Seniors with Arthritis ride motorcycles

When you think of a motorcycle biker, there’s a certain image that comes to mind for many people: a younger man, perhaps with a beard and tattoos. But according to a recent news article on Focus Taiwan News Channel, one group of motorcycle bikers is nearly the complete opposite of that stereotype.

Focus Taiwan recently reported on a group of Taiwanese bikers, all over the age of 80, who were recently featured in the American motorcycle magazine Motorcyclist after completing a ride around Taiwan in 2011. The group is known as “Grand Riders,” and they traveled almost 700 miles across the country.

Peter Starr, the 69 year-old journalist who wrote the story on the group, told Focus Taiwan that he was impressed by the motorcyclists, especially considering that every single rider is suffering from Arthritis. Some of the riders also have Cancer and heart disease.

And members of the group told Starr in the original news article that staying on the motorcycle kept them young.

“I didn't stop riding because I got old, I got old because I stopped riding,” one of the motorcyclists was reported as saying.

One of the biggest lessons this group of “Grand Riders” can teach us is that staying active helps keep seniors healthy and feeling good, whether they live in an assisted living community or at home with family.