Bike trips for seniors. Exercise bikes

23 Bike Tours Dates and Descriptions

Thank you for your interest in Wilderness Voyageurs bike tours. In our 2023 season, we bring you our classic rail-trail, road and mountain bike tours, many of which explore our wonderful US National Parks. Our gravel tours continue this year in New York, Colorado and West Virginia!

See all 2023 Bike Tours in one calendar view and pick the dates that work best for you! Where will you adventure this year?

Rediscover America on a USA Bike Tour

6 Days/5 Nights

Price: 2200 / 620

Departure Dates: 5/14 | 6/4 | 9/17 | 10/8 | 10/22

CO Canal

Spend 6-days riding along the Potomac River on a historic towpath through the Chesapeake Ohio Canal National Historical Park for 184 miles between Georgetown in Washington, DC and Cumberland, MD. Our CO Canal bike tour spans the length of one of our nation’s oldest recreation paths. You’ll experience the iconic lush, green tunnel of trees over the bike trail as it transports you back to the early 1900s.

Tour level: Active

6 Days/5 Nights

Price: 2515 / 595

Departure Dates: 2/5 | 2/12 | 2/19 | 2/26 | 3/5 | 10/29 | 11/5 | 11/12

Florida’s Suncoast

Pack your flip-flops and let’s bike the paved trails of the Pinellas peninsula and keys of Bradenton/Sarasota with sun on our faces and coastal breezes at our back. It’s hard to beat Florida’s relaxed riding and average early spring temps in the low 70s. And while hills are tough to come by here, the spectacular bridges will take you 45-72 feet above mooring sailboats for the trip’s best views, plus give you an effortless burst of speed on the other side.

Tour level: Relaxed

4 Days/3 Nights

Price: 1795 / 350

Departure Dates: 5/22 | 5/30 | 6/5 | 6/13 | 6/18 | 6/20 | 6/27 | 7/2 | 7/10 | 7/16 | 7/24 | 8/21 | 8/27 | 8/28 | 9/5 | 9/6 | 9/10 | 9/11

Idaho’s Hiawatha Trail Coeur D’Alene

Come to Idaho for some of the most incredible rail trail riding in the country: The famous Route of the Hiawatha and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene. You’ll get to check these two Rail-to-Trail Conservancy’s Hall of Fame trails off of your bucket list! The Hiawatha treats you to 10 tunnels, including the famous “Taft Tunnel” at 8771 feet long, and 7 steel trestles – one of which is 220 feet high. As you can imagine, stunning scenery and grand vistas await!

Tour Level: Active

4 Days/3 Nights

Price: 1580 / 375

Departure Dates: 5/9 | 5/21 | 9/12 | 9/18

Iowa Trestle Tour

We head to the heartland to celebrate rail-trails – Iowa was the first state to use rail banking to create bike trails in 1983! Today the Des Moines region boasts more than 300 miles of trail. You’ll be delighted by the abundance of cool railroad structures and the surprisingly varied landscape!

Tour level: Active

6 Days/5 Nights

Price: 2640 / 685

Departure Dates: 6/25 | 7/2 | 7/9 | 7/16 | 7/23 | 7/30 | 8/6 | 8/13 | 8/20 | 8/27

Michigan Islands, Trails Dunes

Explore Michigan’s northern lower peninsula Spend two nights on Mackinac Island, ride the shoreline of the Great Lakes, enjoy the picturesque town of Petoskey, visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes and enjoy most of this on car free paths. This tour is a combination of trails and quiet roads. Northern Michigan is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts and cyclists alike. You will quickly discover why this area has folks adventuring here year after year. This tour is a combination of bike path and road cycling.

Tour level: Active

6 Days/5 Nights

Price: 2115 / 470

Departure Dates: 4/30 | 5/7 | 5/14 | 5/21 | 5/28 | 6/4 | 9/24 | 10/1 | 10/8 | 10/15

Missouri KATY Trail

Rail-Trail ride across Missouri Most of the journey finds us intertwined with the Missouri River. The scenery changes often: towns spilling over with quaintness, the breadbasket of the country, limestone bluffs, and even forests are your companions on this 6-day journey.

Best bikes for seniors | How to choose a bike for older riders

Cycling isn’t just for kids and racers. It’s a great form of exercise for older people, too. It’s an exercise you can perform at an intensity that suits your needs and abilities, is low-impact and can be very social if you ride with others.

