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*SUPER SENIORS* When 'Over The Hill' means 'Nice passing you, young man'.

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Permanlink to this article: www.bikefriday.com/seniors
Bike Friday- Eugene, OR--

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Dick and Ingrid Adams, 68+, 2000 miles, Arctic conditions and wild camping. What will you and your Bike Friday do when you're 64? 74? 84?

While many people start complaining of 'getting old' and 'creaking bones' from as young as age 40, we regularly hear stories of Bike Friday owners 60, 70 and 80+ tackling challenges like the Tour de France, PBP, 2000-mile journeys to the Arctic Circle camping wild, triathlons and so on, without skipping a heartbeat. This is a collection of inspiring articles about these 'super seniors' - people like you in the not-too-distant future, if you just allow yourself to start with one small pedal stroke on a bicycle that's easy to get on, easy to get off, fits like a glove and can go wherever you go, for the rest of your pedaling days ...


Stephen Strickland

Customizing a Senior Friday
by Stephen Strickland, former BF Sales Expert

We take special care when designing a Friday for senior riders, looking at physical issues that all of us face as we age. A more upright position is more comfortable for many, although we've found that as fitness increases, so does flexibility. We're amazed when older women start with an upright Tourist then come back a year later wanting a Pocket Rocket Pro! A Bike Friday's great advantage over regular diamond frame bikes is the low stepover - ease of mounting/dismounting, which is an issue for many older riders. It's also safer if you need to jump off the bike in a hurry. A Pocket model is slightly easier to get your leg over than an Air model.

We discuss any hand issues (carpel tunnel, arthritis, etc.) to make sure we are providing the best option for brake levers and shifters. As long as balance isn't an issue (in which case a trike may be more appropriate), a well-fitting Friday can be ridden for many more years than a regular bicycle, not least for ease mounting and dismounting.

A bike that fits is a bike you will ride for the rest of your life. There is no reason why you should not be fit and freewheeling at 80 or more. Just look at Frank Pierson!


GNO Ron and Bev Lukin Cairns to Cape York 08

Pictured  right: Ron and Bev Lukin heading for the Top of Australia. "G'day we were 'tickled pink' to see our story on the Bike Friday website. We have just returned from cycling Brisbane to Cairns, just under 2,000kms, not an 'exciting ride' just another section to finish our wish to have cycled around and across Australia. Weather was great, but we didn't get off the bitumen so were able to use our suitcase trailers which travelled well and as usual caused a lot of interest. Our bikes have now clocked up nearly 40,000 km each and the suitcase trailers 13,000km each and still going strong." Bev and Ron Lukin Nowra NSW Australia

SUPER SENIOR MOVIES

Super Senior Folding Demo @ Hudson Guild Senior Center, NYC

Super Seniors on Desert Camp 2010 and every other year since 2004! Judy Norris, Bob Kenner and more ...

SUPER SENIOR STORIES

Alice Telford 80+ and a knee replacement can't stop her 

Top of Australia: No Dune too Big for Ron and Bev Lukin

Frank Pierson, 83, Huntsman World Senior Games Champ '07 He's just a 'whippersnapper'

Jeff Linder, ultracyclist at 60 something, he's not that senior, but read about his MTB and ultra cross country cycling feats against younger competitors

Arizona Desert Camp 2007 featured some incredible older riders including one who gave young HPV champ Rob English a run for his money ...

Earl Norman, 80 years young and unstoppable "Buying a new bicycle at my age makes about as much sense as a ninety year old man marrying a sixteen year old girl with an eye toward starting a family." But he went ahead and did it anyway!

 80 year young Dana van Buskirk and her Crusoe  She rocks! 

Dieter Heycke wins Gold in 2005 World Triathlon Championship, age 70-74 category

Super 77-year-old Mel Olson wrestles, bikes, sails, speaks Japanese, skis ...

71-years-young Al Gilens on Tour de Trees: We think that we shall never see, a sight so lovely as Al on his Pocket Rocket Pro!

79-year-young Patricia Daniels - riding 82 miles on her NWT, was just one of the many inspirational people at Lon Haldeman's PACTOUR/Bike Friday Desert Camp 2005.

