Fun Fitness for Adults — Not Just for Kids

By using lower, easy-to-pedal gears, riders as old as 89 have cycled the length of the world’s highest paved road to the 14,267-foot summit of Colorado s Mount Evans.

• You’ve just received a letter from a friend five years older than you, ecstatically describing a bicycle tour she recently took through the republics of the former Soviet Union.

• Another friend, ten years your senior, calls to say he has finally found the ideal competitive sport. “It’s bicycle racing,” he says. “It’s impact-free but full of excitement and challenge.”

• You read about a 65-year-old man who explores abandoned Rocky Mountain railroad beds on a sturdy, fat-tired bicycle especially designed for off-road mountain travel.

If you’re a mature adult and live in our modern fitness culture, you have undoubtedly heard equally alluring stories about bicyclists who are often years older than you. It usually doesn’t take many of these glowing accounts to persuade you that — despite your age — bicycling can open up exciting new horizons of fitness, fun, and travel. In fact, you probably have already considered the wisdom of taking up bicycling.

Yet you hesitate because you realize that bicycling isn’t all pluses. You probably recall acquaintances who started into bicycling after reaching the 30—40-year age bracket. Chances are that most stashed away their bicycles in the garage a few days or weeks after beginning, and those bicycles are still there.

In short, about three out of every four mature Americans who attempt to take up bicycling fail to stay with it. Only the exceptional man or woman seems to really catch bicycle fever and to go on and succeed.

It’s an admitted fact that many adult Americans fail to stay with most types of exercise. But lack of fitness is not, I discovered, the reason for the high dropout rate among adult bicyclists. The greatest barrier for most adults is psychological: fear of failing or of looking silly, plus feeling intimidated by lack of know-how.

The majority of adult newcomers to cycling are so unaware of the basics that most never really experience sports bicycling at all. Too often older adults innocently buy youngsters’ bicycles in the fond belief that one 12-speed is the same as another. The result is that they give up without ever experiencing the joy and exhilaration of riding a high-performance bicycle.

Even owning a quality bicycle does not guarantee success. Most bikes you see in top-category bike shops are designed and built for people under 25 years of age, and they are usually sold by people under 40, few of whom have any idea of the special needs and problems of mature bikers. Bicycle salespeople are just beginning to learn of the varied options available to enhance the performance of older riders such as installing lower gears or longer crankarms.

Taking Up Bicycling Later in Life

For these and many other reasons, I’m convinced that men and women who take up bicycling in adulthood need a totally different introduction to the sport.

Although this guide was originally intended for those taking up bicycling in mid-life (ages 40—65) it quickly became apparent that the same guidance can benefit adults of any age who are moderately active but not athletic.

If you can jump on an all-terrain or road bike and go blasting up a mountain road, you probably don’t need this guide. But if you’d like to ride up hills or to ride long distances without tiring, but you can’t at present, then this guide is for you regardless of age.

So my purpose in this guide is to provide the guidance, information, and advice to help you break into bicycling successfully, and to emphasize the many exciting ways in which you can enjoy your bike.

Good Health Is the Only Requirement

If you biked when you were younger, and are in generally good condition and free of physical defects, recreational bicycling is an easy sport to get back into. That’s exactly what Ed Delano of Davis, California, discovered back in the sixties. After not having ridden for 39 years, he began bicycling again at age 58.

Ed soon became so hooked on bicycling that he took up both racing and touring. Among the many tours he has made are four solo rides across America, including a fabulous 34-day trip from Vacaville, California, to Quebec City, Canada, made when he was 70.

Even in his 80s Ed continues to ride competitively and in 1987 he won three gold medals at the U.S. National Senior Olympics. All through the years, bicycling has kept him in better shape than most men half his age.

For proof, when he was tested recently at the University of Florida Center for Exercise Fitness, Ed’s oxygen uptake was double that for the average man his age. In fact, his aerobic capacity exceeded the “very good” category for men in their 20s, and was 30 percent better than that of most runners of his age.

Like Ed Delano, millions of adults have turned back the aging clock through bicycling regularly. Several studies have shown that bicycle racers have the highest oxygen uptake, and a greater ability to deliver oxygen to the muscles, than athletes in any other sport. Other studies have confirmed that sports bicycling provides health and fitness benefits equal to or greater than those of running or

swimming.

