Retro Grouch 

You got it backwards, Allegheny. The Flomax cuts down on the need for frequent pissing.

Allegheny Jet

I believe to win a pissing contest that sustained volume is necessary in order to reach maximum height or distance. Preventing frequent short sprints and increasing duration/volume would be the proper training technique. For some, to maximize their results, that requires doping.

europa

pffft, which explains why us Aussies keep whoppin' your arses in competition, you just don't notice it coz you've got the numbers to get a few more bods across the line. Remember, we've got Stuey, Cadell and Robbie, all you've got is that Lance bloke (and Flandis but you're allowed to disown him).

Seriously though (and not disregarding your own history in cycling which gives you plenty to be proud of), I read about a year ago that Oz was rated the fourth country in the world in cycling, which sort of surprised me considering our size. Then I started looking at the blokes doing well in cycling, then the number of aussies managing pro teams or heavily involved, and I looked backwards to their roots and in most cases, it led back to the Institute of Sport here in Adelaide under the auspices of a bloke who's name I forget for the moment, but who was loved by his riders but eventually displaced by the hierachy.

It just goes to show that one man in the right place at the right time can make a difference and the ripples can carry on to later generations.

Besides, in a pissing contest, the ONLY thing that counts is which drip goes highest, preferably out of the dunny window (I managed that once, in grade 5, sadly, no teacher was passing at the time).

Richard

Bob Ross

I've only been visiting the Fifty + sub-forum for two weeks (I turned 50 on the 12th) but it was and is immediately obvious that things are more civil here than elsewhere on BF ...possibly almost to a fault. I'm not saying that puerile bickering & trolling is better than civil & polite, but sometimes the civility here appears so feel-good/group-huggy that it comes across as practically naive. Not naive as in "ignorant" but naive as in the opposite of "worldly". Which is weird, 'cuz you'd figure older folks would be more worldly than the chilluns.

It's really just the tone. Yeah, I guess it is kinda sedate. But again, I'm new here, so that observation is based on a pretty small sample of only recent posts.

XR2

The traitor speaks!!!!!!!!!!!! I live in the mountains and all the bridge are taken. A cave it is for moi.

Retro Grouch 

Now you see, it's back to that chocolate and vanilla thing. If you feel the civility here is excessive, you can always go back. What some of us object to is efforts by a few individuals to change us into something else.

It's kind of like the suburbs. People move into the suburbs to get away from the city - then they spend the rest of their lives trying to make the suburbs more like the city.

bjjoondo 

It takes "too Much" energy to get all riled up here, if I do that, I won't make it up the HILLS when I ride! If that's not good enough, then well, just "BITE ME"! Did that make your temp rise, blood boil, then see, we are all cured! Have a most excellent day!

JanMM

There is no benefit to peeing without engaging in proper pee-training technique.
And it's plain ignorant to believe otherwise.

berner

I enjoy a bit of spice to liven up a conversation or a meal. Friendly banter is good even with a slight edge. I enjoyed europa's post earlier. In fact the perspective from an international community is welcome and valuable. The need by some posters to belittle others is very objectionable to me. I don't want people like that in my neighborhood which includes nearby planets.

jdon

Forums always reach an equalibrium. This one is no different. Every once in a while, the planets get out of alignment or an individual stirs up the pot but it always returns to the point of equalibrium. I don't mind the strong expression of opinion but I also draw the line at wilfully harming others.

miss kenton

Bob,
When you have been around here long enough, you will find we are, indeed worldly:

worldly adj. Of, relating to, or devoted to the temporal world. Experienced in human affairs; sophisticated or worldly-wise...

Some of us have experienced all the "worldly" we'd like: battles with cancer or other illnesses, sick loved ones, loss of parents, failed marriages, paying for college tuitions, or lost jobs as victims of a bad economy. If you added up the total years of our combined worldliness..Oh Boy,let's not! Some of us may come here to vent, some to get away from it for a short time, but there seems always to be compassion here as others have gone through the same "temporal experiences."

I come here for cycling info and advice, to share and read stories of bicycling adventures that my offline peeps don't really appreciate. Many of the 50+ members are quite funny so I usually get a laugh or two.

I think many of us avoid the more "aggressive" threads, not because we don't think there is a place for them here, but because we are worldly enough to know that most stuff people argue over, isn't important enough to argue over.

