How has your cycling changed through the years?

[mustang1]

I've gone through different phases. As a kid, my rides were all about fun a dn occasionally going to the shops to pick up groceries.

My rides were always fun even on those days that it didn't seem to be. Later, the bike was a mixture of fun and getting to uni and work.

After that was a short break and I resend again for training which then morphed into commuting. I knew back then that I shouldn't get top carried away with commuting as it would deviate fr purely leisure rides and so it proved but with a deliberate turnaround, I managed to enjoy quite a few leisure rides mixesim with the commute.

Then covid and the lockdowns hit and finally I started making more use of.my MTB. No longer did I feel I had a bike I wasn't using much and nowadays it gets used at least as much as the road bike.

Who knows what the future holds but but these days I don't fancy going out in the rain and cold any more unless I have a particular destination or errand. Winter doesn't always mean rain so inatil get out on the road bike when I can but it's slowly being relegated to staying indoors. The MTB still comes out whatever the weather.

So they are the different phases of my riding: from fun and grocery shopping to commuting to work and uni, to getting fit, back to commuting and then into MTB.

How about y'all?

 

[CXRAndy]

I started in my late 40s riding since my teens. I became fitter and found some fitness. I had a big setback which took me on a different path. I started indoor riding/training/ racing. I became quiet obsessed for 5 years. Since lockdown Ive became less driven to maintain high level of fitness, lost motivation. Now Im back on the bike due to getting an Ebike. Winter is around the corner, so my riding will be indoor predominantly. I hope to attain near previous fitness

 

[slowmotion]

I've become less masochistic and tend to just enjoy it for what it is at the time.

 

[HMS_Dave]

These days I ride for function and fun. I use my bike as a tool. The added benefit of weight loss, less car usage, saving money and just getting out... weather doesn't bother me and I can see the day when I don't even own a car.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Started out just "playing" on bikes in single figures, I had a Grifter and several of us would just get together, ride around the neighbourhood a bit, hang out, not cycling as such, just knocking about with bikes.
I then got a BMX when I was about 11, did minor stunt / trick riding, home made ramps etc.
Next I got a small road bike after that at about age 14 which I rode to school and back (4 miles each way), simultaneously getting hooked on the Tour de France, and that led onto wanting to ride further and faster, so I moved onto a full size road bike and I was doing club road riding, and then 10 mile TTs from about age 15 to 18.

From my 20s through to 40s I've ridden a road bike for leisure mainly, although I've had hybrids too, for town trips, and for some commuting when I lived in West London in my late 30s.

The last two years I've moved over to a tourer as my main bike, sold my road bikes, and I use the tourer to explore the counties around me (sometimes with the help of the train), and I also use the same bike to lug shopping home. Oh and I still have my Trek hybrid from my commuting in London, that's now my pub / train station bike.

I've obviously decided that I'm a bit creaky to be dashing about on carbon now. And I don't really go out in foul weather if I can help it.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

In my teens and early twenties I rode my Peugeot road bike all over
$deity know how far or how long for


then nothing

Then I started riding with my daughter and sometimes my ex - on a folding ebike from the 1990s - rather weird but I wish I had it now

When I was on my own again (naturally) I was wandering over the WWW and realised ebike were a thing - this was bout 2010/1
then I saw an advert for one for £220 in a local chippie
I tried ti out and bought it out
over the next few years I used it for shopping and general exercise - i.e. local casual bike rides

Then - a few years ago (2 or 3) - and after I had moved to this house - I saw a challenge from a German ebike company do to 500 miles in July
do it and you get a patch and a certificate and stuff

So I tried it
I completed the 500 by about the 21st of July - by which time I had sold my ebike and bought a better Raleigh one
a few weeks later the original bike had been swapped due to a design problem (NOW FIXED and Raleigh were great in sorting it out) and since then I have tredi to do several rides a week - generally nearly every day during the summer
and generally around 20 miles


It has really saved me over lockdown

loads of grit and mud over the ebike - but that's what hosepipes are for!

 

[classic33]

Started cycling as it was quicker than walking, unable to drive, and the then longer distances being done "because I could" were done for fun. Started mucking about with what could be done with bikes, homebuilt hybrid gearing system on my own frame in the mid 80's. A couple of longer distance rides, on this setup.
I've never considered my cycling "conventional", but it spread into recumbents. One seen on Tomorrows World, and I said I'm getting one of those. Years later I'd got my Brox, from the same person who demonstrated it on Tomorrows World.
The second was a Peer Gynt, seen and tried in Otley. If the first couldn't be got I'd a second to aim for.

Daily commute to Leeds and back, gave me a chance to enjoy the road, regardless of the weather. This got me a job simply because i turned up for the interview on the mountain bike. I've had two "ice cream" tricycles, recovered from a skip, value around £3,000 each at the time. The Brox gave a chance to view cycling in the roads from a different perspective. Commuting on a unicycle for a while was different, to say the least.

