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When should we stop riding? -- perspectives of an older rider

When ya get older it ain't you that calls a stop to ridin'. The people around ya do that.

My wife is deathly ill from CML, a form of leukemia, and rational thought says that if I crash there would be no one to care for her. Can't take risks. Even if I rode and did everything perfectly, some bonehead texting while spilling a latte would take me out.

The responsibilities we carry as we age sometimes demand compromise.. . .Dammit.
 
At the AFM banquet I met a guy who was 81. He rode over 80k miles last year. Made me feel like a poseur at 67.
 
The social mindset of America is primarily "When you're old you're done." In some other countries/cultures, people embrace the elderly and encourgage participation in activities/ hobbies and usually maintain great health & awareness. Whereas in the US the elderly are pretty much encouraged to take a back seat to activities that stimulate mind, body & soul, hence why you see most elderly folk in pain, illnesses, etc. So I love it when I see an elderly American doing activities just like the younger folks...i.e bike riding. It's like they're saying "F-you America and your bullsh*t social mentality.
 
Pking said:
The social mindset of America is primarily "When you're old you're done."
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Not sure what America you're living in, but that's not the mindset in the one I live in. :confused

My stepfather just went back to riding at 78 after having a hip replaced a little over a year ago. DMV had him retake the lollipop 2 years ago in order to renew his license, he passed no problem. :thumbup

I'm 52, commuting most days on my F4 (it would be every day, but driving the M puts almost as big a smile on my face as the bike and it's warmer :teeth), and there's a slew of folks here much older than I am doing the same.

If anything, we're doing more now than we did before because we have more money and time than we did when we were younger. :party
 
MY 67th birthday present to myself.
 

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I'd say when you start riding 10 miles under the speed limit and keeping your blinker on for miles at a time.

But seriously, I say quit when you cant confidently control your bike. Even when ego says you can listen to the brain a bike isn't something to take chances on. That said I'd go smaller and smaller until I was riding a moped to be able to ride as long as physically possible.
 
when I was in my 30s my dad would ask me

"when are you gonna stop riding those Damn motorcycles"

now that I'm in my 50s he brags to his friends about his son the 50yr old motocrosser :laughing


someone wrote..............

"You don't stop riding when you get old, You get old when you stop riding"

I like that :thumbup
 
This is my 20th year long distance commuting (100 mile typical workday round trip) in the SFBA on two wheels. The lanesplitting mileage is too nightmarish to contemplate. I racked up a half dozen pavement crashes in the hills, another half dozen in the AFM, but never went down in the commute meat grinder, knock on wood. Got tagged a few times, but not enough to bring me down. Crash bars, bark busters, and heavy boots FTW. Was involved in a glancing head-on with a drunk driver years ago, around a blind hairpin. She was completely on my side of the narrow non-divided mountain road. Hit the A pillar with my knee wrapped in Helimot leathers while on my KLR; limped away from it, and had a long painful ride home. That's become the weather knee.

Anyhow, at this point, riding is mostly a pain in the ass (or, rather, in the much abused spine). The romance of the thing left the building years ago. It feels like a dirty, dangerous job. I will probably stop street riding if and when I finally manage to alter the work situation such that I can stop commuting. I'd like to go back to riding trials, which is great family recreation, and is becoming apropos again now that my kid is 6 and growing quickly.

My reaction time, balance, stamina, nighttime vision, heck, everything has deteriorated considerably over the years. I don't want to be in the damned split any more than I have to (though I have to say, modulators help tremendously) and I really wonder if I'll manage to make it to "retirement". I'd better, for the kid's sake.

OP, was it you who said he hadn't crashed in the 40+ years riding? Not even as a young man? No sand or diesel anywhere, or slick chipseal on a stormy night? Remarkable, if so. I can't help but recall the image of the "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" advert, cardigan and penny loafer types puttering about at 20 mph. I suppose a thing like that would technically have to be called riding, though not with a capital R.

File:You_meet_the_nicest_people_on_a_Honda.jpg
 
There is a curious change over time as we see our mortality more readily.
 
OP here, still kicking. Yes, I have been riding since a teenager, and have never crashed (off road dirtbike riding doesn't count). I am going to be 65 in six months, so going on 50 years of riding. I am a regular on the Bay Bridge commute, and no I do not ride like a granny. One of the friendly CHP moto officers gave me the ticket a few months back just so I would have the proof. Yes, I split lanes. I try to plan my commute so I hit the bridge in the morning at just a few minutes before 10 AM, then in the evenings I generally leave the office around 6:30 PM. That usually keeps me outside of the worst traffic periods.

I continue to contemplate my mortality, and often wonder if I should not continue to press my luck. Then I get on one of my bikes, and I can turn a really bad day into a fun ride. So, I keep riding.
 
Just read your OP today. Figured it had been 6 years. How time flies.

When you wrote the post I was 49 and now 55 so closing in on the age you wrote it.
I have faced up a little mortality in the last couple months and can't wait to shake that off with a good ride.

Thinking back to a few kick ass romps last year has me counting the days until I can return.
67 days if all goes well. :teeth

The Moto keeps the mind and the soul in good working order so I plan to keep exploiting that to my benefit for years to come. :ride :teeth :ride
 
+1

oldapeman said:
I am often amazed at how ignorant and wrong I was at a younger age, and at how wise and right I am now. Someday, you too will know this.

I know you were just joking, but I couldn't let this go without a response. One of an older person's purposes in life is to embarrass the ____ out of those that are younger, who strangely think that living life to the fullest is just for them. My 16 year old daughter finds it strange that I sing and dance, and cringes if I do it in front of her friends. Someday, she will get used to it. Or not.

I will stop motorcycling when it ceases to give me pleasure. The same is true for sex. I expect I will stop motorcycling before I stop having sex.
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My stepdad just bought a new bike a couple of weeks ago. He's 78, works out daily and does computer consulting from home since he retired from Lockheed. He stopped hiking Mt. Whitney a couple of years ago because his knees hurt too much afterward, but other than that he's still on the same program he's been on for the last 20 years, except for commuting to work on the bike every day.

I guess he hasn't reached the point where he's ready to stop yet either, I hope I'm still going at that age. :party
 
I plan on riding until I am no longer able.
 
The very fact that you acknowledge there is danger here and that there are loved ones at home to go back to, gives you a little more 'eligibility' to ride IMO.
 
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