I've been riding about a year and half and usually ride about 35 miles. A couple of 45 mile rides. But someone here posted about riding a birthday ride and that inspired me. So I'm off to do 55 miles for the first time.

Have a great ride jon c.

my 55 miler is coming up in a couple weeks and this year its on a saturday so it wont be a problem doing it

Birthday ride is just getting out on your bike on the day- mileage not that important as "Some" of us have birthdays in the months where you cannot ride. They are permitted to do the ride sometime in the year and I try to get mine on a nice warm day with no rain and no wind. Going by the weather this year- I might mange that sometime in May. Just wondering what year that will be. This year or next.

OH_______ Birthday rides have to have pics and have to have PIE- 55 and that means 3 slices of PIE.

Rather than call it a birthday ride, I refer to it as my 'age' ride. That way I can justify doing it any time during the year. My birthday is in December which is a tough month to ride in. I am planning on 65 miles sometime this summer, maybe late June if the fitness level is there.

Happy Birthday Jon, you should have good weather, it is 76° here and probably the same in Tallahassee. Make it a good one and have a piece of pie for me too.

It was perfect weather. A bit windy with steady 15 gusting to 20, but I planned the route to minimize direct headwinds as much as possible. My butt started to get a bit sore at about 40 miles, which makes sense as that's what my butt is used to. But otherwise went smoothly and was a lot of fun.

I'll try to make this an annual but with the variable winter weather here I could always shift a week or two to get a better day. But even in cold winters, there are usually an ample supply of decent days here. This winter may be the warmest in the 23 years I've lived here.

Thanks to all for the good wishes!

Have a Happy Birthday Jon, and a great ride!

Not a rule, but with a winter birthday month, one should do a 1/2 year birthday ride, 6 months from your birthday ride 65.5 miles.

Congrats Jon and good job on the birthday ride!! I agree on the weather this year for us also. Hit almost 90 degrees again today, wind gusts as high as 48 mph...mother nature is in a bad mood.

Good ride Jon--now, consume the obligatory pie, but be sure to take pics BEFORE you eat it and post them.

Jon,

Happy Birthday Sounds like a nice ride. What kind of pie did you have ?

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Jon, and a big thumbs up on your ride! How do all the young'uns not involved with the 50+ crowd get away with 20-25 milers....doesn't seem fair. Oh well, their loss of quality saddle time!

No pix unfortunately. But the pie was blueberry.

The thought of riding my age in miles is becoming a little daunting. Yes, I have ridden 71 miles in a day, but that was a couple of years ago. Perhaps I should pull a Jack Benny and ride 39 miles on my birthday this year. Is this where the law of diminishing returns comes into play?

Wisely choose you did. (In Yoda voice)

Just like me when doing the splits--Half today- half tomorrow

I'm a few days late with the birthday wishes but ..... . Nice going on your 55 mile ride. My birthday was back in October (turned 66) and as of yet haven't had the opportunity to get my "age" ride yet. I have a 100K charity ride coming up in March, so I think I will just ride an extra 4 miles when the ride is over and do it then.

I do my Birthday miles in January in the northeast. I hope to continue as long as I can. One suggestion is to do kilometers.

Oooh, that would be cheating. even up here in metric paradise, I still did my 59th birthday ride in miles last fall.

Did my birthday ride in October- 60 for my 60th. Beer and wings after-no pie

I agree with those who allow this ride on any day during the year, whether this is calendar year, year following the b'day, etc., I have no idea, but I'm flexible. My birthday is in November which means I can most certainly ride on/or near my actual birth day. I'm still working so I need to deal with my work schedule, at least for this year.

Around here the big problem is the amount of climbing involved in an enjoyable 65+ mile ride. The valley is loaded with traffic, stop lights and stop signs.

I will say that I think the ride should essentially be a single loop and not repetitions of, let's say, a 10 mile loop, but that's just me. When your 60+ riding your age is a big accomplishment no matter how you do it.

Congrats Jon, I did 59 on January 3.

Did the pie have ice cream.

Always. Cookie Dough ice cream is my great vice. (And since I started riding I no longer have to worry about the calories.)