How many miles a year do you ride?

[Stefan Mikes]

started using Strava.

We know each other Ed more from Strava than from the EBR Forums! It is a real pleasure to see your friend pedalling; it is one of the greatest features of Strava, its social media role. I'm sure you can further improve your stats for 2026 by riding your Creo 2 more! (I also can notice how hilly the area you are riding in is!)

After a long cycling hiatus beginning in 1997, I bought a pedal bike in 2013. Meanwhile, my main ailment related to blood circulation was silently developing, which almost took me off the bike from 2015. I could return to cycling from August 2019 thanks to e-bikes (of course, only pedalling, no throttle). You Ed used MapMyRide and I was recording my rides with Endomondo, which collapsed in November 2020. I was lucky to find SyncMyTracks, an inexpensive phone app that let me transfer all my Endomondo rides to Strava, RideWithGPS and Komoot. Then, I bought my first Wahoo and started recording all my rides with uploads to those three systems (I maintain Strava only).

Here is my ride history since 2013:

I'm 64 this year.

 

[edobici_forza]

We know each other Ed more from Strava than from the EBR Forums! It is a real pleasure to see your friend pedalling; it is one of the greatest features of Strava, its social media role. I'm sure you can further improve your stats for 2026 by riding your Creo 2 more! (I also can notice how hilly the area you are riding in is!)

After a long cycling hiatus beginning in 1997, I bought a pedal bike in 2013. Meanwhile, my main ailment related to blood circulation was silently developing, which almost took me off the bike from 2015. I could return to cycling from August 2019 thanks to e-bikes (of course, only pedalling, no throttle). You Ed used MapMyRide and I was recording my rides with Endomondo, which collapsed in November 2020. I was lucky to find SyncMyTracks, an inexpensive phone app that let me transfer all my Endomondo rides to Strava, RideWithGPS and Komoot. Then, I bought my first Wahoo and started recording all my rides with uploads to those three systems (I maintain Strava only).

[truncated]

Stefan, yes, I hope to improve. and know I will. But I just want to highlight that we are all so different! I am a purely recreational rider. I know so many others are practical riders who have 15 to 20 miles of daily commutes. so the initial question of yearly mileage will vary greatly. And it applies to both the rider! and the bike!

Yes, to your send point. it is difficult for me to to an an enjoyable ride in my local area that is not without a decent amount of elevation. I have, thankfully, been able to adapt. I am slow. but I have decent endurance. I am 59 and not a jock. and never raced. just love riding. So it is all relative. In my area there are a bunch of hard core riders. I do not know any of them. and they range from 20-65yrs old. I love it. Just have to understand the context

 

[edobici_forza]

This is a separate post to give you the biggest kudos for recovering from your personal physical condition and just being a great bike advocate! You rock Stefan!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

[truncated]

Stefan, yes, I hope to improve. and know I will. But I just want to highlight that we are all so different! I am a purely recreational rider. I know so many others are practical riders who have 15 to 20 miles of daily commutes. so the initial question of yearly mileage will vary greatly. And it applies to both the rider! and the bike!

Yes, to your send point. it is difficult for me to to an an enjoyable ride in my local area that is not without a decent amount of elevation. I have, thankfully, been able to adapt. I am slow. but I have decent endurance. I am 59 and not a jock. and never raced. just love riding. So it is all relative. In my area there are a bunch of hard core riders. I do not know any of them. and they range from 20-65yrs old. I love it. Just have to understand the context

Just to put my situation in a right perspective:
Majority of my rides are recreational:

• Solo adventure trips
• Riding with a friend or friends (yes, I actively pursued finding riding friends!)
• Riding with a family member
• Organized group rides:
  • Organized by someone else
  • Organized by myself
• Gravel races (paid)
• Vacation rides (solo or with friends)

The other activities come from the fact I conciously got rid of a car:

• Shopping
• Physician, pharmacy and lab visits
• Lunch and coffee rides
• Taking any opportunity to rent an e-bike on my trips abroad

All this is facilitated by the fact I live in a neighbourhood that requires some transportation to get the basic things. The other is I live within a riding (or, a train trip) distance from the country's capital city. Third (and most important) is I actively use social media to find cycling friends and group rides

There was a 2025 activity I am very proud of: I "painted" the map of Warsaw city limits by riding along them As many as three friends could intercept me on the ride and ride together with me on different ride segments! (166 km or over 100 miles over 2 days).