Am I Different.
 

I'm young, and strong and fast and have endurance yet i ride a rode bike. I used to race XC but then got bored of it somehow and now i ride and race on the road. My biker buddies look at me and say what the heck, your messed up. Road bikes are for old people. Are they right or are there other 16year old hard core road riders out there.

Heck yeah. Look at me. Don't listen to your friends. Do what you like.

One more:D

yah, they all freeride and stuff. how old are you ppl?

Sorry, you are different then me. I could never think to own a road bike except for training for fitness. Epic on a road bike. I don't have the patience. I guess I move more towards a little extreme xc / freeride than anything. Even pure xc double track bores me. But then again some xc guys look at me like I am a freak and claim freeriding is a butchered sport anyways.

Oh and I am 27 :)

I'm 16.

Ask your buddies to ride with anyone in the Tour de France. Can they?

I dont think they would care about the TdF. I know my boss respects me more now that im a roadie.

Go teenagers!
/me is 18
Age is a practically worthless concept that has way too much value in our society.
;)

and urr a canuck too

haha. Nothing wrong with being a pure roadie. I know some guys who are pure xc. Live life and enjoy cycling. Who knows maybe in 5 years I will be a roadie cause I am done with mtb. Or maybe I will be a bike pimp and have 5 bikes, 1 for each discipline including winter cycling. (hmmm that could be fun)

As for age being meaningless. In one area I notice a huge difference. I could, would and did anything when I was a teen. I was builitproof and felt that I was. Guess what. I am in better shape and stronger now but I break. Part of getting older. There are other bonus's but in reality there are differences. :)...

Not that they can't be overcome.

When I look in the mirror, I see an 18 year-old...with wrinkles forming around his eyes and gray strands appearing in his moustache.

What a concept!

:D ;)

15.

And, by the way, road riding is extreme. Whoever tells you it's not is full of it. Get in a pack of 100, average 25 mph on the flats, and 20 on the uphills, and 35+ on the downhills. Put a few hairpin turns in there. And, a long downhill sprint. It's pretty extreme.

I used to be a teenager, does that count?

Yes of course road cycling is for "old" people. Look at me, I'm 51 and I ride a road bike as does Lance Armstrong and all the professional road racers at the Tour de France, the Vuelta, and other world class road races. Do you think that it might be a plot by us "old" cyclists to discredit the younger cyclists?!?:D

Biking of all types is cool. I prefer the roads but have a MTB for when the urge strikes me, and a hybrid to pull the kiddy trailer.

i write you from italy, where at the last "giro d'italia" on the last mountain stage at "Coe pass", i pull over for 300m a "moribund" prof. rider (with a whiteface 'cose a crisis)..... called Cadel Evans . do you know him? find out about this guy... ciao

Brian,
this are the kind of biking buddies, you should not be riding with, they are the one who are messed up, I Iam and old guy, but i like to ride with young riders, I ride with my 21 year old son and he is not messed up,, it gives me strength rtiding with them coz, of all the enthusiam they have......

My favoriate situation is when some of the young guys come up here. They sit down and see a group of older riders (upwards of 60 in some cases) They assume by the gear that they are roadies. Then they meet them on the mountain or on one of the trails and get SMOKED. These 'old' guys are wicked riders and while they do ride road are awesome mtbikers too (and I mean dh and freeride not normal xc). :)