still riding

As I came up a steep hill this morning, I saw another woman cyclist approaching from a side street on my left. She had an empty child-seat on the back of her bike.She turned into my street, came up beside me and said cheerily, "It's great to see you still riding - it's the only way to get around, isn't it?" before turning in to a driveway.

Still riding? Anyone would think I was 70. Maybe she thought I was 70? (Surely not.)

I half liked the fact that she'd acknowledged me as a sister cyclist and an older woman on a bike in a city where you don't see many older women on bikes. On the other hand, you do see many 50 year old men on bikes. I can't imagine a younger man or woman saying to a 50 year old male cyclist, "Great to see you still riding".

I wanted to call out after her that only a few years ago I had my own small child on the back of my bike in a child seat. She should enjoy it while she can, because children grow very quickly, just as adults get older before they know it.

Comments

[Gianna]

...are you sure she hasn't just seen you out riding before, hence the 'still riding' comment?

i'm in the market for a 2nd hand bike + child seat myself as H has pretty much outgrown the stroller.
i love that, in a small town, it's possible to structure your life in such a way that you don't actually need a car (and frankly i don't reckon i'll ever have one now, given the state of the planet).
funnily enough, in my town, i often see older women on bikes. more generally, especially in the less affluent areas, there's a lot of bikes around, teens idly riding around the back streets, the contingent of young adult men forced to ride because they've already lost their drivers licence...and the wiry grannies i mentioned.
all inadvertently helping to save the planet, anyway!

[Jody]

I thought maybe she's seen you out and about before, myself. Maybe a bunch of the cyclists she used to see have disappeared, and she meant, "it's great to see you still out and about."

Does anyone look young and beautiful sweating up an urban street?

[susoz]

I can see how it looks from her words on the screen that she had seen me before, but I don't think so - that wasn't the meaning that was evident to me at the time. I live in central Sydney - it's densely populated, there are in fact a lot of cyclists around and she wasn't at all familiar to me (she actually passed me so I got a good look at her - and she had a European accent). I have white-grey hair so I think it was a direct comment on my age. (The funny thing is I went prematurely white but of course at 50, there's no longer anything premature about it!)
"Does anyone look young and beautiful sweating up an urban street?"
I don't know about "young", but I think I look good when I'm cycling ;-)

[susoz]

Gianna, the funny thing is she might have been Dutch, from her accent, and of course people of very advanced age ride bikes there - and in many parts of the world. It's only in this crazy car-dominated city that riding has become a specialist activity.
The child seat only takes up to 18kg so if H is a big boy, you'll have to get a move on getting a bike. I was able to ride with Ol until he was about 5, but he isn't very heavy.

[Gianna]

what are the words to that song? "there are ten million bicycles in bejing..." maybe all that exercise is why Asians seem to look so youthful well into old age?
thanks for the tips. i dunno, i reckon H would be maybe 16 or 17kg now, but then again he's a slim build. must weigh him again sometime!
he hasn't quite gotten the hang of pedalling his trike yet, so it might be some time before I can expect him to cycle across town with me.