Exercise for old folks

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

The bad behaviour of some cyclists is by no means isolated, and as someone who has used a cycle I am also perfectly well aware that there plenty of equally anti-social motorists. I have been carved up in my car by for example the sort who use roundabouts as overtaking lanes, or never use their indicators.

The group wearing their lamps on the heads were a one-off, nevertheless…

I see far more cyclists on the pavements than on the roads, sometimes to cheat one-way signs and traffic-lights.

I see far more with either no lights and reflectors, or with high-intensity lamps aimed straight at motorists' eye-level; than cycles with legal lamps and reflectors that do what they are supposed to do.

Please read my post again.; Nowhere did I accuse all cyclists of bad behaviour. I said there are ones who are wilfully bad, they stand out, and they are the ones who bring cycling into disrepute. Not that they would care…

Would I buy a cycle again? I am considering it, but probably not. I live just off a busy, hilly, main road inimical to cycling. If I walk it down my road (a one-way street) I can then use the quieter residential streets to reach an asphalted ex-railway formation, a joint cycle-way / footpath, into town about 2 miles away. It is part of a system of such ways that link Portland via Weymouth to Dorchester, a distance of about 14 miles with one or two short stretches using the roads.

Against though, would be trying to find one a suitable size for me. In town, I'd worry about it being stolen or vandalised, unless it's a tatty clapped-out thing not worth nicking in which case it's probably not worth riding. I'd also have to buy or build somewhere to store it at home.

My past bike was like that – very pre-owned, knackered, chain and sprockets worn out, one gear-range broken, the tyres beginning to crack… The helmet, lamps and new brake parts cost over twice what I'd paid for it!

There is a bike for sale in the window of a ladies' hairdresser, of all places, not far from me. I have studied it, through the window; but even if it's low enough, it would not suit me, with its dropped handlebars etc. It's for the expert male cyclist with long legs who can embark on the move and ride safely at over 10mph!

Still, I do get my exercise in, while these lock-downs stop my caving. Plenty of opportunity for walking around here, with some areas giving me views of the semi-mothballed cruise-liners.

These, including QE2 but most pretentiously ugly things resembling blocks of flats bolted to container-ship hulls, are moored offshore with ship-handling crews on board, and nowhere to cruise. I wonder what they will do if they cannot work next year either. Although they pay no mooring fees, they must be costing a fortune just to keep there, ticking over, partly manned, and earning nothing.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Hydrofoil bikes and get them off the roads? Could be a bit cold in winter…
Some forms of exercise are better left for the younger set. I quite miss my in-line skates but totally unsuitable for potholed country lanes and i don't fall or bounce as gracefully these days but check out off-road inline skates for the real enthusiast….

pgk

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