I put a deposit on a bicycle today

Linda Bittle
Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

Thankful to be able to put a deposit on a bicycle! It's a rough time to be in the market for a bike. All of the electric bikes that I could stretch to afford are on long back-order. But the local bike shop had a second hand Trek ladies bike for an excellent price. (I've been doing my homework.)

A very nice fellow took a lot of time to ask about how I plan to use it, adjusted the seat twice, and took me out in the parking lot and helped me stay upright and learn to use the brakes. (His wife makes excellent sugar cookies, too.) I haven't been on a bike since I was 10. But I can do this!

Anyway, he's going to put on wider tires with reflector strips that will be better for off pavement adventures, put on wider pedals, and front and back lights, and I will pick it up next week, along with a helmet and lock.

I sold my 1999 Bravada for 1800.00, and new that I could not get any kind of decent car for that, and while I really wanted an electric bike, they are impossible to find in the 1500.00 range. It will give me more mobility than walking everywhere.

Any body else take up bike riding after 60?

Comments

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    Nope, I'm not there just yet.

    I am so happy for you!

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

    Good for you. I remember as a kid how much more freedom I had once I could ride a bike. The miles turned into yards, it seemed. Then I got a horse but that is a story for a different time.

    If I would go back to riding a bike I would be much better off.

    Just commenting.....I think that bike would look swell with a pine needle basket on the handlebars! 😉

  • dianne.misspooz
    dianne.misspooz Posts: 105 ✭✭✭

    Well, I'm in my late 50s but a bike has been on my mind a lot lately. I used to have a dream of biking from coast to coast when I retire. I think maybe I should get started now in conditioning my legs ... even if it's just a dream. Good for you!

  • COWLOVINGIRL
    COWLOVINGIRL Posts: 954 ✭✭✭✭

    Good for you Mary Linda Bittle! And yes, YOU CAN DO IT! I am so happy for you!

  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,490 admin

    I haven't ridden a bike in years, but I am considering it. Now that I'm doing tenkara fishing, and my gear is light and portable, there are a lot of trout waters that are far more accessible by bike than car, since there is nowhere to park.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @judsoncarroll4 one of the reasons that I'm getting the wider tires is so that I can access some fishing spots!

  • Ferg
    Ferg Posts: 285 ✭✭✭

    When I lived in Europe my bike was my ride for local stuff, or I'd take it on the train for not-local stuff. It was wonderful. Except when the tire blew coming down the mountain, but I didn't die, so that was ok in the end.

    Growing up in the US my bike was my ride as well. I love it. I will get back to a bike-friendly community (-:

  • burekcrew86
    burekcrew86 Posts: 248 ✭✭✭

    I’m quickly sliding down the slope to 60, and we started looking at Trek bikes last fall, before the pandemic. Wish I knew then what I know now, as we decided to wait to get bikes. Took it for a spin for a little while in the parking lot...what fun!!! It’s been decades since this old gal has been on a bike. Maybe someday we’ll get one. Impossible to find one now. Enjoy your new treasure! : )

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    Me too! Me too! I want one! My bicycle price range is back in the 1970's - $100, so this over 60 brain is in the "does not compute" loop. Well, I'll put it out into the Universe and see what ends up on my doorstep. It may be roller skates.

    Anybody done the Katy Trail in Missouri?

  • Jannajo
    Jannajo Posts: 173 ✭✭✭

    Well, I am 77, been on my bike for years now, went many miles just recently, to have a swim in the lake, St. Louis. My foot does not stay well on the pedal, I need a shoe with heel, to make sure I can hold on..it is fun, everyone knows...'once u ride the bike, u always can do it'

    Usually I just go a few blocks, I prefer to have a destiny in mind, like a mall or store-the electric bike, now ,has me interested (for some time), but now I have to see if they r available- really! They shld be great-though the battery costs so much...well, enjoy, it is easy, balance might be a little off, I am not as steady, of course, and it sits idle much of the time-on a common balcony here in the suburbs. People get involved, saying: 'ol George went out, hit a car door, he died!' 'I went up and down the mountains on a special trip'; 'someone broke her ankle' 'Is this your bike?'

