Can't help thinking.

[boydj]

I first started cycling a lot when I was 15. I had a job after school at the opposite end of town from where I lived, so I spent £5 (a lot of money for a schoolboy in those days) on a single-speed old racer. That lasted until I left school at 18 - and I doubled my money on the bike. Then, after a good few years playing amateur football and finally a lot of years as a fairly serious road runner, I was loaned a bike to give triathlon a go and got the bug again and acquired a new 6-speed Raleigh racer in 501. Did an occasional bike-train-bike commute over the next few years when the car was unavailable, while still being an active club road runner.

Cycling was only an occasional casual way of exercising on my own for years. Finally I got a job 9 miles away in central Glasgow where there was plenty of public transport, but travel times could vary from 40 minutes to 80 minutes. I gave the bike a try and before long I had house to desk, via a shower and change in the office, in a guaranteed 60 minutes, +/- 2 minutes. Loved it, joined a club, cyclist for life now.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I cycled a lot and loved it until my early 20s then other things came along and I stopped.

I started again when I was 63 and love it again.

The next time I stop I won't be taking it up again.

 

[Slick]

For me it really does come and go as I have been in a dip since I completed the etape Loch Ness and then moved house last September. I've tried to force it a few times, but there just doesn't seem to be the time anymore. I've always got my fingers crossed that the next ride will be the one that reignites the fire. 🤞

 

[mikeIow]

Always biked. Sometimes work/kids got in the way.

But as long as nobody saw the crash, you got away with it, right? 🤣

I’ve always done *some* cycling.
Never as my main format of transport, but growing up on the IOW meant friends at middle and high school lived miles away, so it was a way of seeing them. Once I had a mobylette moped, & moved on through a few more powerful bikes, I guess I skipped much cycling from the age of 16-early 20’s….but then always did a few social rides (one highlight being Lon2Bri on a 5-speed ancient racer wearing a 1920s bathing costume and straw boater!).
Did some cycling with our kids as they grew up….got daughter doing a few, including a later Lon2Bri when she was 14 with a bunch of my workmates for charity.
Then stepped away from the day job last year with a big LEJoG adventure…..another little one this year (& more local rides with pals in between). I just enjoy it as a way to stay moderately fit.
Now starting to see friends getting battery powered bikes, but I do fine it moderately galling when they power up the hills, & constantly tell me they only have it on level 1 🤣.

I get the point about pals giving sport up….I’ve played (local league) volleyball for around 40 years, and for many of those were just a bunch of mostly workmates having fun….annual beer&volleyball tournament in Belgium became a fixture…..but as they have got older, most have dropped out 🤷‍♂️
One thing I do find is that younger (30s to 40s !) ones are not nearly as interested in actually organising the club, which can be a little soul-destroying. Perhaps “one more year”…..

 

[Gunk]

I drift in and out of it, I was a very keen club cyclist in my late teens and always built my own bikes which I have done and off for the last 45 years. Built one this weekend and didn’t quite have the same level of enthusiasm I did back in lock down when I had lots of time on my hands. I’m also riding much less this year, who knows next year I might be back into it again.

 

[Rain drops]

Nice to hear from so many keen 'long in the tooth' cyclists popping up all over the place. We tend to be a forgotten army in the 'take it to the next level' nowadays. We can appreciate and just enjoy what we are still able to do, while gratefully accepting our continued ability to do so without, realistically, expecting to get any better. (Just thankful we don't get much worse!)

It sometimes astounds me how some trivial incident (a scent in the air, a waft of hot air rising off a baking road, some noise) can nudge dormant memories from the far distant past. Do our minds store everything that ever happens to be able to dish it back up at random? Some feat, if so! But they do say we revert to second, or even third, childhood before starting to dribble incontinently (from both ends) and being sent off to be looked after.

Quite, but not yet!

 

[Tail End Charlie]

I find this interesting; I'm certainly known locally as the man on the bike.

My son and his friends in the Netherlands are no more defined by their utility cycling than they are by wearing denim jeans; it's the default.

If only we could move in that direction.

Me too!

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Nice to hear from so many keen 'long in the tooth' cyclists popping up all over the place. We tend to be a forgotten army in the 'take it to the next level' nowadays. We can appreciate and just enjoy what we are still able to do, while gratefully accepting our continued ability to do so without, realistically, expecting to get any better. (Just thankful we don't get much worse!)

The older I get, the faster I was!

 

[fossyant]

But as long as nobody saw the crash, you got away with it, right? 🤣

Pardon, never happened ?

I may have hidden smacking my shoulder up 12 months after breaking my spine (car v bike) - hit a tree stump on the MTB, and couldn't use my arm - driving back from Wales in 2nd and 4th was hard, then was out with family that night.... Also had to hide the bruises and scrapes from MrsF for a couple of weeks - that wasn't easy.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I can't help wondering whether cycling follows the same '7 year itch' rule

I’m currently on an ongoing 50 year itch.

 

[kingrollo]

I can't bear the thought of getting old and podgy - nowt I can do about age ! - but fighting podgy effect ...still

 

[cyberknight]

packed up riding for about 10 years when i was a milk man as running up and down drives 6 days a week meant i was knackered all the time , change of job then the bank crash meant i started commuting by bike to run only 1 car and i carried on from there getting into longer rides then club rides and the odd sportive.
Of course some days i think WTF am i doing ? generally when its freezing / pissing it down etc but most of the time its the only part of my job i like .

 

[night cycler]

packed up riding for about 10 years when i was a milk man as running up and down drives 6 days a week meant i was knackered all the time , change of job then the bank crash meant i started commuting by bike to run only 1 car and i carried on from there getting into longer rides then club rides and the odd sportive.
Of course some days i think WTF am i doing ? generally when its freezing / pissing it down etc but most of the time its the only part of my job i like .

If ever I am caught in that sort of weather, on the way back for example, I perceive a greater feeling of achievement when I a get home.

 

[Milkfloat]

I have never ben without a bike since the age of about 2. My windsurf board lasted in the early 90s lasted about 2 years. before I sold it.

 

[cyberknight]

If ever I am caught in that sort of weather, on the way back for example, I perceive a greater feeling of achievement when I a get home.

its when your in bed uncontrollable shivering afterwards thats the fun bit , i have reyanuds even with the right clothes sometimes my body will go tits up , heck just getting milk out of the fridge can turn my hand white