Never too old to learn?

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Jon George

Mamil and couldn't care less
Location
Suffolk an' Good
I'm 63. For the last fifteen years - ever since I took up cycling with a passion - I have endeavoured to prefect a track stand. I generally come close, but in the main, I have felt I resembled a child's top about to unwind and fall over. Today (after a lunchtime visit to my favourite pub and three pints of Three Sods Dark Magnus stout at 4.7% - well recommended), I found myself at the traffic lights nearby to my home on Patsy #3 The Hybrid and twisted the handle bars more to one side than usual. It seemed like I was a statue. One not lightly to be toppled over. Now, it may have been a state of Zen; slightly drunken hubris; or I might just have started to achieve the muscle memory to use the technique. I don't care - I believe I have learnt something.
Now all I want to do is discover how to do a wheelie .... ^_^
How about you? What have you learnt recently?
 
Location
London
This sort of thing shouldn't be encouraged in 63 year olds.
A late midlife crisis?
I fear unwise facial hair and a unicycle is coming next.
 

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
I'm 63. For the last fifteen years - ever since I took up cycling with a passion - I have endeavoured to prefect a track stand. I generally come close, but in the main, I have felt I resembled a child's top about to unwind and fall over. Today (after a lunchtime visit to my favourite pub and three pints of Three Sods Dark Magnus stout at 4.7% - well recommended), I found myself at the traffic lights nearby to my home on Patsy #3 The Hybrid and twisted the handle bars more to one side than usual. It seemed like I was a statue. One not lightly to be toppled over. Now, it may have been a state of Zen; slightly drunken hubris; or I might just have started to achieve the muscle memory to use the technique. I don't care - I believe I have learnt something.
Now all I want to do is discover how to do a wheelie .... ^_^
How about you? What have you learnt recently?
Welcome to my world :okay:

I am still trying to master the wheelie. I get very close to the balancing point but lose directional control and that is where it all goes wrong..... :sad:
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
This sort of thing shouldn't be encouraged in 63 year olds.
A late midlife crisis?
I fear unwise facial hair and a unicycle is coming next.
Oh dear... :whistle:

  • 63 65 ✔
  • unicycle singlespeed bike ✔
  • unwise (grey!) facial hair ✔
  • wearing trendy buff and sunglasses indoors ✔
  • desire to learn how to do a wheelie ✔
  • common sense x

618435


:blush:

Welcome to my world :okay:

I am still trying to master the wheelie. I get very close to the balancing point but lose directional control and that is where it all goes wrong..... :sad:
I am really surprised - I would have bet that you'd have mastered them years ago! I got the urge to have a go the other day when a 10 year old overtook me while doing a wheelie and laughing at me. (So far, I have resisted the temptation because I don't fancy pre-Christmas hip replacement surgery! :laugh:)
 
Location
London
Oh dear... :whistle:

  • 63 65 ✔
  • unicycle singlespeed bike ✔
  • unwise (grey!) facial hair ✔
  • wearing trendy buff and sunglasses indoors ✔
  • desire to learn how to do a wheelie ✔
  • common sense x

View attachment 618435

:blush:


I am really surprised - I would have bet that you'd have mastered them years ago! I got the urge to have a go the other day when a 10 year old overtook me while doing a wheelie and laughing at me. (So far, I have resisted the temptation because I don't fancy pre-Christmas hip replacement surgery! :laugh:)
now you just need one of those thin plunging V neck sweaters and you'll be the talk of Tod.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Welcome to my world :okay:

I am still trying to master the wheelie. I get very close to the balancing point but lose directional control and that is where it all goes wrong..... :sad:

I for one can't believe Skolly can't wheelie or manual - he can do it better than me, but this man has 'skillz'. I can't do no handed. I can track stand though.
 
Location
London
And why not - ? :whistle: I'm 68 and can't trackstand for more than a few seconds, but it puts the wind up motorists who seem to think I'm about to fall off, so they give way for me to turn in front of them - ! :rofl:
that sounds like a wise variant of the deliberate wobble - i do it a lot approaching side roads that drivers might pull out of.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
that sounds like a wise variant of the deliberate wobble - i do it a lot approaching side roads that drivers might pull out of.
I once experimented with taking a slightly meandering line on the A6033 between Todmorden and Littleborough as opposed to my normal predictable way of riding. Some drivers passed me too close when I rode in a straight line; none did when I was meandering in front of them. (I do mean a subtle meandering off the straight line, NOT Kamikaze swerves in front of overtaking vehicles!)
 
Location
London
I once experimented with taking a slightly meandering line on the A6033 between Todmorden and Littleborough as opposed to my normal predictable way of riding. Some drivers passed me too close when I rode in a straight line; none did when I was meandering in front of them. (I do mean a subtle meandering off the straight line, NOT Kamikaze swerves in front of overtaking vehicles!)
Come to think of it on particularly narrow country roads with approaching cars I also often move towards the crown of the road and do a wobble. If drivers catch on to this as a bluff I plan to market capsules which cyclists can keep in their cheeks and burst as needed to produce a generous frothing at the mouth.
 
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