Mountain bike at 43, 2nd childhood

[freddie]

Hi All,

Anyone here like cycling?????? My wife just bought me a cool mountain bike. I never had a nice one like this back in the day, it's sweet. I'm 43 and haven't had a bike since around 1982 I'm finding it good exercise and a lot of fun. Second childhood here

So anyone here wanna ride to my house...I got the new Bay City Rollers album and a new guitar from Sears (maybe it was Montgomery Wards ) for my birthday



freddie

[Lance]

Funny you should mention this. I'm somewhere between yet another guitar or a bike. I really need something to do on off days when I'm not running or it's just too hot to run.

I have NO idea what to get unfortunately. A roadbike is nice but then I have to rack it and drive someplace. The idea of a mountain bike or something that's a crossover would be better.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by freddie

Hi All,

Anyone here like cycling??????

freddie

Broke my leg sking 2/05, but before that lot of riding for me. 6k a year for 7-8 years, Road mostly until 2004. I moved to within a mile of a 1200 acre Nature park with MTB trails. I use a cyclocross bike these days, I sold my 29er and a few 26ers last year to support my other addiction. Bet you can guess what that is.... 10 guitars and counting. ;)

Still have a custom road bike and the cyclocross setup. Also a Colnago from the mid 80s set up as a Fixed gear. FUN!

Nice air, in the woods, no cars to run you and you bike over, exercise galore, keep it up. Unfortunately for me, I got to get my knee worked on, the bones healed, but the elastic bands in there are not doing so great. Love to get riding again like I used to.

I am a moderator at ttf.cyclingforum.com, come visit. user: Sparky

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Lance

I have NO idea what to get unfortunately. A roadbike is nice but then I have to rack it and drive someplace. The idea of a mountain bike or something that's a crossover would be better.

My main rider is a multi use old trek set up for dirt, but I can throw smooth tires on it easily and use it on the road, I don't, but i can ;)

Look on eBay for a Lemond Poprads or Wayzata, fun and can do even light touring if yo are inclined to. ;)

Trek:



YUM!

[BritishBluesBoy]

I ride an Independant Fabrication Crown Jewel road bike. it's the most beautiful bike I have ever seen - let alone ridden. I ride between 100 - 150 miles a week. I do a regular century with a couple of mates every saturday... I love my bike...

Enjoy that new mountain bike. And by the way... 43? Second childhood...?? Nah, you're barely out of your first one... You have at least another 30 years until your second!!

Cheers!!

[Skip_Lunch]

very cool for a youngster :lol A month ago I picked up a Trek 7000 - I get it out for a 5-10 mile ride on weekend mornings... and I feel better for it. The biking along with daily walking and golf several times a week have improved my guitar playing :)

[robt57]

Originally Posted by BritishBluesBoy

And by the way... 43? Second childhood...?? Nah, you're barely out of your first one... You have at least another 30 years until your second!!

Cheers!!

Crown Jewels are sweet! I have a Carl Strong Custom Foco Road bike that gets little use anymore. Damn people out here in the sticks do not tie up their dogs, road riding get rough. Good for interval and sprint training though...

I started riding again at 38. I flunked my physical for my private pilot exam. I went on blood pressure MEDS and a diet... And got a Cannondale MTB bike. Off the MEDS within 6 monhs and had lost 55 lbs by 9 months and never looked back.

I had ridden 30k miles [not counting dirt hours] by 7 years out. it turned my life around athletically. But I look goofy in those shorts ;)

I have since sold the wheels, but here is my Strong Foco in all it's glory. I now use 32x wheels I laced up myself, that was almost as much fun a building guitars too. ;)

Let's see that IF Jewel!!

[Chris Browne]

I started commuting on my bike a few years ago. I feel great when I get to work in the morning, and the worries and stresses of the day just melt away when I hop on my bike to go home.

[Arlo]

Love mine use it every day. It's seen a lot of miles so I am thinking it's time to buy a new one.

This time I am going for crossbreed road bike.

http://www.trekbikes.com

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Arlo

Love mine use it every day. It's seen a lot of miles so I am thinking it's time to buy a new one.

This time I am going for crossbreed road bike.

http://www.trekbikes.com

Crossbreed? Like hybrid you mean? Just curious. ;)

[imwjl]

It's in my blood even though there's not a lot of natural talent flowing in that blood. A friend and I are co-managers of the trails voted best state park trails in our state. We've IMBA trained and got our FSTA certification and have been designing, building and supervising trail work for 5 years now.

My wife wants to resume trail riding and it's my fortune that we're the same height so I'm having fun looking at new bikes. For trails I ride a 5 incher and a rigid single speed. I regret selling my original StumpJumper but still have my classic Fat Chance that is now the Burley puller.

Just like that which guitar debate I'm wondering if this bike we're considering should go bigger or lighter. I'd like a Heckler or Covert but there are no Transition dealers in town.

I've had more than a year of health hell and am getting strength back so I really wonder if I am fooling myself to get bigger than a 5 incher but the trails I manage are full of rocks and stream crossings.

I do know I'm too old and not talented for dirt jumping but giving up my stout hard tail for a new trail bike is a lot like saying give up one or the other of the Tele and Strat.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by Arlo

Love mine use it every day. It's seen a lot of miles so I am thinking it's time to buy a new one.

