Eighty is a perfectly sensible age . . . Just keep pedalling

[Ray]

I've not yet reached eighty, but I am well into my eighth decade, so I enjoyed reading this in a Guardian interview with Ken Loach:

Eighty is a perfectly sensible age, and as long as he’s physically capable, he will keep making films. Does he never feel his age? “First thing in the morning, I feel about 85.” He grins. “But after a good coffee, I feel 79. People go on a long time now, don’t they? It’s not something you want to think about much. Just keep pedalling.”

Don't know whether Ken Loach is/was a cyclist, but interesting that he uses a cycling image.

Just keep pedalling . . .

[Audax67]

In three months I'll be embarking on my eighth decade**. I'm hoping I'll still be able to manage an SR series when PBP 2019 rolls around. Thereafter, who cares?

Well, I will...


** and after a lifetime of linguistic diligence I'm still uncomfortable with the spelling of the word 'eighth'.

[Ray]

In three months I'll be embarking on my eighth decade**. I'm hoping I'll still be able to manage an SR series when PBP 2019 rolls around. Thereafter, who cares?

Well, I will...

Of course. Rage against the dying of the light!

* and after a lifetime of linguistic diligence I'm still uncomfortable with the spelling of the word 'eighth'.

Funny you should say that - my fingers wanted to add another 't', but I resisted even though it somehow looks wrong. At your prompting, I went to check in the Shorter OED. Eighth it is.

[ambodach]

No reason to stop cycling unless you are physically incapacitated and even then there are options to help keep going. In my case folders with step through frames make riding possibly. Recumbents either two or three wheels for those with arthritic problems or balance difficulties. This theme has been covered before but it seems to me that if you keep riding then this helps to keep you going. Sounds a bit mixed up but that is old age for you!

[Moss]

Good on you Lad's and respect to your perseverance in cyclic mobility!
I'm just 68, years young; and I truly hope to follow your lead.

[Si]

I like to tell myself that barring various illnesses, that it's not so much the age as what you've done in most of the preceding years. If you've kept yourself reasonably fit throughout most of your life then you've a much better chance of remaining capable of more activity for longer. I dunno, maybe I'm wrong?

A while ago I was meant to be meeting a friend for coffee, I came round the corner of the cycle path and found her talking to a mature chap on a bike. He was just saying that he can only "manage around 20 miles a day these days....", my initial feeling was that that wasn't bad for someone who I judged to be in his 70s, and then he finished the sentence: "...which I suppose isn't too bad for someone who is 93". Considering how many people who are a quarter of that age can't manage five miles.....Res Firma Mitescere Nescit as fans of American Flyers say.

[TrevA]

We have several riders on our Saturday club ride who are well into their 70's, 78 being the eldest. They manage a 30 miler at 14mph every Saturday. Our club president is 85 and still riding.

There was a local chap called Bill Duffin who was still riding time trials at the age of 88. I remember riding one with him and I only beat him by a couple of minutes. He was averaging 21mph for 10 miles.

[Audax67]

In three months I'll be embarking on my eighth decade**. I'm hoping I'll still be able to manage an SR series when PBP 2019 rolls around. Thereafter, who cares?

Well, I will...

Of course. Rage against the dying of the light!

* and after a lifetime of linguistic diligence I'm still uncomfortable with the spelling of the word 'eighth'.

Funny you should say that - my fingers wanted to add another 't', but I resisted even though it somehow looks wrong. At your prompting, I went to check in the Shorter OED. Eighth it is.

My lights only die when I stop pedalling (and the capacitor runs down).

[Mick F]

In three months I'll be embarking on my eighth decade ........

First decade = birth to age 9
Second decade = age 10 to 19

etc.

I'm approaching 64.
I'm nearly halfway through my seventh decade.

So you're nearly 70?

[honeyseeker]

We have several riders on our Saturday club ride who are well into their 70's, 78 being the eldest. They manage a 30 miler at 14mph every Saturday. Our club president is 85 and still riding.

There was a local chap called Bill Duffin who was still riding time trials at the age of 88. I remember riding one with him and I only beat him by a couple of minutes. He was averaging 21mph for 10 miles.

I like reading motivational stories/posts from real life that demonstrate that "... Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself" (Roy T. Bennett)

[djnotts]

" Your only limitations are those you set upon yourself" (Roy T. Bennett)"

Nice sentiment, but not entirely true! However tough ones mental strength, health is the limiting factor. My "lung age" (an admittedly imprecise measure) is 92 - some 24 years greater than it "should" be. But by dint of regular exercise (only 12 -15 miles a day or 4 miles walking if weather awful) I have held it at that for 4 years. I very occasionally manage over 30 miles - flattish is OK but I soon literally run out of oxygen on hills!

Yes I can and do force myself out on the bike at 7 a.m. in mid winter....but will power alone cannot help me breathe! If I keep up the effort I might still be cycling in 2 - 3 years time, but that will be about it. Eighty? Not a chance.

[Davidwd]

I did the Manche to med last year, 900 miles one of the guys i rode with turned 83 whilst we were ther. He featured on the front page of the audax uk magazine a few months ago. Many of us younger ones couldn't keep up with him!!

[Username]

In three months I'll be embarking on my eighth decade ........

First decade = birth to age 9
Second decade = age 10 to 19

etc.

I'm approaching 64.
I'm nearly halfway through my seventh decade.

So you're nearly 70?

I hate that logic. 2017 should be the 20th century, not 21st. They way I see it as 0-9 you have not yet completed a decade. It should be the 0th decade. This way 20th would be 20, not 21st. It seems better that way.

[cycleruk]

How old do you have to be before your allowed to brag how old you are?

[Ray]

How old do you have to be before your allowed to brag how old you are?

I feel certain that my grandson will claim bragging rights on reaching his 7th birthday next week.

Once past early teenage years people tend to be a bit coy about their age until, maybe, their seventies, when they might hope to gain the respect they think is due to seniority and experience: "I'm seventy-six, you know!". Sometimes, of course, people might be fishing for sympathy. A few times I've overtaken cyclists who've felt they need to explain their relative slowness by telling me their age - when they were in fact quite a bit younger than me. And no, I didn't tell them! That would have been bragging, not something I'd think of doing . . . would I, now?