How long have you been cycling?

[swee'pea99]

Got a serious grounding between sort of 8 & 18, including tours in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, then gave up in my '20s in favour of motorbikes, no riding at all for 20 years, then my monthly card went over £100 and I decided to get on ebay and see how things panned out. Got an old Dawes for £50, got half way to work, thought 'why did I ever give this up?', and that was that. Ridden pretty much every day since.

 

[potsy]

Slightly less than I've been a member here, 3 years.
Still don't quite know how it happened, hated the bikes at the gym, didn't do any real cycling as a kid, just pottered about on a 3rd or 4th hand Raleigh Chopper on the pavement.
A random conversation with a couple of colleagues got me thinking about trying it, 2 months later I was on here, a month after that I had a hybrid and was cycling nearly 20 miles a day a few times a week
I'm now doing stupid hilly rides with cj and am aiming for a second successive 5000+ miles year.

 

[gbb]

Not easy to break it down, but 53 now and been commuting by bike about 50% of the time since I was 20. I used to bike for a couple years then drive, going to and fro. Been seriously cycling for fitness etc for maybe 10 years, so I've totalled it up to around 20-25 years.

 

[dellzeqq]

for 57 of my not quite 58 years

 

[GM]

I've always had a bike of some sort since I was 8. 62 now, still no faster!

 

[lukesdad]

A curiosity question really.

How long has it been since you first began to cycle seriously, either for leisure or for transport. So don't include your childhood, unless it was not just scratting about on a bike but use as defined and exclude any breaks of significance.

I began when I was about 16, riding to a school friend's who lived 15 miles away and from there we both discovered riding into the Cheshire countryside. Since then a bike has always figured somewhere and in the intervening time, there's probably only been 4 years when I've not used my bike much. So all told, 31 years (ish).

Time has not been kind to you Crax, I thought you were much older

 

[psmiffy]

40+ years - first short ride to school would have been when I was about 6 (late starter)- we often lived not very near to anywhere so as I got older 20mile round trips to visit friends was not unusual - about 14 when I started going out for non-utility rides in the countryside where we lived in Germany at that time -first tour was to Koln with a school mate of mine when I was 16 - apart from the periods that I have worked abroad I have pretty much used a bike all my life - Just a bit of a shame that ive never got any good at it.

I think the fact that my Mother and Father had both used bikes as a means to getting about when they were kids meant that as soon as they thought we were competent to ride on the road we were just allowed to get on with it.

 

[sdr gb]

I started cycling to get to my first job after leaving school in the mid 90's. The workplace was only about 1.5 miles away, but when I found myself going out of my way to make the commute a bit longer, I realised how much I enjoyed cycling and started taking it more seriously.

 

[calibanzwei]

19 months ago - was the only real way I could get to college.

 

[GBC]

I've pretty much always had a bike, but didn't really start taking it seriously, ie going for runs rather than just commute, until two years ago when I ended up working from home and needed some form of exercise. I now use the turbo trainer in the winter, and in the better weather try and get in a couple of evening 12 to 15 milers, and a 30+ at the weekend.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Became a born-again cyclist in 1995 after a 15 year rest.

 

[GetAGrip]

12 months 5 weeks & 4 hours

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Regularly commuted and/or ridden as a sport/to keep fit since the age of 12. Think it's quite funny that now, some 35 years later, I'm classed as a MAMIL, despite riding road bikes and wearing lycra for all those years and through all those ages.

 

[Globalti]

I must have started when I was about four or six, so around 50 years.

Apart from a 12 year spell on motorised bicycles and two years overseas I have always had a bike. Now I've got three....

 

[asterix]

Not including school, 42 years; after I 'borrowed' my brother's 2nd hand 'Sun', a fine lightweight machine with a Wright's leather saddle. I rode around the Box Hill, Mole Valley area as I lived round those parts.

However, much earlier, I used pester-power and got a beautiful Phillips 18" wheeled bike when living in Cyprus. Not an incident-free experience. One day I rode it straight down a hole in the road that had been left by workman without fencing or lights. Cypriot roads were like that. I guess I'd have been 6 or 7 and was unhurt IIRC.