rydabent

Anymore with bikes that can have 36 plus gears, and have riders that have cadence meters on their cranks, horsepower reading, pulse rate, GPS readouts and of course speedometers, does anyone just ride for the fun of it?

I really dont care to be involved in all that information. Further I really dont care what anyone thinks about what I ride, where I ride, and how fast I ride. I just ride for the exercise, joy, and the fun of it. How many here do the same?

Zinger

I have a taped-patched folded map that I carry in a plastic bag for directions. Lately I've been riding with a wristwatch but just looking at the sun will get me home before dark more reliably as the seasons change. I guess I can monitor my cadence with the wrist watch but I never do. I pretty much guess my cadence is relatively fast and always has been. The watch comes in handy for intervals but I'm too lazy to do them very often anymore. Now how did I ever get along w/o the wristwatch for decades, lol. I'm thinking about leaving it home again.

No cellphone. No 'puter. A cadence meter of some sort might come in handy for the newbie solo cyclist at first though. Some newbies will find their cadence is a little slow for keeping up with the Jones'es.

My estimate speedometer so I don't break the 15mph speed limit too often on the more inhabited parts of my local MUP. At the bottom of the page:

https://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

JanMM

Why would you think that it is not possible to have fun riding with lotsa gears and other technology?

Dave Cutter

At 75 you're far too young to be a true Luddite.... (1. A group of British workers who between 1811 and 1816 rioted and destroyed laborsaving textile machinery fearing the new technology would put them out of a job). But you may fit in part with of the contemporary definition (2. One who opposes technical or technological change). But it doesn't matter... not even an itty bitty bit.

I only bicycle for the fun of it. It makes me feel like a kid again. However.... I do track mileage, speed, calories... stuff like that. And I also enjoy parts of the processes and procedures with getting ready for a ride. I enjoy wrenching too! There are many aspects to the sport of cycling. Everyone has their favorite parts.... that doesn't include riding the bicycle. Nothing wrong with not enjoying the number crunching.

Dudelsack 

And the OP cares for what reason?

ModeratedUser150120149

What does age have to do with your desire to ride the way you want? Answer: "Nothing".

That you feel compelled to post about your purported independence makes me question just how immune to perceived social pressure you really are. Note, I said "perceived". I doubt there is any real community action forcing you to ride at all, let alone ride in a certain way.

Stated succinctly: Any person who is not being paid to ride a bicycle and doesn't do it their way needs some counseling.

Zinger

I can imagine this sort of thread might come up once in a while as it has over in C&V.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ter-Yay-or-Nay

When I was trying to get a more competitive base going back in the day I just found myself over doing it more often when I spent so much time racing against the clock. And of course I have that whole forum Luddite thing to live up to.

But people who do use 'puters will have reasons for them especially when they are focused on fitness. I'm sure they'll be along directly.

Retro Grouch 

I'm with you, rydabent, but different people define "fun" in different ways.

My son is gearing up to do some gravel road night rides. He's ridden with them once on his hard tail mountain bike. He said they rode 20 - 22 MPH on the flat at night. I built him a wheelset for use with 28 mm tires on his back up road bike. He said to leave the rim strips off because he's planning on going tubeless. Not my idea of fun.

choteau

I started riding again at age 51 (after 25+ years off) because I needed the exercise, joy, and FUN of riding. I remembered the feeling the freedom I had as a kid, it's more FUN for me to ride an old 3 speed, some days slower and some days like today about 18 miles in about 1 1/2 hours. Tim

big john

Where can I get one of those 36 speed bikes?

stapfam

Rydabent gas it about right. I was riding with a group of younger riders and it was getting harder- They got fitter and faster as I was beginning to slow down. Then on a hard ride last year I swore at them for waiting for me at the top of the hills. They were ruining their ride by stopping and I was pushing too hard to try and catch them so they didn't have to wait for me. That was a hard ride for me but made easier as I no longer pushed myself over the top and wore myself out. Kept within my capabilities and only finished 10 minutes behind them on a 4 hour ride.

Since then I have dropped the group and do my own ride in my time at my speed. At least I am still riding whereas IF I was attempting to ride with them-I would have given up as it was no longer enjoyable.

But on gears and bike technology--I am for all the assistance I can get. Plenty of gears so I can go lower for the hills and cruise in the higher ones. Triple or Compact does not bother me as I have Cassettes that will get me up the hills or closer ratios if flatland is involved. I can assure you that the 15lb bike is easier to pedal on the century rides up long hills but the 19 lbs "BLING" Pinarrello is just as good on 50 milers.