The Non-impact Sport

These facts have sent converts from aerobic dancing and jogging flocking into bicycling because of its freedom from impact. Pedaling at a brisk pace minimizes pressure on ankles, knees, and hips and makes joint injuries extremely rare. In fact, you can continue to bicycle until very late in life with minimal risk of injury or of tearing down the body.

Yet bicycling uses all the main muscle groups, creating long, lean muscles and a firm, athletic build. Riding stationary bicycles is the most frequently prescribed exercise at cardiac rehabilitation centers. Bicycling is also a superb way to lose weight. Pedaling briskly at 15 m.p.h., a 120-pound woman burns 402 calories per hour while a 150-pound man burns 504.

However, these and other benefits accrue only to those who pedal at a brisk enough pace. That means spinning the pedals at a cadence of 60-90 RPM or more. (Cadence is the cyclist’s term for revolutions per minute.) To anyone taking up bicycling after age 25, this fact is of paramount importance. It defines the difference between “casual” bicycling and “sports” or “recreational” bicycling.

There are two ways to bicycle:

• Casual bicycling implies riding on bicycle paths or in parks or around the neighborhood, usually on a 3-, 5-, or 12-speed bicycle purchased in a department store and intended for youngsters. Casual bikers travel at a relatively slow pace, often on flat terrain. They ride infrequently, usually on calm, sunny days, and they pedal at a cadence of less than 60 RPM. Also known as neighborhood bicycling, or once-around-the-park riding, casual bicycling offers relatively few weight loss or fitness benefits, and most casual riders have a low fitness level. They seldom travel more than ten or fifteen miles on a ride.

• Sports or recreational bicycling means riding regularly on the open road using a high-performance, multi-geared bicycle with a range of gears wide enough to match the changing terrain. This means that a pedal cadence of 60-90 RPM. or more can be maintained almost constantly. Sports bicyclists are more dedicated. They ride up and down hills and may even ride through off-road terrain. They seldom ride for less than 15 miles, and many older adults are capable of covering up to 75 miles or more in a day.

While the terms sports and recreational bicycling are often used interchangeably, strictly speaking sports bicycling refers to riding a sports or racing bicycle for fitness training or competition. Recreational bicycling usually refers to riding a touring or mountain bike for day rides or longer tours.

But since the definitions of sports and recreational bicycling frequently overlap, the term sports bicycling as used in this guide frequently embraces both sports and recreational bicycling.

Casual bicycling is such a dead-end pursuit that I’m going to lay it to rest right now. If you’re into casual bicycling already, this guide can help you move up to sports bicycling as smoothly and as swiftly as possible.

Sports Bicycling—Fitness Plus Adventure

The rest of this guide is about breaking into sports bicycling. Owning a high-performance bicycle can open up a whole new world of fun, fitness, travel, and even competition. Among all modes of exercise, bicycling covers more ground in less time with a minimum of effort. You can exercise while exploring local country roads, or you can sign up for organized bike tours that take you roaming the backroads of Europe, the United States, Nepal, or New Zealand. You don’t have to camp out or sleep in a hostel. Over 100 tour operators provide scenic tours of 5—14 days or more with comfortable overnight accommodations in cozy inns or luxurious lodges, and with fine dining in gourmet restaurants. While you’re riding, a van carries your baggage and picks up any stragglers.

Alternatively, you can tour the United States, Europe, or New Zealand on your own, staying overnight and eating at the same hotels, motels, and restaurants you would patronize if you were traveling by car.

With a mountain bike you can explore traffic-free old mining roads, railroad beds, and even some trails high in the Rockies or in scores of national forests and state or national parks. Organized tours are available for mountain bikers too.

If you like to ride with groups, almost every city now has a bicycle club. And there are rallies, festivals, and group rides all over the country where you can meet and ride with hundreds of other bicyclists. Single men and women often meet future mates on these rides or while on tours.

Almost any moderately fit adult between 25 and 65 or older can take up sports bicycling. You don’t have to be an athlete, nor do you have to be young; and you don’t need any prior experience beyond the ability to ride a bicycle.

The Health Benefits of Bicycling

Sports bicycling, when done on a regular basis, builds exceptional stamina and energy, and most people who bike regularly seldom feel tired or fatigued. Studies have shown that bicycling regularly lessens depression, stress, and anxiety; increases sexual vigor; lowers blood pressure; improves sleep; and improves almost all risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Active people in good physical condition have a longer life expectancy than those who are sedentary and out of shape, and are less susceptible to cancer and other diseases. And the brisk pace of sports bicycling releases endorphin in the brain, which often brings on a feeling of euphoria.

