Discovering cycling in your 40s

I rediscovered cycling when I was 43, previously I'd cycled up until I was about 18 and had my bike nicked from college. Brief return in my thirties lasted for a couple of months until that bike got nicked too.

I guess the obvious thing is that I wished I'd known quite how expensive it would all be, and how addictive it is. I also wish I could have gone back to my 30yo self and told me to start cycling back then, as it's completely changed my life. Prior to cycling I was hugely unfit and huge - around 22st. Struggled to climb a flight of stairs. Now I've done Ride London, think nothing of riding for 2-3 hours (family permitting), and have dropped around 4st. Mentally and physically fitter for it.

Another piece of advice? A bike is a bike is a bike. Try not to go chasing the latest trend, or think that you need to change a perfectly good bike so you can have disc brakes, or internal routing, or Di2, or gravel, or slack geo, or full suss, or carbon, or titanium, or steel. What's most important in all of that is whether the bike fits you, and whether you can happily ride it for hours at a time. You don't necessarily need a bike fit but having a good relationship with your LBS will definitely help here. It will save you money, because you won't disappear down rabbit holes chasing bikes which end up not being suitable or comfortable. Chances are, there will be experienced cyclists of your age running the business, and they'll be able to offer practical advice on position, comfort, and efficiency. 

Finally, even if you're not particularly good at DIY, learn to fettle your bike. Most stuff is easy to do with the right tools, there is so much advice available for free on YouTube etc now. Just about the only things I won't (yet) DIY are knocking in headset cups and cutting steerers. Everything else you can learn, and it's really satisfying getting a drivetrain shifting perfectly. Bikes are the new cars in that regard, as there's so little on a modern motor that a home mechanic can fix compared to the cars you likely grew up with.

I rediscovered cycling at the age of 53, when I got a job so close to home that I was able to cycle commute. It was (and still is) only two and a half miles each way, but enough to get the bug.

I started out with the typical attitude of "I don't need to wear lycra" and soon found out that riding in office clothes is an excellent way of:
a) ruining said clothes in short order and:
b) feeling REALLY uncomfortable
I got some cheap Dhb cycling kit for commuting and the experience was transformed.

A road rage incident dented my confidence a bit and I now don't ride without a camera but most drivers are actually OK. It's just that the minority of twats has a disproportionate effect.

I bought a mid-range road bike in 2017 but never used it much until last year, when commuting stopped and I still wanted to ride. I started doing local loops for physical and mental health and really enjoyed it. I loved the efficiency of the road bike and how you could just go on for miles.

My recommendations would be:

Get at least a half-decent bike. The experience will be better.

Wear cycling-specific clothing. You'll be way more comfortable.

Do at least some of your own maintenance. Unlike cars, bikes are at the human scale and there's something deeply satisfying about bike fettling.

I started cycling again at 47, 10 years ago, at the instigation of a mate I used to go mountain walking with. I'd cycled only with my kids a very few miles in preceding years since in was 12. So, one year I spent 4 weeks in the Pyrenees going out with Frank on an old hybrid every other day, mostly road but some rough tracks. The bike was wrecked but I had just got started, it turns out. Retrospectively I owe him for that.

Advice. Hmm:
1) It never gets easier, you just get faster (a wise TdF champ said), and there will always be someone faster than you so don't get down about that kind of thing, if you're competitive.

2) Join a club and learn to ride in a group (if you're a road cyclist - I can't give advice on other disciplines). Plus you will have a ready source of advice on mechanical stuff, bikes, events of various kinds, and hopefully, it'll be fun which is the #1 reason you'll keep doing it over the years

3) Decide what your reasons are for cycling and tailor your activity to that. Early on, I did it for fitness and to keep weight under control, so long slow distance. I still do but I've come to love the buzz of a fast group ride and a cafe social. Sportives are fun, TTs were until I fell off and broke bones (gave that up) and audaxes are good fun too.

