‘Hope I never stop’: older men and their two-wheeled love affairs

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to explore the meanings and experiences of road cycling to older men, specifically in the context of ageing. Using interpretive phenomenology, we explored the lived experiences of 12 men, aged 52–82 years. The generally middle class, predominantly white men lived in Ontario, Canada. Four interrelated themes – enjoying the bike, the ride, and the self; experiencing camaraderie; being fit and feeling well; and embracing ageing – described the essences of road cycling to these men. We encountered men who were at one with their bikes and discovered cycling to be a multi-layered phenomenon – a physical activity with few limitations to participation and a conduit to exercise and well-being. As does cycling, ageing begins in the physical; cycling offered these men a way to resist and reconceptualize society’s tragedy decline discourse of ageing. This study illuminates the lives and experiences of a group of older men, from their perspective. We extend the leisure literature by exploring how some older men resist society’s tragedy decline discourse of ageing through road cycling and reconstruct notions of what ageing can mean.

KEYWORDS:

• Older men
• ageing
• cycling
• physical activity
• phenomenology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Karla Minello has a Master of Arts in Recreation and Leisure Studies from the University of Waterloo. At 51, Karla transitioned from private business to graduate school to pursue her passion for play, well-being, and ageing. As an independent researcher, Karla is interested in exploring play and playfulness, adoption issues, later life leisure, ageing, and well-being.

Deborah Nixon holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Toronto with a focus on building high-trust organizations. She has researched trust and its impact on individuals and society since 1994. Her background in trust provides her with a deep understanding of the impact of non-verbal cues, the importance of creating a safe space for discussion and the power of position and influence to create a culture of candour.

Notes

1. Through a cycling club, five of the participants knew each other quite well, and several of these men wanted to read the research. Given our commitment to participants’ rights to privacy and anonymity, if we assessed a quote may identify one participant to another, we did not attribute it to a specific individual.