checked Amazon and delivery of Costco's chocolate assortment for Halloween this year is scheduled for October 21st. What with the shortage, getting chocolate nowadays must be like diamond smuggling... may be easier to just hand out cigars?

Was my off road bike trying to tell me something. Only a couple of months until 74. Sunday (10/13) went out for a trail ride with a neighborhood friend (10 yrs younger). Been a while since I had the old (98) mtn bike out. The suspension fork is a basic coil/oil Manitou from 2004 with a port (similar to a grease fitting but diff) so the stanchions slide freely. Didn't notice until we got back to the truck that the port was stuck open, letting fork oil/grease to run down the fork, and onto the tire and rim. Have it fixed now. Enjoyed the ride, 5.6 miles of rooty and rocky singletrack, but the hardtail and basic fork beat me up a bit. Maybe the bike was telling me I have no business on trails like that, or maybe need a dual susp (ain't happenin" at this age--good ones are $$$$!)

Why post in 65+ thread? Unless you want caution for replies. At your age, I would not be riding rocky & rooty. And since I am your age, I would stick to smoother trails or gravel roads. And friends along....
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I just turned 70 and recently invested in a mid-priced full suspension. I do intend to wear it out.

I tried posting pics. Didn't seem to post. Frustrated with it, after finally getting to 10 posts, after a year.

In my neighborhood the kids would prefer the cigars, especially if they were Cuban :thumb:

Just hit the box that looks like the silhouette of a mountain range and a rising Sun perhaps...?

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Then, e.g., 'From Device'

Thanks. Figuring my way around.

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My bikes:
Fuji for dirt railways.

Windsor Chrome-Moly from early 80's. Ten speed, made in Mexico.

'07 Trek Pilot 5.0 carbon, Ultegra, 105 triple. 10 tooth cluster. Pilot was an upright geometry frame bike. But, wheels have too large pitch for long durability. Back wheel cracked. Replaced under warrenty. Otherwise no issues. Made in Wisconsin. Now made in Taiwan, according to a dealer.

Gave away my Shimano cleats. No longer want to be attached to bike. If I were to get hit.

Loved my Pilot triple (comfort geo and only CF)- retroed it to get a one-to-one... current rig is the first bike I've had that wasn't a triple (and first alloy) but... retroed to get my one-to-one. Don't use cleats anymore either but do use large cages... with shorter cranks (165s) so no dragging issues (good for better RPMs too).

Well, I’ve decided that I don’t need an 11 tooth cassette cog anymore on any of my road bikes. Gotta be going over 40 mph to use it, and that just ain’t happening anymore. What I do need is lower gears so that I can get up all the hills in my area sitting down. So, I’ve re-geared three of my road bikes as follows:

1) 10 speed 34-50 front: 11-28 to 12-30
2) 11 speed 36-52 front: 11-25 to 12-28
3) 12 speed 36-52 front: 11-30 to 12-34

Now, I do have a 1 x 12 hybrid bike with an 11T high gear, but the chainring is only 38T, so it’s actually usable. Today I rode the 12 speed up a hill that peaks at a 10 percent grade into a 15 mph headwind and really appreciated the new 34T low gear. On the way back down the hill with a tailwind, I maxed out at 38 mph in the 12T high gear w/o spinning out, and was nowhere near needing an 11T.

When I began riding in the 1960s, 11T cogs didn’t even exist, or even 12T cogs for that matter. In fact, I didn’t even own a road bike with an 11T cog until twenty years ago. I’ve always been more of a spinner than a gear masher, and routinely beat the latter in sprints where they were trying to push much higher gears. Nowadays, I go on fitness rides where I try to keep my cadence at a 80 rpm minimum with a lot of over 100 rpms, even when riding uphill. I’m not concerned with how fast I’m riding, just how much cardio I’m getting. Anyway, it’s adios 11T forever. :giver:

I re-geared mine from an 11/28 to an 11/32 in anticipation of needing the lower gearing, but except for road testing to make sure it worked okay (short cage 105-11spd) since everyone told me it wouldn't, I haven't needed it yet (knock on wood). I would miss my 11t though (52/36). I find myself in it a lot and I like to just mindlessly cruise at speed.:) I'm not a spinner though, so speed for me is in the 25-30 mph range.