Just Why?

[BigMeatball]

What attracts you to cycling (Fitness/Well-Being/Cost saving..)?

I went back to cycling less than 12 months ago because I decided to start doing triathlons as a personal challenge, so the main reason was purely for training purposes.

Now I can say that even if/when I'll be done doing triathlons, I'll keep cycling. Main 2 things that attract me are:

- being able to get out of the city
- feeling the wind on my face

 

[I like Skol]

Ha Ha, I recently told my son that we used to build ramps and jump over our mates (well most of them) who would bravely lie on the floor.. His look of horror made me realise how much we must fuss over them these days! We laughed in the face of Danger

Have no trouble getting my two boys to follow my challenges of folly (much to the disdain of Mrs Skol )


This was filmed in summer 2013 so youngest was 7yrs old

 

[Slick]

I couldn't really come up with a reason to why I cycle other than I love it.

 

[matticus]

Freedom, wheelies, skids and jumps.

What other reason would there be?

… and swoopy descents. That's the main ones covered.

 

[JPBoothy]

Weight loss, which I have to say worked Had something of a love/hate relationship with cycling over the years but always end up back in the saddle.

When I reigned in the financial output, the enjoyment factor went up! I had a pair of wheels that cost little less than an entire bike. I still have the bike as it happens

I can relate to the 'love/hate' of cycling as I have gone from the Lycra clad racing snake (well possibly a pacy Python) who watched and read anything to do with cycling to the complete opposite who is now happier donning walking trousers/shoes/rucksack and heading for the bridalway.. No Strava or Garmin and just no time limits 👍

 

[Ming the Merciless]

It puts me in the flow, in the zone.

I think it's this. I can get the same from rock climbing or hill walking or even just walking in the countryside, but cycling is what I can do easily from the door.

I'm fully immersed in the cycling with energy, focus, and enjoyment. I'm completely absorbed in what I'm doing, and lose any sense of time. Ride long enough and you enter a difference state of consciousness. A sense of well being and contentment flows through me. I'm in the now and what came before and what comes after are pushed to the far sides of my consciousness.

Now I used to think I could only get this feeling during my mountaineering. But my observations are that I get exactly the same feeling of contentment in the now from my cycling.

Yes, there are undoubted fitness benefits, but those are secondary to why I cycle. Fitness can be achieved by other means, but you are not in the flow whilst doing them.

Like @Drago I started cycling as a child , around 3 years old, and never stopped.

 

[JPBoothy]

Have no trouble getting my two boys to follow my challenges of folly (much to the disdain of Mrs Skol )


This was filmed in summer 2013 so youngest was 7yrs old

There is a proud Grandad in work whose young Grandson is an absolute whizz at Cyclocross and also rides the Paris-Roubaix course every year.

 

[All uphill]

For me it's about space.

Space to think and feel,
Space to observe and enjoy,
Space to learn and be free.

 

[BoldonLad]

I cycle because I am a miserable unsociable ba-tard and I can take myself off on my own for hours on end without having to interact with the rest of the population who will have opinions and views that I have no interest in.

ha ha! this strikes a chord!

I enjoyed cycling as a child, and, this continued until I was about 16-17, at which point, the allure of motor cycles, then cars came along.

Years later, (age 49) I had a heart attack. After this, I was on medication to control Blood Pressure. At some point, my GP wanted to increase dosage, which I was not happy with. At that time, the local NHS was running several "groups" doing "activities", my GP suggested I join the walking group. I enjoyed the walking, but, I hated the continual conversation(s) that many of the group member seemed to fell were obligatory. So, I ditched the walking group, and joined the cycling group. Ideal, far less talking, I lost weight, BP came down. Been cycling ever since (solo or with wife).

 

[Mrs M]

Just love it, the feeling and the freedom.
My wee Raleigh trike.
Wee red bike with rod brakes, donated by next door neighbour.
Remember borrowing my friends brothers orange Raleigh Chopper, loved it!
Then my very own “racer”
The Giant Hollywood, a Christmas prezzie from Mr M, had this bike fo 18 years.
Then the next MTB, traded in for
The current road bike.
Then the Pashley (50th birthday prezzie).
And now the current MTB. Trek Roscoe 8.

 

[johnnyb47]

What attracts me to cycling?
That's a good question that has many answers that have changed over time.
Firstly i restarted cycling to get me out of depression after my wife left for greener pastures. I found it absolutely transformed my mind set. When ever i felt myself slipping down the ladder, a bike ride out in the countryside really lifted my mood. I also started to meet and make new friends. It was also a cheap way to socialise and travel to see the world around me.
Cycling has a nasty habit of being addictive and more i cycled the more i want to.
The weight fell off, and that in turn, turned my cycling enthusiasm to getting fitter as well as for well being mentally. Again more social friends were made through cycling such as through Cycle Chat, Strava buddy's and club rides.
My curiosity for new technologies in modern bikes fascinated me as i was stuck in the 80s with my beloved Peugeot road bike which now hangs on the wall in the dining room. Strava, Go, Pro cameras and modern bikes where a great distraction to keep my cycling curiosity alive and kicking.
I'm still no Bradley Wiggins but even at the ripe old age of 50 i still enjoy chasing the young whippersnappers before they drop me on the first hill.
Many people have told me that the best thing that happened to me whilst I was on the bare bones of my ass was my direction to take up cycling again and couldn't agree more.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I took up cycling after a 40 year gap, partly to help me escape from a very stressful situation for some time every day. It helped a lot, the situation eventually resolved itself, and 11 years later I'm still enjoying it. It has the benefits of physical exercise and meditation rolled into one

 

[fossyant]

Like @Drago, haven't stopped as a kid. Used to do a 5 mile paper round on the bike, then joined a club at 16. Despite the many injuries, I still love it, and have switched to MTB, which is another level of fun/fear/delete as appropriate, especially as I'm 50. I've also met some really sound folk from not just here, but local on-line groups - you can't get more rounded folk than other cyclists !

Hopefully, October will be another Cycle Chat MTB weekend in Wales. We will cram anyone in if needed, tents on the caravan lawn as overspill.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Ha Ha, I recently told my son that we used to build ramps and jump over our mates (well most of them) who would bravely lie on the floor.. His look of horror made me realise how much we must fuss over them these days! We laughed in the face of Danger

I seem to recall fluffing the landing having cleared a ramp at a speed in excess of R17. The owners of the rose bush I landed in lost their sympathy very quickly when they realised I wasn't dead. There is also the small matter that it wasn't my bike.

In answer to the OPs question: For me there are a multitude of reasons to ride but the one that keeps coming back is that after all these years I still get that childlike thrill of getting to places under my own power. For a few years I got a similar thrill from driving, but driving is no fun any more. Maybe if I get my Mini back on the road???..... It won't displace the bikes though.

 

[Blue Hills]

I cycle because I am a miserable unsociable ba-tard and I can take myself off on my own for hours on end without having to interact with the rest of the population who will have opinions and views that I have no interest in.

a somewhat alarming number of likes you have received for this