Bicycling regularly can also give you a feeling of mastery and control over your life and health. Finding yourself riding farther and faster each time boosts your self-esteem and creates a powerful feeling of success and achievement.

Naturally, all these benefits are available to women as well as men. Actually, more women than men are now buying road bikes and race categories exist for women at local and national racing levels up to age 70. In fact, older women are excelling in racing.

At age 67, Margareta Lambert of Dillon, Colorado, won three gold medals in the 1987 Senior Olympics. And Genny Mayberry was 45 before she took up competitive bicycling. Competing first at local time trials, then at Masters District races, and finally at the national level, by age 51 she had become National Masters Champion 5 years in a row. Another superb adult woman athlete is Casey Patterson, a 43-year-old mother of three, who showed it is never too late to take up bicycling by winning the 1987 Race Across America.

Older newcomers, both men and women, can excel in bicycle racing in just a brief time. Through the Masters racing program — which begins at age 30—you can compete with men and women in your own age group, and go on to compete at a national event. Because it’s a non-injurious sport that can be continued for a life time, men and women in their 70s and 80s are still able to compete and win.

When Are You Too Old to Bicycle?

If you still think you’re too old to take up bicycling, you should know that bicycle touring is dominated by men and women in the 40—70 year age range, and some are even older. Says David B. Rusling, tour manager of Backcountry Tours: “We get many guests on our tours who are well over forty and, surprisingly, much of the time they are the stronger riders.”

Even on American Youth Hostels tours many participants are well over 40, and bikers in their 70s have ridden on American Youth Hostels’ tours of New Zealand.

The same trends are echoed by Frank Behrendt, president of International Bicycle Tours, who told me: “Over half the riders on our tours are aged sixty and over, largely because they have the time and money to afford our longer bike tours to Europe and the U.S.S.R.” Frank added that IBT had taken literally hundreds of bicyclists aged 60 and over and he could not recall one who was unable to make the distance or who ran out of energy.

Another expert, Greg Siple, art director of Bikecentennial (a national bicycle touring association and route information ser vice), also points out that bicycling is no longer just for the young.

Quoting statistics from the annual two-day Tour of the Scioto River Valley, which drew 6,100 riders in 1988, Greg emphasizes that nearly 29 percent were aged 40 or over. Back in the sixties, a majority of the TOSRV riders were under 25. In 1988, however, the majority of riders were aged 28—38.

Confirming the growth of adult bicycling is the fact that over 850,000 American adults took a bicycle-touring vacation in 1988. Over 1.7 million adult bicyclists ride at least once each week; over 5 million adults own a mountain bike. Today adult bicycling is enjoying its greatest resurgence since the 1880s. The main reasons are disillusionment with the automobile, frustration with high-impact sports like jogging and aerobics, and development of the modern high-performance bike.

Today’s Bicycles Are User-Friendly

If you haven’t ridden a bicycle in several years, you’re in for some pleasant surprises. Fumbling for the right gear or having to walk uphill is now just a memory. Futuristic-looking bikes are appearing that are so astonishingly light and fast that models built only a few years ago seem like antiques by comparison. In fact, today’s medium-priced bikes are superior to top-of-the-line models of five or six years ago. Today, for a few hundred dollars you can ride a bike equal in quality to one that a few years ago might have been ridden in the Tour de France.

Indexed gear shifters click you into exactly the right gear setting while aero-design brake levers eliminate the cable housing formerly looped over the handlebars. Toe clips and straps have given way to step-in pedals that lock your shoe to the pedal but release like ski bindings. Meanwhile, energy efficient, elliptical chainrings are as standard on modern bikes as the steep frame angles and short wheelbases that provide an astonishingly fast and responsive ride. (Chainrings are the toothed wheels near the pedals, while the wheelbase is the distance between the front and rear axles.)

Handlebar computers measure speed and distance, and the more Sophisticated models may also display your pedal cadence, your pulse rate, and even the total elevation gain of all the hills that you have climbed on your ride.

Nor need you ride in the crouched-over racing position. Sit astride a contemporary mountain bike and you’ll discover you’re in the familiar upright position with a comfortable cushioned saddle, with fat tires that swallow bumps, and with cantilever brakes so powerful that you can stop on the proverbial dime.

You’re at the controls of one of the most energy-efficient vehicles ever designed for overland travel. From calories in food its human rider can deliver more net power to the road than can any car from its gasoline fuel.

