# How long have you been cycling?



## Browser (13 Jul 2009)

Me? On and off since I was old enough to fall off my first bike. Through school years when I always had second-hand home-fettled bikes, courtesy of dad who used to work in a bike shop as a lad so built his own. Started building my own knockabout bikes from old frames as parents couldn't afford a BMX for me (first time they were all the rage!). When I started work I cycled, 8 whole miles each way (seemed like a lot further then) and bought my first ever new bike with my wages (Emmelle Cortina 12 speed MTB, I thought I was the mutts nuts anyway).
Changed jobs, now and 11 mile ride each way, passed driving test, only cycled sporadically.
Move one several years, now married and getting unfit, rebuild old Emmelle and paint fluorescent orange. Use for a while, several bits need replacing so decide to ditch it and get new bike. Since I knew feck all about what to get and was being tight, bought a Falcon Explorer 15 which I still have. Move on about 8 years, 2 kids, 16 stone 13lbs (even at 6ft 5in this is too heavy), start cycling to work again in conjunction with joining local rowing club. Am enjoying cycling again, might do the Bike For Work scheme (seemed like a scam at first but makes some sense now) and get a decent bike.
There's my potted history, what's yours?


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## Jane Smart (13 Jul 2009)

Nice story

My story I posted earlier when I first joine here but here goes.. .. .. 

I had not cycled for 34 years up till about four weeks ago. A friend cycled past my garden and I thought, there is a bike in the shed here, got it out and had to pump up the tyres but apart from that and it had not been used for 8 years ( it belongs to my husband and he never used it ) it was ok. My first cycle in 34 years was 12 miles. I went to my friends house and back. I absolutely loved it and could not believe that bike had been here all that time and I never even gave it a second glance.

After that, I took it out daily, shops, just a run or anything. 

Then guess what?

Hubby decided it is HIS bike and wanted it back, so two weeks ago I bought my very first bike of my very own. I had always just cycled on the "family bike" in the shed as a youngster.

I bought a ridgeback, mans mountain bike, but had pink handlebars put on it to kind of personalise it.

In the past two weeks I have done well over 200 miles and loved every single mile, except when a man shouted at me and I got stung on the face yesterday

Since cycling four weeks ago, I have lost almost a stone  in weight, so all going well.


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## Sittingduck (13 Jul 2009)

Toddler - 15 year old: Cycled almost daily.
15 years - late 20's: No cycling at all.
2005 - 2008: very, VERY occasional 4 or 5 mile ride on a nasty 90 quid MTB.
last 12 months exactly: proper cyclist


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## ACS (13 Jul 2009)

Road runner from the age of 18 (10k to marathon), aged 22 took up Triathlon for 6 years (destroyed my shins on road running, Dr said a wheel chair could well be my next wheeled purchase ), then 7 years TT, crashed when making up the numbers in a 2nd string club team (read water man) and I didn't get on a bike for the next 15 years deciding to punish my brain instead of my legs.

Having left school with no qualifications I decided to prove a point mainly to myself. Finish education having got all the necessary ticks in the boxes required for a mid-life crisis career change and having put on 3 stone in weight I rescued my 531c road bike from the back of the garage and took to the road again.

Now I’m a frustrated bike person, mind and legs are still willing I just wish that my lungs, energy levels and recovery times would catch up with them.


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## chirk2000ad (13 Jul 2009)

all me life

age 6 raleigh tomahawk -great bike
age 10 grifter
age 14 pulsar (raleigh) i think was quite good at the time and it felt fast
age 17 marin bear valley first ever mtb went all over on it and loads of touring too and a 531 race bike which I broke and chucked but should of got repaired (doh)

now I don`t mention the age word but have a crusty beard type tourer. 

total cycling years 31


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## Randochap (13 Jul 2009)

45 years, with short breaks dictated by health and other life's distractions.


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## Bigtwin (14 Jul 2009)

Oh dear - seems to be about 39 years.

Might have a party next year then!


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## Browser (14 Jul 2009)

chirk2000ad said:


> age 10 grifter



As I was on my way to work the other morning I saw a bloke on a red Grifter, and it looked mint! I don't know where the hell he'd kept the thing, the crash pad on the handlebars and the rear mudguard were immaculate, and as an ex-owner you can probably appreciate how those bits _never_ normally stayed like that for long


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## jimboalee (14 Jul 2009)

Got a piece of Super 8 Cine of me riding round the garden on a Triang trike on my third birthday.

So what's that? Forty howmany???


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## Jane Smart (14 Jul 2009)

jimboalee said:


> Got a piece of Super 8 Cine of me riding round the garden on a Triang trike on my third birthday.
> 
> So what's that? Forty howmany???



Haha I have the same, me in a bikini, a home made bikini at that, going around my dads garden on a three wheeler 

Had it put onto a video tape a few years ago, now maybe that is one for youtube


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## LordoftheTeapot (14 Jul 2009)

38 years 




Or 39


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## HLaB (14 Jul 2009)

Not long enough.

