You folks talk about fair weather and 40 mile rides and I can't even get out of the door. We have 2 feet of snow on the ground, ice on the road and it's 5 F below zero. I've pedaled 100 hours and got nowhere (in my basement). Is it Spring yet? Feels like hibernation.

Why do you think we live here?

we were in an extreme drought this summer and we are now making up for it with lots of rainy days, have only ridden 3 days this year

This stuff is now gone.
So I got out on a vintage ride.

I'm due to hit that magic 65 in about 4 weeks.
I'd kinda like to ride 65 miles on my birthday anniversary to celebrate,
but miles have been hard to come by over the last couple of months and
I'm not too sure I can get in shape for that.
We'll see.

If you can't do 65 miles you can try for 65 kms or 65 "half miles".

Thanks for that suggestion, RonH..I'll give that great consideration.
65km would be just shy of 40.5 miles. I may work up to that in 3 1/2 weeks,
provided I get my butt in the saddle.........

Roads here in South Mississippi are a bit more rolling than they were for the many years I spent cycling in west and central Florida.
That tends to increase the difficulty factor and decrease the speed factor (along with age, of course.)
In my (much) younger days we would drive to San Antonio/Dade City for some hills, and of course, there was Clermont. The hills here are not nearly as severe, but there seems to be more of them.

I'll give the metric version much thought!

Welcomed my riding buddy Frank C back to the saddle this morning. It's his third ride, first with me, since his surgery. He's been off the bike for four months so I let him set the pace. Rode with him for 25 miles, then opened it up a bit for the last 15 mile solo lap. 40 miles total.

Glad you have your riding buddy back on the road.

That sounds like a very healthy ride for both of you!

It's unfortunate that this traditional biking birthday achievement actually gets harder every year. I mean, we're all going to eventually be unable to keep up! In my running community, the equivalent benchmark is to be able to run a 10K in less than your age, which stays achievable since you get another minute each year. My most recent 10K was done in 59 minutes, so at 70 I've got a lot of time to play with as I slowly slow down...

Am I the only one still around to enjoy a retirement learning about all the new stuff out there while having too much fun rebuilding all the stuff I couldn't afford or spend the time on forty years ago?

oops... my bad. I couldn't find anything less than eight years old here and then as soon as I sent the question everything showed up!

I'm less interested in learning about the new stuff, but keeping about a dozen bikes ride-ready is all the distraction i want from just riding them. And a little BF internet time.

Where in TN? I grew up in Nashville.

Me — I'm not interested in old stuff. I don't consider my 2001 Litespeed old school because it was brand spankin new when I bought it in April 2001 and came with 9 speed brifters, etc. Still my favorite ride.

If I could scrape up the bucks I'd upgrade the drivetrain to 11 speed because the last time I replaced the drivetrain components I couldn't find 9 speed crank or chain rings. Had to go with 10 speed chain rings.

My current 8 speed ride uses brifters I had to buy from Ireland. Cassettes and chains from SRAM are still easy but the chain rings are officially 9 speed. I doubt that it matters much as the compact double is an easy shifter anyway. I finally broke down for a new 2016 frameset that fits my "older" geometry.

Nice collection Wildwood! I have a half-dozen mostly vintage early 80s. I don't restore so much as get them back to A1 riding condition. And ride them all. Even a couple single and a '55 three speed in spite of living on a mountain a few miles from Sparta, Tn.

I'm currently watching for an Italian frame to better fit my "middle age" geometry too. I've got a well used 25" Ross Pro with shimano 600 EX gear I'd like to reuse and give up the frame. I bought it new in '79 and just can't give up on it. I might settle for a good Fuji or another Trek though. After the first time using brifters (on a new LBS KHS Flite) I immediately converted my Raliegh Technium Supercourse Pro over to them.

I am 67 so I qualify 4 times. New to the forums. Need to lose some weight and get back into shape.

Welcome.

Get busy riding and the pounds will start dropping off.

There were three of us, all septuagenarians at the Show and Go Club Ride this morning at 9 AM, 38 degrees, cloudy, 14 mph wind out of the west. We decided to shorten the usual route. Rode 20 miles then enjoyed coffee and stories after. Retirement is great!

Hey.....I'm an old geezer at 69...Love traveling round on my 72 Schwinn Paramount.

Welcome aboard.

My 6 vintage 80s are riders, not all restored nor even era appropriate. Holdsworth has 46/30 chainrings and serves as the gravel grinder with tubular 32s. The Merckx runs 48/34 rings from VeloOrange, and the Batavus is changing to Veloce 9sp triple.

The newer bikes are each Campy10; I like interchangeable rear wheels - whether for friction6 or Ergo10. My current addiction is quality 25/28/30mm tubulars.

I have relatives (thru marriage) that owned a sporting goods store in Sparta. I think past tense is correct.

Having fun staying busy searching and building this winter. Built a (2017 Hardcore Beater Bike Challenge) machine and test rode it 5km yesterday. In the rain. Yuck. But while visiting an auto salvage yard for that I found a complete 80s Nishiki Landau (in my size!) for $10. Perfect frame, everything else locked up. But I've hung onto a too-large Ross Pro and spent today stripping the Shimano 600 EX gear for the Nishiki. Which was my second choice behind a decent Italian frame. I don't think I could deal with the large number of rainy days you folks have over there.

I'm lucky to still 'ride my age' (mid-July birthday helps), but all my centuries are metric; that's a concession my bones can live with. I don't drink French wines so not likely to be riding 40yrs henceforward.