What is cycling to you?

[Drago]

I’ve been cycling for over 90% of my years now, without break.

You must be knackered!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You must be knackered!

Food and ale dear boy.

 

[mickle]

My family moved to Malawi when I was ten and the local school was a bit rubbish so after a year i was sent to boarding school in Powys. It was nearish my extended family in Hereford, where i had a five speed Raleigh which i rode when i went to them for half terms and exiats. I always terrible at team sports and so one weekend I took my bike back to school on the train. Having a bike at school i discovered, 'wasn't allowed', but i argued that id never been told this, nor seen this rule written down anywhere. And, it was common knowledge that i couldn't catch a cricket ball or kick a football - and, i pleaded, "cycling is a sport that i'm actually good at" . He let me keep my bike on the condition that i start a cycling club at the school and eventually there were three or four of us. But for those first few weeks of the summer of 1975, when all the other boys traipsed off to play football or whatever, i rode off all alone around the lanes of mid Wales. Glorious.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just exercise and recreation really, mental and physical.

 

[Brooks]

What is cycling to me? It changed my life completely. After a heart attack I lost my license to drive a taxi and was thrown unexpectedly into unemployment. What can you do if you’re in your middle fifties? I wanted to get fit and bought a 2nd hand bike, in all honesty I didn’t have a clue about bikes.
I joined a local cycling group and just fell in love with cycling. I completed a ride leader course and then volunteered with the Salvation Army at a bike repair shop. This led me to do a city and guilds bike mechanic course. Covid came as soon as I finished the course so stopped any progress, but I led frequent rides throughout the pandemic.
strangely enough once the pandemic finished I struggled to find employment in bike shops that I put down to my age. After a considerable time I landed a job fixing hire bikes which I’ve been doing for over 3 years now and love every minute.
Cycling has transformed my later years for the better, funny as it’s strange preaching to the converted, but you all know where I’m coming from.

 

[wilberforce789]

When the current medical situation allows, cycling is an escape, exercise and an adventure in equal measures. Whether cycling on my own and just allowing my mind to wander or cycling with mates and chatting crap, both provide a valuable mental reset.
In addition to riding my bike, I also love a bit of bike fettling and DIY maintenance/repairs. The challenge and process of resolving issues provides a valuable sense of achievement. Hours in the shed working on the bike is nearly as enjoyable as the riding for me.

 

[PaulSB]

Exercise, friendship, companionship and the chance to clear my mind of everything that causes me any concerns. When I'm riding that's all I'm doing, riding. Everything else is forgotten for a few hours.

My only cycling regret is I can no longer tour solo. As my wife put it, after two major health issues and at 71 years old "Do you really want to take the risk?" She's right. I'm hoping to join some escorted gravel tours next year.

 

[Moodyman]

Freedom / autonomy. No traffic queues, parking, insurance, road tax, speed cameras, diverted traffic.

Living in a parallel universe - physically and mentally. Drivers think main roads. I think parks, greenways, trails, ginnels, alleyways and back streets.

Greater geographic awareness of my environment. Looking at a map and planning a route I don’t think journey time (like cars do), but distance and topography. Looking at the weather, I don’t think rain or sunshine, I think temperature, wind direction, two layers or three?

Two fingers to the system. we spend much of our lives being obedient to social/professional norms. Cycling allows me to be me.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Freedom / autonomy. No traffic queues, parking, insurance, road tax, speed cameras, diverted traffic.

Living in a parallel universe - physically and mentally. Drivers think main roads. I think parks, greenways, trails, ginnels, alleyways and back streets.

Greater geographic awareness of my environment. Looking at a map and planning a route I don’t think journey time (like cars do), but distance and topography. Looking at the weather, I don’t think rain or sunshine, I think temperature, wind direction, two layers or three?

I think cycling makes you look for the shorter and easier route which is often different to the fastest and easiest route for a car - even if you stick to roads!
There is even a road round here that is one way for cars but bikes can go either way!

 

[Dogtrousers]

Greater geographic awareness of my environment.

Very much this. From cycling I've developed a "feel" for the landscape and geology of South East England (and the Midlands to a degree) that I don't think you can get any other way. Walking you are too insignificant to appreciate things on a bigger scale. In a car you're too cocooned in your box.

Travelling by train is probably the next best way to understand landscape but you need to be attuned to the succession of cuttings, embankments, tunnels and viaducts and so on.

 

[geocycle]

It started as a different lens from which to view landscapes, it became the most efficient way to commute to work and now it is the way I maintain physical and mental health. Not bad for the humble bike.

 

[esoxlucius]

Cycling to me is very much on a par with my other passion, angling. In as much that both offer an escape for a while from other day to day stuff. Both are also fantastic for your mental well being.

And of course cycling, unlike angling which is more sedentary, is a way of giving yourself a good workout on your own terms.

Cycling really is the gift that just keeps on giving. And when I retire next year I can do even more cycling, and more angling too.

 

[All uphill]

Two fingers to the system. we spend much of our lives being obedient to social/professional norms. Cycling allows me to be me.

This really speaks to me.

I love the sense of stepping outside the norms of our society.

 

[spen666]

What is cycling?

Its riding a bicycle and related activities

 

[a.twiddler]

I’ve been cycling for over 90% of my years now, without break. Been a constant presence since I learnt to ride. Rode to primary school, rode to secondary school, rode to work etc etc. Ride for pleasure. Ride for utility.

I think now I’d call it my meditative time; the mind stills, you become attuned to nature around you, with senses heightened.

Sometimes it's mindfulness on wheels. You make little noise, so you can hear and absorb everything around you without impacting it, even becoming part of it. You hear so much more than when walking.