Too old for Mountain Biking?

wheezee
wheezee Posts: 461
edited April 2011 in MTB general
I really don't bounce too well anymore. Scrapes and knocks take longer to heal. I started late, so I'm not conscious of being more fearful than I was (on a bike, anyway), but it seems to me this is probably a young bloke's game. Strength and fitness diminish over time, no matter what you do.

How bad will it get before you pack in? How old will you be? Hope you die before you get old?
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Comments

  • nicklouse
    nicklouse Posts: 50,675
    I will be in my Coffin.
    "Do not follow where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path, and Leave a Trail."
    Parktools :?:SheldonBrown
  • Atz
    Atz Posts: 1,383
    My dad just took up mountain biking and he's in his 60s.
  • Raymondavalon
    Raymondavalon Posts: 5,346
    In my latter side of my 40's and still pedal away like a [young] man posessed
    The Bouncer
    The Shaker
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    The other side take it up in middle-age in droves, which makes sense, because it's low-impact, and falls per ride are fewer. Has there really been a similar take-up on MTBing?
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    nicklouse wrote:
    I will be in my Coffin.
    ^^This.
    Gary Fisher's knocking on a bit, yet he'd kick most people's arses.
  • .blitz
    .blitz Posts: 6,197
    49 this year. Takes me ages to get going and I'm not as fast as I was but I never have to stop

    Rob Warner said the worst thing you can do as you get older is ride while injured and that's very true.
  • eyepic
    eyepic Posts: 58
    I started at Cannock Chase because my son was going there with a mate and I went along for a pootle around on the fire roads with my wife.

    I pushed my bike up some of the fire roads and puffed like the overweight (21stone) middle aged (47 ) bloke that I was.

    Roll on a few years ... I am now 50...still overweight at 17 stone but I pass more folks than pass me.... and virtually nobody with my age/weight combination keeps up with me... Having said that there are a couple of blokes who must be well into their 60s who shoot past me on a regular basis.... they are my heros and ultimate targets..

    I want to be doing this for many years to come.


    Mind you I would agree.. I don't bounce so well and am not as fearless as I used to be.
  • nicklouse
    nicklouse Posts: 50,675
    Err WTF I remember when the forum average age was 16.

    so in answer to the above question.

    Yes in droves.
    "Do not follow where the path may lead, Go instead where there is no path, and Leave a Trail."
    Parktools :?:SheldonBrown
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    edited April 2011
    nicklouse wrote:
    Err WTF I remember when the forum average age was 16.
    Same here. Seems that was the case when I joined the first MBUK forum years and years and years ago, when I was not much older than 16 myself!
    I think we all grew up!
    Or left for "the other place"
  • Raymondavalon
    Raymondavalon Posts: 5,346
    I don't believe a person can be too old to do anything, as for the falls per ride, 3 years back in my mid-40's I broke my right leg in 6 places, a compound fracture that resulted in 11 screws and a plate to hold it together
    Did it deter me? Nope, instead I bought another bike. I still take falls, last year I had bruises all down the left of my body, from my backside cheek to my shoulder area from a massive tumble at Cannock Chase. Falls are part of the risk when riding most things that you sit on, opposed to sit within..

    I've also bumped into an old fellow in his late 60's at Cannock Chase, he's a regular who rides an Organge 5, one morning he left me standing on the fire road climb while shouting "get on with it you whipper snapper" to me :¬)

    There are the mid life crises bunch who I see armed mainly with Specialized bikes and all the Specialized gear. Nice shiny bikes with the wheel refectors still in the spokes...
    These guys are usually fair weather riders and hit the trails in groups..
    The Bouncer
    The Shaker
  • .blitz
    .blitz Posts: 6,197
    Quite a few knackered old farts wobbling round Cannock by the sound of things :wink:

    *waves*
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    Average age on the MTB forum these days, being?....30? 39?
  • tenfoot
    tenfoot Posts: 226
    I'm 43 and still going strong. At Bedgebury yesterday, there was a guy saying he was 56, so I'm not planning to hang up my SPDs for quite a while yet.

    I'm out more regularly now, than I've ever been - generally 3 times a week, and loving it.

    What's the alternative?

    Golf? No thanks. Bowls? No thanks. Road cycling? Where's the fun in that? ;-)
  • mak3m
    mak3m Posts: 1,394
    39 in July stated mtb last year the rise of the mamil continues
  • Raymondavalon
    Raymondavalon Posts: 5,346
    tenfoot wrote:
    What's the alternative?

