Angel, I have often thought that Italy would be a nicer place to live than the UK for a keen cyclist and your email has convinced me, so where is best? I like Firenze, apart from the tourists, but am open to advice. Being 2 years into my sixth decade I kind of thought that was still quite young, until I got dropped on the 100k club reliability run today. I was twice the age of all other members and that got me thinking a bit about age. My conclusion is that I just have to get more miles in, which as a retired person I should be able to do, ha! ha! (In joke for retired folk). The funny thing is that the run organiser had asked me the shepherd around a young 15 year old. He was in the group that dropped me! But, in classic tortoise and hare mode I was just 2 minutes behind him at the end - the rest did the 100 mile option. Dan, tell your boss that 60ish is not a reason for three wheels. Our local vet champion is 66 and is recovering from a bad (two wheel) sprint crash in Australia, where he broke his collar bone, two ribs, cracked his pelvis and punctured a lung. Christmas in Oz was not in the plan but s--- happens. His wife has apparently banned him from road racing, but I am not holding my breath. Age brings experience and, yes, a higher risk of a break, if you fall off, but a lower risk of a fall due to the aforesaid experience. By all means let him get some trike miles in, as I understand you shouldn't leave it too late to sort out the effects of camber and to learn the art of leaning, but tell him to stay on two wheels for as long as he feels comfortable. Bottom line is that fit folk heal faster, whatever their age and load bearing exercise retains bone mass. So let's keep riding, all us (not) old folk.
Nigel Land Barton (Wheelers) on Humber UK
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 16:57:12 -0500 From: "Angel Garcia" <veronaman@gmail.com> To: "CLASSIC RENDEZVOUS" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]Older Riders, New and Classic Bikes Message-ID: <70e14d4c0603111357w62875e48r5ba9daf3ae9293b4@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Message: 11
On my Wednesday group ride there is a 73 year old, very strong. The group that rides on Tuesday and Thursdays has an 83 year old (!); he usually drop s back a bit but arrives only a few minutes back of the group. A fellow that rides a city bike all around the historic center is 91. Guys riding in thei r 60s are just too numerous to even keep track of. What's interesting is that most of these gentlemen are riding really modern bikes with the latest wheels, etc. The passion for cycling here is pretty amazing. Many do seem, however, to have kept their steel bikes which they bring out from time to time. Just this week a guy rode his 25 year old Chesini X-Uno which was a real stunner...white frame with all the lugwork and fork in a gold finish and some great pantographing. Ciao, Angel Garcia Verona, Italy
> snip:
> This ties in with one of the other groups of comments in the KOF strings
> lately: What about riders who are getting older? I was talking about the
> NAHBS weekend with my 60-something boss on Monday, a fellow who rides
> about
> 10 mostly-paved miles once or twice a week. He really enjoys it, but he's
> facing the fact that a fall will cause more problems than ever before. He
> was delighted to find that he could convert the bike he enjoys now into a
> trike and not look like a dork riding a "shopper trike."
>
> Dan Kehew
> Davis, CA