Hi guys,
I'm new to the forum (well I have posted a few times). I've been putting off posting this one because I can never think what to say, feels a bit like being the new boy in a meeting and having to stand up and introduce yourself!
I'm 45 years old and live in Oxfordshire. I'm a Chief Technician in the Royal Air Force and until recently had no interest in bikes at all.
I hadn't been on a bike of any description for years when a friend asked me to help him train for a 75 mile sponsored bike ride he'd been roped into in 2010. I bought a cheap Muddy Fox mountain bike from eBay and set about trying to put some miles in. Our first ride was 12 miles long and neither of us could walk afterwards!
Being the persevering type (some would say too daft to know when to give in) we kept at it and eventually we were regularly riding the 75 miles and both of us saw a marked improvement in our fitness. The bug was beginning to take hold.
Last year I bough a Hybrid and rode a total of about 2,000 miles, I also gave up the argument and bought some Lycra (I'd already decided that the padded shorts were a must). The bug by now was thoroughly established.
This year I've upgraded to a flat barred road bike and my target is to ride from where I'm based (in Oxfordshire) to where my mum lives (in Nottingham) about 130 miles. My longest ride so far is only about 90 miles so it'll take a bit of effort to do it in a day (haven't given any thought to the return trip yet
.
Over the last couple of years cycling has firmly established itself as a key part of my life; I've become a lot fitter and lost just over 6 stones in the process. I've made some good decisions (putting road tyres on the mountain bike to reduce rolling resistance) but also some poor ones (buying stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to be less so). So one of the reasons I'm here is to get sound advice from people who share my passion for cycling (rather than shops that only have a passion for my money).
Wow, that was easier than I thought, only planned to write a couple of words and got carried away. Hope you're not bored by now and really look forward to some good discussions (my non-cycling mates just don't understand me!).
Cheers,
Gary.
I'm new to the forum (well I have posted a few times). I've been putting off posting this one because I can never think what to say, feels a bit like being the new boy in a meeting and having to stand up and introduce yourself!
I'm 45 years old and live in Oxfordshire. I'm a Chief Technician in the Royal Air Force and until recently had no interest in bikes at all.
I hadn't been on a bike of any description for years when a friend asked me to help him train for a 75 mile sponsored bike ride he'd been roped into in 2010. I bought a cheap Muddy Fox mountain bike from eBay and set about trying to put some miles in. Our first ride was 12 miles long and neither of us could walk afterwards!
Being the persevering type (some would say too daft to know when to give in) we kept at it and eventually we were regularly riding the 75 miles and both of us saw a marked improvement in our fitness. The bug was beginning to take hold.
Last year I bough a Hybrid and rode a total of about 2,000 miles, I also gave up the argument and bought some Lycra (I'd already decided that the padded shorts were a must). The bug by now was thoroughly established.
This year I've upgraded to a flat barred road bike and my target is to ride from where I'm based (in Oxfordshire) to where my mum lives (in Nottingham) about 130 miles. My longest ride so far is only about 90 miles so it'll take a bit of effort to do it in a day (haven't given any thought to the return trip yet
.Over the last couple of years cycling has firmly established itself as a key part of my life; I've become a lot fitter and lost just over 6 stones in the process. I've made some good decisions (putting road tyres on the mountain bike to reduce rolling resistance) but also some poor ones (buying stuff that seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to be less so). So one of the reasons I'm here is to get sound advice from people who share my passion for cycling (rather than shops that only have a passion for my money).
Wow, that was easier than I thought, only planned to write a couple of words and got carried away. Hope you're not bored by now and really look forward to some good discussions (my non-cycling mates just don't understand me!).
Cheers,
Gary.