I have found in the last year that my bike riding has changed and that is not through fitness. That has gone down with age but I still get out- still enjoy it and do my my rides in my way and on bikes I enjoy riding.

Looigi

I understand fitness not to be absolute but to be a percentage of capability. In that sense, you can remain equally fit as you age, it's the net capability that declines.

cplager

Get an 9 speed cassette, and then make your triple a quad. You'll need a friction shifter for the front derailleur and almost certainly a long cage rear derailleur, but it isn't crazy if you like having tight ratios AND range.

(I realize the question was really sarcastic, but since I had an answer...)

big john

I figured somebody would come up with something.

leob1

I have a single speed that I keep as simple as possible. Single speed, no derailers or ****ers. just one gear and brakes. No computer, although I sometimes will mount my iPhone to it, if I want to know the distance of a specific ride. It's fun to ride. My other bikes have 'puters, but I don't really track mileage. I'll reset them at the begining of a ride, look at them at the end, sometimes as a guage of my fitness level if I have a big ride in the future, but usually I look at it say 'That's nice' and go on to the next thing.
You want to ride with all the stuff, fine with me. You want to ride simple, that's ok with me too. I'm sure we'll have something in common at the coffee stop.

Enjoy the ride!

WC89

Isn't it great!? How many of us differ so much in our personal preferences!? Are some people soooo caught up and sooo slavishly consumed in their gadgets and electronics that they have completely lost site of just the fun of riding. YES! Are some people total gadget/electronic geeks but yet still NEVER lose grasp of the pure fun of riding a bike? YES! It does make one wonder sometimes but I know, thankfully, that we humans come in all types so our routes to good clean fun just benignly differ sometimes

rydabent

A triple with a 12 speed cassette will give you those 36 speeds.

BTW it has been suggested by a few that I hate technology which is not true. FYI before I retired, I worked on almost all office machines from typewriters up to and including laser printers and mainframe computers.

Also Im not trying to say that anyone that enjoys having an electronics suite on his bike and enjoys it should not do so. All that I am saying is people should just go with the joy of cycling, watch their surrounding, and stop and smell the roses. Riding a bike should be carefree and fun. In todays world it is one of the few fun things left.

rebel1916

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the commonly used 12 speed cassette.

Do you know what I hate? Everything different.

Dudelsack 

I've always been tempted to install a fax machine on my bike, but I'd be fine with just a flat screen TV with Netflix.

genejockey 

There's a difference between having the various training aids and using them on the one hand, and obsessing over them on the other. I ride 3 times a week, 2 x ~1 hr rides midweek where I push really hard, essentially going as fast as I can for the whole time, so that when I do my long Sunday ride I'm less limited by fitness.

My bikes all have 16 or 20 gears because I don't want to limit myself to riding in the flats. Riding only in the flats is not as much fun.

I have a cyclocomputer with speed and cadence. I pay attention to them on my midweek rides, because on those I'm 'training', while on the Sunday ride, I don't.

I have an HRM, which again I pay more attention to on the midweek rides, while on the Sunday rides, I primarily use it on long climbs to keep an eye on effort.

All of these data-collecting devices, I used much more when I was learning how to ride long (for me) distances. I built up to having a smooth 95-105 rpm spin by paying attention to the cadence meter, but now I know what if feels like, for example. With the HRM, I use it as a check on effort, because I've often found myself zooming along on slight downhill sections thinking I'm not pushing very hard, and found that I'm actually surprisingly close to lactate threshold. Now I am better at matching perceived effort with actual level of exertion.

All of this is to say that I have a number of the things the OP mentions, which I have used to make my rides that I do for fun more fun. The idea that you can't have these things and ride for fun is a false dichotomy.

cccorlew

Ex-friggin'-zactly.

swampboy62

It's the ONLY reason I ride.

I work with computers pretty much every day. When I get on my bike I don't want any electronic gadgets around (I will carry my cell phone in my pack though).

Not there to impress anyone, don't give a damn what others think. I'm slow - so what.

Steve Z

10 Wheels

He doesn't ride enough to use one.

RPK79

I'm not sure how anyone can have fun riding a bicycle that isn't a penny-farthing.

Zinger

I wonder how anybody ever rode 300 miles per week without a 'puter, lol.