How to keep riding in your 80 s

[ColinJ]

I'd like to do that now! And I'm 15 years away from 80. (I think you'll guess which direction.)

We've got a suitable one lined up for you on Saturday, subject to a suitable forecast on Friday - LINK.

 

[Globalti]

Gawd, this thread has suddenly reminded me of a traumatic experience I suffered at a very young age... I was probably about five and I was out playing in the front garden when I heard a terrible noise coming closer and closer, like a bull being castrated. Couldn't work out what it was, then up the shallow hill came an elderly man on a road bike with a saddle bag, pedalling terribly laboriously and bellowing, his face distorted, apparently in pain, with each slow pedal stroke. It scared me so much that I ran indoors to tell my Mum. I expect the poor old bloke had a hernia or had got one of his testicles trapped under the Brooks saddle and had realised he couldn't get off until he reached home.

 

[ColinJ]

I was trying to imagine what a bull being castrated sounds like, but then I just thought back to the noises that I made the last time I climbed a hill on my road bike!

 

[jefmcg]

A friend of mine is getting to the age now where she needs to get more exercise or her health will start to suffer. She is a non-cyclist who would like to come with me on some of my hilly Yorkshire and Lancashire routes but she feels that she would never be fit enough and she doesn't want to try.

I can't really justify buying a tandem to take her out on what would be probably one or two rides a month, and anyway, I don't think that I would be strong enough to make 75-80% of the effort, which is how it would probably end up.

She talked about buying a scooter but that would be a bit ridiculous the other way. She would be waiting for hours for me to catch up.

I told her about the e-bike that @Pale Rider was riding on my recent hilly forum ride and she was very interested in finding out more. I had previously dismissed them as unsuitable for these hills, but PR demonstrated that the combination of leg/motor power PLUS a spare battery pack is enough to cover 40-50 hilly miles, which is all she would want to do.

I've seen a very convinced personal endorsement of this (on another forum, from a person I trust).

WARNING: NEW ZEALAND ACCENT!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtmT1KJQdMI

 

[ColinJ]

I've seen a very convinced personal endorsement of this (on another forum, from a person I trust).

WARNING: NEW ZEALAND ACCENT!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtmT1KJQdMI

Ha ha - at first I thought that was a joke, but it actually looks like it does exactly what we would need it to do.

Hmm ... it is VERY expensive for what it is, but I have found lots of people online who have made similar devices out of heavy-duty retracting dog leads!

I think there might be an inexpensive solution to the problem there.

(The FREE solution would be increased fitness but discussion of that always goes round in circles.)

 

[Venod]

Ken still turns out at almost every ParkRun, at Pontefract, having been a very good runner when he was younger, & still is

Ken one of my heros and humble with it.

 

[Crackle]

I've seen a very convinced personal endorsement of this (on another forum, from a person I trust).

WARNING: NEW ZEALAND ACCENT!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtmT1KJQdMI

You don't want that to break in use!!