I just joined the forum today. I'm relatively new to cycling. Well if you don't count the years before I could legally drive a car when I rode my bike anywhere and everywhere, just like the rest of us.
I got back into it when because of health issues I started to exercise and watch my diet. One of the exercises was to ride a stationary bike in the gym. I realized that riding outside would probably be less boring so I bought an inexpensive MTB and began experiencing the joys of a sore butt and the great outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. That was about 2 years ago. This year about June I got tired of falling behind some of my younger riding friends on their road bikes and bought a proper road bike. So now at the age of 67, some of my friends, that are 25 years my junior, struggle to keep up with me. It's great. I love it. My goal for next year is to do the 2 day STP ride from Seattle to Portland in July. So far, my longest ride has been 75 relatively hilly miles. I and one of my friends did it in 5 hours and 5 minutes so I think I'm on track to achieve my goal. About 10,000 people do this ride and some, about 2000 of them, do it in one day. The rest, including myself do it in two 100 mile days.
So I'm anxious to learn more about this sport and look forward to sharing ideas.
Now for my first question: On this forum, what's the purpose of "Friends and Contact"? How is it used? What's the advantage? I found that within minutes of becoming a registered member, I got a message that someone in the UK wanted to "be my friend". Now I'm not a suspicious person by nature. But, I've just signed up and someone I don't know now wants to "be my friend".
That's a little strange, unless I'm missing something. I certainly don't want to snub anyone, and maybe it just that I don't know what being a friend on this site is all about.
I got back into it when because of health issues I started to exercise and watch my diet. One of the exercises was to ride a stationary bike in the gym. I realized that riding outside would probably be less boring so I bought an inexpensive MTB and began experiencing the joys of a sore butt and the great outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. That was about 2 years ago. This year about June I got tired of falling behind some of my younger riding friends on their road bikes and bought a proper road bike. So now at the age of 67, some of my friends, that are 25 years my junior, struggle to keep up with me. It's great. I love it. My goal for next year is to do the 2 day STP ride from Seattle to Portland in July. So far, my longest ride has been 75 relatively hilly miles. I and one of my friends did it in 5 hours and 5 minutes so I think I'm on track to achieve my goal. About 10,000 people do this ride and some, about 2000 of them, do it in one day. The rest, including myself do it in two 100 mile days.
So I'm anxious to learn more about this sport and look forward to sharing ideas.
Now for my first question: On this forum, what's the purpose of "Friends and Contact"? How is it used? What's the advantage? I found that within minutes of becoming a registered member, I got a message that someone in the UK wanted to "be my friend". Now I'm not a suspicious person by nature. But, I've just signed up and someone I don't know now wants to "be my friend".
That's a little strange, unless I'm missing something. I certainly don't want to snub anyone, and maybe it just that I don't know what being a friend on this site is all about.