At the flick of a thumb you command an astonishing range of 12 to 21 speeds, or even more, from low, hill-gobbling gears that can also slice through headwinds, to big gears that can take you cruising downhill at 40 m.p.h. While you spin the pedals at 60—90 r.p.m. the multiple gearing smooths out rough roads and hills. Today’s bikes offer unprecedented efficiency, comfort, safety, speed, and handling ability.

Your mountain bike can take you up narrow trails, or on slick- rock, to remote places where two wheels may never have gone before. You can ride across streams or shallow rivers and go any where that a four-wheel drive vehicle or trail bike can venture. Your go-anywhere bike is equally at home on the highway, and it can cross congested cities faster than most cars. At nominal cost you can put it on a plane and fly it to Europe or New Zealand and ride it out of the airport for a month-long tour. Or you can mount your bike on an indoor trainer and make it double as an exercise bike.

You can park your bike where there is no parking space for cars, or stop and admire the view anywhere at any time. Burning only excess calories and cholesterol, it gives you total freedom from the gasoline pump. Your bike is quiet, nonpolluting, and non-lethal. It seldom breaks down. It requires no hefty insurance premiums. And it costs roughly one-twentieth as much as a new automobile.

Explore the World by Pedal Power

The sheer joy of riding a modern high-performance bike has become the focus of the growing trend toward active, outdoor adventure vacations. Millions of middle-class Americans today are bored with cars, golf, and crowded beaches and are seeking more active and challenging vacations.

Bicycle touring supplies both fitness and adventure in a single package, tour operators have discovered. When cozy lodgings and great food are added, the combination is irresistible.

Not long ago I sampled a bike tour through New England operated by one of the largest bike tour firms. With a dozen other adults I rode on secluded back roads through a Rip Van Winkle world of white farms, villages, and maple sugar houses that seemed to have slumbered since the 1930s. One afternoon we coasted downhill for miles beside the foaming Ammonoosuc River before plunging through a century-old covered bridge to the historic inn where we were to spend the night.

Each evening we had ample time for a relaxing soak in a hot tub. bath before joining the rest of our group around the lounge fire for a glass of apple cider. Everyone seemed to have some special adventure to relate, from discovering bits of old horses’ harness in a farmer’s barn to being invited into the home of a New England conservationist for afternoon tea.

Brisk outdoor exercise by day, country inns and home-cooked meals at night. If that sounds like the kind of adventure vacation you’d prefer, consider a bicycle tour. All over America, fitness- minded adults are trading four wheels for two and discovering a new type of vacation based on good food, camaraderie, and fitness- building adventure.

There are tours galore for cycling purists, or you can choose from luxury trips that combine mountain bicycling with skiing or trek king, or bicycle touring with hot air ballooning or a schooner cruise.

Motoring Isn’t Fun Any More

But the most potent driving force behind the mushrooming growth of bicycle touring, and other active outdoor vacations, is total disgust and disenchantment with the automobile. No longer is there any pleasure in driving a car. Stress and tension are your reward for driving on freeways and most other major roads. Even on lesser roads you must maintain the hectic pace of other traffic or be honked at. Only in remote areas is it still possible to shunpike on deserted roads. Elsewhere, driving translates into traffic gridlock and smog amid an endless look-alike world of mini-marts, fast-food outlets, and chain motels.

Compared to the magnificent freedom of bicycle touring, the countryside is just a blur to passing motorists while the driver sees only the road and the cars ahead. Totally isolated from the outdoors, deprived of all movement, and cut off from all contact with the region they are passing through, automobile tourists get only the most superficial impression of where they have been. Of ten, parking is available only at fast-food restaurants and tourist traps.

Although they are forced to own cars, most bicyclists have learned to spend as little time as possible inside them. For vacations, at least, bicycles are rapidly becoming a viable alternative to the polluting aid environmentally destructive automobile.

Serendipity Galore

By comparison, a bicycle is a true vehicle for personal discovery. Whether at a country store or during a café stop, a modern bike makes a wonderful conversation piece that often leads to encounters with local people or with the foods, wines, or other cultural features of a region. Roaming through New England, we’ve more than once stumbled on a firemen’s benefit offering huge platters of steaming lobster, and in Guatemala we were invited to join a wedding reception.

In Indonesia or Nepal you travel as the people do, bicycling along with hundreds of locals and meeting them face to face. The serendipity and adventure of bicycle touring so expands one’s travel horizons that once having taken a bicycle tour, few adults are ever again willing to accept the restrictions of automobile travel.

