Still Spinning: At 62, It's Easy Being (Daniel) Greene

Daniel Greene, 62, zips down hills at 55 mph on his road bike, and hops over rocks and logs on his mountain bike. Greene works as a BART technician at night and spends his afternoons cycling around Tilden Park. Greene is also a ride leader for the , where he keeps up with cyclists a fraction of his age.

“He helps to motivate the kids,” said Daniel Santos, the mountain bike coach. “If you see a 62-year-old guy passing you on the uphill, and you’re 16, that motivates you.”

I interviewed Greene at Peet’s Café on Solano Avenue. He arrived on a silver titanium road bicycle wearing a red Albany High Mountain Bike Club jersey. He had just finished a 20-mile loop on Wildcat Canyon road, a twisty course through Tilden Park.

THE FIRST STAGE

Greene had never exercised rigorously until he started cycling in his mid-30s to help him quit smoking. Over the course of a year, he said, he went from smoking 200 cigarettes a week to biking 200 miles a week.

“I’m one of those people who needs another obsession to be able to quit something,” said Greene.

Besides improving his health, cycling also expanded Greene’s social circle. He met his wife, Eileen, when he was biking downhill and she was biking uphill on Tunnel Road in the Oakland hills in 1991. Greene waved at Eileen and she said he was “riding a little bit more fast and reckless than I would.”

After the wave, Greene crashed into a ditch and Eileen stopped to make sure he was all right. Greene’s jersey was torn and he was covered in mud. Embarrassed, he fled the scene in a hurry.

Luckily, both Greene and Eileen worked the night shift, so they kept seeing each other during daytime rides. (Greene was a BART technician and Eileen was a nurse.) Soon, they started dating.

“A lot of our early dates were bicycle-related,” said Eileen. “Either meeting up for recreational rides or doing half centuries (50-mile bike rides) together.”

They were married in 1994.

Eileen said cycling gives Greene the energy to be an active father of two teenagers, even at 62.

“He has a lot of energy and stamina,” Eileen said. “Which is great when you are raising kids and running around trying to get your kids here and there, be there for them at odd hours plus work full time.”

RIDING WITH ALBANY TEENS

Greene became a ride leader for the mountain bike club when his daughter, Molly, trained with the club in 2009. A ride leader is an adult who supervises the team’s workouts. During a typical workout, the mountain bike club rides in three separate groups; each group guided by a ride leader.

A ride leader’s main responsibility is safety.

Mountain biking can be like riding a roller coaster without seat belts. An error can send a rider tumbling down a mountain.

Despite the inherent danger of mountain biking, Coach Santos said the club has not had a serious injury within the past three years.

To maintain a safe riding environment, Greene and other ride leaders teach important biking lessons to teenage cyclists. Their lessons may include avoiding collisions when riding in groups, setting up a bicycle properly and biking safely through traffic.

Greene’s other responsibility is to motivate the team.

“Sometimes there is a challenge when we are going up Wildcat,” said Greene. “Usually the kids in the front start pushing the pace and you try to stay with them, and it turns into a mini race.”

Racing against teenagers can be challenging for a 62-year-old because muscle strength and aerobic endurance decline after 40.  

“I used to do big gear intervals on Wildcat,” said Green, in reference to a bicycle’s gears. (Bigger gears push a bicycle faster than smaller gears, but they require more force to pedal.) “Now I’m on my smallest gear going up Wildcat.”

It’S EASY BEING GREENE

Greene said he enjoys being a ride leader.

His mountain biking skills, such as jumping over obstacles and descending down steep hills, have improved from observing teenage cyclists and other ride leaders. 

Greene said he discusses a wide variety of subjects, ranging from pro cycling to college applications, with club riders. 

“He can be part of conversations without being awkward, like parentally awkward,” said Lucas Rutherford, a club member who graduated in June.

Avia Prager, a club member who graduated in 2010, said she liked hearing about Greene’s previous experience as a labor organizer for the Students for a Democratic Society during the 1970s.

Most importantly, Greene said the teenagers’ energy, optimism and goofiness invigorate his life. Charlotte Perry-Houts, a 2010 club member, said Greene is more like a kid than a 62-year-old man.

“He’s like a parent but he doesn’t act like a parent. Like on the ride, he is a chill person,” said Rutherford.

RETIREMENT

Greene will retire in August from BART, where he worked for 25 years fixing motors, axles, windows and whatever else that needs to be fixed on a BART train.

Afterward, he said, he plans to take a bicycle frame building class in Oregon and ride more with the mountain bike club. (He dropped out mid-season this year to take care of his sick stepdad.)

Green said he hopes never to stop cycling. 

“I think the really good thing about cycling is that it is something you can do forever, 'cause it is a sport you can enjoy on an individual level or with a group of people,” said Greene. "The risk of injury, unless you crash, is not that great. It is a sport that is really kind to people my age.”

Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at emilier@patch.com.