4) Don't worry about the kit too much, it's mostly about the legs. But a decent entry level 2nd hand alu road bike for £700-800 will last you forever - it'll become your winter knockabout if you upgrade (see also "n+1") and it's a sweet spot for price IMO. Also, decent padded shorts are a must so find a brand and price you like. As you get fitter and probably change shape a bit, that may change (did for me - lost nearly 2 stone in 10 years, slowly)

5) Find a mechanic or LBS you trust. They will guide you through the pitfalls if they are any good.

6) Make cycling a habit and it'll become second nature and fun. Try not to get too obsessed with it, Strava segments and all! We're not pros so let's enjoy it for what it is.

Phew...

Now 53, I took up cycle-commuting at the 2nd attempt about 5 years ago.
The first attempt involved buying a Gary Fisher hybird on the advice of a neighbour who knew about modern bikes (apparently Raliegh and Dawes are no longer good brands). I lvoed that bike for the 3 weeks I owned it before it got stolen.
Attempt 2 involved a £60 SH Trek, replaced a couple of years later after I completely wore out the drivechain.
Attempt 3 was a Cube from Evans Cycles. It was a great bike for 5 weeks until Evans gacve it a "free service" and wrecked it.
Attempt 4 (still going) was a BMC (also from Evan who agreed to take the Cube back in exchange for something else. It's now just over 2 years old and about to go to a proper bike shop to see if they can fix all the problems Evans' incompetence caused with this one.

1. Buy a bike from a proper LBS (not a chain), get it serviced regularly (by a proper LBS or mechanic, not a chain).

2. Modern bikes aren't built like my last bike (an Elswick steel framed tourer bought new in 1980). They're nothing like as tough. Though they do have some advantages, like brakes that work when it's raining (does anyone else still have nightmares about steel wheels and rim brakes in the wet?) and not weghing as much as a horse.

3. If you come off, it's going to hurt a lot more than it did when you were a teenager, and it'll dent your confidence in a way it didn't back then.

4. Buy a chain checker. It's much, much cheaper than wearing out the entire drive chain because you don't know about chain stretch.

5. The Cycle to Work Scheme is a stupid idea that helps middle-aged, middle-class men who don't need a subsidy get a subsidy to buy a shiny new bike. If you're a middle-aged, middle-class man you should use it. If you're on or near minimum wage; tough, it's a scheme for higher rate tax-payers not plebs.
(It would be much simpler to offer everyone, regardless of income a discount of about 20% on a new bike by making them zero VAT rated)

I cycled as a child, even cycled a paper route as a teenager (about 2.5 miles, delivering ~50 papers,) and occasionally cycled to college classes, probably under a mile. After that, I used the bike very rarely, but still I did use it for utility, sometimes taking it shopping with kids in the trailer, to shops within a mile or so from my house.

When I restarted cycling, back in 2013, I was 42. I had been doing a lot of walking, and thought, the bike would be faster, and just maybe I could ride to my judo class. It was up a steep hil, but I thought it might be doable.

It was, of course. The distance, that I'd previously been driving: 2.8 miles each way.

Eventually, I built up to regularly commuting to work by bike, over nine miles each way. Now I do it nearly daily.

The biggest thing I wish I'd realized earlier is how easy and fast it can become. I'd hear some guys I knew talking at the pub on Fridays about a planned 20 or 25 mile ride on Saturday, and I just didn't think that was something I'd be able to do. Now I know that's well under two hours, and I don't even need padded shorts for it.

I've never been overweight, but I'm definitely at my fittest ever right now, and turn 50 next month.

I got back into mountain biking at age 42 after a 15 year gap as I couldn't run any more due to arthritic knees (20 odd years of football) and thinking I was still 27 I broke my clavicle on a jump along with a nice bit of concussion and lost a bit of confidence. A mate suggested I join him in his road cycling club but I couldn't see myself in lycra but succumbed and treated myself to a Ridley Damocles and some bib shorts. I didn't know much about road bikes and technical stuff but by joining a club I started to pick up (changing my 11-23 rear cassette shortly after - not good on Dartmoor for a 15 stone bloke).  I actually hated my first two rides and then something clicked and I 'got it' soon to become obsessed. My goal was then to complete the Dartmoor Classic Medio which I did - felt like a sense of achievement. 

