Senior Bicycling Startup Tips

Two of my old (62 years old) classmates emailed me a couple of months ago asking if I wanted to go bike riding. They were talking about a 20 mile trip on the American River Bicycle Trail in Sacramento. Somehow I got the ambition to join them. I pumped up my tires on the old mountain bike that I last rode 22 years ago. I went on the trip and I actually made the 20 miles. I had a fantastic time. I had forgotten how fun bike riding is. Maybe it's that I'm 62 now, but I imagine that it feels similar to what flying under my own power might feel like. It might have something to do with how sedentary I have become over the years. Rolling along with a 15 mile an hour wind in my face was fairly exhilarating compared to sitting in front of the TV on my couch with a cockapoo breathing his hot breath on me waiting for me to drop a potato chip.

When I got home from the ride, I was tired and went to bed 2 hours early. When I awoke, I found out what spots in my body would need to be adjusted if I was going to continue this new pursuit.

First and foremost was my rear section. It felt like I had been sitting on a brick for a week. My lower back hurt almost as much. Next were my sore thigh muscles. Close behind on the pain meter was my neck and then my hands where they had been in contact with the handlebars.

Two weeks later, I went again and this time I was prepared. I had bought a more comfortable saddle (seat). They get heavier the more comfortable they are, but I'm not racing anyway so the weight increase was about as much as wearing a third shoe. My new saddle even had some "royal gel" in it which psychologically feels better to me even though I can't tell what it is or what it does. I paid extra for the royal gel because I wanted to be safe rather than sorry again. Last night I was at a discount store and they have similar looking saddles for one third of the price and I think I would have tried one of those if I had to do it all over again even if they don't have royal gel. This second ride was 25 miles and my lower end held up well and the next day wasn't hurting a bit. I was a bit surprised really.

The leg muscles had gotten enough exercise on the first ride so they were not complaining at all after the second.

The hands had also toughened themselves automatically so they needed no help although bike gloves would have been a good idea and I'm still leaning towards getting a pair when they are on sale just for insurance. They probably help a lot in a fall, knock wood.

The neck and back did fine too on the second trip. That is because I had raised my handlebars with a steering extender so I was sitting more upright. I had to change all of my cables since I needed cables a few inches longer now to reach from the new handlebar position to the brakes and derailleurs. You can find Internet videos that show how to change cables and other parts and those really helped me.

I found out that I had changed my mountain bike into a "comfort bike" or "hybrid" with these modifications. Now the bike is great feeling and so am I.

Medically, you should ask your doctor about riding, but I didn't and I'm going to ride again and again and take my chances. Of course I'm assuming that it is a good thing for me. I have more experiments coming up since I bought 2 more bikes from online classifieds with some shock absorbers and springs and I can hardly wait for some longer trips. I rode them for short distances already and they are reminiscent of my couch sitting days. The trade off for the comfort is that I will weigh more like wearing 4 or 5 shoes and the bouncing might rob my thighs of a tiny bit of effectiveness which won't matter, I think, unless I start racing.