Blousing straps
 

Blousing straps I believe was the name used in '71 US Army. Elastic straps used for tucking fatigues under straps at boots.

I also ordered another Sella Italia gel flow saddle for $60. Not leather covered, unfortunately. I have one $$ leather, from around' 08. 130 mm wide. New one is 140. For 120 mm sit bones.

In present times. With smartphone distracted drivers. I try to stay away from traffic as much as possible. Bike railroad trails when convenient.

Not yet to 10 posts. Don't think I can load pics until at 10?

Like the Selle Gel Flow and think it makes me faster but... a bit like breaking in a new Brooks.

I ride a number of bikes, so breaking in a leather saddle takes time. Butt, this Brooks Imperial (bought new and then laced) is breaking in my buttocks instead of the other way round.
HAHA - Not.
Butt, I make do. Pic from yesterday.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0b82f4997.jpeg

I'm wondering how much i should be fighting it.

The preference for staying around the house and 1 acre yard - (puttering in the garden, maintaining the lawn, keeping up all the things for a clean house) - is becoming more pronounced. Maybe I've got it too easy with family in the area, delivery of anything, online/streaming distractions, other amenities.

I'm pretty content not to participate in things. Is this a sign of normal aging or significant decline? For one's 74th year. Overall physical health metrics are better than average, short of excellent.

Years back I gave up ski patrol but not skiing completely. Then stopped summer wilderness ranger/backpacking but not vigorous hiking. All my centuries became metric, then those have all but disappeared.

Push On or Hang Out

Wildwood,
Sounds like you have enjoyed an active lifestyle. Biking, walking and some muscle machines exercise is good for our future. How much is needed? Just my observations, is definitely beneficial. I don't do enough. We got to keep moving. I had a sit down job career.

+1. got that covered mostly.
Maybe it is a matter of where one's eyes :twitchy: are gazing for the future?
I have had a generous helping of Adventure in a good many Places across a fair number of Decades.
Perhaps, a matter of Spark. How many varieties of Spark exist?

edit: inspired by seeing another Calfee in the C&V ride thread = I rode mine :thumb:, albeit only 7miles. Friday is a bad day generally to ride my roads, and missed the best window.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9609f5652.jpeg
and picked some of the last hydrangea and scented flowers. :love:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6b9c22eef.jpeg

'Push On or Hang Out'... yeah we're probably all living with issues. Kind of back to previous ride schedule and even mileage but RPMs are way down and only creeping up slowly.

Still... things could be worse, e.g., recently hearing of many instances of younger folk, 60s and younger who still think they're 20-- breaking limbs falling off ladders, jet skis... a broken collarbone just wiping out riding a surfboard. Sheesh! And worse... kids of friends having to deal with difficult issues like treatment for cancer, loss of spouse due to sickness and even various medical problems their kid's kids are having. So, feel free to feel lucky when you're out riding the bike and keep looking over your shoulder, on the lookout for some idiot doing something stupid!
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...225dc4d026.jpg

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Would have been a magic day if it had been a tailwind instead of a headwind back.

I still have pant "clips" in a sense. Now it is bright colored reflective bands that close with Velcro. Multipurpose.

I can relate to some of the above.
I've been doing all of the grocery getting by bicycle for a while now.
Turns out I still need excercise :lol:
Wife's arthritis can be very bad for her at times, so I mostly run the kitchen now.
The not doing anything-non participation thing has me a bit worried, since it's so much easier to just sleep.
There was not a lot of time for cycling and things during my work-life. I was on call a lot and had to be near a phone at all times. Still not sure all that was worth it, but the overtime kept us in food and vehicles, more or less.

I did finally get the Sekine up into 10th for 6 or 7 10th's of a mile last night.
Man, what a rush! It's been almost 40 years for me to be that quick on a bike.
I'm certainly not going to push myself with it. Home gear is 9th, and that's likely where she'll stay for (ahem) most of the time.;)

-D.S.

Now 74 myself I get this completely and would speculate in my case totally normal. Our 7 acres in the AZ desert does not need much and having a good handyman with grounds keeper capability has made all the difference. If a priority jumps up that will impact my saddle time he comes to the rescue. Still struggling to find quality help at our snowbirding spot in the Bighorns which at times is all consuming. Dealing with osteoarthritis and occasionally rheumatoid my doctors stress the value in saddle time as I am sure your would.

I'm new here. Already put an intro on the 50+ page but hey, I'm 67, so here I am again. Thanks all.

'The average cyclist rides between 3,000 and 5,000 miles per year, according to various sources.Feb 26, 2023'

Pretty sure won't be doing much more than ~1.5K...

3000 sounds like a lot but that is only 8 miles a day. I guess i ride s lot more than I thought I did. When people as how far I ride I just say a few thousand miles and they think that is a lot.
Ed

That 3 to 5K per year number is for a recreational cyclists that would be most/many of us here, if you added in all cycle owners it would be much less.

That 8 miles/day is very deceptive. For the last several years, I don't enjoy rides in rain or rides at temps under 65 or rides with winds over 15 or rides in the dark or rides in which the sun blinds me in one direction or another. Many adults who own bikes probably have more restrictive limits. Most adults work 35-40 hours/week or more. Adults with kids often can't find the hours to ride 3K-5K miles. Commuting by bike is a great way to add miles, but a very small percentage of us commute.

I'd like to see the sources from which the 3K-5K miles came.

