How old (or young) are you?

[kelownagirl]

Congrats Snap! I will drink to your health and your biking in 8 days. (Any excuse will do. ) I'm 46 11/12 and I hope to be biking when I'm 50 and 60 and , well, who knows...

[ehirsch83]

I'm just curious. Most cyclists I know are within ten years of my own age (40 soon) and I'm kinda curious why I don't see more of the younger sect. Is it the affordability of bikes? Or would a 20-something be less inclined to spend time on an online bike forum? Like I said, just curious.

I'm going to hold this poll open for a week, so vote away!

I'm 23 and none of my close friends ride. I got into cycling from my mom and her boyfriend. Most of the people my age, that i know, are more concerned with going out to happy hour and staying out till 4am on the weekends drinking then they are spending time outdoors.(they think i am crazy becaused I prefer to stay home so I can get a 50 miler in the next day)
Hopefully this will change soon though! I am moving from south fl to albuquerque- whole different scene of people

[Bad JuJu]

54 now, but 55 later this year! Double nickels--seems like grounds for a huge party.

To second what Nina said, I didn't ride for a few years in my 40s, and I'm sorry to have missed those years I could've been cycling. But, it makes me more avid now about making time for my bike. And time for me.....

[missymaya]

I'll be 24 in July. I ride with a lot of women who are older than me (in my group the next age up is early-mid 30's) and they pedal just as hard and fast as I do. I only hope to be like them and the ladies on this forum when Im their age
I think that many 'kids' my age dont ride because a). it does cost $$; I had to save for months and work extra hours to get my first bike, which was 'low end' (about $600). b). people my age are too busy partying it up.
I do a little comparison to my twin sister's lifestyle and mine and it kinda proves the point: we're both in grad school, have jobs, live in large towns/cities (she's in Tallahassee and Im in Orlando), have exposure to extracurricular activities, such as riding. But, I go to bed around 9-10 pm on Friday(but cant sleep 'cause Im too excited for the ride) so I can get up on Saturdays at 6am to ride 50+ miles with my group. She, on the other hand, is too busy partying on Friday and then getting over her hangover on Sat. morning. She'd rather spend her money on the beer sale at the local grocery store, while Im again srimping my dough to get a new, higher end bike, which seems like it'll take forever

[roadie gal]

48, or as my dear younger brother put it "4 dozen", last month.

Back in college I had an old Peugot bike (given to me by a boyfriend), but I didn't ride it much because I hated the traffic. I got into mountain biking about 10 years ago because of a different boyfriend. That slowly morphed into road biking, and now triathlons. No boyfriends now, but LOTS of bikes.

[missymaya]

Boyfriends may come and go but bikes stay forever, hee hee

[Ninabike]

Nina,

I too had a Frejus in the 70's. Actually, I still have it. My husband just rebuilt it last year before we started riding again. It really never fit me so now I have a new WSD Rodriguez.

Kathy

Kathy, a little drift here. I don't know how may people even know what a Frejus is. My brother and I each bought our Frejus bikes in 1960 from an LBS owned by a 1956 Olympian tandem cyclist - Don Furgeson. He was a great guy and let us work on our bikes in his shop with his tools. We learned a lot!!He even let me ride one of his Cinellis for a while. When I went away to college, my mother asked if she could give my bike to a girl in our neighborhood who was recovering from rhumatic heart disease (her Dr. said cycling would would be good for her). I said "sure". When my brother went to Viet Nam in 1968, he gave his bike to our neighbor - a pediatrician. Believe it or not, I think he still may have it, although I have lost touch with that
family. Incidentially, my Frejus didn't fit either - at least by today's standards. Nobody talked about "fit" in those days. You just "made do".
Those years are some of my fondest memories!!

Nina

[KayTee]

I just added myself to the 50-54 group. Although I'll hit the big 5-5 in September, I'm still in that younger category...er, this minute! I so wish that I'd kept cycling after college, when I used my bike strictly for transportation. I missed out on so much by not riding. Bought an mtb about 9 years ago and didn't get back on the road until 2-3 years later. Now I'll happily admit to anybody who wants to listen that cycling is truly an obsession. And yep, I got the flat wallet to prove it!

[Kitsune06]

I think the 20-24 set tends to be very preoccupied finding their way in the world, etc. There's little peripheral available for athletics etc. And... you have to admit, the "I hope I can get a 50 in" mindset is very rare in this given age group. It's like Maslow's hierarchy of needs. At 'our' age, unless we're predisposed or have a specific motivation, we have yet to build our bases. Boozing etc serves as stress reduction while we still find novelty in alcohol and other vices, hanging out with the friends builds that support system we all need for emotional reinforcement. We're still finding our way in the world (aren't we all?) just out of the nest and starting to realize that though Mom wanted us to get married, settle down, etc or go to school, settle down, or whatever- we need to do what we need to do. Oh- and the real world is a freaky amalgamation of being just like high school and nothing like it at all.

As we reach our later 20s and the whole of our 30s to early 40s, we have that support system, or the confidence in ourselves, or both, and boozing has lost much of its novelty, to the point where, having sated our requisite base needs, we are freer to seek out more self-fulfilling and altruistic goals. It's at that point that being able to say "I got my 50 in" is more for *us* than someone else. Also, at that age, we are (generally) out of school and making enough money to start enjoying it. I'm not talking tons, I'm talking not living quite paycheck to paycheck. Here's where it comes in that you can maybe afford to set aside for that entry level or slightly better bike...

30s thru 50s seem to be spent more in self-realization, and there you see more of our cycling demographic, though it's been said "30 is the new 20" as people are living longer, going to school, not getting married as young, etc etc...

I dare not presume too much, though. I'm "not there yet" so to speak. Just observations.

[Bad JuJu]

I dare not presume too much, though. I'm "not there yet"

I'm 54, and also "not there yet" in many many ways, so don't feel too lonely. And, depending on your perspective, "not there yet" could be just another way of saying "ready to go toes-up." And I'm definitely not THERE yet.

[KayTee]

I don't think any of us on this board want to be in THAT place, BadJuJu!

[Kitsune06]

Toes and rubber-side down, TYVM

I meant that I'm not in my 40s or 50s so I can't really presume much there

[KayTee]

No offense taken by this 40-50+ person, Kitsune. I though your observations pretty spot on...at least as far as I can remember my own 20-30's (many, many years ago)!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

A lot of women in their 20's and 30's have small kids at home, making it a bit more difficult in general to get out and ride. Even if riding is do-able, they may have less time to hang out on internet biking forums! I remember how much freer I felt to look into pursuing things for my OWN health and wellbeing once the kids became more independent, when I was about 38-40 or so.

[Kitsune06]

Ah. I forgot about kids.