Hello all,
I've just signed up and thought I'd introduce myself before I start pestering you with requests and queries; it's only fair!
Warning, this post is going to be long. Mildly interesting (at best), but long.
I'm 34 and started cycling as a kid. I had a few nice-ish hardtail mountain bikes before moving on to cars and all things petrol at ~17, after which the bikes tailed off. I sold the last one about 3 years ago for peanuts (an Azonic DS-1 hardtail with Bomber Z1 CR's still in amazing condition, someone got a bargain) after realizing it had only moved twice in a decade and that was when I'd moved house..! Anyway, up until this time last year (the 4th July 2016 to be precise) everything was good in John-world with my car related hobbies and generally less than optimal lifestyle
On the 4th I left work early with stabbing pains in my stomach. Not unusual, I'd had bad pains before from IBS related things, so I didn't think much of it. I went to bed, and stayed there for a few days. During this time the pain got worse and I started bringing up blood, at which point dearest wifey forced me to the doctors. I don't say this lightly, but sitting in a doctors office and being told you have no detectable radial pulse in either arm is pretty bloody scary. Suffice to say I got expedited to my local A&E department, through resus and into intensive care, where I stayed for 11 days, with multiple organ failure. It turns out I'd had a gall stone block my bile duct which caused acute necrotizing pancreatitis; in essence i started digesting first my pancreas and then my other organs Certainly not ideal... Anyway, what followed was 6 months off work including over 3 months in hospital, 2 months with a cavity drain coming out of my side and 2 operations to repair the damage as best as possible.
Whilst in hospital I was given some pretty harsh truths. If I didn't clean up my lifestyle I'd get a recurrence and probably die. If I drank any alcohol every again there was a strong chance I'd get a recurrence and probably die. Since I now have a teeny tiny pancreas the chances of me getting both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is very high. BUT, most of these are avoided if I get fit and stay that way. That afternoon I ordered my first new bike from Leisure Lakes, a 2016 Specialized Roubaix SL4 Elite Disc. I'd never seen one let alone ridden one so I guesstimated the size I'd need and arranged for it to be delivered to my parents place - the ward didn't accept deliveries and the wife spent most of her time at work or at hospital bringing me grapes and fanning me etc
It was an expensive gamble but I wanted to try and push myself to buy into this new lifestyle as soon as I could to try and make it stick, the other option was pretty sucky. Once out of hospital I sold my car-related stuff (including my track car) and got out on my bike! I suspect most people who start cycling for health reasons are trying to lose weight - I had the opposite problem as I'd plummeted 5 stone in 2 months at the start of my illness and had essentially been laying down for over 3 months. I could barely walk I'd lost so much muscle so getting on a bike was a challenge - in fact I only made it 1.2miles on my first ride. I got home and was genuinely concerned I'd made a horrible mistake buying the bike and that I'd never be able to do it.
Since then I've bought a second Specialized, a 2016 Stumpjumper FSR Expert Carbon 6fattie. It's everything I dreamt of in a bike as a kid and more
After spending all this money on bikes I realised something annoying; now I was back at work full time I didn't have much time to actually ride them This led directly to the purchase of bicycle number 3 (wifey was really pleased, she doesn't get the whole n+1 thing), the 2016 Charge Plug 2, which I now use to ride to work a couple of times a week or more when weather and schedules allow 
This pretty much brings us up to the present day. If you're still reading you've got far too much time on your hands, you should be out cycling
I've just signed up and thought I'd introduce myself before I start pestering you with requests and queries; it's only fair!
Warning, this post is going to be long. Mildly interesting (at best), but long.I'm 34 and started cycling as a kid. I had a few nice-ish hardtail mountain bikes before moving on to cars and all things petrol at ~17, after which the bikes tailed off. I sold the last one about 3 years ago for peanuts (an Azonic DS-1 hardtail with Bomber Z1 CR's still in amazing condition, someone got a bargain) after realizing it had only moved twice in a decade and that was when I'd moved house..! Anyway, up until this time last year (the 4th July 2016 to be precise) everything was good in John-world with my car related hobbies and generally less than optimal lifestyle
On the 4th I left work early with stabbing pains in my stomach. Not unusual, I'd had bad pains before from IBS related things, so I didn't think much of it. I went to bed, and stayed there for a few days. During this time the pain got worse and I started bringing up blood, at which point dearest wifey forced me to the doctors. I don't say this lightly, but sitting in a doctors office and being told you have no detectable radial pulse in either arm is pretty bloody scary. Suffice to say I got expedited to my local A&E department, through resus and into intensive care, where I stayed for 11 days, with multiple organ failure. It turns out I'd had a gall stone block my bile duct which caused acute necrotizing pancreatitis; in essence i started digesting first my pancreas and then my other organs
Certainly not ideal... Anyway, what followed was 6 months off work including over 3 months in hospital, 2 months with a cavity drain coming out of my side and 2 operations to repair the damage as best as possible.Whilst in hospital I was given some pretty harsh truths. If I didn't clean up my lifestyle I'd get a recurrence and probably die. If I drank any alcohol every again there was a strong chance I'd get a recurrence and probably die. Since I now have a teeny tiny pancreas the chances of me getting both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is very high. BUT, most of these are avoided if I get fit and stay that way. That afternoon I ordered my first new bike from Leisure Lakes, a 2016 Specialized Roubaix SL4 Elite Disc. I'd never seen one let alone ridden one so I guesstimated the size I'd need and arranged for it to be delivered to my parents place - the ward didn't accept deliveries and the wife spent most of her time at work or at hospital bringing me grapes and fanning me etc
It was an expensive gamble but I wanted to try and push myself to buy into this new lifestyle as soon as I could to try and make it stick, the other option was pretty sucky. Once out of hospital I sold my car-related stuff (including my track car) and got out on my bike! I suspect most people who start cycling for health reasons are trying to lose weight - I had the opposite problem as I'd plummeted 5 stone in 2 months at the start of my illness and had essentially been laying down for over 3 months. I could barely walk I'd lost so much muscle so getting on a bike was a challenge - in fact I only made it 1.2miles on my first ride. I got home and was genuinely concerned I'd made a horrible mistake buying the bike and that I'd never be able to do it.Since then I've bought a second Specialized, a 2016 Stumpjumper FSR Expert Carbon 6fattie. It's everything I dreamt of in a bike as a kid and more
After spending all this money on bikes I realised something annoying; now I was back at work full time I didn't have much time to actually ride them
This led directly to the purchase of bicycle number 3 (wifey was really pleased, she doesn't get the whole n+1 thing), the 2016 Charge Plug 2, which I now use to ride to work a couple of times a week or more when weather and schedules allow This pretty much brings us up to the present day. If you're still reading you've got far too much time on your hands, you should be out cycling
I've got a 30 mile ride planned with a friend for next weekend which will be the furthest I've ventured in one outing but I'm averaging between 40 and 60 miles a week at the moment.
will be going home at some point, I am sure.
Yesterday also saw me pass my 1000 mile goal for the year with 10 weeks to spare so overall I'm pretty pleased with myself - hard to believe this time last year I barely had the strength to stand 
I've enjoyed it so much in fact that I'm currently in the process of ordering bicycle number 4 
Another road bike but a Bianchi this time so I've got something a bit special for next summer. I'm arranging to have it delivered around March/April to give me an incentive to get out and about again as soon as the weather starts picking up. I'll need to get a shift on as next years goal is to complete 2000 miles and enter a 100 mile sportive 
Only time will tell how that ends up but no doubt I'll have some fun trying 
