Retirement: Riding time increase or decrease ?

[ett]

Back in the early 2000's; I was averaging riding 30k miles per year. And that was only for 9 months.
Not only did I have a long commute; 100+ mile round trip; I also had 4 weeks of vacation every year.
Vacations during which I would strap camping gear to my bike, and disappear for those 4 weeks.
I kept that up for nearly a decade.

After which I got a job with much less vacation time. So my riding was reduced to only 20k miles per year.
Which in turn was followed by a work-from-home job. Which caused my riding to be reduced even more.

Now I am looking at the possibility of retiring; several years before I wanted. I'm only 61 and wanted to retire no earlier than 65.
BUT it's looking like this forced retirement, might cause my riding time to increase.
Probably not back to 30k per year; but maybe something like 15k.

So my question to fellow retirees. Did your riding increase or decrease once you retired ?

 

[ARKNT]

I'm younger than many on this forum at 69. I retired 8 years ago. Certainly do not regret retiring. For me it was the right time.
I ride less than I used to. Part of that is the work commute is gone but the biggest reason is I have hand issues where my hands turn numb. Not just while riding but any activity that keeps my hands from being free and moving around. I've seen a Dr. quite a few years back and I will ride a bit less and change my habits for now to avoid surgery with its side effects and such.
So my riding less is mostly medical stuff.

Good luck on your decision and choices. No matter what/where you work retirement is a big decision that is different for each person.

Arknt

 

[Manfred]

I retired 5 years ago, now 70. I have more miles on my NT in the 21 months I've owned it than I typically put on a bike in 3 years.

 

[Chucksklrst]

When I retired at age 60, my wife continued to work until she turned 70. We are the same age. I had ten years to GO RIDE during that time while she was still working. Lots and Lots of miles. My riding doubled. Once she retired and we were both home we did things together, and as predicted, riding decreased. Now over the last four years her health has gone down hill and I am her caregiver so my riding time and miles have decreased to a trickle. All depends on ones circumstances. With all this said I was able to get a 110 mile FJR ride in today.

 

[Manfred]

When I retired at age 60, my wife continued to work until she turned 70. We are the same age. I had ten years to GO RIDE during that time while she was still working. Lots and Lots of miles. My riding doubled. Once she retired and we were both home we did things together, and as predicted, riding decreased. Now over the last four years her health has gone down hill and I am her caregiver so my riding time and miles have decreased to a trickle. All depends on ones circumstances. With all this said I was able to get a 110 mile FJR ride in today.

View attachment 23799

That is true. I am thankful to God we are in pretty good health.

 

[mikesim]

When I retired at age 60, my wife continued to work until she turned 70. We are the same age. I had ten years to GO RIDE during that time while she was still working. Lots and Lots of miles. My riding doubled. Once she retired and we were both home we did things together, and as predicted, riding decreased. Now over the last four years her health has gone down hill and I am her caregiver so my riding time and miles have decreased to a trickle. All depends on ones circumstances. With all this said I was able to get a 110 mile FJR ride in today.

View attachment 23799

You are lucky that great riding is right outside your door. I hope that health allows you to continue with your short but refreshing rides. Even 110 miles is good for the soul.

Mike

 

[junglejim]

I think Chuck said it best. Circumstances will likely have the most impact on your riding time.

For me, I retired at 60 in 2000 after a 30-year career. But like an idiot I started my own business (construction) for another 15 years. (Worst demanding boss I ever had! - me). My riding went up gradually and peaked about 10 years ago. Now, at 83 I'm tapering down. Physically my strength, balance, sight, hearing, stamina, and yes, cognition are affecting my riding. But one of the biggest factors is the crazy traffic, idiotic and impaired drivers, and the free-for-all on increasingly crowded roads. The good news is that the motorcycles are much better now. But I struggle with the gadgetry.

So ride it now. There is an end out there somewhere.

 

[dduelin]

When I was working I rode more, about 25 to 35,000 miles a year. No commuting for me, just weekends and vacation time. I retired three years ago but like Chuck my wife's health, which was never great to begin with, began to decline even more. Brenda passed away last summer. A good woman and a real fighter. Between us we had three dogs. I could get on a bike and go riding most any day I wanted to as long as I was home by 1 or 2 PM. Now I cannot be away from home that long and it takes preplanning to have a dog sitter so I can leave home for multi-day trips. Life is not a given. I trust the Lord that gives and takes away and thank him for my health each day.

