If you think that you would like to cycle but have not done so recently, I would strongly urge you to rent a quality bike and see if the actual experience matches the desire. There are many ways to do this with bike shops often renting out quality road, gravel and mountain bikes for one or more days, while cycle touring companies often have a good range of bikes to try as part of joining a tour. During our Chateaus of the Loire Valley Tour in 2019, we had six riders who had either not ridden before or who's experience was limited to getting familiar with hybrid bikes in a car park before leaving home. All six enjoyed their week of riding Trek hybrid bikes some 40-60 kms a day and were converts by the end of the week.
 
However, over the years I have met a number of people who have purchased cheap bikes from department stores, variety stores or online. Often the result has been that the bikes were very heavy and slow and as a result the purchasers were turned off riding. Among family and friends who purchased cheap, heavy bikes, the almost universal result is that they rode their bikes once or twice, hated the experience and now have their bikes sitting in the back of the garage or shed gathering rust. 
 
The six 'rider experience' categories listed in 'Your Riding Experience' are based on my experience and therefore essentially, but not necessarily, cover riders in their 50's and above. The categories are not based on a preferred bike type, as experience shows that choice of bike is a very personal thing and often we will join tours where the majority are riding road bikes and yet some of the riders will be on hybrids or mountain bikes and yet we all enjoy the tour. Whilst there are many types of bicycles available on the market, there are four basic types currently being used by older riders or provided by cycle tour companies for use on roads and cycle paths.
 
Across the following pages I have provided my thoughts on the four types - the hybrid, the flat bar road bike, the drop bar road or gravel bike and the electric road bike. I've also purchased a smart trainer and attached my old road bike to it.  I'm really enjoying the trainer experience, so I also added my thoughts in a page called Trainer Bikes, plus provided my review of an app and some equipment that are working as part of my trainer set up.