Although they buy their bicycles primarily to lose weight, lower blood pressure, or to knock points off their cholesterol, most adults soon discover that owning a high-performance bike opens up an exciting variety of other activities. Besides increasing your fitness, you can use your bike for vacation travel, for competition, to explore roadless areas, or to commute to work.

Since these activities can be enjoyed during the fine weather season for at least half the year, the big puzzle is why so few adults actually ride a bicycle regularly.

The Psychological Barriers to Adult Bicycling

The major barrier appears to be a series of beliefs based on experience with bicycles in the dim and distant past. These conditioned beliefs then serve as psychological blocks to taking up bicycling later in life.

As you have undoubtedly gathered if you have read this far, bicycles and bicycling are completely different from anything we may have experienced in years past. So changed are they that most of the negative beliefs that adults hold have become mere fantasies. For proof, let’s examine some of the most common attitudinal blocks that seem to turn off adults from bicycling.

• BLOCK 1. Bicycling is too expensive. Why can’t I ride a cheaper department store bike? Besides, I already tried bicycling and it hurt my knees.

Not only is the typical $99.95 discount store special heavy and cumbersome but if you live in hilly country, or must ride against headwinds, its gears are usually inadequate to match the changing terrain. The same is true of 3- and 5-speed bicycles. You find yourself grinding the pedals as you struggle along in gears that are far too high — a guaranteed way to stress the knees and other joints. (A “high” gear is one where it is difficult to pedal uphill; a “low” gear is one where it is easier to pedal uphill.) By contrast, joint injuries rarely occur among bicyclists who ride a high-performance machine that allows them to pedal briskly under all conditions.

The secret of successful cycling — to make bicycling easy and pleasant — a rider must spin the pedals briskly at a cadence of 60-90 r.p.m., or slightly more. It is this brisk pace that minimizes pressure on ankles, knees, and hips and that makes joint injuries extremely rare.

By shifting smoothly from gear to gear, soaring up hills and then down, an accomplished rider synchronizes the cadence of his or her spinning pedals with the changing conditions of wind and terrain. Whether riding uphill at 6 m.p.h., or downhill at 30 m.p.h., the pedals continue to spin at approximately the same brisk pace while the biker’s entire body becomes a single fluid unit with the bike. To glide almost effortlessly on silent wheels like this is what the joy and fun of bicycling is all about. To many, it’s the closest thing to flying without leaving the ground.

Admittedly, riding like this does demand a minimal level of fitness. But it isn’t necessary to be a super-athlete. What is essential is that you ride a modern, lightweight bicycle with a range of gears wide enough to keep you pedaling briskly all the time.

Quality bicycles of this caliber can be found only in bicycle shops. Bicycles sold in department stores and discount houses are invariably cheaper and heavier models with low-quality components in tended for youngsters.

It has always amazed me that so many adults will unhesitatingly part with thousands of dollars to buy a chromium-plated chariot bristling with knobs and gadgets frankly designed to appeal to the child in us all. Yet rather than lay out a few hundred dollars for a grown-up’s bicycle, all too many adults are satisfied to ride a children’s model.

By riding a heavy, youngster’s bicycle, you are locking yourself into casual bicycling— and probably ruining your knees in the bargain.

It’s true that a quality bike costs several hundred dollars. Yet only on such a bike can you pedal briskly enough to maximize the health and fitness benefits of bicycling and to prevent joint injuries. Be sides, you don’t need a top model. A medium-quality road or mountain bike will get you into sports bicycling right away.

• BLOCK 2. 1 could never ride crouched over those turned-down, racing-style handlebars. I’d prefer to ride in an upright position, like on a 3-speed.

A few years ago the choice in adult bicycles lay between a 3-speed and a 10-speed. Three-speeds are still available but their limitations lock you into the casual type of bicycling. Ten-speeds are also becoming hard to find. Most modern bikes have 12-24 speeds.

Most bicyclists prefer drop-style handlebars because they afford a variety of positions for your hands. By keeping your hands on top of the handlebars you can ride in a near-upright position. Few novices are aware, though, that on almost any bicycle drop-style handlebars can be replaced with a flat handlebar allowing you to ride upright at all times.

Better yet, you can ensure riding in the upright position on a top- quality bike by purchasing a mountain or all-terrain bike (ATB). Today the choice in adult bikes is between the lightweight road bike and the rugged 18-24 speed mountain bike or ATB (they’re essentially the same).

