1. It depends on the purpose of the poll. Do you want to try to gain an understanding of the full range of who enjoys biking and also participates in this forum? If so, you are losing valuable information - such as that, perhaps, someone 80 years old is participating in biking and is a forum member. Now, this is not statistically significant, but it is significant in learning about our membership and about the fact that you can be 80 (if that might be the case) and still enjoy biking, and, perhaps, the change in attitude of those who think they are old at 40 or even 50.

On my first Ride the Rockies, there was one person who was 83 who rode the whole thing. Statistically insignificant, yet this person made the TV news, while many in their 30's did not. This person would not have shown up on this poll.

2. You do not know how many, such as I, are refusing to participate in this poll because of the way the age categories are set.

3. And you have no legitimate knowledge beforehand that there will be only four respondents over age 55. That is prejudicing the survey before it is even given. You would not give a cancer survey leaving out a whole area of possible causes, for example, and then, post-survey, state, "Well, we had only a few responses in that area, so it was okay to structure the survey that way." At least I hope you would not.

Come on, you can do better than that!!

Forget the Porche. Buy the bike now.

No no, get the Porche as well as the bicycle.

Oh, my age is 38. No wrinkles yet - good sunglasses help keep away the crows-feet. I am getting lots o' long white hair though. Sometimes I have white stripes in my braid or pony-tail. I'll take the white hair over balding (not that there's anything wrong with balding).

No! Trust me! Forget it. You don't want to spoil the bike by having one of those in your garage. A bike will see you through times of no Porche better than a Porche will see you through times of no bike. If it's one or the other, take the bike. If it's both, sell the car and get two bikes.

All of you that argue about such small things must be senile as you have nothing better to do than complain like old men.

Go find a rubber ducky, some crayons, and get a tricycle. Come back here with the rest of us fun loving creatures!!!!! Clearly Andy meant no harm in the poll. Smile, you might hurt your face!!!!!

Love and Rubber Ducky's to All!!!!!!

I know personally a man who is 80 and he still jogs (actually it looks like he walks very fast).

When he jogs he wears a kind of bandage on the lower part of his torso. I do not know what it is.

I've met him on the trail in the city where I live. He said that he stopped cycling when he was 72. I did not talk long to him as he had to go to his work(!).

I read also of a man, who is 76 and who still cycles a lot. He lives in the D.C. area. He was preparing for the tour from N.Y.C. to Great Lakes.

I am only 40. I do not know if cycling, or a physical activity, gives any longevity benefits. It is difficult to say, as often people start exercising only after some health crisis.

Besides modern medicine can be very confusing. Until recently they said - use as little fat as possible in your diet, now, however, again moderate amount of fat is in favor.

I know the man who is 62. He lives in Virginia. He is currently cycling at Ukraine. He could easily keep with me on our 70 km ride along the Black Sea shore.

I am a little disturbed that there are only 4 cyclists who are above 55. Where do the heroes go? What happens with cyclists after 55?

The Old Cyclist's Home**********

I couldn't resist.....

Like - with the indoor velosimulators?

Holy sh*t. What is this place turning into....a damn english class? Come the Fu*k on.....

Denver Fox, you raise some good points (of course you do - you're a fellow Coloradoan )

And the purpose of the poll appeared to be to get a rough idea of how the ages of bikers using the forum breaks down. Since many respondents are also actually listing there information in their posts, knowledge of extreme values is also at least anecdotally available, with the caveat you raise in your next point.

That is the most salient point of all - any time data collection is respondent controlled, selection bias becomes a problem.

You're right, you don't know how many respondents exactly you are going to get in each age bracket - if you did there'd be no point in asking the questions. However, it is reasonable to expect that beyond a certain age, the fraction participating in an athletic endeavour would decrease (coupled with the biasing fact that as age increases, internet usage also decreases).

As to study design, most of the time data of this sort would be collected exactly - it might be lumped for presentation purposes, but data analysis would be done with the actual age, weight, bloodcount, or whatever values. Were I designing the survey, I probably would have gone with more standard demographic breaks (i.e., reflecting closer average physiology): <18, 18-25, 26-35, 36-50, 51-65, > 65, but it wasn't my poll Of course, in terms of overall health, avid cyclists are not at all representative of the population as a whole (especially in couch potato countries like the US).

When I got my best time (a coupla weeks ago), I was chasing a 57 y.o. and a 64 y.o. up the hill! It knocked a minute off my time--so that must be the secret: find a couple of guys who are older and faster, and hang on their wheels for dear life! Re: the last 200M, I was happy when the road was closed a few months ago for partial repaving, but was really disappointed when it turned out they didn't do the bit at the top. Anyhoo, maybe we'll both be sweating our way up at the same time, sometime. Look for a red Trek and a gray goatee.

Just turned the big 3-0 ! Finally got the Yatesy on the road 11 days ago and have done 185 miles since. Pic's and a bit of info coming soon .

30!!! You look like such a young wabbit in your pic!!!!

The author of the poll wrote:
This is blatantly not correct. The polling process allows for ten polling categories or choice options. The author of the poll used only 9, thereby providing additional evidence he views everyone past age 54 as in the same category. He could at least have done 55-65 and over 65, providing more data.

58 and maturing nicely, thank you.

Grey hair, grey beard, nicely tanned and a handsome brute(according to my wife, who is completely unbiased, of course),

What the heck! If you've got it, flaunt it, I say.

ha ha. I'm 18.

This is a trick question (or just bad timing). I turn 36 tomorrow which puts me in an older bracket. No shame, keep biking and we never get old.

Almost all people were 18. Much less people will be 78, or even 58 for that matter, taking into account ever worsening ecology.

49 going on 26 here, so I am only half way there. I am doing cycle North Carolina with a 70 and 75 year old man. I told them if I was still walking at that age I would be happy and if I am still riding a bike I will be ecstatic.

I feel the same as I did when I was 18. The girls just have one more reason not to like me.

Joe

its good to see such a broad range of age on this board. i am 18 and have much to learn

There are standards for everything including grammar. Get used to it.

Well, I guess today everyone on Bikeforums can see exactly how old I am. Eek! At least I still feel like a teenager most of the time.

By the way, happy birthday, A.troll. Gonna get any new boyfriends on your birthday today?

36 yrs, 359 days...and I don't feel a day over 95...of course before I started biking I felt 115, so things are improving!

And I too want a Porsche...(not Porche or Porhe...sorry, couldn't resist since this is the best vehicle manufacturer in the world the name deserves to be correctly spelled... )