I cycled as a teen (as a mode of transport) but when I got my driving licence at 21, it kind of took a back seat. The next bike I bought was in 2001 (I think) a year after I moved to Dublin, this was mainly useed for transport at first a steel framed hybrid latterally for leisure before its retirement. I moved back to Scotland in 2005 and bought my first proper leisure bike (Sirrus Sports '06) a year later I bought the Bianchi, and Ridgeback Commuter and now I'm buying another roadbike. I guess the bug bit in the last 5 years or so.


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## marinyork (14 Jul 2009)

Four years. Had a bike as a child but had very risk averse parents. Furthest I ever went on it was 1.4 miles away from home (far further than I was allowed). My sister broke my bike and I couldn't afford to get it fixed so that was cycling done for the next ten years, unfortunately.


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## Jason37 (14 Jul 2009)

A chipper I think it was when I was about 5 yrs old then moved up to a yellow rayleigh chopper that was totally destroyed in the latter years as 1. I didn't really like it as I really wanted a Grifter and 2. I used it as a BMX (do not ask me how) until I got a Rayleigh Burner BMX bike. 

Rode most days at School but then I just stopped and never really rode again (oh apart from about 7 motorbikes between the ages of 26 and 34) and a couple of cheap mountain bike pogo stick bouncy Halford things (which lasted about 3 rides)).

Then April this year I bought a cheap road bike and have probably covered about 700-800 miles to date (W/ends only no commute)

So as a kid ten or eleven years 
8 or so years as a biker
and then when I grew up about 3.5 months on a road bike!


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## swee'pea99 (14 Jul 2009)

Upwards of 40 years since I started, but quite a long break in the middle there - motorbikes from early 20s to mid-30s, then just cars, only got back on a bike about 6 or 7 years ago. Wish I'd never stopped. (Mind, I did enjoy motorbiking!)


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## John Ponting (14 Jul 2009)

Not sure how long I've been cycling but I've been married 39 years so it could be a long time.

I was taught to ride by an Italian POW a few years after end of WW2. Then, like many people, I had a bike right through to end of 2nd school. Did some club riding and club TT for a few years. Had a break for 1st car. Started cycling again shortly before starting a family and continued for a few more years. Having a full velodrome in home town meant I could easily spend time riding track and helping with juniour training for a while. Had another break for motorbikes and sports cars. Bought a bike about 3 years ago and wish I'd never stopped. Now get to encourage 3x grandsons on local roads and trails. Haven't ridden so far this week but have had 2 turbo sessions, a walk along the Lee Navigation and a session with the osteopath.


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## Randochap (14 Jul 2009)

Interesting to read what got in the way of cycling for so many: the infernal combustion engines.

Luckily -- but for a brief infatuation with the Jaguar E-type at 12 y/o -- I've never much cared for cars or motorcycles.

I watched my friends in UK desert their bicycles as soon as they could get their hands on an old "Beezer" or "Fanny B." In Canada, there was no real bicycle culture -- youths couldn't wait to turn in their "Mustang" banana seat bikes for a real Ford Mustang.

Meanwhile, I stood aside, working in bike shops and climbing gear shops, spending all my paltry wages on bikes and alpine gear. I didn't get my drivers' license until I was 30 and have owned motor vehicles only sporadically. The one I have (bought for $450 in 1996) now sits with a flat tyre and covered in 6 months of dust. It's not worth a fraction of any of my main bikes.

Five years ago, I moved to a village within a city where car ownership is redundant, unless I want to drive to the interior or another province. The main reason for this move was specifically because the town is bike-friendly and the actual area was chosen because I can walk and cycle everywhere. 

I often think of all the kids who are robbed of the experience of their own engines by early adoption of the motorized wheelchair known as the motor vehicle. They never become familiar with the visceral wonder of their own miraculous motor. Rather than learning to develop their own power and vitality, instead, they are stolen away by the counterfeit thrill of gasoline powered speed.

How many lives have been laid waste by this car culture?

It is literally worse than the scourge of drugs.


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## jig-sore (14 Jul 2009)

always used to be on bikes when i was young, never into ball sports.

started with a boxer, grifter and chopper, then went to BMX and a "racer" for school.
then had a Raleigh Mustang MTB, the pink and white paint job one, like this...







had this nicked and got the red and black model, like this...






then HAD to cycle to work when i left school (1990), 8 miles each way, five days a week.

then had a gap of a few years when i started driving, (late 1991-1994 ish) then one day i decided to buy a bike just to "get out on". first an MTB then a road bike. cycled a fair bit until the kids came along (1999) and then the cycling just faded out.

got back into it last year (2008) because i was getting really unfit and because the kids can ride now as well. improved a lot over the last year and now back up to the standard i used to be. just started commuting as well, 11.5 miles each way


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## HJ (14 Jul 2009)

I have been cycling on and off for more years than I care to remember, here is a blog post which I wrote about commuting a few years ago, but I was cycling long before that...