Although you may have no immediate plans to ride up mountains, the mountain bike is beginning to emerge as the best thing that ever happened for the beginning mature rider. Not only is it a high-performance bicycle that can be ridden in the familiar upright position, but it comes equipped with a variety of climbing gears that will get you up most hills without having to walk. Its wide gear range will keep you pedaling briskly under all conditions. Its brakes are more efficient than those of a car. The saddle is more comfort able and can be raised or lowered at the flip of a lever. Risk of a puncture is less than with a road bike. And when used with lighter road tires, the mountain bike is a versatile machine that is equally at home on dirt roads, paved highways, or city streets.

If you want to race, there are mountain bike races. You can ride on dirt roads where traffic is minimal. And if later you decide to ride on rougher terrain, you have only to switch to fatter tires. Scores of veteran bikers are now recommending a mountain bike for the mature beginner.

“They’re still relatively light and easy to pedal,” says Frank Behrendt, president of International Bicycle Tours. “Many of our riders are over sixty yet they can keep going all day on a mountain bike. And if we meet any cobblestones or unpaved roads, those on mountain bikes have a much smoother ride.”

• BLOCK 3. I can get the same health benefits riding a stationary bicycle.

True! You can pedal indoors in any weather and achieve a high level of fitness. But riding the carpet can be excruciatingly boring and monotonous. Moreover, pedaling indoors in summer can be come uncomfortably hot, and some exercise bikes are so noisy that you cannot hear music or TV.

Kenneth Cooper, M.D., exercise physician and author of The Aerobics Program for Total Well-Being (New York: Bantam, 1988), believes you are more likely to get a good workout when riding on the open road. His observations show that exercise heart rates are higher when riding outdoors. And stationary bicycling offers none of the joy and adventure of sports bicycling.

Incidentally, both road and mountain bikes can be mounted on a trainer and ridden indoors during winter.

• BLOCK 4. I could be killed by a speeding car. And what if I get a puncture or break a spoke or a control cable?

Admittedly, bicycling is not completely without risk. The door of a parked car can be flung open in your face as you ride by. Or you can take a spill on gravel or on wet metal surfaces like bridges, rails, and manhole or sewer covers. However, most novices swiftly learn to avoid these hazards. Besides, most bicycle accidents not involving motor vehicles rarely lead to more than a few minor bruises, abrasions, or scratches. Even in the roughest off-road bicycle races, serious injuries are extremely rare.

If you stick to quiet roads and avoid highways filled with 18- wheelers and recreational vehicles, risk of being killed is statistically lower than while driving a car. Fewer than 1,000 bicyclists are killed in accidents involving motor vehicles each year, and half are children aged under 16. When you eliminate those riding at night, and those not wearing a helmet, fewer than 200 bicyclists aged 25 or over are killed in traffic accidents annually. This doesn’t eliminate the need for careful riding. But it does emphasize that the risk of being killed while bicycling is grossly exaggerated.

Nor, provided you have a medical checkup before taking up exercise, are you likely to die from the exertion of bicycling. Only a handful of runners or bikers have died while exercising, and most of those had congenital heart disease. For every adult who dies while exercising, 100,000 sedentary people die at their desks or in bed. The risk of not exercising is thousands of times greater than any risk involved through exerting yourself on a bicycle.

And yes, you may have to handle a flat twenty miles from home, or replace a broken cable or spoke. But these skills are easily learned. And you never have to patch a tube on the road. Nowadays, you simply replace a punctured tube with a spare and wait till you get back home before patching the puncture.

Incidentally, you may also get rained on or encounter a stiff headwind—adverse conditions readily overcome by carrying rain- gear or by shifting down into a lower gear. The occasional barking dog can be repelled with a whiff of spray from a can of Halt, the same dog deterrent used and endorsed by the U.S. Post Office. At times, also, the weather can be hot and humid or it can be windy and cold. All of which indicates that bicycling is for real people who are active and alive, who love the outdoors, and who thrive on the joy of physical exertion.

• BLOCK 5. I simply don’t have the time or energy for bicycling.

Most of us can create more leisure time by watching less TV and fewer spectator sports. Anyway, if you can walk 3 miles in an hour or less without feeling tired, this is usually proof that you have ample energy and stamina to become an entry-level sports bicyclist. As you gradually pedal farther and faster each time, your body will mobilize the energy you need to ride longer distances. Many beginning bicyclists are able to ride 50 miles after only two months of practice.