The advent of electric bikes has made cycling much more accessible for older riders. You don’t need to be super-fit to keep going, you can carry more stuff and you aren’t so limited to flat rides. However, there is also a wide range of non-assisted bikes that will suit older people, from step-through town bikes to recumbents.

While many seasoned cyclists will continue to ride the best mountain bikes and road bikes late into life, there are plenty of people who may benefit from a bike designed specifically for seniors. Here’s everything you need to know about bikes for seniors: types of bikes, what to look for if you’re an older rider buying a bike and, most importantly, the huge benefits of cycling as you get older.

Benefits of cycling for older people

Cycling is easy on the joints and a great way to maintain cardiovascular fitness. stockstudioX / Getty Images

It goes without saying that any exercise is better than no exercise, but there are a number of reasons why cycling is a particularly good form of exercise for seniors. We’ve outlined 27 benefits of cycling, many of which apply just as much to older riders as to younger ones. Maintaining cardiovascular fitness is increasingly important as we age, but there are other benefits of exercise beyond that, from a lower risk of cancer and strokes right through to better bowel movements. The balance aspect of cycling is also important for motor coordination. In general, moderate-intensity exercise is considered to yield more benefits than lower intensities. When cycling, you can exercise as hard or as gently as you choose and it’s easy to hook up a heart rate monitor and a bike computer to keep tabs on how hard you’re working. Electric bikes are really popular and some electric bike motors will modulate their power output to ensure your heart rate stays within a pre-defined range. The low-impact nature of cycling means it’s less hard on muscles and joints than many forms of exercise, but will still strengthen muscles not just in the legs but in the upper body and arms from balancing and steering. It’s a form of exercise you can keep up even if injured or suffering chronic pain. Being active, getting out in the fresh air and having new experiences are all vital to keeping healthy into your senior years. Cycling is a very social activity, too. Ride in a group and you can have a chat as you go, while a cafe stop with a large slice of cake is essential on the best rides.

What to look for in a bike for seniors

There are a few features that make a bike better suited for older cyclists. When Islabikes designed its Icons range, aimed at riders over 65, it took a lot of the design features that make its children’s bikes easier to ride and transferred them to its seniors’ bikes. These include lightness, comfort and easy bike gears. You’ll find similar features on other brands’ bikes for seniors too.

Stable design

A more stable design will help if balance is an issue. That means a lower seated position, which will also help with putting one or both feet down when stopping. Of course, balance stops being a problem on a bike with more than two wheels, and tricycles or four-wheeled bikes designed for seniors are available. Another feature that can aid stability is wide tyres. Bikes designed specifically for seniors are likely to have wider tyres than most hybrid bikes. This also helps with ride comfort because the tyre will absorb road imperfections much better, although it can make the bike harder to pedal – an electric motor can help here. The geometry of a bike for seniors is likely to include a longer wheelbase, with frame and fork angles designed for stability as well.

Comfortable ride position

The Islabikes Jimi has a low, step-through design to help with mounting and dismounting. Jack Luke / Immediate Media

Getting on and off the bike could be a problem for some older people. Conventional bikes often have high top tubes that are difficult to lift a leg over, and this can even be the case on classic women’s bikes, where it is lowered. Many brands now offer low step-through frames, which means the rider doesn’t have to lift their leg so far to get astride the bike. Islabikes goes further with its Icons bikes, with the option to fit a dropper seatpost, which lowers the saddle to make getting on and off even easier. The saddle can be raised again quickly once riding. A bike for seniors is likely to have a more upright riding position than one designed for more agile riders. It’s also likely to position the handlebars closer to the saddle. This should be more comfortable than a leant-forward ride position. Recumbent bikes take this a step further and have a leant-back ride position with a seat and back support.

Low gearing

Grip shifters use the whole hand to change gears, rather than relying on the strength of fingers. Our Media

For a rider who may have less muscle mass than a younger cyclist, low gearing means a bike is a lot easier to ride, particularly at lower speeds. That typically means a smaller chainring. A wide-ranging cassette is also beneficial because it gives plenty of gears to ride faster and to tackle uphill stretches. Easy gear shifting is an asset, so a grip shift or light-action trigger shifters are worth looking for. Islabikes fits grip shifts because it says that this allows the rider to use the grip of the whole hand to change gears, rather than relying on the strength of the index finger and thumb.

Carrying capacity

If a bike is going to be ridden shorter distances and may be parked up for shopping or a cafe stop, it’s important it can be locked up securely. That means carrying one or more bike locks, which are usually heavy, and having enough room for other items, so the ability to carry luggage on the bike is important. That may mean a rear pannier rack, or at least the option to fit a saddlebag or bar bag. The latter may affect a bike’s steering though, if it’s loaded up significantly. In any case, carrying weight on the bike is likely to be a more comfortable option than a backpack or hip pack.

