'til waylaid by injury, made it a habit to go for a ride every 3 days... put it on my calendar, looked forward to it since '19 and... can't wait to get back to it!

Maryland USA, my goal is based on time. I want a minimum of 1 hr a day, six days a week. I do enjoy seeing a good number of miles or a good speed, but my goal is time. I will bother to start a ride if I can even get in only 20 minutes and half the time, I go 2 to 3 hrs but I feel it's a good day if I get in my hour. And, at 75, it is now on a comfort hybrid (Trek Verve) with an upright position and at very casual speeds. I love going fast and far but I am learning I also love going slow and for a long time.

I ride for fun, miles, and average speed (such as it is). At the beginning of a season, I add miles to my starting ride - maybe 20% week - until I can ride 25 miles and still be a good partner to my wife (for example, ride 25 and be able to go food shopping without cracking). Then I just want to do 25 a little faster every week. I know there isn't a lot of precision in using average speed as a metric, but over a season I just want to feel stronger at the end than at the beginning, and I want at least 1,000 miles/season.

My goal for this year is 1,500 miles and an 81 km ride by the end of July, by which time, I'll have celebrated my 80th b'day.

Almost always miles, have you tried better saddles?

That's cool: It never occurred to me that the goal might be to improve one's average speed. Glad I offered the choice "Other." :)

Right in the middle of this Thread range... riding the bike for quite some years and hope to continue for my full term of service...
every day... of course, other things come up, so not always every day... but if I were to plan 4 or 5 days a week, then invariably it would turn into 3-4 or maybe even less.
but every day is a good plan... because every day that I ride proves to be a better day, than most, when I don't...
I'm also very happy to only have one mirror in the house... and it spoils my unrealistic happiness in being 'young' LOL!
Don't have many pics of me with bikes, but here's one from 2 yrs ago at 73...
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...90ea0c64a7.jpg
Found this RIH on local CL in '22. When young, and over in Holland and Belgium for some time, I had a hankering to get one - now this showed up! Yay!

Riding a 'performance bike' since '64 - It's been quite 'The Ride' all these years, and every phase has been great!
'Cycling', not the only thing, but always a consistent part of my life.
My often complicated philosophies always seem to boil down to one simple thing...
Ride On
Yuri

Always had triples in the 'old' days. Compact now with a really, really big cluster (still got my 1:1)
​​

​​

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f78ed700c4.jpg
I'm back in the saddle again
I'm back

My wife bought an e-bike to help her with the hills (we live near the top of one) and she's been bugging me to buy one. But I'm fully vested in my classic bikes and determined to keep up with her with no e-assist. At 68, I'm 10 years her senior but have always been in good shape.
Admittedly, the hills have been a deterent, but its just a matter of determination and discipline. Or maybe just bringing a bike to one of the local bike trails, which are much more level. :lol:

I think I'll get out there on my old Super Course today!

[MENTION=550353]swampyankee2[/MENTION] - at the end of every ride, for me, the last 2km is a climb of 133m. I found it was a deterrent to riding as often as I like. I am also vested in vintage classics, most with original 'racing' gears - 52/42 & 12-26. I bought an e-roadie with EU standard for 20kph max, help when I need it but none at regular cruising speeds. My 2 feet are firmly planted in two different cycling spaces, and I love the best of both.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b999bdab9c.jpg
Modified gears
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8ef95fdba8.jpg
Traditional gears -
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a81a0b2e87.jpg
50/34 & 11/32, Assisted to 20kph


edit: Not a great pic, but I fondly remember the ride of straight gauge 531 from Raleigh. Was it '72? Last year for subtle script on the DT.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bcc90c1749.jpg

I had that one, a Raleigh, Grand Prix 15-speed- as I remember, it's 4320 straight gauge steel.
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From an older Bike Forums thread:

"Raleigh frames with 2030 steel are well made and were designed for decades of riding... the tubing is not as light as a butted chromoly but these are recreational, utility, and sport level frames and not full-on racers.

The Grand Prix is a nice-riding bicycle and with nicer alloy bits is going to curb out at around 26 pounds...it is still as strong a frame as anyone could ever want."

SAE-AISI 2030 is aluminum not steel- definitely not the water pipe used to make the Raleigh in the pic above...

Bike was really built- the rear seat stays was a single tube wrapped around the front of the seat tube just above the top tube. Never saw another road bike made that way.

An old Bike Forums thread about wrap-around seat stays.

Raleigh 20-30 steel decal and Falcon wrap-around seat stays:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/~EUAA...-0/s-l400.webp

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...54372ff76f.jpg

Carlton and others used wrap-around stays, too. Mostly an English thing, I think.

Raleigh used their own designation for 1020, 2030 steel tubing. It's not the same as SAE, which means its not aluminum. Raleigh calls their 2030 "high tensile steel" which, if it relates at all to industry nomeclature, would be a High Strength Low Alloy steel. I used alot of HSLA in metal stamped parts for automotive use. Better than mild steel - 1010 or 1018 and able to be used in thinner gages to save weight.

I ride Hi-Ten steel proudly in an Italian motif. Oria tubing.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...45bcaa4367.jpg

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3e7ce592b3.jpg
Lemond BA - 853 Reynolds steel.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...67597737e0.jpg
70 year old rider on a 23 year old bike. Was well pleased with a mid pack finish in the B race. Age alone is not a reason to stop doing what you enjoy,

Born Summer 1940. Here's a pic with my 1973 Record Atala plus a few more of way too many vintage rides now that I have downsized. (had ISP problems after 1st two images, will add more later)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6bbe3392c1.jpg
Atala Professional


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0cd9dc8de1.jpg
1981 Gran Criterium
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e27706f9eb.jpg
Mid 70's Stella set up for Cino Montana

[QUOTE=ollo_ollo;23277056]Born Summer 1940.]

@ollo_ollo - you are almost too old for this thread. Better start the 85+ Thread. :thumb:.

Roll On!


Nice jersey. blue/white/red = French roots?

Bought a Selle Italia saddle through Amazon that was shipped from Japan. Cost me over 8,000 yen.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...83921b8d97.jpg

#3


Just found this. A place for me to expound! :D

A few laughs in here too! Keep it up.


Soonish to be 67, which really doesn't mean much. Been back to bicycle riding past 3 years or so.

Still amazed at distances I can cover. 10-14 mile ride days aren't the biggies they used to be.


So much corn-fuses me these days.

Are pant clips coming back? Some sort of social statement being made there?

I ask because I see so may bikes with no chain guard these days.

In a similar vein, what's with all the small front chain rings??? Not everybody's mountain climbing at 4 mph ya know.

And ,no, I don't require a whole lane of traffic city, or country. A foot and a half from the curb still works as it always did, and traffic can get around me with no one road raging over it.

I still drive too, so there. :twitchy:

Do love the old classic ten speed racers, which I'm just getting back into. So much fun after a couple of years of relatively slow, heavy MTB. Nice to fly again.


-D.S.

Pant clips? Used to wear those. Nowadays I roll up my cuffs.

Haven't worn pants riding a bike since I was a paper boy...