unterhausen

I wouldn't expect you to be in any kind of shape after that long of a hiatus. But last year, my wife was struggling on a flat ride. Her heartrate was through the roof. Before we went on the next ride, I checked out her bike and it was really hard to pedal. Don't remember what was wrong with it, but I got it rolling a lot better.

genejockey 

I stopped riding almost as soon as I got a driver's license at 16. At 38, we moved to a house about 2 miles from my workplace, so I got a cheapish Cannondale hybrid to commute. First time I took it for a spin on the local pedway, I thought I was gonna die. I think I went about 4 miles max, and I was sore as hell the next day. But got past that pretty quickly and pretty soon I was looking for ways to extend my commute, to spend more time on the bike.

That was 25 years and tens of thousands of miles ago. So, keep plugging away at it!

Regarding your bike and your fitness, first thing is to check whether your wheels are rotating freely. Hold the bike up and give 'em a spin, and listen for any kind of "ffff....ffff....ffff....ffff...." sound, which will mean something's rubbing. Also, if you're riding on the road with MTB tires, make sure they're inflated to pretty firm.

Flip Flop Rider

if the bike could talk it would say it's not me it's you

tkamd73 

After that long of layoff, I’d say 3 mi was quite ambitious.
Tim

Cacti

Gresp15C

Say no more, you're on your way.

Ironfish653

I wouldn't say it 's a bad bike, though. It's an inexpensive one, and to be frank, at that price point, there's not much difference between an 'MTB' and a 'Hybrid' than the handlebar height, and the tread pattern on the tires. I actually like 'hardtail' MTBs like this for a general-purpose around-town bike; The maneuverability comes in useful, as does the ability to handle multiple surfaces, so if you have to ride over a curb, or cut through the grass, it's no big deal.

Provided the bike doesn't have any major issues, it's probably that you're just not in shape yet, and haven't figured out how to make the bike work best for you.
First off, you probably need to raise both your tire pressure, and your seat height. For a 2" tire, on hard surfaces, I'd run at leas 40 psi. Get a floor pump with a gage so you can keep after your tire pressure; if a bike is left to sit for several days, it's not uncommon for the tires to loose some air. If you haven't ridden in a few days, check your tires, or you may find yourself riding on soft, squishy wheels.

Second, most new riders have their saddle set too low. It's not an unreasonable thing to want to be able to put your feet on the ground while you're on the saddle; however, most bikes are not designed this way, and it sets you up for bad pedaling form. You need to be able to extend your legs until your knee has about a 10* bend. If you're experiencing knee or thigh muscle (quad) pain / discomfort, your saddle's probably too low.

Finally, learn how to make your bike work for you. Use your gears. A common new rider practice is to try to use as 'fast' a gear as possible, and just keep pushing harder as the road goes up. Shift up a gear, or even two, and work on making the pedals go around faster. It seems like it's more work, but it's at a lower intensity, which you'll be able to keep up for longer.
You also don't have to dump everything straight to the 'granny' gear at the bottom of the hill, work your way through them, as the effort starts to increase, but just don't wait untill you're about to stall out, before you try to push it to the next cog.

subgrade

As others have said already, just out of shape. The good news is, the progress should be very noticeable at the beginning and you should be doing way better pretty soon. The bad news is you would need to train very hard and long to get anywhere near the shape you were at 17. It might even prove impossible. But is it actually necessary?

Also, it depends a lot on the terrain you ride. I live on coastal plain and pretty much all my rides are flat or nearly so. I ride a hybrid and have no problems doing 30-50 mile rides on road and gravel and keep a decent average speed of 15-18 mph. Every now and then I do 60+ mile rides. Then recently I tried out a trail that goes through forested dunes along the sea cost. Nothing too technical, some roots, some sand pits, but mostly just a rollercoaster terrain with constant ups and downs - short, punchy uphills and similar descents. I wasn't going very fast, just an average pace to maintain the momentum for the inclines (10 mph average)... and I was nearly dead and almost puking after 3 miles. I was able to recover fast, but it taught me that my stamina is not nearly as good as I thought it to be.

AlmostTrick

I say you buy a fancy, expensive, super lightweight bike to find out.

ARider2

In addition to shifting to a lower gear when going uphill, or when riding into the wind, keep in mind your cadence. That is the speed, or RPM at which you are pedaling. I try to maintain cadence in the 80 to 90 range. This seems to give my cardiovascular system more of a work out and is less stressful on my leg muscles and joints.

CAT7RDR

The key is to stick with it and not get discouraged when that 150 lbs blurred object whizzes by you. Ride your own ride and enjoy your improvements.

Thomas15

I agree with what seems to be the problem that you need to achieve a degree of fitness.

I was off my bike for 25 years and got back on at age 60. 25 years ago I was riding 50-60 mile rides. My first ride two years ago was on my street, riding my mid 80s Asian steel bike that I keep in good running condition. Still, with a decent bike riding for the first time on my street with grades that hit 6-8%, I was not able to put in a full mile.

Undaunted I starting riding a hybrid on a local MUP, really easy, no hills to pull. It took a few weeks but got to 20 mile rides within a month. After about 6 months of that I tried the hilly streets in my area and while much improved, it felt like I had achieved little.

