I don't usually spend a lot of time "preaching" to folks but we older people need to exercise regularly, ride an exercycle so you take the weight off your feet while keeping some tension on your leg muscles, and do a little weight lifting several times a week, light weights, lots of reps. I have gone extended periods not getting much exercise and it is alarming how fast we lose our ability to even keep our balance well. Exercise helps even with favoring old injuries like my two busted up shoulders, broken clavicles, arthritis, calcium deposits, torn rotator cuffs on both sides. I'm 83 and a 50 year diabetic, cardiovascular disease, neuropathy, kidney disease, diminished lung capacity from smoking for nearly 50 years and a bad bout of acid reflux that got into my lungs, partial amputee of my left foot, take about 20 pills a day, 6 to 8 shots of insulin a day, and do have mobility issues so I use a bike to help me get around, an electric bike, a fat tire mountain bike, but still I exercise in addition to peddling the bike. It's a little hilly where I live, called the Rocky Mountains, and no matter how good of shape I'm in, there are times when I need a little boost with the pedals and that's when I twist the throttle on the electric motor. I do most of my shooting up in the Rockies which start about 5 minutes from my house and those are definitely hills that can put some demand on an old guy. I carry the bike on a back rack to where I unload and ride it around the area where I want to shoot.

I've had an electric mountain bike for about 20 years now and about wore it out so last summer I got a new one. I got a stout front wheel 48 volt hub motor and as soon as I got it all put together I took it for a little test ride. It was very responsive and powerful until what turned out to be a defective motor decided it would lock up on me going at a pretty good clip which caused the front wheel to rip out of the forks and shoot to the rear of the bike which, of course, caused the fork to dig into the asphalt which very inconveniently ejected me over the handlebars about eight or ten feet out in front of where the bike stopped. Fortunately for me, I was a bike and then motorcycle messenger for the Western Union as a young man eight hours a day, five days a week for a few years and have never been without bikes and motorcycles, so I have fallen off two wheel transport about every conceivable way but this was a new experience. Still, I was able to control my landing to an extent and came out with only a skinned elbow and knee. I picked up the pieces, walked home and ordered me another bike and a rear wheel motor. Somewhat complacent, I had failed to think the front wheel motor through thinking it'd never be a problem but the sudden reminder brought me out of that stupor pretty quick.

I was sore for a few days but that's as bad as it got. I'm sure we could all say, "well, it could've been different," but the deal is that it wasn't. And yes, I'm lucky, and aware of it, but part of that luck was cultivating my coping skills for riding a bike through the years and not letting all that slip away from me. The attributes of our younger years shouldn't be allowed to diminish into thin air as our muscle memory is allowed to atrophy from a lack of use so we're afraid to do anything for fear that we'll get hurt. "Use it or lose it!" I figure I'll probably take a big digger one of these days so I carry a note in my shirt pocket with instructions. It's not exactly riding a rocket to the moon but I'll tell you, it's kinda fun and I'm damn sure not going out sitting on the couch watching "Judge Judy," Whoopie Goldberg, or Maury Povich.

I have experienced four broken bones over the years. A spiral leg fracture after making a bad decision on a ski slope at age 18. Then a broken collar bone on a bike ride in my 40s, followed by a tibia plateau fracture when my golden retriever slipped in the snow and plowed into my knee. And finally at age 68 a fractured shoulder in another cycling fall that has significantly reduced my left arm range of motion.

I’ve had those same injuries in bicycle wrecks, plus multiple broken ribs. Not fun!

Today, it is easy and careful all the way. I have avoided many areas and skipped photo ops not wanting to go further another surgery and rehab, etc.

Common sense is very important at 71.