Siu Blue Wind

Do you find it hard to find people to ride with you in 50+ groups? If not, how do you go about reaching out to those who would be interested?

North Coast Joe

I can only relay one improbable tale of finding and riding with an older group.

A couple of years ago, while on a regular solo run I was passed by a procession of cars with bike racks. At the park near the end of the road I stopped to see what was happening, as I noticed the bikes were mostly "high end" as I was being passed. I gawked at their Bob Jacksons, Surleys, Cattrikes, etc., while their gearheads gawked at my lowly fixed gear.

Nice folks, probably 15, or so, on that ride, all retired. They invited me to their email ride notification system, and things went on from there...now I'm semi-regular with them. If you find them on the road and can ride at their pace, you may be "in".

No group name, no "officers" (save the fellow who volunteers the email notifications), no dues or fees, no meetings (other than rides). Lucky guy, I am! Finding compatable riding partners is hard, especially if you're not interested in a competitive scenario. I like riding alone, but once/twice monthly with these folks is refreshing.

jppe

I'm fortunate in that we have a small group of local riders and we've aged along to where we are all now 50+, and we ride together a couple times per week. We first met each other out on the local roads.

fishboat

Check your local meetup.com groups.

BlazingPedals

I'm almost the baby in my regular riding group, and I'm 60. Once in a while, we'll get a sub-50 'visitor.'

RonH

There are a LOT of retired folks in my community and there are several "senior" group rides 2 or 3 days a week. Most of the riders are well over 55. Quite a few are older than me.

OldTryGuy

True Dat Can't help but ride with oldish folks around here, only these guys and gals are movers not shakers. Tom rode 21,000+ miles last year at 68yo, Doc is 80+ and I believe 5,000+, Charley 12,000++ and 72ish, Sandy.....lets just say she has been retired for a long while with 10,000+, me only 8,000 at 65 and plenty of others. We get a really good workout from Tom and the 40/50yo riders who join in and even the much younger ones who ride on Saturday morning since they are still sadly employed.

OldsCOOL

I dont ride with our LBS 50+ because the rides are........


Pie rides.

tg16

i just asked around at the gym for seniors that ride and was referred to a couple of ladies that had a group. We've had a couple of college kids join us but they complain our rides are hard.

Retro Grouch 

In the St Louis area it's stlrc.org. It costs $5.00 per year to join but the first ride is free.

It's not limited to 50+ but most of the participants are. While there is some overlap, there are two distinctively different groups so it's important to get into the right one. The rides are rated by speed and they really mean it.

wphamilton

I've never really thought about it, although I see a few 50+ groups from time to time, three or four people mostly. I think SBW is talking about recruiting people for rides.

Some 50+ riders are really fast, some groups really slow which is probably a challenge. I think if I were building a ride I'd put up a web page and also troll the local group rides. Have a card with the url, facebook id or email, however you're organizing it.

rm -rf

My local cycle club riders, a very rough estimate:
10% 20-30 years old.
15% 30-40
25% 40-50
30% 50-60
20% 60+

MinnMan

Yeah, that's about right. In my club, the issue is not how to find 50+, but hoping that younger riders will join so that the demographics don't age out. Once it becomes a crowd of 60 year olds, the 30 somethings aren't interested in coming along. There are some local clubs that are more or less going extinct because they became, well, clubbish, and younger riders didn't feel welcome. There numbers have dwindled to below critical mass.

canklecat

It's not hard to find 50+ cyclists in my area, but judging from social media posts most of them are MAMILs/MAWILs active in paid event and charity rides. Can't afford that on my budget.

And most of those 50+ers are early birds. I'm a night owl. It's nearly 10 am here and I'm still on my first pot of coffee. They'll be settling in for long winter naps about the time I'm ready to ride.

The only group I participate with occasionally is the critical mass gang on Friday nights once a month. Suits me. Casual, friendly folks, and I'd guesstimate 1/3 are my age or older.

And one of my friends and riding buddies is my age or older -- not sure how old, I've never asked.

stardognine

I'm pretty much an irregular sleeper, on an irregular schedule, so planning rides rarely works out. I just ride when the weather permits and I'm in the right mood, and I'm slow as hell, so it's probably best that I ride alone.

Cychologist

I suggest you attend a club ride or two. My club has a monthly pizza ride (leave together and meet up later at a pizza place). On this ride, once we hit the city limits the group breaks up with the 20+ guys/gals taking off and the 12-14 mph picking up the rear. Somewhere in between I find someone to ride with and strike up a conversation about future rides together.

Our club also uses MeetUp to post rides which is really neat. Check it out and see if there is a cycling group in your area.

Biker395 

I'm lucky enough to have a lot of friends who cycle, and we keep track of who's planning to ride where using FB and email. On any given weekend there might be 3 different groups riding 3 different areas, each with 5-20 people. In age, they range in age from 30s to 70s, but we all ride at more or less a similar pace.

Barrettscv 

We have a large group of recreational riders that gets together three times a week. Half of the group is 50+. It's a moderately fast group that will ride 125 miles per week.

It attracks a healthy mix of riders from a large area. The pace and distance covered during the ride satisfies a wide demographic range.

Dave Cutter

Hey.... some are ice cream rides!

fietsbob

Small town , sunday Me & my friend (He runs the LBS) met at the sports bar (timbers & blazers on at same time)

Then went on our bikes to the western end of town,

then stopped at a couple Bars coming back to with in a few blocks of my house .

berner

The main cycling club in this area has been in operation since 1800 something or other, over 100 years. In that time procedures developed to accommodate a wide range of cyclists from old to younger and very fast to myself. There are over 1000 members and 70 to 100 or more will show up for a ride so it is always likely anyone will find several people who ride at similar speeds.

bikernew

"Pie" rides??
Slow?
Blueberry??
OH!!! You meant Pizza?!

Wildwood 

sometimes you can find them on this forum

Gerryattrick

I'm retired so a lot of my rides are during the working week. Most of the riders I see mon-fri, outside commuting times, are people around my age. There are many solo riders, but also small, informal groups that I see regularly and all are very friendly if we ever stop at the same places. In addition there are a couple of more organised groups, again mainly older people, who arrange mid-week rides, weekend rides and multi-day touring trips via their website.

Although I have plenty of opportunities to join cycling groups, so far I have not taken them up. I like my own company and enjoy riding solo, but I am also hopeless at sticking to schedules/timetables so would not join a group that rides at set times unless I could really commit to it.

RonH

The Tuesday/Thursday rides have two groups. One is the "slower" riders with many on trikes. The other group has one really fast guy on a trike and the others on road bikes. This group is faster than me and the slower group is too slow for me. What to do?