Lights

Although a bike may never be ridden in the dark, a set of the best bike lights is invaluable to up a rider’s visibility, even in the daytime. An excursion that takes a bit longer than planned may easily stretch into twilight throughout much of the year.

What are the best bikes for seniors?

Electric bikes for seniors

The advent of electric bikes has been a huge boon for lots of people and has proven transformative for many older riders. The motor helps you ride with less peak effort. In fact, studies have shown it’s possible to get just as good a workout on an electric bike as on a pedal-only bike and to get fitter as a result. But for someone looking for a less strenuous ride, having assistance to make starts easier and smooth out hills is a huge benefit of riding an electric bike. Just getting along a little faster thanks to the electric assistance is a plus for many riders. An electric bike will typically be a few kilograms heavier than a non-assisted bike though, so having somewhere where it’s easy to park is important. Charging also means either plugging the battery into a mains adaptor while it’s still on the bike, or removing the battery to take it somewhere to charge. Charging sockets can be awkwardly placed on some electric bikes and a battery will weigh several kilos if you need to remove it to charge it, in both cases making charging the bike burdensome. It’s worth looking out for a user-friendly charge port design and making sure the bike can be placed easily near a power outlet. Almost all styles of bicycle can be bought with electric assistance nowadays, so you can mix electric power with any of the bikes for seniors that we describe below.

Step-through bikes

Step-through bikes are a great option for older riders, because they’re a lot easier to mount and dismount than a bicycle with a crossbar, or even a sloped top tube. It’s easy to get one or both feet down when making a stop. A number of brands make bikes with a low step-through. The Islabikes Joni is designed for older riders and has an extra-low step-through design to make getting on and off particularly easy. Dutch brand Van Raam (which has a wide range of other specialist bike designs) also makes low step-through models. Even mainstream brands sell low step-over bikes, such as the Specialized Roll. There’s no reason why a step-through design can’t be combined with an electric drive system, and bikes such as the Specialized Turbo Como, Raleigh Motus Tour and Islabikes e-Joni offer both.

Adult tricycles

Most trikes are ‘delta’ designs, with one wheel at the front, but others are ‘tadpole’ trikes, with two wheels at the front. Sven Cycles

For older riders who are concerned about their balance, a tricycle can be a good option. Tricycles make setting off and stops and starts a lot easier because you don’t need to find your balance when you start to pedal. With the stability of a tricycle, it’s easier to carry luggage than on a bicycle too. Adult tricycles often come with as many gears as a bike, so they’ll help you tackle hills. They use many standard bicycle components and are no harder to maintain than a bicycle. They’re a bit harder to store though and can be awkward to move around when not riding. One thing to be aware of is tricycles don’t corner like a bicycle, because you can’t lean into a turn. Therefore, it’s important to take cornering gently to avoid losing the stability that comes from having a third wheel. A few different brands offer tricycles, catering for older riders or the adaptive bikes market. We’ve not tested any of them yet, but in the UK Jorvik Tricycles and Mission Cycles have a wide range of electric and non-electric models. Van Raam makes tricycles, as well as low step-through models and other specialist designs suitable for older riders, all of which are available with or without electric support.

Recumbent bikes

Many bike designs require a rider to be bent forward over the handlebars. The degree you lean forward varies enormously, but bikes designed for seniors usually aim to support a very upright riding position. There is often a short distance to the handlebars, which are placed high up so they’re easy to reach. If sitting upright on a saddle or leaning forward is difficult, a recumbent or semi-recumbent bicycle or tricycle may be the answer. These designs typically have a seat rather than a saddle to sit on and a backrest. They position the rider in a more leant-back position rather than sitting upright. The pedals are usually placed well forward of the rider. A fully recumbent bike may be awkward to get into and get riding, but semi-recumbent models adopt a less extreme riding position that’s higher up and easier to get onto. These recumbents also make it easier for traffic to see you. As with other bike types, recumbents are available with electric assistance and there are tricycle recumbents and semi-recumbents too, which avoid the need to balance. Van Raam sells recumbent and semi-recumbent designs. In the UK, Get Cycling sells Van Raam’s recumbent bikes as well as a wide range of other specialist bikes.