I've two mountain bikes in Ireland, taken there and left for use when I'm over there. I want to take the Brox, see if it stands out as much over there as it did here. Doing the shopping on it, over there, could be interesting.

 

[bruce1530]

5 year old. Santa brought me a little red bike, with fat white wheels and stabilisers.

6 years old. Dad took the stabilisers off. I can still remember the first trip without stabilisers, going down a gentle hill outside my cousins house, and being terrified that I wouldn't be able to turn at the cul-de-sac.
That was a great bike - could go faster than my pals on their "big bikes", and better round corners.

9 years old. Got a "Moulton Mini" for Christmas. Hated it. Too hard to pedal. Coincided to moving house to a busy road, at top of very steep hill. That's when I stopped cycling for over 30 years.

(interlude: 14 years old. Had a shot on Billy Alexander's bike, which seemed to be a strange shape. But it was fast. )

42. Bought a Ridgeback mtb. Used it a few times, then put it in the garage.

48. After a scary talk with my GP, got the Ridgeback out of the garage. Built myself up from round trips of around 3 miles to about 15 miles.

51. Bought a "proper bike".

54: Bought a s/h carbon bike.

56. The "proper bike" has over 16,000 km on the clock. The carbon bike has done about 200km in 2 years.

 

[deaninkl]

At 62 my cycling history goes back a long while, but most of it being routine and simple transport related. Only at about 50 did i buy my first proper bike and start cycling regularly for pleasure. In that time Ive learned a lot about gearing, what i need related to usage, my age (and my overweight size).. but in the last 12 years or so I have also improved technique and fitness to a level that I can get up hills I couldnt 10 years ago and ride distances I never thought i would.

The most important thing ive learned is knowing about gear inches and making sure im in my zone. Makes cycling a pleasure not a chore.

 

[taximan]

I have had two periods in my life when cycling was my thing. The first was from early childhood all the way through to my mid twenties. By this time I was enjoying riding on day trips (up to 120 miles) to places of interest, not touring exactly, more as a means of transport.
The second period began when I retired in 2010. I decided on impulse to buy a bike but was totaly out of touch with all things cycling related and to be honest I did not have a clue what I was buying and ended up with what a lot of people refer to as B.S.Os. Having said that I gradualy got back into riding and started to lose some of the 15 stones that I had accumulated through the years. I am now 76 years old and still enjoying my bikes, though these days I am looking at it more of a way of keeping fit than anything else. Having said that, over the last few years I have been on a number of camping tour's, inc lejog, and hope to do a couple more while I am able. The 120 miles a day are long gone i'm afraid but I can still cope with 40+miles in hilly terrain.

 

[Drago]

I no longer commute by bike, as I no longer commute at all.

Aside from that, nothing much has changed -

If its too far to reasonably walk, but not far enough to justify the use of a car, then I ride.

If I simply fancy a ride, I ride.

If I need some quality de-stress/thinking/contemplation time, I ride.

So having determined that I am going to ride, then neither man, beast, nor weather short of hurricane force winds will stop me.

 

[Sharky]

My desire to ride bikes has never changed over the years. From age 6 to 71, have always ridden and my enthusiasm for time trialling has given me the motivation. Completed my 500th TT this year. But there have been many lifestyle changes during these years which have reduced the opportunities to be fully committed. Work, marriage, children, grand children etc have always been a distraction.

A lot slower nowadays and distances smaller, but in my mind, just as I used to be as a teenager.

 

[Venod]

I rode for fun as child and youth, started running seriously in my early twenties, but still rode a lot and joined a club, long club runs and time trials became the norm, then running became more serious again, as I got into my fifties I was doing more cycling than running, a lot of off road, both on a CX and a MTB, some longer rides on the road.
Nowadays I still cycle a lot but mainly for fitness, I still do a lot of road/off road stuff but no big road mileage, I still compete at MTBO.

 

[Brandane]

It's got slower.
Rides have got shorter.
Recently, it's got less frequent.
I can see an e-bike coming to the rescue at some point in the future!

 

[bikingdad90]

As a kid I used to ride with my parents on 20-30mins trips at weekends, to school or my girlfriends at the time and my daily paper round on a hybrid bike.

Started my apprenticeship and still used to fair weather commute to the job.

I kept up bikes for a few years and then found girls, love and marriage. Got fat from daily doughnuts (yum) so took up running and bought a Triban 3 and became the skinniest I ever was.

I then commuted to work for a few years and did Ride London in 5hr 30mins but after my 4th crash my wife said enough was enough, get a car I need you home to look after the children! Never any serious injuries, just bruising and roadrash, usually from slipping on ice.

I now still cycle for leisure mainly but do miss the daily slog in any weather. Most of riding is confined to summer when the nights are light and warm as it’s hard to get out with 3 under 10s on a weekend.