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

Such an inspiration...

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

A good strategy for those who'd rather ride a bike than walk - two spare tubes, spare tire, patch kit, pump and tools.

back on the bike again 21 miles in Wild Blue

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.

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.

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. 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.

Back pain in the elderly due to lumbar spinal stenosis is a common condition. I've seen a lot of links on the web recently about stretches to alleviate this condition. Interestingly, The usual position when riding a road bike with drop handlebars probably produces similar and effective results.

I've got spinal stenosis and unfortunately none of the exercises I tried worked to alleviate it. The fact that I've mostly transitioned to running probably didn't help with that. A steroid shot in the L4 took care of it.

Posted this in the 50plus page but I meant to post it here. I am a recreational cyclist soon to be 69. I ride 3-4 days a week anywhere from 15-20 miles at a time. Well July was a good month my time and mileage increased by around 20%. Around 13 days ago I did a 20 mile ride but for the first time quite a few short moderate hills. I felt fine till 2-3 days later Since then my thighs and hips are achy,no pain. My question is has anyone else experienced this. I was wondering if it could be muscle related or the beginning of arthritis. I am planning for a short ride on the weekend. If there is no improvement I will be seeing my PCP next week. Thanks in advance.

I don't hang out much in this thread though I qualified 4 years ago. This post reminded me I joined some forumites for a 40 mile (total) out and back a month ago. I dislike driving to rides so I rode the 30+ to the ride then retraced after. On my fix gear, flipping between 17 and 18 teeth.

I set my bikes up for a long reach to the drops. My back loves it. (Oh, not always at the time but I don't feel the bike is the issue, it's the rest of what I do and have done to it.)

​​​​​​Possibly - could use lower gears for the hills than you now have...?