  • Gail H
    Gail H Posts: 359 ✭✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle Congrats on the new bike! I would really like to get an electric bike, but, as you say, there are none to be had. I first saw these in Ohio Amish country last year. Everyone, young and old, was riding them. Moms had little wagons on the back so they could take their kids along.

    We wondered how the Amish were able to use these since the battery needs to be charged, then we saw that they have small (the size of a notebook) solar panels in the yard to recharge the battery. That seems pretty sustainable.

    My only concern is that we don't have good shoulders on our roads here. I don't want to be a grease spot on the road.

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    I love riding my bike. You see so much more of the surroundings riding a bicycle than you do speeding by in a vehicle. I want to get back to riding it to work every day. I have a trek that is at least 15 years old. It has served me well. My son has a Scott bicycle and it is a great ride for him. I haven't snuck a ride on it yet. :)

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle To answer your question of biking after age 60:

    No, I didn't get a bike, but I did take up HIIT training right before my 67th birthday. This week is one year anniversary for me. I do most of what the young people do; I have a few limitations and I am slightly slower, but I hold my own fairly well considering my age.

    You will do fine biking as long as you work up to hard effort in a gradual fashion. It wouldn't hurt for you to do balance exercises too.

    Congratulations on taking yet another step in a new direction -- good health to you.

  • norabelehcim
    norabelehcim Posts: 58 ✭✭✭

    I don't walk well, and bike to keep up with my children when they go running, and to get around in general. I have a multiyear pedal bike, with sturdy tires.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I picked her up today! The nice guy at the bike shop helped me fit the helmet and showed me how to work the lights to see and be seen, then I walked her to a nearby park with some shade trees (a VERY good idea).

    It took time and a lot of work. I'm shaky, but I RODE MY BIKE!!!!

    I rode her until I got to where traffic was scary, then walked her home and put her in the outside storage closet where I can lock her up at night.

    Had to take a second shower and put on fresh clothes because I was soaked with sweat. Had fresh orange juice and an extra blueberry muffin that I'd baked this morning,. Rested on the couch.

    Taking an Advil and going to bed early. I'm worn out!

    Here's a picture. She needs a name. Something steady and sensible. Not Thelma or Louise. LOL.


  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle I'm thinking her name should be Fortitude.

  • Grounded
    Grounded Posts: 153 ✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle Your bike is a thing of beauty. I have a 30+ year old custom made bike which cost me around $1,200.00 to put together on my own back in the mid 80's. The same bike now would cost in the neighborhood of $10,000.00+. I have had to replace many parts, most of them down grades, but she still works. I stopped riding for several years but took it back up when my hip would not allow me to walk any distance and I was diagnosed with multiple chronic issues.

    Getting on and off isn't pretty, but riding actually helps keep my hip/low back loose and lessens the pain. I have been on many organized rides and seen people of every age, shape, sex, religion and color ride bicycles and even some adult tricycles. I guess it is like anything new, it just takes practice and an open mind.

    Good luck with riding and may the wind always be at your back and the up-hills behind you.

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle Your bike looks wonderful! Wish I was in your area so I could get fitted somewhere I trust. I guess if I never look, I'll never know. Maybe next month with my first paycheck.

    Can't wait to see pictures of where you ride.

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Mary Linda Bittle Nice! Age is just a number so enjoy!

  • silvertipgrizz
    silvertipgrizz Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2020

    @Mary Linda Bittle What better name for it than what you have more of with it.......... ? ..........

    FREEDOM

    It's a very beautiful bike btw!

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @Mary Linda Bittle well done to you. I've recently taken up bike riding at 57 and I feel like a kid again, especially when I stand up on the pedals! A sense of freedom, wind in my face and a smile on my dial! Last year we had a trip to New Zealand and had a go on a ladies, electric mountain bike. It was awesome. 6 months later we happened to be in the right place at the right time and bingo, came home with one each. We live in fairly hilly forest country, so that extra boost of battery power definitely helps. Hopefully if and when covid settles we have a trip planned to Tasmania (Australia's most southern state) and we plan on doing a cycle, hike and kayak over 6 days and 250kms. So we've upped the daily walk and try to cycle 2/3 times a week. I'm so grateful to now have the time to do things like this. Plus it's good for the body and the mind!