I have a mystery that I'm trying to resolve. I ride, for the most part, 5 to 6 days a week and occasionally my 18 year old son will accompany me. He is 6'/175 lbs and I'm am 6'/185 lbs. We are both in relatively good cardiovascular shape and the only significant physical variable between the two of us is the 32 year age difference. Here's the thing: every time we ride together and are on an incline ( nothing steep), I find I require a significant amount of effort just to keep pace with him. While I'm pushing pretty hard I look over at him and he looks as if he's on a leisurely Sunday afternoon outing. What really makes this problematic is that I ride a Trek FX 7.5 with 700x32's while he is riding an old Giant MTB with knobby tires the width of a Greyhound bus.

What's going on here? Am I missing something? Tires aren't rubbing on my brakes and my bike is in great shape. Any thoughts? And please don't tell me that it just because I'm OLD!!!:

Your old and I know how it feels, if only I could ride how I did 20 years ago.

I'm 20 years older than you. If you want to know how your son feels, go riding with me.

older folks in good condition often have BETTER endurance than the young.

also, try spinning faster in a slightly lower gear, makes the hills much easier.

There is a world of difference between 18 and 50... I stopped kicking the young guys butts with any regularity at 40.

You probably need a carbon fibre bike with an electric assist...

LOL... awesome.

+1



Would you rather have an 18 year old running back or a 50 year old one on your team?

Would you rather fight an 18 year old Mike Tyson or a 50 year old Mike Tyson?

(Of course, that might not matter that much. Most likely you'd still get your butt kicked, either way! )

No US military would even consider you for enlistment. They have no use for you, once you've reached the ripe old age of 50 yrs. To them, you're all washed up!

Just face it! We're all on the conveyor belt of time...

Right now, it's your son's time to dominate on the ascents!

Just enjoy his youth and capabilities before you retire and join the AARP!

Edited version

Take the air out his tires and put it into yours.

I feel this way every ride...and I ride alone!

I like riding solo... can set my own pace, if I feel like stopping, great, I'll stop, and if I don't, I'll keep going. always been this way, never much cared for riding in groups.

I agree - at least for now. I've promised myself (something I'm loathe to do as I usually end up lying to myself) I'm going to ride a 34 mile group ride on Feb 10 of next year. As I'm pretty slow, and on a hybrid, I imagine I'll be riding alone anyway. So I guess I'm just promising to ride a certain route on a certain day.

But I do like the time alone.

Actually, it's MUCH worse than you realize. I'll let you redo the math. ( Hint: I didn't have my first child when I was 14

Don't think for one moment that thought hasn't crossed my mind.

fill his tubes with water or something

Lol!...I keep telling my 9 yr old daughter to check her tires....in a few years I'll probably do that!

Dammit! I misread your post! Hell, you're fifty years old!

In that case, what the heck are you "perplexed" about?!?!!!

I'm not liking the general consensus of opinion here. I'm thinkin maybe I've been living in a subconscious state of denial.

Don't get to depressed about it, were all headed down the same path.

The main reason I'm still riding at the tender age of 70 is to make 50 year old kids feel like they're still fast. Compared to me, they are.

Thanks for looking out for us! In reality, it's all relative. To my 90 year old physically fit, active father, your'e just a wet behind the ears young whipper snapper

me, I'm 58, and broke my foot in July (car accident), and realized I'd gotten WAY out of shape and overweight, high blood pressure etc. WTF? after 2-3 months of casts and stuff, I'd totally lost whatever muscle tone I'd had left in my right leg. ugh. started riding again almost immediately, and wow, I was downshifting for the tiniest little slopes, had no strength at all. now, a couple months later, I can maintain a pretty good pace for 20-25 miles, and have some strength back in my legs, my beer belly is way reduced, I've lost 20 lbs (plateauing there but as long as I'm building muscle, I must be burning off fat as we all know muscle is heavier than fat...) my pants are all too loose. I have to stick with it all winter, and try and put an hour or two on the bike at least 3 times a week (tough with my work schedule)

Here's some inspiration for all us young fellas "and lasses" This guys faster than most of us! 100 year old cyclist breaks world record.

https://au.search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0....ap/index.html


https://au.search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0...g-world-record

That is fascinating! If I can make it to 100 I might can get there!

Seek out climbing on a regular basis and push yourself harder in the hills. If you mainly ride on flat-ish ground you really lose your climbing legs pretty quickly. I don't think knobby tires are that much of a speed drag below ~15mph and if you're sustaining 15mph+ on a hill it's too easy to consider that climbing (more like an incline.) And yeah, don't expect to erase a 32 year age gap with a tad more training.

I know this version now has "50" instead of "32" but... if you change it to 32 I think i would much rather fight 18 year old mike tyson than 32 year old mike tyson. Athletes often reach their peak around that age...

of course I'd rather you gave me a bicycle so I could cycle away from mike tyson.