When Arthur Plummer retired at 65, he bought a secondhand bicycle. His sister was a member of a cycling club for seniors in the Canadian city of Waterloo, Ontario, where they lived, and Plummer joined, too, becoming one of the club\u2019s youngest members. Now he is 92 and its oldest member \u2013 but he still cycles thousands of kilometres every year. His odometer for this year so far reads 4,270km (2,650 miles). After our conversation, he intends to cycle another 40km.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love cycling,\u201d he says. \u201cWherever I go, even if I ride on the same roads, there\u2019s something new happening. When I get on my bike, I feel great. I come home at about 3pm and I feel exhausted. However, it\u2019s the nicest feeling. It\u2019s exhilarating, and it\u2019s resulted in me being extremely healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when, in his late 80s, Plummer developed polymyalgia rheumatica (an inflammatory condition that causes pain, stiffness and inflammation in the shoulders, neck and hips) and was unable to walk, cycling helped him to move again. \u201cI was in a wheelchair and I would sit outside in my driveway and people would go by and I felt trapped,\u201d he says. \u201cI can\u2019t walk,\u201d he thought, \u201cbut if I can get on my bike, I bet I could ride.\u201d So that\u2019s what he did.<\/p>\n
Although his legs are strong, walking is still uncomfortable; he has a shortened stride and sometimes struggles to keep up with his wife and friends on holiday. Cycling<\/a>, on the other hand, brings freedom. Plummer has cycled \u201con every street you can go on\u201d within 100 sq miles (260 sq km) of where he lives. He often takes his bike on the bus so that he can explore farther afield. \u201cI\u2019m looking for new vistas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u2018Looking for new vistas\u2019 \u2026 Arthur Plummer. Photograph: Ema Suvajac\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Plummer wasn\u2019t into sports when he was growing up. His parents, he says, \u201cwere not well off\u201d. His father worked in a rubber factory, his mother looked after the home and worked as a waiter, and as a sales assistant in a clothes shop. \u201cThere were few luxuries. It was a tough life, but it was a good life.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1934, when I was born, it was the norm to not have money.\u201d His classmates were either rich or poor. \u201cAnd we stayed apart. It was an advantage to be poor, because you had more friends.\u201d<\/p>\n There wasn\u2019t time to cycle in younger adulthood. After college, Plummer worked as an estimator or quantity surveyor, initially on hydro projects in northern Quebec, before returning to Ontario. Along the way, he became a single parent to three daughters, then aged nine, 11 and 13 \u2013 \u201ca wonderful experience\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n Later, he partnered with four others in a company that oversaw construction and renovation projects in schools. But he found the job very stressful and when a colleague had a heart attack, he decided he needed to change jobs. At 50, he became a municipal building inspector, a job he did until retirement. Sometimes, he would drive past a colleague who commuted by bike, even pedalling through a winter snow squall. \u201cYou know how you remember some things for ever in your life? I thought: \u2018Wow, he\u2019s an avid cyclist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When he took up cycling himself, Plummer rode at a maximum sustained speed of 25kph. Now that\u2019s dropped to between 15 and 20kph, and he has reduced his distance target to 5,000km a year. He is mindful of risks \u2013 he stopped skiing at 90 for fear of breaking a limb \u2013 but he has gone over his handlebars six times, and a few years ago he collided with a car that ran a red light. Mercifully, he escaped with cuts and bruises.<\/p>\n \u201cI apparently went head first on to the road, broke my helmet and passed out. People tell me that when I woke, I ran straight to my bike,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is a kind of a connection between the rider and the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n A couple of years ago, Plummer moved into a high-rise apartment, \u201cliving the urban lifestyle downtown\u201d, and now keeps his carbon-fibre Cannondale bike on a rack next to his bed. \u201cMy bike is my best friend,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are a team.\u201d If Plummer wakes in the night, he acknowledges his bike \u201cwith a greeting: \u2018Hey there, buddy\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n Cycling brings its own momentum. \u201cI am so full of energy, I can\u2019t believe it myself sometimes. I want to get out and use that energy to cycle,\u201d Plummer says. \u201cI hope my last day is on my bike. I have a saying: I\u2019m cycling to eternity and it\u2019s further than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n Tell us: has your life taken a new direction after the age of 60?<\/a><\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Arthur Plummer retired at 65, he bought a secondhand bicycle. 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