BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I think old fart is more of a state of mind than a specific age... and also relative to the perceived audience.

I'm 38, and generally think of myself as being 'young-ish,' despite the loads of gray hairs. (At work, I have the largest number of gray hairs, even though I'm the youngest by about 5 years.)

But I'll occasionally call myself old, old fart or curmudgeon if I think I'm showing my age.

Normally I'll do that when I'm talking to (or think I'm talking to) someone 15+ years younger than myself.

I will be 30 in June. I think I am still 16. I act like a 15 year old boy, actually. I have grey hair and I don't think I will be dying it again.

just saying - I work with a woman who has long gray hair, and it actually looks really awesome.

Middle age, which was once just a speck on the horizon, is rapidly approaching.

Being an old fart is certainly a state of mind. While I relish any opportunity to be a grumpy old man (hey, stick with your strengths!), like stef, I don't feel anywhere (or act) anywhere near as old as I am.

I only realize that I am not 24 anymore when people pass me climbing hills

Being old enough to remember where I was when I heard JFK was assassinated I think qualifies me as an old fart. (I had just gotten home from kindergarten, and was watching then-15-minute-long "Search for Tomorrow" with my grandmother, who lived downstairs. So there. "Guiding Light", which normally came on at 12:45, was canceled that day.)

State of mind, indeed. On my 90th birthday, I intend to run around the block naked, and in order to object to it, you also have to be 90, naked, and able to catch me. Otherwise STFU.

You rule, stu!

I should say that although I am the age I am, the 'me' that moved to PGH in 1990 would think I'm old. But, I feel better and can do more physically than I have since my mid 20's. (In fact, the last two years have been the most physically active I've been in my entire life. No way the 18 year old me would even contemplate running a 5K or cycling a century, but he was cycling 30-50 miles a week in the summer.)

If anything, on a typical day, I *feel* as young as the 'me' from 1990. Even if the 24 year olds are passing me up the hills...(I'm pretty sure I've been passed by people chronologically older than me on numerous occasions.)

Now on a bad day, that's completely different.

I'm 54 and have been riding bikes since I was 6 or 7, so I've been riding for almost 50 years I guess. For along time I just rode on weekends, but now I typically ride 20 miles a day, everyday, on the bike part of my commute. I like the quote in the book "Born to Run" :

"Your never to old to run, you get old because you stop running. "

Relatedly, I like backcountry skiing in Utah and Nevada, and with the new ski gear, I'm currently skiiing places I never was able to do before. I think the bikeing really helped a whole bunch with my lung capacity, I can climb up those mountains like crazy.

I just turned 45, and I have enough grey hair to be consistently called "Ma'am" in public. Inside my head I'm somewhere in my early 30s (so you can imagine my surprise when people call me Ma'am).

I stepped on a scale the other day and realized that I'm not old and slow.

I'm fat and slow. I posted elsewhere that I was 30 pounds over, well. That's about half true. Winter was especially bad this year.

I have every expectation that when I drop the weight I'll be able to perform in line with where I was when I was 24. I'm 29 now, fwiw. As a matter of fact, I've been 29 so long, I'm more 29 than ANYONE. 'cept maybe Mick.

People constantly underestimate my age. This entertains me socially, professionally it irks me to no end. (yes, I was recently told "why that's a big job for such a young girl"... he's retired now. but the majority of my professional life has been spent telling powerful middle aged men that they cannot have/do what they want until I tell them they can, it's a hurdle some overcome better than others)

Age is a state of mind. I tend to believe people who self-define as "old-fart", with the understanding that the definition may be transient, and not permanent. Personally I average about 13 years old.

@ helen s can we set up an anoymous poll that gives age ranges without identifying individuals?

Ask and you shall receive. Check out the front page. i was just looking for a new poll topic

http://bike-pgh.org/

I self-define as Old Fart now and then, and it's all relative. Like Helen said, I think this Board skews younger, maybe mid 20's on average? So I claim Old Fart status here as a way of admitting I'm not as hip as I used to be (or maybe never was). It's mostly self-deprecating.

I also self-define as "young-at-heart" so maybe I don't know what any of it means?

ejwme, I was in the same boat in my 20s and early 30s. It drove me nuts, too. Now, with a head that's almost completely grey in my mid-40s, people often assume I'm older. On rare occasions I'm asked if I get the senior citizen's discount.

It's kind of interesting to walk around with mismatched hair color and face. Depending on how people react to me, I know which one they're looking at.

Mary, gray hair on mid-40s women is only unusual because so many of them have been dyeing it a different color since they were 29.

