What got you interested in cycling (or interested again)?

[openroad]

My Mum and Dad where into cycling so I had a bike from about 5yrs old. When I was 13yrs old I saved up money from strawberry picking to by myself a bike can't remember what make it was but was chuffed with it!!!.Then as the years went by I did less cycling until I stopped altogether.The first bike I bought was a Dutch style one In my mid thirties it looked lovely but I nearly fell of several times when indicating so decided to sell it.Then I moved to Norwich bought a cheap mountain bike to get fit and cycle the Marriotts way, then through meeting other cyclists poping into bike shops I now find myself owning 3 bikes.It's the best thing I've done. have met so many nice cyclists and am getting fitter am not a speedy cyclist but love it

 

[Leescfc79]

Never really had bikes as a kid, I had to learn to ride one at school but never really had any interest and used to walk everywhere. Even as a adult although I owned a BSO its only use was my annual trip to centre parcs.

But about 2 years ago I decided I needed to get fit and lose some weight so joined a gym, after about 6 months I was sitting on a exercise bike bored and saw someone ride past on a bike and thought I'd much prefer to be outside than stuck indoors, I haven't looked back since. All this happened at the same time as the Olympics which I think had a lot to do with it too.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I started riding at 5 and haven't really stopped, its ebbed and flowed over the years with work & family & a couple of big injuries changing things, I'm not competitive at all anymore & am a happy utility/commuting/leisure rider now, out on one bike or another pretty much every day as it still makes me happy, gives me some me time and lets me drink beer & eat pizza without ever having to set foot in soulless gym hell.

 

[RedRider]

Moving to London did it for me. I'd had my first car less than a year when I moved down but I only ever used it to escape the city. It was just taking up space while I sweated the tube to work so I swapped it for a bike after six months and discovered London as a bike-shaped city and me a bike- shaped person.
That was 16 years ago and still exploring.

 

[Dave 123]

As a lad, riding round with my mates on my Raleigh grifter,doing jumps, falling off, having smashes,having fun,seeing blood and seeing beyond my nose.
Then a Raleigh winner came along, I suppose I was 13. Rides to Chester, playing KOM on the hill from the pretty bridge up to the zoo.... Can I ride up it no handed....? Give it a bash. Off around the wirral for the day in the holidays, usually being chased by farmers!
Then I passed my test...." I'll still ride to work three days a week"
Like hell I did!
I had a mountain bike in my 20s that I rode around Devon, playing on the moors when I lived down there. In my 30s I had a BSO that fell to bits quite soon.
Then after wanting road bike for about 4 years I got back on a bike about 4 years ago, and felt like a sack of fat crap! These days I am really quite fit, addicted, and loving it.

 

[simon the viking]

Got fed up of spending precious money on petrol for the commute when it was within cycling distance and I wanted to get a bit fitter so sold B.S.O and bought a cheap road bike and never looked back

 

[MontyVeda]

Like others I was a kid in the 70's that rode everywhere. I also remember riding my bike with a leg in plaster,

...

there was a lad at my junior school who had his leg permanently in a calliper... he also went everywhere on his bike! It was yellow and called a Spider... i was well jealous!

 

[MarkF]

Loved my bike as a kid, had an Elswick Hopper road bike at 12, my parents used to think I was nearby, but I'd be off to Skipton or somewhere in the Dales 30/40 miles away. I can't remember when I stopped cycling, must have just put it away one day at 14/15 I suppose.

30 years later after 30 years of football, I had hip problems, arthritis meant I'd often "lock up", sometimes I'd be totally immobile and in great pain. A doctor suggested cycling as a low impact sport, I bought a bike, well, several "wrong" bikes, before discovering hybrids, I took to it again immediately. My hip "freed" up, I lost weight and within 2 years I was touring, a while later I'd done the C2C, then across France, then across Spain. I still feel my hips but I've had a decade of full mobility and have been able to coach footie for 5 years.

I wish I'd never stopped cycling, I've got enormous pleasure from it, both physically and mentally and hope to continue till I pop my clogs.

 

[Doc333]

As a kid my mates and I were into cycling in a big way as we had our own regular bikes and then went to scrapyards and started building bikes. We had fixies which were fun once you got over the lumps and bruises of learning, and we modernised bikes by putting smaller wheels on the front or pram wheels to make 'choppers'. All great fun but then we noticed girls ......

