When did you realize you were getting serious about this cycling lark?

[ufkacbln]

It's just a bicycle.

How dare you, how very dare you.... this scurrilous sentence deserves the full wrath of the moderators

Just a bicycle?

 

[Arrowfoot]

After I laid out around £800 for a bike n accessories.....

But told the Mrs it was only £400

Glad I was not the only one

 

[Bicycle]

How dare you, how very dare you.... this scurrilous sentence deserves the full wrath of the moderators

Just a bicycle?

Well... Yes. frankly it is.

But I was touched by elder son a few weeks ago. He'd been riding my 20-speed road bike as one of his ergo levers was Donald. When it was fixed (replaced) I offered to keep his bike (18 speed) and give him my better, lighter, faster, prettier 20-speed.

He looked at me as if I was mad. "I like my one" he said. OK. But frankly, to me it's just a bicycle.

I'm sorry, but someone had to say it.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

i may still need to get serious about it again

 

[G-Zero]

"When did you realize you were getting serious about this cycling lark?"

I consider myself to be a regular cyclist, but as I don't compete and I'm not in a club, I don't consider myself to a serious cyclist.... yet.

My mileage (over 2000 in 6 months) is not massive, but the fact that I commute in all weathers and at all times of the day, may go some way towards earning the title, but until I become a confirmed "junkie", sorry...."roadie", I won't consider myself to be taking it too seriously

 

[phil_hg_uk]

At the food station on my first ever sportive......I just knew it met certain needs!

Really .......... enough said

 

[Francesca]

I got into cycling last year 2011 - when my backside and thighs decided to grow! (was 12 stone)
since then I try and get on my bike as much as I can but cant do much at moment as dark nights etc.
Can honestly say - watching what iam eating and cycling now down to 10 and half stone and wanna stay that way thankyou!

 

[Willo]

Yes, but you only get really serious when you pluck up the courage to wear it.

Mine was when I plucked up the courage and got off the bike and walk into a shop wearing it!! Either that or when I nearly crashed the car eyeing up a bike going past in the opposite direction - that's when I knew the mid-life crisis was really kicking in.

 

[youngoldbloke]

I think it has to be when you buy bibshorts/longs. It indicates a total commitment, which basic padded shorts do not. Anyway I think I look better in cycling kit than 'normal' clothes - maybe that realisation - however misguided - was the turning point.

 

[slowmotion]

Mine was when I plucked up the courage and got off the bike and walk into a shop wearing it!!

Blimey...Maximum Respect! I only venture forth under cover of darkness.

 

[S1mon]

Think I realised on 9th September when I had an op knowing I wold be off my bike and still am so like a loon on no food/drink since 6pm the evening before in readiness for my op I got up went out did a 50 miler. Boy was I ready to bonk and seriously dehydrated until I went for my op at 1 drank a water tanker when I was allowed to after they brought me round!!!
I go on Tuesday for checking over hopefully I will get the all clear as I have put on a stone since I stopped cycling and most vigorous exercise by docs orders .

 

[ColinJ]

By some standards, I am not a serious cyclist, but I realised years ago that I very rarely have a completely cycling-free day.

I may well not have ridden any of my bikes on a given day, but I will have been on here discussing some aspect of cycling, or on other cycling sites, or reading Cycling Weekly, Cycling Plus or Cycle Sport, maybe reading a cycling book, or selling some cycling products, planning cycling routes, cycling holidays, forum rides, watching cyclists riding by and wondering where they are going to, noticing cyclists in films ...

One day, I imagined reaching a time in my life when I would not be able to cycle any more. I had the same emotional reaction as when my parents died, or my long-term relationship broke up. I couldn't stand the thought of it, and decided that I want to die a cyclist, not an ex-cyclist, even if that means dying at 78 or 80 instead of lingering on to a more feeble death at 90 or 92.

I realised that I was serious about cycling when it dawned on me that it is totally woven into the fabric of my life, and that I even want it woven into the fabric of my death!

 

[JDP]

I did my first 60 mile sportive last year. As I rolled over the line with my left knee in agony, I looked at my cycle computer. It said 58.5 miles.........I rode down the hill to my car to get it to show 60 miles.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Setting out to the shops this morning, on foot, reached for my head safety gear

 

[IanT]

I think it dawned on me when, one day, I arrived home from a quick forty miler, unclipped from the road bike and immediately started looking at the average speed / moving time / top speed stats on Endomondo and Garmin. It occurred to me that a couple of months before, I would have been more interested in calories burned.

That's when I knew the cycling had become something more than just a way to lose weight.