How was your Cycling 2023?
 

How was your 2023?

My hits:
I finally pulled together a steel bike I really like to ride. Up until now, my steel bike success was judged by "does it work?".

I rode the GFNY fondo with my best bud.

Misses:
Did not learn how to ride a wheelie. On the list for 2024.

Did not persuade an affluent friend to ditch his BikesDirect POS and buy a decent bike. No kids, fancy cars, a fully kitted out MCM hilltop mansion overlooking the Hudson River, but $399 is his absolute maximum bike expenditure. *deep sigh*

In retrospect, it was great!

Rode a week long tour with friends and relatives. Got a bunch of centuries in too. Pushed myself but also had some easy coffee shop rides. Got some new carbon wheels and rode some 40 year old bikes.

But it looks like I will miss my yearly goal unless Ohio turns tropical the next few weeks.

I had some pretty lofty goals that were looking good but I was having problems with a new Canyon which I eventually sent back to them. I wasn't able to replace it for 5 months so all I had was my fitness bike. I enjoy the fitness bike but it's not built for serious training (no power meter) and longer rides. So, for a large part of the summer I was only doing about 40 miles a week. I was pretty bummed since my training had started out quite strong and was going good until the bike problems. 2024 is going to Kick A$$.

so far so good..hope there is still some riding left. Got back into riding July 2022 after about 30 years off. Bought an XOXO (XO1 copy clone) and got hooked again. from Jan 1st I have over 7000 miles and several centuries would have been close to 8000 miles but developed a really bad saddle sore in Sept that kept off for almost a month during prime ride and yesterday in 32° or below put on 70miles with my neighbor who is also 65 and just getting back into it, good to have a like minded neighbor. Bought a Canyon CF8 endurace end of July this year and have put 3000 miles on it so far and did a solo 100 miler at just under 19mph...I figure next year if I quit smoking a pack a day and cut down my beer consumption to under 4 beers a day I should maybe improve..I do enjoy my beer tho. I tried chewing but riding and having to spit and drink just didn't work for me all that well. Winter is setting in so my trust rollers will get a work out again...

I'm going to be short of my distance goal (5000mi), but I knew that was going to be a stretch to hit with my usual weekly riding schedule. Based on my continually improving PR on a local climb that I do frequently, it seems my fitness is marginally better than a year ago for threshold efforts. My peak power was probably better a year ago, however.

While I still really enjoy fast group road rides, and riding my MTB, I'm finding that my favorite steed is my gravel bike. I'm not ever going to return to the road/crit racing I did 20 years ago, but I'm REALLY enjoying doing gravel races/events. It's a very different kind of fitness and suffering that my previous racing, and it's a good fit for me right now. I did 2 significant gravel events this year, including the legendary Belgian Waffle Ride (80mi version). That was my longest day ever on a bike (6hrs of ride time). It was hard, but it was awesome, and I will be doing it again next year, along with at least 3 other significant races/events.

52.7 miles to go until I hit my modest goal of 2023 miles.

The year could have been a little better. Had a bad crash in June. I'm still recovering from that. Only got to bike camp one weekend.

I did five cx races and one gravel race.

I'm pleased overall.

A modest bike year for me (a big DIY house project) but - I rode the final week long Cycle Oregon on a dialed in and perfect early '80s race bike. Sewups. Only concession to my 70 years - a triple. (Campy race 52-42-30) And a 26 tooth FW. Fun! And what a ride! A reminder that they've been making really sweet riding bikes a long, long time. And the Japanese race bikes of those years were as good as small tubed steel ever got. Downhil handling on sketchy roads? Sweet! And on that on a 110 psi 23c rear tire. Went plush in front. A 98 psi 25c fit there. And despite my body's rather few miles, it came through quite nicely.

I'm fully into tubulars now for all my good bikes. Still have my clincher wheels but haven't ridden one in 18 months. I've got spare tires and rims so I should be good for a while. (My two workhorses will stay with Paselas. Great do-everything tires.)

The big news here is that I am backing off riding and concentrating on walking. Going for stronger bones and better ankle, etc. strength to better support this body into older age. I've known a long time that just riding was costing me bone density and this would come to haunt me if I don't change. So I am doing my best to embrace this new life. There's a hill just around the corner that is too steep and too close to ride up stone cold but is perfect to walk up. Wearing a backpack with weights in it, I can get my HR and breath sky high.

Spent most of 2023 trying to get heart issues diagnosed and then fixed, still working on that last. Was finally able to start riding a few weeks ago and that's going well, better every week, but still a long way to go before I'll be strong enough to ride all of my hilly local routes on the tandem. I was essentially off the bike for a year, so this is to be expected at my age. I have what I hope to be my last heart procedure at the end of December. Things should get even better after that, 98% chance of survival. Looking forward to '24.

It was sketchy. We had a lot of rain and it's usually windy at my house. I never got into a proper rhythm.

How was 2023? I'll let you know, it's not over yet.

It’s the worst year I’ve had riding since 2006. It’s got to be better next year, it can’t get worse. I hope it doesn’t anyway.

