Originally Posted by
delbiker1
I am 67 and thought I had been accepting getting older with grace. However, the past one and a half years I have really noticed a decline in my visual perception, balance, reflexes, coordination, dexterity and mental acuity; especially memory. I am ok with the aches and pains and I know that I am very fortunate to still be in pretty good health., but some of the above mentioned issues really get to me. I have depended on exceptional coordination and reflexes, and dexterity, and have found it very difficult to accept the degradation of them, even more so than the mental degradation. I just hope that I will get to where I can be OK with it and keep moving through life's stages.
I'm 73 and ditto to all of the above, so thanks for summarizing what I'm pretty sure all of us are experiencing. To that I'd add general loss of strength and endurance, but I'm sure most of us are still in the top 10% of our age group.
Some of this was brought home to me the other day when I happened to take my hybrid-style bike onto a section of single-track to take a look at something. I'm not an MTBer and am not familiar with how to handle typical MTB-specific challenges, but I was surprised how shaky I was on one particular place that required threading a narrow off-camber line and going up a short slope with exposed tree roots. I made it, but wouldn't want to repeat the experience. Contrast this with my younger self who used to rip through the woods on a 250cc Husqvarna enduro bike, jumping logs, going off jumps, etc. at speed and not thinking anything of it!
By the way, age-related degradation of my skills is one reason why I gave up riding motorcycles 10 years ago and have not looked back.