Bicycling and Walking by Older Adults

than ever before, older adults are bicycling and walking instead of driving. Like younger generations, people age 50 or older are choosing to ride a bike or slip into comfortable footwear for exercise as well as for commuting to work and running errands.

Data compiled by the League of American Bicyclists — and presented as Benchmaking Insights on Older Adults — shows increases in all these categories.

Bicycling Insights

League of American Bicyclists

An image from Benchmarking Insights on Older Adults.

See the slideshow and two videos below (including one featuring U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg) to learn more about older cyclists and pedestrians — and walk-bike safety for people of all ages.

But with the increased activity comes the unsettling news that traffic deaths for older cyclists and pedestrians are a disproportionate and growing share of all motor vehicle-related fatalities. In fact, people age 55 to 64 have the highest per capita rates of being killed while biking and walking. That alone is a problem, yet it’s exacerbated by the fact that for many older adults, bicycling and walking are key to staying healthy and active.

Pulling together the various strands of research about cycling is surprisingly complex. The best data about bicycling, for example, focuses on trips to and from work, which automatically excludes retirees.

Ken McLeod, policy director of the Bike League, has unearthed information that points the way to a glaring lack of guidance where it’s needed most.

Federally mandated state highway plans “address older driver safety, typically through education, McLeod says. But there is not a lot of discussion about older adults biking or walking in those documents. We only found seven states that address improving infrastructure for older adults walking in any way. And no states addressed older adults biking, in terms of improving infrastructure or providing education to them.”

Ride Across Italy Bike Tour

Explore Europe with the family on an affordable walking or cycling tour. Discover Europe with our family-friendly self-guided guided hiking and bike holidays. UTracks offers unforgettable self guided walking holidays and incredible small group hiking trips in Europe.

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Slovenia Bike Tour

There is a great selection of Bike and Barge Tours on the Slow Tours website, in many European countries, travelling from March until October. These are mostly full-service Boat Bike Tours in Europe, so join us and discover this unique cycling concept. Seattle-based Bicycle Adventures offers year-round, cycling excursions of four to ten days in length. Programs are available for visiting Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii’s Big Island, Canada and New Zealand. Guests stay at upscale accommodations unique to the area – for instance, small quaint lodges.

Europe Bike Tours

Experience both and also enjoy scenic bike rides with two options for each day! From trip planning to treasured memories, discover why VBT has everything you need for the perfect biking vacation. We’ve fine-tuned three active travel styles that will let you truly discover the heart of a place. Bicycle travelers tend to be geotourists, that is, interested in experiencing the distinctive characteristics of a place, including its culture, landscape, history, and the well-being of its residents.

waiting To Bike In Heaven

Anyway, thanks for the advice, think I got a bargain. Or, my ride of choice, the Surly Troll (mine is a custom-setup by myself, but the complete bike gets some good reputation too), more like a Offroad-Utility-Bike. (can be driven with V‑Brakes, Disc-Brakes, a Rohloff Hub, a normal rear derailleur or even singlespeed). From a baseline specificaion, each bike is custom-built to the rider’s exact needs and preferences after a consultation and in-person fitting session at their workshop. This means that no two Expeditions are ever the same.

Barcelona Photography Tour

Cyclists can cool off with a dip in the lake or one of the summer lidos. It is best to ride clockwise, breaking the journey into four or more stages. The iconic river spans 10 countries and 2,850km, and has well-developed riverside cycle paths through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. Good starting points include Regensburg or Passau in Germany, finishing in Vienna or Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. Alternatively, start in Vienna and cycle the 370km to Budapest, where there are thermal baths to ease aching muscles. But because our bathroom can be in high demand, we strongly encourage that you use the restroom prior to your arrival to our bike shop.

Discover stunning natural beauty as you explore colorful volcanic landscapes, bubbling geothermal pools and sparkling waterfalls with local experts. Experience one of the world’s great walking routes as you learn about ancient cathedrals, religious icons and medieval Europe along the wondrous Camino De Santiago. Portugal’s botanical wonders, sun warmed coasts, renowned vineyards and exquisite Mediterranean cuisine make this European gem a real-life paradise for exploration and adventure.

Senior Cycling Holidays

The company offers two three-hour tours with different itineraries. The morning tour visits Ryogoku, the sumo wrestling district, whereas the afternoon ride cruises from the Imperial Palace to the bay. You can also combine both tours for a full day of riding. Based in Bogota, Colombia Bike Tours is a local cycling tour operator specialized in cycling trips in Colombia. Their most popular bike tour is 11 days long and allows the participants to discover the best places to ride in Colombia in just one trip.