Organised rides for Over 60s

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screenman

Legendary Member
Does anyone know of a club in the Preston, Lancs area that organises casual/social rides of about 20km for over 60s?

Every cycle club I know of has members that do rides like that in this area, I am sure yours is the same. In cycling terms over 60 is young.
 
OP
OP
joesoap

joesoap

Regular
Thanks screenman. I'll have to do a bit of searching on google. If over 60 is young in cycling terms what would you consider to be Old in cycling terms?
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
I put my name down on a whim for a Sky Social ride yesterday. The route is around 15 miles and the area is pretty flat. I doubt that at 61 I'll be the oldest on the ride. As it's my first Sky ride of this kind I won't know what goes on until later this afternoon but I'll report back. Are there any Sky rides local to you?
 
OP
OP
joesoap

joesoap

Regular
Thanks for that. I checked out the Sky Ride and there is a beginners ride starting tomorrow at 10.30 which does the Guild Wheel and takes about 3hrs 30 mins. That would have been ideal apart from the fact that it states....No Helmet, No Ride. I have a helmet on order from Argos but it hasn't arrived yet so I'm a bit disappointed. Now that I know about Sky Ride I wil keep an eye out for the next ride.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Thanks for that. I checked out the Sky Ride and there is a beginners ride starting tomorrow at 10.30 which does the Guild Wheel and takes about 3hrs 30 mins. That would have been ideal apart from the fact that it states....No Helmet, No Ride. I have a helmet on order from Argos but it hasn't arrived yet so I'm a bit disappointed. Now that I know about Sky Ride I wil keep an eye out for the next ride.
That's curious - the ride I went on had no such restriction and the leaders didn't wear helmets either. Maybe it's a beginners thing but, chatting with the ride leader, an instructor and a training instructor from cycletraining.uk, her views were very much along the lines of ''why should I protect myself from careless drivers to reduce their responsibility for driving with care.'' (And she's done a fair bit of ''changing places'' training with lorry drivers recently.) Better stop there or your thread will end up in the helmet thread graveyard....

Anyhow, the ride was slow but enjoyable and well organised ,and I learned a few hidden cyclepaths along the way.
 

snorri

Legendary Member
Thanks screenman. I'll have to do a bit of searching on google. If over 60 is young in cycling terms what would you consider to be Old in cycling terms?
Age is just a number and some are fitter and healthier than others due to making a better choice when selecting their parents.
Just enjoy cycling to the best of your ability and forget about your age:smile:.
 
+1 to @snorri

Find a ride at your pace. There will be a mix of ages on it.

You could easily work up to doing 200km or longer riders. I know plenty of people old than you doing long distances. And younger people just starting out who probably couldn't keep up with you. Find a ride at your pace, keeping length and climb in mind. If you want and you don't have any serious medical problems (and sometimes even if you do), you could be doing 60km club runs soon enough.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
If over 60 is young in cycling terms what would you consider to be Old in cycling terms?
One of my local group opined today that one starts to slow once over 75. I'll let you know in a few decades if I'm still around and remember. ;)
 
OP
OP
joesoap

joesoap

Regular
That's curious - the ride I went on had no such restriction and the leaders didn't wear helmets either. Maybe it's a beginners thing but, chatting with the ride leader, an instructor and a training instructor from cycletraining.uk, her views were very much along the lines of ''why should I protect myself from careless drivers to reduce their responsibility for driving with care.'' (And she's done a fair bit of ''changing places'' training with lorry drivers recently.) Better stop there or your thread will end up in the helmet thread graveyard....

Anyhow, the ride was slow but enjoyable and well organised ,and I learned a few hidden cyclepaths along the way.
Rather than miss the ride I bought another helmet and glad I did. Sky ride leader, Brian, was great. We did 25 miles but it took us 5 hours to get round the Guild Wheel. A great day out with good company. I can thoghoughly recommend it and hope to do an encore next week.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Rather than miss the ride I bought another helmet and glad I did. Sky ride leader, Brian, was great. We did 25 miles but it took us 5 hours to get round the Guild Wheel. A great day out with good company. I can thoghoughly recommend it and hope to do an encore next week.
I'm glad it worked out for you but 25 miles is quite a distance for a beginners' ride so well done. As I've never done Sky rides before this weekend I'm still finding things out but I gather that they're keen to get you to join a group or organise your own rides using other Sky registered riders. Somewhere on their website there's a ''group finder''.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Time to repeat the tale of two lads (well, 25 year olds) from work coming caving with me. Our 80+ year old club founder member asks if he can come along. The two lads look at each other, then look at me, but are too polite to comment so off we go. The old gent grumbles his was through the cave saying, "its rubbish being old, my balance isn't as good these days. This is as much as I can manage now" and much more in a similar vein. 3 hours later we emerge and the elderly chap repeats his grumbles, and strides off back down the hill. One of the lads sits down for a breather, and the other collapses in a heap. I knew that might happen :-)
 
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