As for me, I don't come here to argue; if I'm lookin for a skirmish, all I have to do is answer my husband when he says, "And what is THAT supposed to mean?!?"

AzTallRider

Research from your sports institute is used the world over. When I had a metabolic test done, the tester said the underlying research and methodology, including how the heart rate zones were calculated, were done down there. All that, and you have Queensland, one of my favorite places in the world.

AzTallRider

And if you answered that, sufficiently for him to actually understand, you'd be immediately banished from female society!

berner

Miss Kenton, you are a wise woman with much wisdom to offer. This sort of offering makes some of the nonsense tolerable.

miss kenton

Ah! There's the rub!

miss kenton

Why, thank you! I'm flattered.
Perhaps it is the more genteel 50+s that are misunderstood, and not the upstarts, yes?

The Weak Link

All the men around here suck up to Miss Kenton.

miss kenton

WL, You never do! I've been keeping track.

StephenH

I note that the original question assumes that this forum consists of 50+ individuals and apparently assumes that the other forums do not. That is an erroneous assumption right off the bat. You don't sign up on this site and pick the one and only one forum that you're allowed to visit. There's old roadies, old recumbiers, old cyclotourists, old vintage bike enthusiasts, old randonnneurs, whatever. I dare say that in some of the forums, the average age is probably over 50. Pcad was in here stirring the pot, but he's one of us. "We have met the enemy and they is us" as Pogo declared.

In any forum, as in real life, people tend to follow what's already being done. If you walk into a room full of people and everyone is hooting and hollering, after a while, you're liable to do the same, at least if you want to be heard. If you walk into a roof full of people, say "Howdy", and everyone turns around and shhhhs you, then after a while, you'll be mum like them. That doesn't mean one way or the other is the right way. A library is sedate, and so is a cemetery, but that doesn't make for good entertainment. And then I've been to restaurants that were so noisy I couldn't hardly hear, and that's not good, either.

What exactly should this forum be like? I don't know that there's an answer for that. I'd like to think that it's a place where over-50 people feel welcome, and not where we take turns hollering "Get off my lawn!" at any outsider that dares intrude. That is an easy trap to fall into- I'm reminded of the Dad in Mary Poppins who shouts "I'm in a perfectly equitable mood and do NOT need to be made to feel better!" when in fact he's in a very crabby mood.

Let me finish with a photography story. I used to do lots of photography, for fun. So one time, I went down to DFW National Cemetery. I've seen lots of photos from Arlington National Cemetery and similar places, and thought it might be good for some different shots. So I got out my camera, set up my tripod, and just about then, one of the groundskeepers came over and informed me that photography was not allowed in the cemetery. Really? I looked on their official rules, and didn't see that anywhere. (I did find that anything that might be construed as fun, such as cycling, was prohibited, seeing as how the ground is Hallowed.) I asked the volunteer at the information center about that, and she said she had never heard such a thing, that people took pictures there all the time. Hmmph. So I got in my car and left.

Well, speaking of hallowed ground, right down the road from there was Dallas Baptist College. I saw a neat building, circled through, and saw some neat flowers. So I hopped out with my camera, set up the tripod. Just about then, a security guard came by. "Uh oh", I thought, "He's going to run me off like that other fellow." But no, the guy asked about why I was there, and then told me I could take all the pictures I wanted, no problem.

The moral is that those two different institutions were both "sedate", but one was sedate in a stifling my-way-or-the-highway approach, and the other was sedate in a laid-back seen-it-before-we'll-see-it-again kind of way, and that made a world of difference to my impression of the two places. I'd like to think the over-50's forum was sedate in a laid-back kind of way, not in a stern-librarian-won't-let-us-have-any-fun way.

miss kenton

Watch it with the librarian stereo-types, Bucko, or you'll see the dark side of 50+!

billydonn

And it is wise to lay off making any cracks about engineers too!

Neil_B

Yes, just like the Clydes do for the Athena of the week. :-)

jdon

Speak for yourself TWL.

The Weak Link

Touche.

miss kenton

Oh come now, jdon, you know I occupy a tiny-teeny part in the back of your teeny-tiny Cro-Magnon brain. Stop kidding yourself.