Hello from an old, fat, short, baldy...

[MrPorridge]

Err... Hello. I've just registered. I'm old (51) though I guess that's relative, fat (ditto). Short (5'6" so definitely) and bald (profoundly).

I'm very much a fair weather (April-Sept), very short commute (3 miles if I go the long way round) sort of a cyclist. I have an old, steel Marin hybrid that is probably too small for me (15" frame) but as I have comically short legs getting something to fit my body means having no standover clearance even with these new-fangled sloping top tube jobbies.

I'm rather out of shape but have been losing some weight and I'm trying to get fitter (exercise bike) with the aim of getting out more on the old push-iron when the weather gets a little bit better.

I'd love a new machine and to start to get further afield than my usual pootles down the canal path but I'd prefer one that doesn't make me look like a gorilla perched on a child's bike. However, my own compromised geometry would seem to rule out most things.

I love the idea of things like the Planet-X Kaffenback or the Genesis Croix de Fer but, in truth, it's the idea of some kind of funky, drop-bar, steel-framed, do-it-all that I'm drawn to rather than any real knowledge or experience of what I should actually be looking for. I suspect that my bike quest, rather like Arkwright from Open All Hours' trouser shopping, will end up with me finding everything I try uncomfortable and re-selecting my clapped-out old velocipede.

Oh, and I do tend to go on a bit. Sorry about that.

 

[arch684]

Hello and welcome to the forum

 

[Heigue'r]

Welcome.Great intro.

 

[ColinJ]

Welcome to CycleChat, but point of order - 51 is only in the first half of middle age ... I am 62 and I consider myself in the second half of middle age!

 

[gavroche]

Hello and welcome from someone much taller , 5'7 and much older ,67, than you.

 

[Elysian_Roads]

and happy cycling.

 

[Ian H]

If you have the funds, it sounds like a conversation with a good frame-builder might be advantageous.

 

[MrPorridge]

Thank you all for the warm welcome, particularly from the 5'7" giant
Also, I wouldn't say I was an especially youthful 51 so would easily pass for someone in early-late middle age. Or something.

If you have the funds, it sounds like a conversation with a good frame-builder might be advantageous.

If only. I don't really have the funds for that sort of thing. My current replacement push-bike war chest is the result of selling a couple of guitars and I'm running out of them so unless I find a suitcase full of cash, I'm stuck with something off-the-peg (and much more at the Burtons than Saville Row end of things, to stretch the analogy to gusset-tearing point).

Funnily enough, I've just re-watched the Rob Penn BBC documentary where he builds his dream bike, which includes a custom-made Rourke frame. I've just bought the book to read that again. I've also been re-reading Bella Bathurst's wonderful "The Bicycle Book" where she attends Dave Yates' framebuilding course and makes her own. I'd love to go the custom steel route if money were no object although the option anxiety at having to choose the colour(s) would almost certainly kill me so it's just as well funds are limited.

PS: Why did Planet-X stop doing the Kaffenback in that magnificent brown and cream (coffee and tea) paint job? I'd have had to have that if it were still available. I guess this shows the kind of idiot you're dealing with here. Someone who wouldn't know a vertically-lugged-dropout from a granny-bottom-bracket but who would choose a bike based on it being painted, essentially, beige.

 

[raleighnut]

 

[ianrauk]

Welcome from a 5'9" giant with zero hair on his noggin and who turned 52 yesterday.

 

[Cycleops]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

As far as drop bar do it all bikes are concerned you’ve got plenty of choice. I’m sure you’ll find something suitable. I have one myself. Doesn’t matter what you look like as long as you’re comfortable on it.

 

[pawl]

Welcome to CycleChat, but point of order - 51 is only in the first half of middle age ... I am 62 and I consider myself in the second half of middle age!

I am 77 and feel in the first flush of youth. Always been a deluded individual

 

[welsh dragon]

Hello and welcome

 

[roadrash]

Hi and from a 52 year old baldy ,who feels as though he is getting fatish

it matters not what you ride, just enjoy riding it, that's what counts

 

[User269]

Oh God...........now the 51 year olds are describing themselves as old.

Still, anyone who's my height and hair configuration, and has the sense to be a fair weather cyclist (July to, erm... July in my case), must be OK, so welcome!