Seven years later I have become stronger, faster (but alas not lighter) and more experienced. I run our club, do most of my own servicing and have cycled in a few places abroad. There is nothing better for me than a hot sunny ride in somewhere like Girona or Mallorca.  Those are some of my highlights along with following the Tour through Brittany and riding in the French Alps, including getting up a snowy Alpe d'Huez.  My biggest achievement was breaking 4:45 in the Wales Velothon and completing all four Dartmoor climbs (in Simon Warren's Top 100) by 10am on a Saturday morning.

I wish I'd known how much fun and how testing road cycling was when younger so I could have tried racing and having been in the Royal Navy for a full career could have cycled in some amazing places - that is my biggest regret.  

My advice is not to scrimp on kit - for you or the bike. Buy good quality tyres, bib shorts, shoes, jacket and helmet etc.  Also try and ride in different places. I am looking forward to getting around the UK again and when the pandemic allows to hopefully ride overseas in the sun again.

I started riding at the age of 49. I needed to lose weight and was too fat to go running, so decided to ride to work one day - 16 miles each way, it took me 90 minutes at first and I was so tired I had to walk on a local incline (half a mile at 2.5%).

After 6 months I bought a 'proper' bike and joined a local club. What a revelation. Suddenly I was discovering roads I'd never known existed, my fitness improved in leaps and the weight dropped away. And as my wife put it, I'd found my tribe.

Local clubs are a font of advice and encouragement, I can't recommend them highly enough to new riders. When the sky is grey and there's the prospect of a lie in, it can be hard to motivate yourself, but a committment to join the crew for a ride helps to keep the motivation going.

After 7 years of riding I know I'll never be a mountain goat, but these days I love to spend my days in the hills (or mountains if we're ever allowed to travel again) and the high point of my cycling life was making it up Hardknott Pass. If this fat old bloke can do it then almost anyone can!

I tried to restart after almost 20 years (and more like 30 since I'd ridden frequently). Lessons:

- give yourself permission to enjoy new kit if you can afford to: old bike was still quite nice to ride but a new one will be ridden more often (psychology, innit?).

- old shorts less nice to ride in.

- 18mm tyres went out of fashion for a reason.

- finding a good group or club really helps and it's not as intimidating as you might think in the slow group.

- cycling may take over your free time / shed / pocket money but the physical and mental health benefits are priceless.

Restart 2 was successful, but it enormously helped to have a friend lend me a modern bike - really an eye-opening experience. He then got me to go round the bike shops, and a new bike (happy 50th to me, love from me) really kick started the process.

What I wish I'd known when I started?  That cycling on the road is really not that scary!

When I finally decided to try cycle commuting, after years of driving and/or bus-riding, I borrowed an old MTB off my boss and just did the journey a couple of times.  Bear in mind I hadn't ridden a bike since my late teens.

Then one evening I walked into the LBS that I walked past every evening on my way to the bus station, walked up to the counter and said, "I'd like to buy a bike, please!".

That was the summer of 2011, and I was 40.  The bike, a Mongoose hybrid, was the first bike I'd owned since I was about ten years old; it is still going (OK, it has got a bit of the Ship of Theseus going on...) and is my 'daily rider' (you know, the bike that you know so well how it will behave that you don't have to even think about it).

Never looked back

(oh, and: still don't own a road bike...).

I'd been riding my MTB for ages, but it wasn't until my mid 40s that I got myself a nice road bike (Cannondale Synapse) and started to get into road cycling and going for longer rides rather than just getting around town. 

I wish I'd discovered bib shorts/tights earlier as they're so much more comfortable than non bib ones and you don't get a cold gap if your top rides up a bit.

Wish I had known earlier about value of investing in good quality equipment. Makes the hobby more fun, less hassle, and eases your path to getting fitter.

But that requires investing time to get educated on the equipment and what's worth it vs what's overkill or a ripoff.

Also getting proper training in bike maintenance and adjustment is of huge value. Wish I knew that earlier.