If you cannot yet walk 3 miles in an hour, you should build up your walking speed to this level before investing in a bicycle. Alter natively, you can pedal an exercise bicycle the equivalent of 15 miles in 90 minutes. Should you experience fatigue after walking or pedaling, or if you have not exercised for a long time, or if you are overweight or a smoker, or have any other condition or dysfunction that can affect your ability to walk or ride a bicycle, you should see your physician before starting to exercise.

• BLOCK 6. My interest is piqued. But won’t my friends and neighbors think I’m kooky if they see a mature, grown-up person riding a bicycle and wearing funny cycling clothes?

The plain fact is that sports bicycling has become an upscale activity for upscale people, so chances are slight that others will think you “kooky.” According to Simmon’s Market Research Bureau, the greatest concentration of adult bicyclists are college graduates who are in the professions, or in managerial positions, and who have household incomes averaging $60,000.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be rich or possess a graduate degree to take up sports bicycling. Ride a presentable, high- performance bicycle and wear a helmet, and you’ll be welcomed at any club or group ride. No one really cares how much you earn or what you do for a living. Few bicyclists belong to country clubs and the majority prefer tennis to golf. But the people you ride or tour with will very likely be representative of the educated middle and upper-middle socioeconomic classes.

Typical occupations of bicycle club and tour members are physicians and surgeons, dentists, nurses, and other health professionals and also include airline flight personnel, writers and publishers, professional people, blue-collar workers, businessmen, executives, engineers, scientists, college professors and teachers, lawyers, accountants, stockbrokers, college students, housewives, and retirees.

The majority of adult bicyclists live in metropolitan areas or in college or university towns, or in sophisticated, cosmopolitan communities. Regardless of age they tend to be flexible, independent, individualistic, innovative, high-energy, outdoor-loving, young-at- heart people with a strongly positive attitude and a nonconformist outlook. They enjoy mild adventure, they seek moderate challenges, and they don’t mind taking an occasional minor risk.

Meanwhile, sports bicycling is becoming increasingly trendy and fashionable. In the more fitness-oriented parts of America, owning a quality bike has become more of a status symbol than owning an expensive car.

Regardless where you live, or who your friends and neighbors are, once you become a dedicated sports bicyclist you are adopting a fitness lifestyle that automatically makes you a member of the burgeoning fitness culture.

Unfortunately, the majority of Americans still live outside the health and fitness culture. Millions of people blatantly ignore every recommendation by major health advisory agencies to stop smoking, to eat a low-fat diet, and to exercise. Whether you wear cycling clothes or a jogging outfit or tennis whites, all forms of exercise are alien to those in the couch potato culture. Yet the health and fitness culture continues to expand. As the baby boomers reach the 35-55 year age bracket, bicycling is becoming enormously appealing as a fun way to promote fitness and radiant health.

Whether or not all this makes bicyclists different from the rest of us is debatable. But if they are a special breed, you can easily join them.

Incidentally, although a helmet is virtually essential, you don’t need any special bicycling clothes to begin with. Later, you may choose to wear them because they are much more comfortable and practical.

• BLOCK 7. Where I live there are too many hills.

Section 3 describes how to equip your bike with the most powerful hill-climbing gears in existence, and in Section 8 you learn how to pedal briskly and without struggling, up almost any hill.

When she first took up bicycling, Ruby Curtis, a Chicago grand mother, quickly learned these techniques from members of her bicycle club. Within weeks, she told me, she became such a proficient hill climber that she deliberately sought out the hilliest rides. For one thing, she discovered that hilly rides were always more scenic. So passionately fond of hill riding did Ruby become that at age 59 she bicycled up the granddaddy of all hills — Colorado’s Mount Evans, its 14,267-foot summit accessible only by pedaling 16 miles up the world’s highest paved road.

• BLOCK 8. I can’t keep up with younger bicyclists. I’d have to ride alone.

Most older bicyclists have some difficulty keeping up with riders half their age. This is particularly apparent on some bike club rides. A group of younger riders, all on super-light road racers, will streak away in racing pack formation, leaving you feeling as though you were standing still.

Yet with the right bike and some preparation, an older rider can duplicate every other achievement of younger riders.

