Fun & Fitness over 50

Although I much prefer riding a real bike on a real road or trail, one good thing about working out on the stationary upright at the gym is that you can focus intently on your heart rate and cadence. On the road you have to give a fair amount of attention to where you are going and what's going on around you like traffic. Also what makes real riding more interesting is also a distraction; the scenery and so on. In the gym I'm able to pay more attention to how my body is feeling and make minor adjustments in position.
Having said all that, it's definitely more fun to ride for real and it just seems easier to work harder (maybe because of the distractions and because you're actually going somewhere).