Maintaining cadence and using suitable gear ratios for the conditions are king. All the best with your fitness!

I did live somewhere relatively flat and suited to fast speeds. the first time I panniered up it was a marin palisades with blackburn racks and cannondale overland panniers to take the current Mrs crazydave to see some family. just over a 100 miles. My panniers and rack arrived at the local bike shop the day before so I had no time to get used to it and threw myself straight into the deep end with her behind on her new road bike unladen as she was only a wee 7 stone thing. 40 miles of flat then 60 miles of hills. being used to 30 mile fast legs it taught me to settle back and stay in the saddle and throw myself rather than the bike around as I was used to. I also learnt to pace it mainly because if I didn’t force feed her she would bonk out and I’d lose her so I dropped my speeds to a steady 14mph. if it wasn’t for her constant punctures from riding in the gutter all the time we would have stormed it but she did get plenty of rest. on the way back she got tyre liners and new tubes – and more hills.

Trying to get back into it at 47 now, still got the muscle definition from my younger days but they aren’t trained up so its slow going. and I’m back living in a hilly area so finding somewhere flat enough to get a good aerobic circuit going is proving hard. and I will have to get used to lower gears, settling back and concentrate on cadence. so thanks for the article it’s all interesting.
.

You’re not hopeless, you’re just going to have to work a little harder than some! But that’s ok, you’ll get fitter faster AND you’ll drop weight too.

I agree, you can easily modify your pedalling cadence with a little practice.

I started four months ago. I thought my legs were going to fall off doing 70 rpm. Now I’m cruising around and looking down at the computer showing me doing 95-100 without even realizing it. It just happens the more you ride, the more your body adjusts. As for age, 57 is absolutely fine time to start cycling. As with everything as you get older, just need to be more careful. Listen to your body.

– The Alfine 8 can handle a 1.9:1 drive ratio. So that’s a range of 27-84″ with 700x38c. Not good for much more than flat/undulated touring.
– The Rohloff range is fine for touring. With a 2.1:1 drive ratio, you will get 16-84″. That’s 40km/h at 100 RPM in the highest gear. You can tune it down to 1.9:1 if you need even lower climbing gears. It’s also worth noting that some people use a Schlumpf Drive or front derailleur in combination with a Rohloff to get more top-end gears.
– The Pinion has an exceptional gear range! You can set it up to achieve everything from 16-105″. That pretty much covers all bases for a touring bike.
– You can run whatever chainrings/cogs are available from Rohloff/Pinion, as long as you select a drive ratio that suits your riding.