I myself cannot stay with the fastest riders in our local bike club. Instead I often leave 10—15 minutes ahead of the pack and we all reach the halfway stop or café at the same time. There’s no denying the pleasure of sharing an iced tea and social conversation with fellow bicyclists. So if you possibly can — and especially if you’re a lone woman — I recommend joining your nearest bicycle club. (It is usually inadvisable for women to ride alone on the open road.)

Although most clubs concentrate on short, fast-paced rides for busy people with little time, there are also easier paced rides for beginners and for members with mountain bikes. In any case most mature riders are soon able to ride longer distances than most club rides cover, albeit at a more relaxed pace. Thus most clubs appreciate your offering to lead longer but easier-paced rides. This way, you’d always have plenty of company.

Outside metropolitan areas, many organizations like the YM YWCA organize bicycling groups. Or an ad in the local weekly might turn up other like-minded individuals. However, even if you do have to bicycle alone, there are compensations. You don’t have to ride with someone weaker who could slow you down, nor do you have to push yourself to keep up with a faster rider.

Speed excepted, mature riders can often equal or surpass many of the feats of more youthful riders. Last summer, for example, when I rode to the 10,500-foot summit of Colorado’s Vail Pass Bicycle Trail, more than half of the hundred-odd riders I met appeared to be well over 40.

And age is seldom a barrier to joining a tour.

The Only REAL Barrier to Bicycling

As we’ve seen, most of the previous objections are illusions that exist only in the minds of non-bicyclists. For a more realistic appraisal, try asking an experienced bicyclist what he or she considers the biggest drawback to bicycling. It won’t be hills, headwinds, or dogs. Almost invariably, the reply will be, “Cars, trucks, and RVs.”

As you might imagine, there isn’t much fun in bicycling on a narrow highway with a continuous stream of cars, 18-wheelers, and Winnebagos roaring past your left elbow.

So before you even think about buying a quality bicycle, ask yourself: “Where can I ride it safely?”

As a rule bicycle trails, parks, and residential streets are not satisfactory places in which to pedal a lightweight bicycle at 60—90 r.p.m. or more. Most bike trails and parks are full of joggers, walkers, and slow bicyclists while residential streets have too many intersections and stop signs. A bicyclist needs to be out on the open road with ten or twenty miles of uninterrupted riding ahead.

Begin by contacting local bicycle shops and officials of any local bicycle clubs. These sources can name all safe roads that exist. You can then drive out and check them over for yourself. Another excellent source of good biking roads are the numerous guidebooks for cycling in different areas, for example, the “25 Bicycle Tours” series of Backcountry Publications and the “Short Bike Rides” series of the Globe Pequot Press — which between them cover much of the northeastern United States.

Reject any narrow highways or roads that carry more than mini mal traffic, or roads where the traffic is fast and includes many trucks and RVs. It’s been my experience that the Southeastern states have the worst roads for bicycling, especially Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Virtually every highway in south Florida appears narrow and clogged with lethal traffic.

Outside the Deep South conditions improve. Broad highways with wide paved shoulders are fairly standard in Texas, where in the scenic Hill Country hundreds of miles of paved, low-traffic backroads provide some of the finest open road bicycling in the Sunbelt. Great bicycling can also be anticipated in much of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and California and in most of the Northwest, the Northeast, and the rural Midwest. In these areas local bicyclists have usually mapped out hundreds of miles of lightly traveled roads that are safe and pleasant to bicycle.

Consider dirt roads as well as paved roads. Several hundred miles of low-traffic dirt roads may be available, even though safe paved roads are few. In this case you should consider buying only a mountain bike. Superb mountain bicycling exists throughout the Rocky Mountain states.

If necessary, be prepared to drive out with your bicycle in your car for ten or twelve miles to reach the start of a safe bicycle ride. Don’t expect to be able to start every ride from your front door.

Wherever you live, however, you absolutely must confirm the existence of safe roads, paved or unpaved, before you invest in a quality bicycle.

If there are no safe roads, then you’re out of luck. You may have to be satisfied riding on bicycle paths. If so, you can improve your fitness to some extent by riding a heavy bicycle with fat tires and pedaling in the lowest possible gear (a mountain bike is a possibility). But you will never equal the health benefits of riding a high- performance bicycle on the open road. With the possible exception just noted, it won’t be worth buying a quality bike. Better to learn this now than to lay out several hundred dollars for a late-model bicycle, only to have it rust away in the garage later on.

Assuming that you can ride safely, then let’s continue and learn how to buy a bicycle that can really move.

Next: Modern Bicycle Technology