While a better bike for the specific application may help, the main thing is the riders conditioning. I spent all of last winter on an indoor fluid trainer and logged in 1000s of miles before venturing back outside and to the hills. Big improvement. On average I ride 120-150 miles a week, 8000+ feet of ascent. This past week I rode 225 miles. I still work full time but for being 62 years old and on the bike only 2 years I have come a long way. I thought like you that there might be something wrong with my bike but quickly realized it was me. It is hard work and painful but if you push yourself, really push, it will get easier. But you have to push yourself.

Set goals but make it enjoyable. Reward yourself when you achieve a goal.

Cacti

I'm tempted lol. One of the last bikes I owned as a kid was a Peugeot 10 speed. It was super light. You could lift it off the ground with one finger. This bike as Maelochs said, is.. Heavy. So..

• I'm definitely out of shape
• The bike is HEAVY
• There's definitely rubbing on both wheels and I'll take it in to have looked at by someone who knows what they're doing
• It's not the right bike for my age and the type of riding I'll mostly be doing

Nevertheless, I'm going to keep and ride it at least through this season and I won't complain any more. My primary motive was to get in better shape doing something I enjoy. No matter what, it beats not riding at all

Everyone has been incredibly helpful ITT. Really appreciate all the thoughts, comments, and advice. Thanks everyone!

Kapusta

I think this pretty well answers the thread title question.

Thomas15

We have covered the real possibility that you need to work on your fitness and there are a lot of tips on bike fit. I hope and actually believe you are taking most of that to heart. We just need to communicate that at our age getting back at it is not really that easy and will require some disclipline and commitment. Sometimes you just want to quit for the day but the reward is there trust me.


Here is the question.



When I was where you are now I picked up a few beginners books, mostly published by bicycling magazine. Quite honestly I found them a bit too technical and complicated, I tried youtubes and forums. It really was difficult for me to find something that appealed to me. I knew without even looking that I needed to ride longer and harder and that is what I did. If you put a fitness app on your phone such as Strava you can record your rides. It will give you a map of the route, time and mph. Ride the same route multiple times and try to beat your old time, try to ride faster. You will need to get on the bike at a minimum 3 times a week, 4 of 5 times is better.


This is what i did and once I started seeing progress, the books, youtubes and forum advice started to make better sense and my interest level overcame my dislike of all of the technical jibber jabber.


I'm just now 2 years into this adventure. My first year I was half hearted about it. This last year I have turned up the volume quite a bit. I'm better able to see the benefit of diet, rest days and what specific exercises are helpful. As I have just concluded my 2nd year with the last 12 months far exceeding anything I ever thought I would achieve, after all that I have finally settled into a programmed exercise plan. I'm only 1 exercise into it, the preliminary phase where a baeseline is set. Did the workout last night. This was so freeking hard I thought about quitting but I hung in there. I'm at the point where I think that if I want to see gains I need to do intervals. Easy to say, not so easy to do. I live in NE PA and at this point in my life I'm simply not going to ride outside in the winter. So that leaves me using an indoor fluid trainer. Opinions regarding trainers vary but for me it was/is a game changer. I'm doing in addition to the program, 1 or 2 social rides on Zwift and 1 beginners race per week.


I'm again doing a 12 week build me up program which will take me to mid Feb. If this works and I intend to stick with it, I will do an FTP builder for 6 weeks this will get me to better weather outside. From there I will do group rides with a local club and a few organized rides and a few solo metric and full centuries.


As far was my weight and fitness level is concerned I'm good, really good and quite pleased about it. Give yourself a good solid year.

Cacti

That was a very motivating post. Thanks Thomas15

Thomas15

You have your goal: 20 miles in 18 weeks from now.

Set a few intermediate goals. Say 10 miles by New Years Day.

I think that if you do your part, you will achieve your 20 mile goal with ease by April.How about 30-35 miles by 4th of July? Maybe....

Once you get to 20 miles start thinking about riding specific clothing. Enjoy the ride and know that once you get over the hump, it's really a lot of fun.

70sSanO

Just keep working at the mileage, you will get there.

I didn’t follow your hydraulic brake noise/rubbing. If your brakes are rubbing it will impact your riding. As others have noted, spin the wheel and see if the rubbing slows/stops the wheels from spinning.

A number of years ago I was pretty proud to have beaten my son up a climb mountain biking. That was until I noticed he broke a spoke and the rim was rubbing on the rim brake. So much for my victory dance.

John

Ogsarg

No matter how bad the bike is, don't expect fixing it is going to take you from 3-20 miles overnight. Your story sounds a lot like where I was a few years ago when I pulled my old rigid MTB out, tuned it up, and started riding after far too long without regular exercise. 3-4 miles was hard. Gradual grades felt like riding up the side of a mountain.

The good news is that improvement comes really fast when you're at that point. Try and ride every day if you can. After a few days, add a mile or as much as you can manage. Push yourself a bit but not so much you don't enjoy it. You'll be at that 20 mile point before too long and then who knows.

I was originally just thinking I'd ride 10-20 miles regularly to get in shape but found myself wanting more. Got a used road bike and suddenly it was 40-50 miles and kept going. Now a typical longer ride is 80-100 miles.

BTW, I still ride that old MTB in the early mornings 3-4 days a week for 15-20 mile rides before starting work.