    Golf? No thanks. Bowls? No thanks. Road cycling? Where's the fun in that? ;-)

    Amen to that.....
    The Bouncer
    The Shaker
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    I should have started this thread with a Too Young to MTB? question. Do SAGA organize XC holidays?
  • concorde
    concorde Posts: 1,008
    Average weight I'd be more interestedin knowing. Everyone seems to be overweight that rides bikes! :lol:
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    Well, it is an opportunity to have a nice sit-down.
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    mak3m wrote:
    39 in July stated mtb last year the rise of the mamil continues

    Is there an off-road equivalent? Middle-Aged Man with A Camelbak, maybe?
  • specialeyes
    specialeyes Posts: 542
    nicklouse wrote:
    I will be in my Coffin.

    Carbon or alu? :lol::lol:
    Hardrock Sport Disc

    Cotic bfe
  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    I am still quite young (ok...im a bit passed young, but at 33 not really into middle age yet either) and now sitting at 12 stone, so not overweight.

    I plan on being one of these old dodgers you see on the black route at glentress, on singlespeeds with legs like teak passing everyone who gets in their way.

    :D
    Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I believe in the future of the human race.

    H.G. Wells.
  • P-Jay
    P-Jay Posts: 1,478
    I'm 33 and have no plans to stop anytime, might hang up my DH shoes after Whistler this year but that's nothing to do with age. I'm fitter and stronger than I was when I was 23.

    There's a guy in my riding group who passed 40 last year and honestly I've never seen anyone who can out climb or out descend him on an XC trail. He'll moan away he's getting on and all that, but that's mostly because he's a paranoid of getting old as I am.

    I had a great uncle Billy who rode his old WW2 era pushbike to the bookies / shops etc everyday until a few months before he died in his mid 80's. I'm sure if they had MTB'ing in the 1940's he would have been riding off-road too.
    Shocker Enduro
  • Beardface
    Beardface Posts: 5,495
    edited April 2011
    Wow, I feel young at 27! Almost 28, but enough grey hair to pass as a 50 year old! :lol:

    I'll only give up riding when I'm not phsyically able to ride anymore. I'd love to be one of those 90 year olds you see (or hear about) pottering about on a rigid classic, bumbling over tree roots down a great trail, moaning about how things were better 'when I were a nipper' :)
    Bird Aeris
  • timpop
    timpop Posts: 394
    I'll never stop. It's odd to me that anyone would think there's an age when one would stop. Why stop? I've been MTB riding since the 80's. Raced in the early 90's, in Canada. I'm 42 now and still like to ride fast. The youth I ride with can't keep up although no doubt there are plenty out there who ride faster than me.
    I'm not overweight.
    I won't stop climbing or skiing either. Life's too short to stop having fun.
    Many happy trails!
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I aim to be an oldie, riding much as I do now, but with a better bike, probably.
    There's nothing aspirational about a rigid, or singlespeed.
  • t0pc4t
    t0pc4t Posts: 947
    the great thing about cycling is you see loads of old giffers out, so you know it's not something you're going to have to pack in when you get older.

    they'll have to pry my bars out of my cold dead hands.
    Whether you're a king or a little street sweeper, sooner or later you'll dance with the reaper.

    Cube Curve 2009
    Giant Anthem X4

    FCN=6
  • Ginjafro
    Ginjafro Posts: 572
    In XC racing you'll find a hell of a lot of the Veterans (40+) easily out pace the younger Masters (20+) and Sports (30+). And yes, we still do the same amount of laps and it still hurts.
    Giant XTC Pro-Carbon
    Cove Hustler
    Planet X Pro-Carbon
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Does anyone remember the news report from a few years ago about some old guy who'd rented a DH bike somewhere in the alps, they found his bike stuck a few feet off the ground in a tree, and his corpse several hundred feet down a cliff!

    Now, as sad as that is, WHAT A WAY TO GO!!!! :D
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    What is aspirational, is timpop's steely determination to refuse to contemplate the possibility of age-related ill-health.

    :)
  • wheezee
    wheezee Posts: 461
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    Does anyone remember the news report from a few years ago about some old guy who'd rented a DH bike somewhere in the alps, they found his bike stuck a few feet off the ground in a tree, and his corpse several hundred feet down a cliff!

    Now, as sad as that is, WHAT A WAY TO GO!!!! :D

    But how old was he? 30s? 40s? :D

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