This is definitely a thread for me, I should have something astute to say. But since I spent my morning 60 feet in the air on the side of a building on a bouncing bucket lift, resisting every screaming neuron in my brain telling me not to, and I did it, I'm not feeling particularly like an old fart today. Plus it's an awesome day. So all you larvae can just bite me! Ha, ha!

I let my son go up on the bucket too, I bet he's the only kid in the 9th grade who's been up in one of those. He's a badass.

looks like the 40-49 year olds are winning the poll

Mary - I was a checkout clerk at CVS for a few months, and Wednesday was Senior Discount Day. If I asked, it was rude. If I didn't ask, it was rude. I started greeting people "Welcome to CVS where every Wednesday is Senior Discount Day if you present appropriate ID to me before paying, did you find everything ok?" got the job done with fewer rants and raves.

Storm from X-men has awesome hair.

@erok I just spent a couple of minutes searching for the quick poll. On a hunch I turned off Adblock Plus for bike-pgh.org and reloaded the page to finally see it. Didn't know what I was missing all this time. Just thought you'd want to know if you didn't already.

It's the ###sponsorbar rule.

stefb, you don't act like a 15 year old boy. you act like a 12 year old boy. BIIIIIIIIG difference.

I reach one of those milestone years this year, the BIG 60. I try to keep the following in mind.

a) You're only young once, but you can be immature your entire life.

b) Youth is a gift, age is a talent(some luck too).

c) "A man's only as old as the woman he feels.' - Groucho Marx -

Also people who make double posts are old farts.

I know I'm not as young as I used to be, but I usually don't realize it; I mostly still feel like I'm in my mid-20s or something. But as far as I'm concerned it's the people who take life too seriously that are old.

I've been done with school for 5 hours, and I already feel old.

I'm usually stuck between, "I'm only 22, there's so much I can still accomplish," and "I'm 22 already? I've gotta put a move on it, time is flying WAY too fast"

22 year olds saying they feel old, makes me feel old.

Also Nick makes me feel old, deliberately.

And when Jane thought I modified my high bed so I could get in and out of it easier.

Time for a little John Milton:

Sonnet VII, On His Being Arrived at the Age of 23

HOW soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth,

Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!

My hasting days fly on with full career,

But my late spring no bud or blossom sheweth.

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,

That I to manhood am arrived so near,

And inward ripeness doth much less appear

That some more timely happy spirits indueth.

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even

To that same lot however mean or high,

Toward which time leads me and the will of heaven.

All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great taskmaster's eye.

I'm a twentienth-century sort of person, so Brian sent me off thinking, Auden, Auden, but of course it's not, I'm thinking of Housman, in this case technically 19th, http://lmgtfy.com/?q=when+I+was+one+and+twenty

Chronologically 39

feel like 30

act like 22

We old farts know who we are, and don't need any of you kids reminding us about it! (Just kidding....!)

I thought I saw Mary waiting at a bus stop this morning, as the light turned red. I said hi and she blushed, smiled, and dropped her head back into her book. I guess it wasn't Mary, but I made some senior citizen's morning

I'm 58.

It's getting to the point tht I knoww damn well that age has little to do with states of mind.

I used to be able to boost my energy levels just by working out regularly for a couple of months. No more.

Lyle, was the confused person at 5th & Thackeray? That was me. Sorry -- I didn't recognize you.

Just say it's cuz I was moving too fast. The whippersnappers will never know the difference.

If anybody asks me how old I am I tell them I'm not sure - a while back the numbers got too big for me to work with, so I quit trying.

@Mick and Lyle and anyone else who wants to steal the line - go ahead.

This thread gives me an excuse to say something I have been thinking for a while.

As an out-of-town dude up the road in Butler, I am always amazed and delighted by the bright, articulate people and passionate cyclists who frequent this board. On how many other boards -- let alone one about bicycles -- could you find folks who quote John Milton sonnets, Groucho Marx and A.E. Housman in the space of a few entries on a single thread?

That, folks, is REALLY pretty cool.

+1 what cdavey said

@cdavey

I just give them my age in dog years and let the long division wear them down.

@mick

Could I steal that idea from you? After I give them my line, I could say that to make the numbers smaller and easier again I started doing it in dog years but they'll have to do the math!! :>)

@cdavey - Sure you could do that. Just multiply your age by 7 (and maybe add another dog year for every two months since your birthday).

I'm 406 in dog years. And - trust me - some of those years were dogs.

Salty, I'm glad that my efforts are noted.

@rubber factory ... time is flying WAY too fast"

A wise man once told me, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper - the closer you get to the end, the faster it spins around."

