At 92, Fred Mathes still rides his 56-year-old three-speed.
MADERA RANCHOS -- Fred Mathes rides his bike to the post office (which in this neighborhood is inside the local video store), to the local diner, and out through the open fields.
He's 92. His bicycle -- a black, still-shiny, three-speed Schwinn -- is 56.
Mathes feels no need for a newer bicycle.
"Did you hear about the centipede who fell in a ditch?" he asks. "He couldn't get up. He was too exhausted trying to figure out what foot to put first. Same thing with a bike. Who needs 18 gears?"
In 2002, Mathes sent a photo of his bicycle to the Schwinn company.
"I told them, here's a picture of my bike. It's 50 years old and has maybe 35,000 miles on it. You can use it in your advertising no charge.
"They sent me back a pair of socks."
This month, Mathes, a native of Stigler, Okla., was chosen as the grand marshal for the Ranchos' annual Flatlander Parade.
Part of the honor was for his years on citizen patrol, volunteer work with youths, and painting over graffiti.
But Mathes figures the kicker was that everyone knows him from seeing him ride his bicycle.
"I have a certain notoriety. Or at least my bicycle does."
For his 80th birthday, he rode to Oxnard -- some 380 miles. For his 90th birthday, he went for a 40-mile bike ride to Friant Dam and back.
He hasn't made plans yet for his next birthday bicycle ride in October, but Friant is in the running because he likes to have lunch at the Dam Diner.
When he takes his car in for service at the Sebring auto shop in Fresno, he puts his bicycle in the back and then rides the 20 miles home. His typical out-and-about ride is 14 miles.
Mathes married Pauline Petersen from Kingsburg in 1941.
She says he's been telling the same jokes for 67 years.
Mathes says he believes in keeping things.
Jokes. Love. Bicycles.
"I don't like to throw anything away that's valuable. We're very careful with gasoline, electricity, water," he says.
"We try to make things last. We're real conservatives unless you're talking politics."
He has a degree in economics and Spanish from UCLA. He worked in the Marshall Islands under the U.S. Department of Interior teaching the Marshallese people to build and operate retail businesses. He and Pauline (who goes by Pauly) travel widely every summer, always bringing back a coffee mug from their trips. They have 130 mugs so far, including 49 representing states.
"We're missing Michigan," Mathes says with a sad shake of his head.
"Someday we're going to get Michigan."
He does not favor Lycra or cycling shoes.
His riding clothes are whatever he happens to be wearing, usually a pair of trousers (he rolls up one pant leg), a long-sleeved western shirt and a stylish cotton hat from Italy.
"We paid our kids' way to Italy, and he got a hat," Pauly says.
Each side of the 6-year-old hat has a zippered pocket. Mathes says one pocket is for his condoms, one for his Viagra.
Pauly says that joke is only as old as the hat.
Mathes stops with the jokes only long enough to offer what he knows about life and bicycling.
"I'll give you a motto. I think it's important. Be truthful. Keep learning. Keep loving. That's enough," he says. "Those are the big headings. Everything else is frosting."
As for bicycling, he's loved it since he was a 10-year-old riding around the Maywood area of Los Angeles on a bike borrowed from his cousin.
"It was fun, fun, just exhilarating," he says. "Still is."
He says bicycling is about "the breeze in your face, the exercise, and the constant change of scenery."
"It's the frosting on the cake. Plus it doesn't wear out your knees and hips."
CRAIG KOHLRUSS/THE FRESNO BEE
Mathes takes a morning ride Thursday on his 56-year-old Schwinn Traveler through his neighborhood in Madera Ranchos. He says he feels no need for a newer bicycle. "Who needs 18 gears?" he says. Mathes was chosen as grand marshal for the Ranchos' Flatlander Parade.
ERIC PAUL ZAMORA/THE FRESNO BEE
The Schwinn Traveler bicycle that Fred Mathes bought in 1952 and still rides features all steel rims and stylized fenders. "I have a certain notoriety," Mathes said. "Or at least my bicycle does."
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