84 Years Young on a Friday - James Fessendon, class of 1940 and his New World Tourist

70+ Air Friday Owner Margaret Day: Powerhouse leader of the Australian Bike Friday Club

68 Year Young Joan Joesting Mahoney Perimeter Bicycling World Record Holder

Cycle Oregon 2003 on a Friday: Foul weather, hills and 80 mile days did not daunt the many 60+ years young Bike Friday riders who blew younger riders away on this annual challenge

Do it with dad: Fred Waltman and his father Paul tour Germany

Herschel and Shirley: California to Kentucky, USA follow their tire tracks



AG Frank Pierson Super Senior Road Race 07

A GREAT DESIGN FOR A SENIOR ATHLETE

Cycling champ Frank Pierson talks about his Air Glide:

1. I agree with comments about ease of getting legs over bar, not only for routine convenience in mounting and dismounting, but, maybe more important, as a safety factor. During my recent Huntsman World Senior Games warmup runs prior to actual races, I had a couple of near falls when successfully jumping off the bike on the run - it kept me vertical. It would not have worked so well with escaping over a conventional bar, as I can attest from nearly killing myself only 16 months ago when taking a header over handlebars of my great old Fat Chance/IF mountain bike. My fault that time: I probably grabbed both brakes too hard in that emergency, but maybe a lower bar might have come in handy as another option for escaping even from that kind of dumb mistake.

2. I don't know enough about physics and such to be certain of this, but my impression is that the smaller wheels, or something in the BF wheels/gears arrangement, makes hill climbing a little easier. My feet never touched ground in any of the Huntsman cycling races which included some tough hills, but I noticed a few among the total of 320 cyclers in all age categories walking the steeper sections ...


NWT Earl Norman Alabama

Earl Norman, 83 years young (as at 2010) at Crazyguyonabike.com

I've had my BikeFriday for a little over 5 years, and as of now, it has 17,000 miles on it, and it has served me relatively well. I am 83 years old, and one thing I like about it is that it is a folding bicycle and that it is relatively easy to mount, and at my age, it is getting harder each year to swing my leg over a regular touring bicycle with heavily loaded panniers. The bicycle fits me perfectly and I am very comfortable riding it.


NWT Wintergreen 07

JUST LURVE THAT LOW STEPOVER!

Thanks to New World Tourist owner Wintergreen for sending along this uplifting (but not too high) snippet.

Introducing BF to a female super sixty!

I knew this woman had broken her pelvis last year, falling off her bike onto the bar. The break was quite major which put her in bed for many weeks, on crutches for more. As of this year, she has been afraid to get back on her bike. Took my trusted NWT up to her house, adjusted the seat lower and suggested she take a spin for 10 minutes or so. I'm afraid if I open my mouth with a BF evangelistic approach that people will expect less from the bike and not believe it actually lives up to my raves. She came back and I asked her some questions:

1) Knowing that this was the first time for you to be on any bike in over a year and storing fear about falling onto a bar again, how did riding this bike impact that fear?

'I never thought about it.'

Now that's a pretty strong statement. From the moment she got on the bike, she never thought about the bar which meant her 'fear' never peeked it's ugly head.

2) What did you like about the bike?

'It turned really easily. I could wear a skirt to work on the bike. I had to come off the bike really quickly because a car turned in front of me and I never thought about how to do it. When I stopped at intersections and had to straddle the bike, it felt stable and easy to get back on. It's a light bike and easy to maneuvre. It could change my life because I've been thinking about how to use my car less'.

That just about says it really. Hopefully she'll come in (sent in a card today) and take a ride and think it through.

Wintergreen, trustee Common Knowledge Trust producing: The Pink Kit Method For Birthing Better®

Wiintergreen's trip to Holland on a New World Tourist (pictured)

wintergreen@birthingbetter.com
www.commonknowledgetrust.com
www.birthingbetter.com
www.thepinkkit.com
http://thepinkkitforpositivebirth.blogspot.com



RELATED LINKS

Three Reasons to Love Bike Friday Former NYT journalist and avid cyclist Grace Lichtenstein writes a column for the over-55's on the go

Beyond50 interviews BF Superwomen: Bev Anderson and Janet Fogel talk about the good life on a Friday