Fast forward to mountain bikes in the early 90's and I got involved in that in a big way, and enjoyed being crudded up and bruised from fire trails and dodgy downhill stuff through forests. Work then dominated and so not having the time then took up golf for the next 20-years until I have a heart attack. Fast forward a few months and realising I need more than golf to get my heart working on an arobic plain, I decide to get a bike again. 2 months on and very unfit late 50's bloke is seen gasping for breath around the lanes of Cheshire. Doing over 20-miles each time which I'm well chuffed about and starting to feel great. Always enjoyed the roads and lanes on a bike and so pleased to get back into it, and it's a nice break from any problems

 

[Doc333]

Mark believe it or not my first bike was also a Hopper, and it just brought back memories of cycling up to the local bike shop (Eddies) we knew it as. Great bloke, stocked everything and knew his stuff. A few years later I learned of his death as well as the local high street, and found out he was well respected around the country. He rode for England, he built bikes for pro's, he designed state of the art tubing and his funeral was standing room only. He was from Yorkshire too and his bike shop was in Leeds where I grew up.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Had Schwinns, as well as a Raleigh Chopper, better bicycle money around here came from de-tasseling corn, got a nicer Raleigh. When I got married, I got a house, and so needed a bicycle. Bought a Murray commuter. Did not ride very much, and got a very nice ten speed at a parish sale 8 years ago, and have been involved with cycling since. I now have a 1981 Schwinn Voyageur Tourer, an Electra Townie 21D, and a Diamondback Outlook.

 

[Jody]

Started riding when I was 4. I saw some local youths pulling wheelies when I was about 5 and then I was hooked. My sole aim at that age was to pull a wheelie like the big boys. Went through a few bikes, BMX's and a racer (5 speed gears on the down tube) then got a MTB when I was 10. My first decent branded MTB changed everything. I was going to but a Raleigh Activator but managed to get my parents to agree on a GT which had no suspension but seemed a lot more apt for what I wanted from it. Spent all my time riding until 17, which I was effected by booze, birds and cars. I carried on riding off and on until early 20's and then the mountain bikes quickly gathered dust.

What got me back into riding? Weight, age and needing the buzz of riding like we used to. Trails, jumps, speed, a bit of danger and fresh air. What more could you ask for.

 

[Doc333]

Happy days and this post got me thinking about some of the kit that was fitted to some of those old bikes way back then. The 3-speed trigger, loved playing with the very expensive, high tech dynamo that seemed to be spage age. Those old huge heavy lights and heavy batteries, bells that rusted as soon as fitted, first time I ever saw toe clips I tghought they were stupid, no such thing as straight bars it was either drops or huge bends like on a grocers/butchers bike which had no cables for brakes it was steel rods. What about hub brakes .... I was in another world with that lot and struggle now trying to remember how my 105 gears work

 

[Dogtrousers]

I was a keen cyclist up to my mid 20s, going cycle touring every year. Then I went and lived abroad for a bit. Came back in the late 80s and London traffic was much more scary than I remembered it. Or maybe I'd lost some of my youthful fearlessness. I took up running (well "lumbering" to be technically correct), the bike gathered dust. Then had its pedals removed as they were a trip hazard (bike lived in the hallway). THen I moved to somewhere with a garage. Bike banished.

Then a few years back, a mate asked me at a party if I fancied going out cycling. Which I did. New old bike obtained from ebay. And I wondered why I ever stopped.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Happy days and this post got me thinking about some of the kit that was fitted to some of those old bikes way back then. The 3-speed trigger, loved playing with the very expensive, high tech dynamo that seemed to be spage age. Those old huge heavy lights and heavy batteries, bells that rusted as soon as fitted, first time I ever saw toe clips I tghought they were stupid, no such thing as straight bars it was either drops or huge bends like on a grocers/butchers bike which had no cables for brakes it was steel rods. What about hub brakes .... I was in another world with that lot and struggle now trying to remember how my 105 gears work

Which of the new advances in bikes since then would you not live without? Brifters? Meh. Nothin wrong with down tube shifters. Threadless headsets? Quill stems are so much prettier.

But lights that actually work? Oh yes, I'm keeping those. And clipless pedals over toe clips too. I never properly managed to master toeclips, it always took me a couple of goes to get my foot in. I love clipless.

Anyone feeling nostalgic for cotter pins?