Returning to the Bike

[EMoonTX]

I'm a 67 year old woman who started riding again in early August of this year, on the wrong bike. I hadn't had a bike since I was in college, but believed that "you never forget how to ride." True...but I'd never ridden a man's-frame mountain bike before, or any bike with multiple gears and hand brakes. Also, the frame was too big for me. Also, because of very narrow and badly paved small-town streets, I elected to ride either in the horse lot or on the 80 acres we own--and I'd never ridden on grass, dirt, rocks, and up and down slopes before. All my youthful riding was on pavement or occasionally hard-packed smooth dirt. There were falls. There were more "learning experiences" than I expected, exacerbated by being way out of shape and the stifling heat. However...I persevered. By the end of August, though every ride was difficult, I was a little stronger and knew I wanted to keep going. But I needed a different bike.

I'm now on a Giant Sedona DXW (front suspension, mountain-bike tires, but not a mountain bike per se) and having a blast. I can ride to the Post Office and bank (well--have to walk the bike where it's not safe to ride, but 90% of the way is riding--I ride on the street only at the time of day when traffic is minimal); I can put tools & stuff in the back basket and go out on the land and do useful work, riding on the mowed paths we've made for walking (mowed, so we see the rattlesnakes instead of stepping on them.) Fitness is coming, but annoyingly slowly. When I started, 50 yards on the mountain ike wore me out. Now, on pavement, I can ride a half mile up-slope (the street I ride on is a half mile long, and slopes--so one way it's down and the other way it's up, but not steeply) but on the land, upward slopes of 200 yards really take my breath. I don't know how much harder it's "supposed" to be. I do use a heart-rate monitor several days a week (had used one before for another sport) but am wondering if anyone has specific info comparing street to off-road (but not steep mountain kind of off-road) biking.

Also--are there any recommended bike-handling exercises/practice tips for someone who's still anxious about making tight turns and curves? I want to ride in the woods and have cleared a trail, but so far trying to ride on it has meant...not falls...but hugging a tree unexpectedly or running off into a cactus patch. There isn't a handy mall parking lot anywhere within 20 miles to practice in and I'm not really sure how to organize practicing this. I'd know how to do it for horseback riding (my main sport for many years) but not for this.

[EMoonTX]

Thanks. No, there's nothing really close--the bike shop's 50 miles away, and I've seen only a few other adults riding bikes in this town (all male). It's hard to transport the bike (it only fits in the car that eats gas, not in the one that doesn't.) I guess I'll just keep working at it on the street at its least busiest time. There are out of town groups that ride through here occasionally, but they ride on the highway (yeep!!) on fast bikes, and that's not what I wanted a bike for...I wanted it for fun, for transportation around town, and for exercise.

I've found I love riding out on the land most of all--I feel so free (and about 12 again, too.) There's something all "Wheeee...!" about riding out through the gate into the meadow and down across the rock-filled ditch crossing, up to the woods, etc. Yesterday for the first time I was able to turn and go up the end of a berm (the land was terraced once, and then used as pasture; cattle wore trails through the terrace berms in places) without stopping, and then ride off the berm about 10 yards on. Pavement scares me, because of traffic.

[emily_in_nc]

Don't have any real good advice for you except it's always recommended to practice falling on softer, kinder terrain like grass rather than rocks or pavement.

I really enjoyed your story, though. I love riding "off road" as well, and after trying more technical mountain biking (singletrack with switchbacks, roots, steep descents/climbs etc.) a few years ago decided that all the bruises and terror wasn't worth it, so stuck to easier double-track and packed trails and gravel/fire roads after that and did much better.

Welcome back to the wonderful world of riding and welcome to TE! Hope you'll stick around.

[OakLeaf]

If you google "bicycle handling drills" there is a lot, both written descriptions and YouTube videos. I can't recommend any of them specifically (but I should do some myself, when I can fall without causing further damage).

Just as in piloting a car or motorcycle, the first skill is learning where to look. Your vehicle will go where your eyes lead, so learn to take a soft focus centered on where you want to go, and not get distracted by obstacles so that you wind up running into them.

Welcome and have fun!


ETA: These are relatively simple, with options to progress, don't require a partner, and with the exception of the hand-reaching drills (which I know are very common drills in bicycling courses), are some of the same ones we do in motorcycle safety classes.

[EMoonTX]

Thanks! I hope to stick around...and definitely plan to keep riding. The falls off the mountain bike (which I named "Grace-the-Assassin" after a character in one of my books, since it seemed to be trying to kill me) were all onto dirt. MUCH better than onto pavement, though the frame did me some damage. So far (fingers crossed and knocking on wood) I haven't fallen off NewBike (which hasn't named itself.) Today's triumph (small but important to me) was riding the reverse of the turn up onto the berm successfully. Across a shallow dip, up onto it, gentle turn, along it, and then down off the end with a turn onto the main downward sloping turn away from the woods. Not that scary at all.

You'd probably like the routes I'm trying to make on our place--interesting, but not terrorizing. The last falls I had off horses proved that the rubber-bounce-effect disappears sometime after age 50, and Grace-the-Assassin falls taught me that even falls off a bike--a lot closer to the ground than a horse--just seem to last longer than they used to. So grass and dirt definitely beat out rocks, cactus, and pavement.

[EMoonTX]

Thanks, Oakleaf. The visual thing gave me a lot of trouble with the mountain bike because I'd never been in that position--with my head so low and having to crank my neck back to see ahead at all (my neck is no longer as supple...) It's easier on NewBike, because I'm sitting up and can look ahead more easily (sorta like a car), but you're right--I do tend to fixate on obvious holes and bumps the way I fixated on the approaching jump when I was first learning to ride over fences. The reminder to look ahead, where I want to go, is timely.

[EMoonTX]

Back in September, a short time after getting my new bike--the first since I was about 8 1/2 (my college bike was a multi-owner), my husband took pictures of me riding out on the land. I posted them on LiveJournal here.

Today, he took others, and I posted the new pictures to LiveJournal as well...it's purely coincidence that I'm wearing the same purple T-shirt.

The two together give a pretty good idea of what our open land is like--old cow pasture that had been cropland before and terraced. There's nothing really exciting, unless you're an older woman who hasn't had a bike in years and even then rode only on streets or the occasional hard-beaten path in a vacant lot. The trails in the dry woods and creek woods are more challenging, but not compared to the videos I've seen of mountain bikers.

But fun? Yes. Lots.

[Owlie]

That looks like fun! Can I come visit when my cyclocross bike arrives?

[EMoonTX]

It's a long drive or ride from your location, but otherwise...sure.

[emily_in_nc]

That looks like so much fun. I would love to have a place like that to ride! Is that in Texas (I'm guessing from your screen-name)?

Thanks for sharing your photos!

[EMoonTX]

Yes, it's in Texas, about 50 miles from Austin. It IS fun--and will be more fun as I gain strength and skills. I'm thinking maybe knee and elbow pads would be a good idea before I try the creek woods again--lot of hard stuff to fall into there.