66 and still riding
 

I have a 43 year history of ultramarathon cycling, having done my first (imperial) double-century in 1981. Did the 700-mile qualifier for Race Across America in 1985. Created, directed, and competed in the 220-mile Race Across Wisconsin in the 80s. Did a solo tour across the United States in 1988. In 2012, I broke the 300-mile record across Wisconsin. 4 months later, I broke my hip in a crash. Got a total hip replacement on Christmas eve of that year. Within 2 years I was back to doing double-centuries again.

These days, I stick mostly to centuries as my longest rides. I'm tentatively planning to break the 155-mile record across Illinois in a couple years, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.
Since 2012, I had been riding a BMC SLR01 Team Machine, until the frame cracked last spring, with about 80,000 miles on it. So I picked up a 2024 of the same model.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...100ce5aa2.jpeg
2012 to 2024

I am 67 and getting into biking again after three covid years respite. I used to ride bike when in my twenties and I returned to my old 1970s bike again when I started biking at around 50+ and now at 67 I got me a used CF Trek Equinox with TT bars to boot but most importantly, I got a cyclo computer and for the first time in life I can see my speed, cadence, HR...

I do sport riding which means I don't accumulate big mileage (kilometrage since I bike in Europe), the idea is to push it to drip sweat from chin and keep breathing vigorously and so my rides usually take a half or three quarter of an hour at most. The idea is to do cardiovascular training.

In spring when I started, I would run out of breath on every significant hill, breathing like a locomotive, on the verge of being suffocated. I had to stop for several minutes to recuperate a bit before able to ride on. On my old bike which has toe clips, meaning you can walk in the cycling shoes, I would walk the bike for a bit before getting on it again. Now with the new clipless tech, I can't walk in those shoes and so just take a sip of water and admire the countryside.

After the break, pedaling feels like a cinch again but only for a hundred or couple hundred feet, then my legs lose the energy again, but usually I make myself to finish the hill. Now I have some 600 miles (900+ Km) behind me and breathing in the hills is not a big problem, but the leg muscles being dead beat remains. Its like torture, there is no pleasure in it when the hill is steep and too long. On moderate hills I am beginning to enjoy it since I can keep the speed up while staying in bigger gear.

It is the case of the head which would want to go but the legs and lungs are not up to it. Also I suspect that as I improve, I push it more with the result that my legs and lungs still don't feel adequate to my expectations.

One things is, I found I like to spin quite high, 80 is a bottom and I like to do 90-95 most times in easier terrain, if I don't upshift, I can go over 100.
70 then feels like not sports ride but a touring pace. Of course, in hills I drop to 70, 60, then 50 and then I take that two-three minute break. My lowest gear is 39x25 but it feels like lower gears don't make the hills easier. What makes them easier is if I can stay in a higher gear and go up them faster :speedy:

I read once that if your legs give out before your lungs do, you're in too high a gear; if your lungs give out first, your gear is too low. I'll bet that's worked for me, but it might be vice versa, YMMV. I find that I tend to use higher gears as I do more biking over the same routes. I expect to get faster over a season. Alas, faster ... not fast.

Some days are better than others…
 

…savor them.

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https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6f2b70b3f.jpeg

I dislike high rpm cadences. (Knees)
It is one of the reasons I prefer my old road style bike over the MTB.
I climb in the highest possible gear. If I'm on an incline where I have to downshift any more than two cogs, the likely-hood of me getting off and walking the bike is high.
Most of the slopes and bridges in town here I can take in 9th on my old early 70's ten speed, provided I can get a fair run at them first.
There are just two that require gearing down, and 7th usually gets me to the crest.

I get a kick out of people passing me with high cadences- all I have to is increase by 10 rpm without shifting, and I'm already going around them.
The place for speed is between the wheels and the road~ not in my legs. :backpedal:

-D.S.

You might also like cycling in much of Florida. Mole hills for mountains.

You're describing Zen racing -- the sound of one hand clapping, the sight of one person racing.

People who have never pinned on a number have no idea how much faster real bike racing is. If you were to join the USCF and begin racing, you'd quickly switch to using higher cadences or find yourself spit out the back of the peloton.

And, other things equal, higher cadences are easier on the knees for a given speed, with less of a load on the knee than muscling a higher gear slowly.

LOL!
Expertise. I don't know how anyone can set themselves up to judge cycling issues , especially for those age 65 and up- over the internet.
You know nothing about my knee conditions.
Who said anything about racing?
Seniors on bikes are no ego trip, that's for sure.

-D.S.

Exactly. There is a Tuesday morning group ride around Fiesta Island here in San Diego, with an "A" and a "B" group. I've been trying to get in shape to ride with the B Group. I can hang with the B group for about a mile and then get dropped. They are averaging 22+ mph around the island. The A group is seriously faster. The folks in the B group range in age (with my poorly calibrated eyes) from mid thirties to 65+. They spin @ 90++ rpm.

What science there is on the matter, the trade-off between desired gear and foot speed is a function of crank length which most take as a given (whatever came on the bike which oftentimes is 175 mm). But, it is not a given. Experimenting with crank length can lead to surprising results, e.g., I'm 6'3" and have 165 mm cranks. Back in touring days I had a one-to-one bailout gear w/175 cranks and, I still have a bailout 1:1 gear but only 165 cranks so that's more effort than when I was younger and more brilliant. I wouldn't mind having 145 cranks to increase my RPMs at any given gear-speed but I don't want to spend the money (dolce far niente) and, I don't want to use crank shorteners if I don't have to because that introduces Q-factor considerations (and, there's zero science on that).