Do I carry on trail riding?

[garyboy]

.. and remember, possibly, ..
Remember that the best is yet to come.
If you're lucky.
Once you're fortunate to reach 75, Overnight, suddenly, you transform from a doddering crochetty old oap, to ... a Geriatric.
Fumbling around, wondering what you're supposed to do next, put cold water in your tea cup, forget you left the frying pan on the stove, shit your nappy again, and beg to have your catheter emptied by the pretty nurse, who is just visiting after her 3 days of training and you think is your wife.

Joys to come.

[garyboy]

.. must rush now .. getting ready to get my mighty crf250Rally out, to thunder irresponsibly over my welsh mountains with a huge grin on my hairy young mush.

But anytime you want some great positive advice, don't hesitate to write, and I will answer as soon as I get back from from my full days outing, or camping trip

[DavidS]

The age thing is actually pretty irrelevant but a knackered knee isn’t.
Anyone would think I was giving up motorcycling.
I’ve just had enough of trail riding but my road riding will go up to compensate.
Do more photography at the same time.

You can stuff the camping. Our honeymoon was a camping bike trip down the Rhine back in 1977.
I’ve long grown to appreciate 5* hotels rather than grotty tents on a wind and rainswept hillside.

[garyboy]

I wonder if Bob or Chris could give you advice on your knee?
Perhaps some sort of brace or prosthetic could help? I don't know. But I guess that an enthusiasm could help overcome a difficulty?
Camping? .. yeah .. it can be rough .. ages since my last foray into the wilds .. can't remember, due to age , if it was frost or sopping mud?
However, undeterred, I have bought all new camping gear, and soft panniers, and planning to go mid wales or north, .. when it's summer. Summer.

I do loads of photographs,.. and I eat loads of chips.
My bike is overweight though.

Keep going, young man. Rest when you've got to. Enjoy life when you can.

[garyboy]

BTW, last week I met a motorcyclist from West Wales. Derek. He is 83 and rides a beautiful kawasaki er6, ?
He can really ride that thing. He got something seriously wrong with his legs, and he can't pick it up if he drops it. I've never met anyone so positive in my life. A real great guy.

Two weeks ago, I road the tough back roads to Bala, from south wales. It nearly kilt me. Really sore between the legs, and utterly exhausted. Had to stay in bed for a week. Really great ride though, but a bit too fast for me, as I like to take loads pics. I won't be doing that again.

Perhaps we need to pick our pleasures carefully now. Perhaps that will involve trails, but it's good, I think, to have the option. This is why I went for the crf250Rally as its not too bad on long tarmac, and fairly reasonable on the easier trails. But, I got to admit .. its too heavy for me now. As suggested already, a smaller bike is easier. But ... if you give it up .. you will miss it later. Some ex riders are known to jus look at their old bike, in the garage.

It's still ownership.

[DavidS]

If I miss it, I’ll just get another bike.
None of my riding gear will go and my ability level is so low it wouldn’t take much to get back to it.
I’m not committed enough to look at structural alterations plus, round here, riding is pretty limited so does get repetitive.
I haven’t discounted a bike hire trip for two or three days either.
Time, as ever, will tell.

I went to Brands to watch the Olympic para road cycling.
One guy had both prosthetic legs, one stump for a hand and one good hand - my god he was quick but looked in absolute agony every time he went by.

[SteveR]

An interesting and relevant thread to me too....

My riding has been curtailed too much over the past few years, firstly a leg injury, then a broken wrist. Both injuries recovered well, although they both caused problems elsewhere which took more treatment and time.

However, I have noticed that I am now reluctant to trail ride on more challenging routes these days, neither the bike nor I want a difficult ride, so I tend to stay on hard surfaces. More "Green Laning" in the traditional sense.

Over the recent years, I am of the view that low seating ergonomics and steady power and a proper awareness of my limitations, are the secret to staying on a trail bike into my dotage (reached it now!) for a little bit longer.

[Tonibe63]

If the passion isn't there for trail riding then don't bother. At a sprightly 61 I have had a 'lifestyle' change and lost 15kg in weight which is what I was 20+years ago and regained a lot of my fitness. I also recently tried returning to trail riding again but soon realised why I stopped 10+years ago ... too much cleaning and fixing. Riding gravel roads on a trip to see the views is still very much on the agenda but mud plugging or bouncing off rocks is not for me at the moment. I've got memories and photos but there's nothing to prove and at ease with the decision. But never say never and I'm still searching for that Unicorn lightish weight dual sport bike.

[DavidS]

At least I haven’t had to suffer the injuries - you have my sympathy.
If we had enough lanes, I wouldn’t mind the easy lane idea but we only really have enough for a couple of hours and that would soon get boring.

Currently, my thoughts are leaning towards a Ducati Scrambler 800 or 1100 (NOT a Desert X) or, for stupid thoughts, a Hypermotard but that would make more sense if I didn’t have the Norden.

The knock sensor was replaced under warranty on Thursday.
If it behaves now, it’s a keeper for the forseeable future as I love riding it.
If it hasn’t fixed it then I see an awkward conversation with Husqvarna UK asking for a decent refund. It is past the rejection timescale now.

Most of my riding seems to have been wasting a day going to and from distant dealers so

[Tonibe63]

I haven’t discounted a bike hire trip for two or three days either.
Time, as ever, will tell.

We've just had a week in Lanzarote and instead of taking coach tours we hired a Chinese copy of the Honda CB500x for 2 days and did our own tour only £150 including feul. We only did a couple of gravel roads out of the 300 kilometres total but the trip was great FUN and visited all of the islands tourist site. For us it is the future.