I gotta be careful with that one since my boss' name is Scott

Two summers ago, in my 49th year, I had some young twit (I'd say 16 or so) on a mountain bike pass my while I was at the bottom of a one mile hill, stopped, eating an energy bar. He said "Nice spandex, old dude." To which I replied, I'll wait for you at the top." So after another minute, I took off, dropped him like a bad habit, got to the top, got off the bike, a laid back in the grass. When he finally got there, I said "You should try some spandex, young sh!t."

Moral of the story: you are truly as young as you feel.

via spinning class I've been meeting so many awesome older riders. And most of them are r-i-p-p-e-d.

@helen s: I would be surprised if ppl age 20-25 are referring to themselves as "old farts."

And since this BBS/Thread is in the context of the cycling genre, I'd go ahead and offer my personal definition of "old fart" - which I personally think I am leaning that way more and more:

-an old fart (ME?)typically cannot understand the following:

*carbon frames

*Aheadsets (what, there's something different?)

*why cyclists would wear non-padded shorts

*why newer jerseys' don't have pockets on the back anymore (see my next point)

*why anyone would want to wear a "hydration device" on their back and get all sweaty instead of a convenient water bottle that is not a pain in the a** to clean

*padded gel saddles

*GPS

*"track my ride" type websites

*why some riders don't take the time to determine the proper saddle height, and typically hyperextend their legs (darn you hipsters...you know who you are!)

*baggy shorts that cover your "regular/spandex" shorts - are you embarrassed or something?

*a host of other things related to cycling that I don't have time nor energy to write

okay, i'm done.

ajbooth

you are my hero. seriously.

When Mozart was my age he had been dead for 3 years.

I am 6 years older than Stevie Ray Vaughan was when he died.

But I was only 20 then.

And I have successfully avoided helicopters ever since.

Willie. Get outa my head. "Hydration packs" do have one real advantage, though -- prevent ingesting crap flung up from the road onto your water bottle.

@Lyle - but that crap is a valuable source of protein...

Hydration packs are great. In the woods.

@cburch: one of my friends witnessed me (at Valley Forge NP MTB trails) on single track round a 180deg turn while drinking a water bottle with one hand and the other hand on the bar and mid-turn get totally surprised by a 16 inch log crossing....well, I naturally (instinctively?) pulled on the bars, threw my weight forward, crossed the obstacle and kept on drinking and once grounded on the other side of the log, put the bottle back on my cage.

...so hydration packs in my mind are only if you are the type of rider that feels compelled to have your hands on the bars at all times possibly due to some sort of bike handling skills deficiency

of course, i say this a bit in jest as I've been to the emergency room plenty o' times for MTB incidents.

and, to this day, I still run cages on all my bikes.

everyone also knows that you can't be "euro-trash" cool by flinging your hydration packs off to the side of the road (trail) in the final kilometers of an event....hahaha

I just drink my water when I've stopped moving.

I just drink my water when I've stopped moving.

+1

In hot weather, you can fill a hydration bladder with ice and beverage-o-choice, then drape it over the back of your neck under your collar.

OMG that helps when it's stupid-hot.

What I lack in age I make up for in amount of times I've been referred to as "crotchety"

Have you ever been called "youthful"?

"Youthful" has a certain sting to it. Think about it -- the only reason people would call you youthful is if they think you're old! Nobody calls a 23-year-old youthful.

"Well preserved"

Refridgerator magnet

You look pretty good for your age!

But that's like saying your dog has pretty good breath for a canine.

"Well preserved?" So are prunes.

"Well preserved?" So are prunes.

So are mummies.

Ok, closed the poll here are the results:

16 or younger (1%, 5 Votes)

17-21 (7%, 23 Votes)

22-29 (38%, 130 Votes)

30-39 (23%, 77 Votes)

40-49 (14%, 47 Votes)

50-59 (13%, 44 Votes)

60-69 (3%, 11 Votes)

70 or older (0%, 1 Votes)

Total voters: 338

Damn whippersnappers…grumble, grumble.

I'm just grumpy because the whippersnapper cutoff was 29.

I came in just under the cutoff.

haha dwillen, you're in the same group as me which is officially "old".... i heard you got a mirror on your helmet too - that's a dead giveaway, just ask nick.

Yea, and I have a beard too. I guess I'm only about 2 vertical feet away from becoming the second recumbent dan.

"well preserved"

How about pickled?

Young punk kids!

Wow, I am seriously surprised at how many over-40 people are here. I always figured I was one of a very few folks. There's a lot of us -- and, of course, our numbers will only grow with time!

Bah, I was cutoff on the bottom range of whippersnappers. If I get a recumbent and mirror can I join the get off my lawn crowd? I've already got a dwillian-esque beard