This time I am going for crossbreed road bike.

http://www.trekbikes.com

These are designed by my childhood neighbor. She ran Bianchi USA for many years and can be credited with the popularity of single speed and simple bikes becoming popular via her Bianchi Milano and various single speed designs. She commutes with these and her prototypes daily and she still ranks as a racer who kicks the boys' butts and women who could be her kids or grand kids.

http://www.swobo.com/bikes/collection/

I just looked at the current Treks and Pacific (Schwinn, GT, Mongoose) offerings because I live by their headquarters and Pacific staff have been kind to our volunteer (trails) efforts.

There are a lot of neat designs now thanks to the post-Lance phenomenon and the people thinking green whether or not they're saving the earth. Unfortunately a lot of the nice low cost moderately priced bikes are not steel and steel gives the best ride.

[telel6s]

97 Specialized AIM Ground Control Comp. Only mountain bike I've ever owned. The rear suspension is real loose and bouncy by today's standards (or 1998 standards actually) but the bike is still more capable than the rider. Sure is fun, though.

[KC]

still riding my 1987 Ritchey TimberWolf pretty much as a commuter -- trusted friend for a long time -- but trail duties were handed off to an S-Works hardtail a couple of years ago, very light, very fast. Unfortunately I'm neither light nor fast. But it is a blast to ride. And I have, at age 55, been over the handlebars within the last year. I don't wear my helmet just for good looks -- I like to get a little use out of mine, apparently.

[Worn]

Just finished putting together and setting up my 4th Santa Cruz, this time a Blur XC. Light and fast, pedals like a hardtail.

[boris bubbanov]

I've got access to a trails type bike or two just about everywhere I lay my head.

Some full suspension, one with no suspension at all other than reduced air pressure. My road bikes got toasted in the storm, I need to toss them. An offroads bike can be rebuilt, it just won't be as fast or light as before, but that's OK.

I love getting up early at my girlfriend's in Central Florida, riding the bike across the parking lot and through a hole in the fence out onto the bike trail, and in maybe 8 miles I am on a whoop-de single track in the middle of no-where where I have to worry about colliding with deer, just hard enough to work the reflexes. There's another place called Little Big Econ that is also 25 minutes drive for when I want to hang it out.

The offroads course we had near New Orleans no doubt got wiped out when the Bonnet Carre spillway was opened; I wished I'd ridden it more before the Mississippi came up.

[ac15]

I'm actually "gassing" for a recumbent bike. They seem like they'd be fun to ride, and comfortable. As far as "regular" bikes, my girlfriend and I have been pretty much into riding for years, but I haven't done much in the past year. There was a time when I would ride my bike to work all year round as long as the streets weren't icy. That meant a 10 mile ride to and from work in temperatures as low as 20 below zero sometimes, or in the rain. I loved it.

[Arlo]

Originally Posted by robt57

Crossbreed? Like hybrid you mean? Just curious. ;)

The one I am looking at is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike. I suppose you could call it a hybrid. Guy at the store called it a crossbreed but I think the meanings the same.

Unless your talking about hillbilly country That could take on a whole different meaning!!

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Arlo

The one I am looking at is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike. I suppose you could call it a hybrid. Guy at the store called it a crossbreed but I think the meanings the same.

Unless your talking about hillbilly country That could take on a whole different meaning!!

Ahh, that old green Trek up there was one of those. I inherited the frame and fork and did the cross/dirt treatment on it.

These tend to have slower steering head angles and geometry over all and make a great bike for riding with out emulating racing etc. IMO of course. I built and raced all manor for about a decade. So all are invited to learn by my mistakes. ;) Just ask, I'd be happy to help with the geometry and use issue etc., this goes for all of course.

Here is my old bike html page from a hundred years ago if anyone is interested in looking. Some interesting machines to say the least...

Link Here, have a look

[Tom A.]

Never too old, I started riding this Trek last year, 56 years old. Trail riding is great excersize besides being fun. I live about 5 miles from some trails so I go pretty often. My wife says 57 is too old to wear spandex shorts but it doesn't bother me, wear paddes shorts, believe me, it helps.

[Arlo]

I use mine for cardio and the only race I am in is with that guy in the black robe holding the sickle! I do about 6 miles every day and have 3 nice hills to climb on the route I take. Mostly back roads and country settings.

I truly love it and in the winter pay a heavy price for not being able to hop on it everyday.

The one I am looking at buying is so much lighter than this mountain bike I have now. I have a GT thats about 6 years old. It's been good to me and I hate to part with it so I will just have em fix it up and use it as a spare.

[Sollophonic]

I started riding mountain bikes (or ATBs as we called them them) when they were in their infancy in the UK, back in the mid 1980s. They were so rare then that people used to shout out at you "Your engine's fallen out!!!". I had an Emmelle to start with then I got an English Cycles Range Rider!!! Then went on to getting Saracen and Muddy Fox stuff as the prices came down. I stuck with it and never looked back. Now with family and kids, my bike is used for commuting and pootling along trails, towpaths and quiet roads, but I got up to some real hairy off roading in my younger days. That and city cycle couriering in Leeds, where you really took your life in your hands!

No-one is too old to cycle, many of the road cyclist round here in the Yorkshire Dales are well into retirement age, along with many off road cyclists. Cycling of any type is good for the soul and the body, and good for our environment too. I couldnt imagine life without a bike, or a Telecaster.

[blue metalflake]

Got a mountain bike in 1989, before anyone thought of suspension and suck. Good solid bike thats great fun to ride, and still gets some use, though mainly on tow paths & cycle tracks.

Great fun at any age.