An 80-year-old retired California school teacher did something on his birthday that too few seniors do -- he got some exercise by taking a long bike ride.

Ray Houlihan's bicycle ride took him 103 miles around his hometown of Turlock on a December day. He's completed 15 centuries over the past 20 years or so.

"It's just like the mountains. They're there and you want to start riding them" ...    more »

64-year-old Everett man bikes nearly 12,000 miles a year

When my BikeJournal log surpassed 4,000 miles for 2011 in October, I thought I was pretty hot stuff.

Maybe some younger guys are laying down more miles on their bicycles, but I was pretty puffed for a guy adjusting to the realities of the 60s.

Then I catch this story about Dr. Art Grossman of nearby Everett, Wash. The 64-year-old doctor usually tallies just shy of 12,000 miles of bicycling a year. ....   more »

Say what you will about such storied climbs of the Tour de France as Alpe d'Huez and the Tourmalet.

The Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb in New Hampshire is the "Toughest Hillclimb in the World" and has a registered trademark to prove it.

On Saturday, the 7-1/2 mile bike race to the summit was won by Ned Overend, left, a legend in the world of mountain bicycling.

At 56, he continues to compete in endurance events instead of resting on the laurels ...   more »

Deep in the bowels of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History -- surrounded by 3 million other national treasures -- sits a bicycle.

It’s a German-made Reinhardt. The single-speed, 42-pound brute found its way here after traveling 25,000 miles around the world in the mid-1930s as the main conveyance of Fred Birchmore.

Some say he's the original "Fred." It's possible, depending on which definition of the term you use.

A "Fred" can be a do-it-yourselfer or independent-minded cyclist who doesn't follow the cycling styles or conventions pushed by advertisers. However, it also has evolved to describe a neophyte bicycle enthusiast who buys all the latest gear without having much ability. That second definition....    more »

Think you're too old to take a bicycle tour or long-distance bike ride? You're not.

The Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) recently published its online survey of 5,900 cyclists from the summer of 2010.

The average age was 44.6 years old; 7% of the RAGBRAI cyclists were 65 or older, left.

When I left on my coast-to-coast bicycle travels many years ago, I feared I might be too old. I was 34. It seems laughable now, but bicycling seemed like such a youthful pursuit .....   more »

You might find it inspirational to learn that an 88-year-old man won three gold medals at the Connecticut Senior Games earlier this year.

But the back story for cycling enthusiast Bob Sawyer is so much more amazing than that.

A year earlier, the Bedford, Massachusetts, man had been hospitalized with lymphoma, complicated by pneumonia and the inability to eat because he could not swallow. His doctors had discovered the lymphoma on a CT-scan after he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

So there he was in the hospital, wasting away. Everyone, including himself, had started to give up hope ...   more »

Mark Junge wants to prove that he can go on bike tours too, even though he's a daily supplemental oxygen user.

Junge, a retired historian, photographer and writer from Wyoming, is leaving New York City this week for a 816-mile bike tour to Charleston, South Carolina. He expects the bike ride to take about two weeks.

The bike traveler suffers from blood clots in the lungs, a Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease that makes it difficult for him to breath. Instead becoming inactive because of the disorder, however, Junge gets on his bike to motivate others with the condition to go out and live a full life ....   more »

Here are two examples of when you should age-out of bike riding -- never.

First is John Damiano, 80, who just finished up a cross-country bicycle vacation this summer. He told PhillyBurbs.com:

"I wanted to do something totally hard. I wanted to do it to see if an 80-year-old man could ride 3,629 miles."

He can.

Damiano bicycles frequently and has done several long-distance trips. The recent ride from Astoria, Oregon, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was his first cross-country adventure ...   more »

Every so often someone will send me an e-mail to learn more about my recovery from prostate surgery.

This weekend, it is 72-year-old Peter Kierulf of Norway. He wrote that he's going in for prostate surgery on Monday. He'd like to hear from other men who have undergone the minimally invasive robotic procedure, and he wants to know how long before they started bicycling again.

That fact that doctors have judged it safe to perform surgery on Peter is a testament to his health and fitness -- probably from his years on the bike. But I can relate to his anxiety....   more »

It's inspiration time.

When getting passed by an elderly bicyclist in the state of Missouri, you should check the back of his shirt as he flies past. If it says, "You've just been passed by an 80-year-old man," then that's Charles Brinkmeyer.

An active cyclist for the past 20 years, Brinkmeyer recently celebrated his 80th birthday with an 80-mile ride ...   more »

Forget about the dishes in the sink. Forget about mowing the lawn and posting your blog. Forget about sleep. If you had 24 hours, how far could you ride your bicycle?

More than 400 bicyclists met at the National 24-Hour Challenge last weekend near Grand Rapids, Michigan, to seek the answer to that question. It was the 24th meeting for the event.

Seattle resident Craig Ragsdale, 29, learned he could set the course record by covering 502.6 miles. Just as amazing, 67-year-old Dave Thomsen of Austin, Minnesota, bicycled 403.9 miles. ...   more »

If you're looking for inspiration to get on the bike, look no further than Bill Anderson.

The 81-year-old cyclist from Yuma is pedaling the 2,000-mile perimeter of Arizona over the next two weeks to raise money for Yuma's Crossroads Mission, a charity for the homeless.

This would be quite a feat for someone half his age, but for Anderson it's pretty much par for the course. The former boxer, WWII vet and construction executive is an excellent example of how a lifetime of exercise can keep someone active for many years. ...   more »

Mikhail Davenport sets out this weekend to cycle 950 miles across Texas in 25 days.

No, it isn't a torrid pace. But the 58-year-old Texan is riding from El Paso to Beaumont on a hand-crank trike towing a trailer with his wheelchair.

Calling it the Legless Lizard Tour de Tejas, Davenport wants to raise awareness for disability issues currently in front of the state Legislature -- such as the state's claims of immunity in not following regulations of the Americans with Disabilities Act   more »

Searching for inspiration? Look no further than this story sent in by a reader about Guy Spear. You'll never again complain that it's too hot, too cold, or too windy for a bicycle ride.

Spear is a 68-year-old cyclist from North Carolina who regularly rides his bike about 100 miles a week. He lost his lower left leg 13 years ago when he was struck by a car, and now rides using a prosthesis, at right.

In a story in the Winston-Salem Journal, Spear says:

"Getting back on the bike wasn't hard. ... I guess you just do your thing and keep on going. I never got depressed or anything about it." ...   more »

American cyclist Tyler Hamilton competed in his first professional bicycling race on Tuesday since being accused of blood doping in the fall of 2004 during the Vuelta a Espana.

Hamilton rode in the one-day French season opener, the Grand Prix d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, as leader of the Russian Tinkoff Credit Systems cycling team. Teammate Mikhail Ignatiev finished second; Hamilton finished out of the top 15.

Hamilton lost his final appeal of the blood doping case last year ...   more »