 

[basketcase]

Starting in the summer of 1970 (after 9th grade) I bought my first motorcycle. For several years thereafter my Suzuki TC90 "trail bike" was my daily commuter and after school workhorse. At that season in life I rarely thought about miles ridden. When the bike hit reserve, I stopped long enough for gas and resumed moving.

Other bikes came along, and I rode regularly and with only short-term breaks until 1982 when I moved to NOLA for graduate school. The NOLA traffic was unlike anything I had ever seen: I sold my Honda street bike and did not own a scoot again until 1995.

During the spring of 1995 I bought a Honda Shadow and got back into riding for the sake of "wind therapy." Six months later I traded the Shadow on a BMW K100 and have been on sport-touring or dual sport bikes ever since. I went through a "horse trading" phase. For a while I regularly had two scoots - one a dual sport, and the other a street bike. And for a brief period I owned four but I soon tired of the amount of time the extra bikes consumed. During the same period (from 1995 until about 2015), I averaged 8k to 10k miles per year, riding mostly solo.

We made a physical move to another town in 2015, and my work responsibilities changed significantly in 2017. The upshot was I lost touch with the guys I had ridden with for over 2 decades, and my annual miles began to taper off.

Covid came along and nearly killed me in February 2021. Among other things it forced me into retirement a few years earlier than originally planned. My goal for many years had been to work to age 70 "just because." Post Covid I opted to ease into retirement at age 67. At the time I owned a Gold Wing. Then two years ago this month I bought the NT7.

My Gold Wing has gone away, and the NT is now my only ride. (I considered the GL1800 to be a sport-touring bike on steroids, and rode it as such).

The NT 700 reminds me in many ways of a BMW K75RT that I owned back in the late 1990's. Nimble handing. Nice fairing and windshield. Excellent fuel economy. Easy to maintain. My chief dislike about the NT7 is the half-arsed design of the panniers. From the get-go Honda should have gone with the large lids, and with latches from the GL series. At least, IMHO.

Annual miles: Last year my miles were the lowest they have been since I resumed riding in 1995. At age 71 and as a stroke survivor I'm no long able to do the 500 and 600 mile days I could 20 years ago, but I intend to keep riding two wheels until it's just time to hang it up. The trikes don't interest me, but I won't swear there will never be a Grom or even a scooter in my future.

Onward ...

 

[Coyote Chris]

Its an excellent question because you can not describe retirement to anyone who has not gone through it.
When I retired 21 years ago, I had no idea what I was facing. When I saw money was no problem, I saw that time was. I had to give up canoeing, fishing, and home brewing. Those were things I could do on the weekends when I worked.
Suddenly, I could do lots more motorcycle touring, driving to places like Montana and Oshkosh Wisconsin. Flying to figure skating events, driving to camping spots in the middle of nowhere and shooting black powder with 600 other crazy people. About overnight, I was camping out 30 days a year. Later, I discovered cruising to Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, and through the panama canal.
Now, at 77, things are changing. The Reno Air races...my fav 2 weeks of the year...riding down to Reno in Sept and camping next to my bike...have been taken from me. Lots of the west goes up in smoke in August now.
So I go to our rally and on the way back, hit some national parks and museums. I do one lap of WA. I ride to Cody and stay three days and ride those wonderful roads. I ride around Idaho.
But I use my bikes much less for local rides and not at all in town (Spokane) . Way too many close calls. Today, some idiot biker was doing 80 in a 45 zone and hit a big horse trailer and pickup who turned in front of him....probably not realizing how fast the biker was going. No citations for the pickup driver...the biker doesnt need any now. Glad he didnt hit me.
I still love touring the west...mostly on two lane roads.....and camping.....rain forests to 9,000 ft camp grounds....but when you retire, you can do lots of other things too.

 

[ST1100Y]

On a serious note:
I'll hope to be out on the roads for like 6 months then...