Trying Bicycling Again as Empty Nesters
 

We were both avid bicycle riders as kids. We loved our 10 speeds and went everywhere. Then cars as teenagers and college students. When our kids were born, we rented bicycles and the trailer in the mountains, then we bought the trailer at home, and took them on rides.
Then came the kids' school activities, soccer, baseball, basketball, and band. Now, our kids are off to college, and we are looking for a sport to support our active lifestyle.

We want to ride and try a club, but need to build up to the pace of even the novice clubs . (Average of 14-15 mph for 2 hours)
We bought new Schwinn Circuit bikes yesterday and rode 7 miles in about 70 minutes. (10 mph pace). It was very hot as well, and we stopped for water several times.
I just ordered the Cloud9 seats, I hope they work on the Schwinn Circuit.

We also picked up a Trek 820 Used, and need to get new tires and tubes put on it. It seems like everyone is a month out on service, so I may just do it myself.

If we get serious about it, we want to buy Trek Domane or Specialized, something like that, but we want to be sure we're serious about it first. Road/racing bikes are expensive!

Welcome. Clubs are great to meet new people, motivate to ride and see new areas, and just more fun. Glad you found us.

Welcome to Bike Forums.

We have walked a similar path. Our togetherness bike rides picked up dramatically once the kids left to college.

As said, club rides are very useful. It gets old over time, same routes, people, issues; but it still is a great way to build confidence, knowledge and bike fitness with some structure and social time.

Don't rush to buy stuff, your tastes are likely to change. My spouse is on her third bike, me...well, I don't want to talk about it. Buying neglected bikes and building them up into 'gems', imho, has been a fun hobby and my kids & their spouses are now riding bikes I've built. :) Maybe I'll be building up bikes for grandkids someday.

Finding Used Bikes
 

I like your “don’t rush into stuff”. One thing about buying used is that I feel more confident to “change things”. I just put new tires on the Trek yesterday myself and have Cloud 9 seats on order for the Schwinns. I may get one more Cloud 9 seat for my son’s bike. My wife made the same comment that 2 less expensive new bikes and 2 good quality used bikes might be the right formula as we could ride with our children and their gf’s. And we’ll try the club ride and see if that’s really for us.

Nice to see you back on the bikes. Looks like you're doing great getting back into it!

Welcome to the forums! :)

Empty Nest. . . !Yeah!
 

Hey,

Welcome to the Forum. . . as a fellow empty nester, now retired, all I can add is:

!!!YEAH!!!

Have fun, enjoy your lives, ride hard and ride safe.

J.

Welcome. We’re empty nesters, too, and have been ramping our riding back up. We’ve enjoyed signing up for biking events in our area that have moderate or easy route options. They give us goals for getting out on the bike and getting ready. We’ve been tandeming and have surprised ourselves what we’ve been able to do. Good luck and have fun!

Welcome to the Bike Forums! :)