A Good Time on a Bike Doesn’t Have an Age Limit
- Good Time Ride Co.
- May 7
- 5 min read
With Mother’s Day coming up, we’d been thinking about the moms in our lives, and a short mountain bike film called North Shore Betty came to mind. While it’s partly about Betty’s experience as a parent, it’s also about what happens when you keep choosing to do things that make you feel alive. Even after a broken bone or two!
The film follows Betty, who started mountain biking in her mid-40s and is still riding now at 73, not in a casual, “nice to be outside” kind of way, but in a way that feels committed and curious and very much full of joy. Watching this may help you reconsider the timeline you might’ve built in your head about when things should start and when they’re supposed to taper off.
Give yourself 11 minutes right now to watch North Shore Betty:
The playground of life
One of the things that makes the film so compelling is not just what Betty does, although that would be enough on its own, but the way her active life shows up in her son’s life.
There’s a part where he talks about choosing to go biking with his mom instead of playing school sports, which says a lot about the environment she created around him. Later, he reflects on how so much of who he is comes from the way she lives, not in a prescriptive or overly intentional way, but through consistency, through showing up, through treating life as something to be participated in rather than something that happens around you.
At one point she describes life as a playground as a way of explaining how she moves through the world, and it really feels like Betty would be very aligned with our whole good times > bad times approach to riding (and life)!
Genna, one of our coaches, grew up with a mom who approached life in a very similar way. Her mom, Patti, was always active and consistently found a way to make it all work, even with three kids and a very full life. Volleyball in the winter, baseball in the summer, camping trips, coaching, gardening… nothing was ever framed as something that had to be sacrificed once you had kids. It was just part of how life worked.
That kind of environment teaches you that it’s okay to take time for yourself. That you don’t have to feel guilty for doing things that make you happy. That if something matters to you, you find a way to make it work, even if it takes more effort.
Now, with her own kids, Genna is carrying that forward even though it is not always easy. It takes a lot of planning, so much patience, and a willingness to bring your kids along into situations that might not be perfectly convenient.
Her kids are learning how to be adventurous outside, how to try new things, how to push through a bit of discomfort and come out the other side feeling proud. They’re also learning that the people they look up to are still doing the things they love, and sometimes they get to come along for the ride too!
This didn’t come from having “more time”
It’s also worth looking at what Betty’s life actually looked like from a day-to-day, week-to-week angle, because it would be easy to assume that someone riding like her must have had a version of life that made it easier to be this engaged with the outdoors.
She was a flight attendant and became a single mom when her son was very young. She worked weekends, came home exhausted, and found a way to build a life that included riding, adventure, and so much time outside, often with other mountain bikers.
That contrast between her job and her riding really matters, especially for anyone who has ever looked at someone else’s life and thought that it must be structured differently somehow in order to make space for things like mountain biking.
We see a version of that in our own lives for sure. GTRC Ride Leader, Nicole, works a corporate job, has a full schedule, a lot of responsibility, and still chooses over and over again to make space for riding, for travel, and for trying things that are slightly uncomfortable but very worth it. It’s not about having the perfect setup or unlimited time. It’s about deciding that this part of life matters and continuing to make space for it.
You do not need to retire super early and live on the side of a mountain to progress as a mountain biker! Though… we’ve definitely all had dreams about that.
Progression doesn’t have an expiry date
There’s something about the way Betty talks about progression that feels both exciting and thoughtful. There is no sense that there’s a window you missed or a version of yourself you had to become by a certain age in order for any of this effort to count. She also speaks very honestly about adapting over time, choosing to go around certain features, and recognizing where things have changed and adjusting accordingly, without treating any of that as failure or loss.
A different way to celebrate
Events like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and birthdays are often celebrated through special plans, meals, and gifts. There’s another version of celebration that is perhaps quieter but maybe more lasting, where the celebration is in continuing to be a person who does things for themselves too.
Moving your body, learning something new, spending time outside, putting yourself in situations where you feel a bit unsure and then a bit proud are exciting ways to celebrate yourself (and the special people in your life too!).
This year, Emma and Katie are running a private group lesson for a group of friends who are all moms, who booked it as a Mother’s Day gift for themselves, which feels like a very good representation of that idea.
Show up for yourself
There is something undeniably cool about people who choose to keep showing up for themselves in this way. It’s a signal that:
You do not age out of trying new things
You do not need a specific kind of job to live an active, adventurous life
You are allowed to take time for yourself and enjoy it
It is never too late to start, or to keep going
If you are looking for a way to celebrate yourself, maybe even with someone you care about, a private lesson is a really great place to begin, because it gives you the time and space to figure things out at your own pace, with someone there to guide you through it without pressure or expectation.
