Annabelle & Bryan

Ride, Ride, Ride…. for Annabelle and Bryan social bike riding for fitness and mental health is essential to their positive ageing experience. They plan to continue riding for many years to come, like some of their inspiring 90 year old riding companions.

Read Annabelle and Bryan’s full conversation below or watch the video.

Bryan: “I think that fitness plays a very, very important part in your mental health, or maintaining mental health and the way I use it is as a relief.”

Annabelle: “It’s more of a social activity for me than a fitness goal. Going out with other people, developing things in common with them, having great experiences, going on cycling holidays with people, or even just riding along the bike path and enjoying the beauty of a day. Seeing things you haven’t seen before and passing people and hearing children playing and looking at the view, you come home feeling so much better.”

Bryan: “It’s pretty important, I think, as you get older to actually be tired when you go to bed. Sleeping is quite different at our age compared to 20 or 30 years ago where you just hit the bed and went to sleep. Aging is something that we all have to come to grips with because you can’t escape it. And the way we feel today, or the way I feel today, is quite different to the way I felt 25 years ago, but it’s not worse… it’s just different. We are surrounded by many people who ride bikes, who ride bikes into their 90’s and we talk to them, we share jokes, we share coffee and we ride together at various times. They may ride a little slower, but we can all meet at the same sort of places.

Annabelle: “My next step after I can’t keep up with people riding is to get an E-bike. Because then I can.”