Does every man have one? And do they always do something really silly? Am I destined in my late 40s to start wearing tight trousers, dying my hair and chasing young women? Or would just buying an expensive bike that I will never be able to ride to anywhere near it’s capability count?

I am still too young to appreciate why any of that would be classed as “silly” or a “crisis”. 🙂

I’m planning on early forties, not late. About 42ish.

No.
No.
Yes.
No.

Do you have to grow up, before you can have a mid-life crisis?

At 53, but faster than all my local 35-45 year old cycling mates I can confirm that you don’t have to have a crisis or do something really silly. I’ve found that buying that really expensive bike is mandatory. As you get older you care less about other people’s views, so the fact that I am “all the gear but no idea” doesn’t bother me at all

I didn’t like my other two mid life crisis’s so I’m planning another one soon.

Don’t dye your hair – that is silly, and you’ll look a vain **** in the process!

Tight trousers, not very wise for the older gentleman.

Chasing women and buying expensive bikes, sorry, isn’t that just normal anyway…………….

😉

Relax and let it all hang out, people will laugh but who cares. After all at 40 your pretty much half way and I can assure you it’s all downhill from here on, so use all the bits that still work. As the poet John Betjemen said just before he died, “wish I’d had more sex”.

Buy that bike use it to chase women, have a great time.

At 54 years old I’m still waiting for mine.

They’re not obligatory and the older you get the more you realise that life is for living and not worrying about.

I feel rather obligated to contribute here given my forum name (not that I’ve had a serious mlc)

Mine has been based around having had kids young and not being able to ride much when they were little. Now they are getting older I have more time and I enjoying the fitness I would have liked in my 20s/30s.

Expensive bike – YES.
Younger women – no thanks very happily married.
Flash car – no thanks, but have just bought a VW T4 and having all sorts of daydreams about conversions.
Tattoo – yes, I am planning to get another done in the near future.
Tight trousers – by default as I have never been into that baggy thing (the Happy Mondays put me off it)
Hair dye – NO.

Days are like jigsaw pieces. Each one does not mean that much, but when you put them together they make up the big picture. You should live life in a way that the combination of all your days makes up a picture of life you will be happy with when it is complete.

What point is mid life crisis territory? 39 this month and wondering at what point I can pass off a tendency to marked over enthusiasm as a mid life crisis?

Mrs Hillsplease seems to have accepted it’s the former. She’s usually right and didn’t even blink when I told her my new race wheels were coming today. Is it right to stroke your new wheels by the way?

definitely

they should also be cleaned spoke by spoke after each ride

No such thing as a midlife crisis. Its just people realising the person they really are and the things they wish they’d done/bought and doing them while they have the spare cash and time.

The obvious point from my 40yr old pov is that I still think I’m about 25. So I still try and do the same things, and I don’t think that will ever change.

I read a review of a Foo Fighters gig a while back and one point really bugged me. The reviewer described Dave Grohl coming on to the stage wearing t-shirt, jeans and baseball boots like a 40yr old trying to be a groovy uncle. It took me a while to realise that it bugged me because that’s how I dress, and have pretty much always dressed, and so why should I change the way I dress just because I’m getting older? When do I break out that boring grey suit that my grandfather wore every day?

Anyway, from what I understand having a midlife crisis is doing something that is completely out of character, so buying another bike wouldn’t count.

IdleJon

Totally agree.

Sitting here dressed, as I have always done a nice day in the summer,in flip-flops, baggy shorts, t-shirt and hoodie (chiily wind out there) and I’m nearly the same age as Madonna – why the f@%k should I dress like a 1950’s stereotype 🙄

Time to worry is when you slip seamlessly from yer Levi’s with the knee out to M & S “Slacks” – you’ve missed the MLC and are settled into a TOG without knowing it and doing anything to mark the occasion.

Bikes are cheaper 🙂

My wife did buy me a cardie a couple of years ago. It’s been in the cupboard ever since.

Kevin hasnt had a midlife crisis yet but did treat himself to this for his 50th

Tracey

oooh a porsche, I’d like one of them. Hmmm, 5 years of saving, then blow it on a Cayman?

I`m with jova and captnmain 55 this yr and being tempted y dh bikes atm

Got a “classic” Blur as my mud life crisis bike – never used it enough to get the best out of it, sold it when I moved to the Dark Side.

Hang on, maybe that was the mid life crisis…?

You’re not living unless you have lived all your life as if you are having a mid-life crisis.

Nothing wrong with a mid-life crisis. Ladies have them too!

Who thought at my age that I would be riding any kind of bike, let alone offroad on challenging terrain. Our parents generation did next to buxxer all exercise and became old before their time. These days, forty somethings are like slightly wrinkly twenty year olds. The Mid life crisis is for when we get to middle age.

MLC – when you suddenly start thinking that elasticated waist trousers make sense!

Ron Hill’s are acceptable 😉