Roy has set himself a challenge, all in the name of fun, eternal youth, and some good causes. Now I am officially an old Yorkshire duffer (66yrs young …

By stwhannah

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A Grand Day Out – and a call to action

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Good on ya Roy ! I too am a sprightly 66 and one of my riding buddies is 67 spooky ay ? I’ve ridden MTBs since the mid 90s got diagnosed with Osteoporosis back in 2009 and a couple of crushed vertebrae in my spine 😞 Up until then I’d ridden in Morzine , Tahoe , did the Kamikaze in Mammoth rode to the top of Mount Tam in Marin and Whistler inc Squamish , Pemberton , Heli Drop and a Float Plane trip in the Chilcotins .
Following my diagnosis I was told to never ride off road again , my response “ Dig a hole I’ll jump in it now ! “ I took the money and ran from Royal Mail the next Summer I spent in Whistler ! ( Always follow medical advice ! 🤔) My mate then retired a few years later and to my shock and surprise I got him to follow me down the wormhole of MTBing ! ( By his own admission he’s a lazy barsteward ! )
Since then we’ve been to Slovenia , Spain , Cyprus and an epic road trip around BC including Revelstoke , Fernie etc . Darn pandemic has put plans on hold 😞 3 years ago I bought an Ebike a year later he followed. I’ve now sold mine and am eagerly awaiting the delivery any time soon of an Orbea Rise H15 ✊️✊️✊️✊️I’ve done the full fat supertanker plough through anything now I think the half fat option will suit so much better .
Ain’t it grand that us old fartknockers still get tremendous joy from just pissing about in the woods on bikes 😎
My mates retirement financial workings out on the back of a fag packet have taken quite a knock but I reckon he’s a lot healthier for it , as you say all government help for buying bikes is targeted to people in work while the senior population are left to do sat down exercises in their armchairs ! Personally I’m lucky to be able to fund it myself but there must be plenty of others who could do with a bit of a hand,

Well done old lad I really hope your enjoying yourself, to me this is what ebiking is all about, enabling those fellow riders who are still young at heart and still want to ride even if their body’s done want to let them

Geat read , more power to you. Age really is just a number. Thanks

Good stuff and I shall be writing to my MP, yet again.
Just to add to the info about the CycletoWork scheme. I found out last year that my new employer offer this. So in excitement at the prospect for when I complete year one I started making plans. Then the wheels fell off. The Scheme is not accessible to those on Minimum wage as the Voluntary Contribution means they are then below minimum wage. I assume this will also be the same for Zero hours contract workers.
So in reality the working folk who could most benefit from cycle commuting are excluded from subsidised bicycles.