Just turned 66. Been a serious cyclist since I was 12-13 years old. Due to nutrition changes early in 2023, my fitness and health levels are probably as good as when I was in my 30s so it's been a very, very good year. I don't keep track of miles. I ride at least 5 days a week, year round - rarely much more than 2-3 hours per ride at 20mph+ average (I usually get bored after that). Mostly road riding. Lately, lots of gravel riding. Kayaking and strength training on the non-bike days. I've got a solo gravel ride through the Everglades planned and hope to get that in before the end of 2023.

Biggest problem right now is figuring out how much recovery time I need between rides. Am I doing more harm than good by riding too frequently? I just go by how I feel, but that may not be a good indicator.

Despite having a couple of issues that limited my riding for a few months, It as been good. Highlights: I hit 6000 miles for the 3rd time, and ended my 10 year challenge, age 61 to 71, with 52,250 miles. I have slowed considerably and rarely do rides of more than 40 miles.
All my bikes now have riser type stems and handlebars with very shallow drop and shorter reach. And, I have managed to somewhat reduce my on hand, not going to, use bike stuff.

I didn’t get to ride as much as I wanted. I got my Moulton together, and it’s a lovely bike to ride, but 2023 was a busy travel year. I spent a week in Okinawa, then another week in Aomori, yet another week on Miyako Island, a week in Atami, 2 weeks in New Mexico, 2 more weeks in NYC, and probably one or two other places which I don’t recall.

In 2024 I hope to do more riding, or at least bring a bike with me when I have to travel.

I had a few things I wanted to do. One of them was ride one of my old steel bikes in one of the shorter Tulsa Tough fondos but something got in the way. So many things got in the way this year I don't even know what it was. Another thing I wanted to do was get some more rides in on Fridays. My new job gives me every other Friday off but those plans didn't materialize due to other things that came up I couldn't control. I also broke my wrist in June and I am just now able to shift the front STI with my left hand (thankfully I have a couple of older bikes with down-tube shifters. Next year I expect not much improvement as my wife was diagnosed three weeks ago with a serious health issue, and while we are confident it will be treatable, she will need me more than I will need a bike ride.

It has been a pretty good year of MTB riding. Nice trails, good health, and lots of wildlife sightings. My mileage isn't very impressive, but at 72 I may not get back to really high mileage years. I'll probably finish up at something around 2000 miles pretty much all of it on the mountain bike an the only pavement was getting to and from trails in the neighborhood. Maybe I should make it a point to hit 2023 miles if I don't already exceed that by the end of the year.

I used to shoot for 10,000 miles per year most years, and just maybe could get back to that, but it doesn't seem too likely especially if I am riding trails.

Different but good! In recent years, most of my exercise was cycling. Now it’s just a part of the rotation with running and strength training. And I do a walk most days.

I got a Cambium C17 saddle for the MTB that is working well and much better than the Volt.

With winter approaching I just taped over the toes of my (mesh upper) cycling shoes to help keep out the wind. Black duct tape on black shoes, how elegant.

This is the time of year I bike less and do more running, at an indoor track if necessary. I’m going to be training for better 10K time over the winter.

I will still be riding the SS MTB when it’s at least 40F and no ice on the trail. That helps keep some cycling muscle tone until spring.

Otto

Mostly related to my retirement at the end of 2022. Now I can ride the local MUP weekdays and its amazingly uncrowded and quiet during that timeframe. There are some utilities along the MUP so service crews can be active, but they cone things off and its easy to get around their temp worksites. Its so nice that almost half my riding is on it even though its just a flat asphalt trail on the top of a river levee. I'm not doing multiple centuries or extensive bike tours, but its just enjoyable to get out and do 20 - 40 miles with minimal interruption or traffic conflicts. And I don't have the annoyance of job responsibilities.

Hip replacement in June, but cycling on my single speed set up on a trainer after the first week. I stayed off the road for five additional fearing a crash, but back to 20-30 miles every other day after that. Did the Katy Trail in September. Now, as winter has set here in Montana I don't ride much. Skiing begins soon, both x-country and downhill. So, I did have a good year after the surgery.

Had a very good year. Have my primary bike completely sorted so it’s very comfortable. No flats, which is a very good thing. Santa brought me a power meter early so I can watch my watts go down year after year ;) Hit my annual mileage goal a month early (5,000) so now I can put in a few bonus miles. And (not to rub it in too badly) we had an awesome summer in the PNW with ideal temps and very little smoke, so really enjoyed riding time. Today it’s 39* with a projected high of 45* and so it goes….

2023 so far has been a very good year. I'm on track to ride the most miles in a year, 9238 so far. I rode several events. Road bike only but thinking about a MTB for next year. I bought another bike mid year, Canyon Endurace CF7. My fleet increased to 3. Added subscribers to my YT channel.

A pretty average year for me. I did a few local century rides and the highlight was a 200 km event on some nice rolling South Oxfordshire roads with a few challenging climbs.

We are still on remote work so I am riding much less than I used to. However, I'm enjoying short rides to cafes for lunch as well as shopping. I do miss the sunrises over the Potomac River.

Not too great here. 792 miles unless things come together and I can work in a couple more rides. Even at geezer status I'd been getting ~4K per year for a while now.
Health problems since around February, and a pretty brutal Tx summer set me back quite a bit. Then Chemotherapy sessions once the weather turned decent this fall naturally. It takes a week of recovery from those to even feel like riding. Or anything else for that matter.

Impressive stats in this thread. Best of luck and keep up the good work.

Good, thank you.