[wisper]
I have been riding a bike for something over forty years...
[/wisper]


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## Jane Smart (14 Jul 2009)

Nice blog HJ


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## Sittingduck (14 Jul 2009)

the anorak said:


> always used to be on bikes when i was young, never into ball sports.
> 
> started with a boxer, grifter and chopper, then went to BMX and a "racer" for school.
> then had a Raleigh Mustang MTB, the pink and white paint job one, like this...



I had the original Black & WHite one that came out a year or so before the pink version  My first MTB / ATB. Purchased from Jimboalle's beloved Tom Crowther Cycles in Solihull no less!

My first proper bike was also a Boxer - bright Yellow it was


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## scots_lass (14 Jul 2009)

Well I am a real beginner. Cycled occasionally as a child (more than 40 years ago!) but only started cycling regularly a few weeks back! Not sure if I am going to be more than a fairweather cyclist but really enjoying it so far!


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## Jane Smart (14 Jul 2009)

scots_lass said:


> Well I am a real beginner. Cycled occasionally as a child (more than 40 years ago!) but only started cycling regularly a few weeks back! Not sure if I am going to be more than a fairweather cyclist but really enjoying it so far!



You did 20 miles today, in the rain, don't put yourself down that was a great achievement


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## palinurus (14 Jul 2009)

Been cycling since I was five. Needed transport when I was a kid, some of my friends lived a mile or so away (no way was I walking that far).

When I started work I thought I'd use my bike (a cheap Peugeot from Marshall Ward catalogue), figured I'd learn to drive and get a car after a while. As usual never got around to it.

The Peugeot (originally bought 'cos it looked like Robert Millar's bike, very superficially) did a year or so. Then a Muddy Fox Courier did the next 11 years, then a Marin MTB for six years, then came the "Blue Hack"- retired only two weeks ago, now I've got a Specialized Singlecross.

I've got, and have had, other bikes but those were my commute /everyday riding machines.

Only commuting until I hit 36 then, following a thread on the C+ forum, I entered a time trial. Still doing that. Started Cyclocross last season.

35 years later.


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## Davidc (14 Jul 2009)

Interesting posts - and I just discovered from Jane Smart's profile that at the moment I've got the same steed as her new one.... 

I started with a triang trike 54 years ago, aged 3, see below.

Learnt to ride on 2 wheels aged 6 (I'm told I took 10 minutes to learn balance and several hours to learn how the rod brakes worked!!!!!). That was a child's Humber bike, second hand and too big for me.

Had a Raleigh with a SA 3 speed when I was 11 (I'd passed the 11+). It was a horrible bike but I still enjoyed it, until I tried using it for longer distances.

Bought a Holdsworth Cyclone with my Saturday job money when I was 16. Best bike I've ever owned. Toured with it, and used it as transport. Took it to university with me and rode it daily up Bristol's Whiteladies road and Blackboy hill. The antidote to any known hangover but no longer legally possible!

That got stolen in 1974, and like many people I went down market when I replaced it, with a Pugeot tourer. That lasted me from 1974 until 1996, when one of the chainstays got bent when a moton forced me off the road. Still commuted sometimes by then, but not much else apart from going out with my son.

Had a flat bar early ish mtb (OK, BSO) for a while, from about 1988 until it got stolen in Ipswich in 1998. Then ended up with the kid's cast-offs. Much less cycling after that.

After major life changes for the first time, by age 55 I wasn't doing much cycling, but decided after serious illness to buy a bike that fitted me to get more exercise - and not surprisingly started using it a lot.

Now looking for a good steel tourer ......

I've never stopped cycling, but the amount has varied. Helps that I didn't learn to drive until I was 22 and needed it for my job, and have never liked cars nor found them Objects Of Desire. Rather I dislike them, think they're an evil neccesitated by lack of an alternative, and would prefer them not to exist!

Why is cycling so expensive, and why doesn't my wife understand why I want need 2 bikes????


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## fossyant (14 Jul 2009)

Started with a Budgie, got a Chopper next, then got a Coventry Eagle......

Then got a Raleigh Road Ace (531 and Shimano 600.Ultegra)

Then got this about 20 years ago...






It was rather a lot of money at the time , but has been well worth it - pic taken just a few months ago........ Cycling properly - i.e. club level since 16, soooooo 23 years......not long enough !


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## northolthornet (14 Jul 2009)

I've been cycling for 3 days! Getting back in the saddle after 24 yrs. I got bored doing an hour of C.V. in the gym, but I have found out that 20 mins on a bike is the same as an hour on a cross trainer! My aim to be able to cycle 13 miles to work.


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## Bigtwin (14 Jul 2009)

fossyant said:


> Started with a Budgie, got a Chopper next, then got a Coventry Eagle......
> 
> Then got a Raleigh Road Ace (531 and Shimano 600.Ultegra)
> 
> ...



Lovely bike. But just seeing that saddle angle makes my eyes water...


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## fossyant (14 Jul 2009)

Bigtwin said:


> Lovely bike. But just seeing that saddle angle makes my eyes water...



100% level....................


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## Jane Smart (14 Jul 2009)

northolthornet said:


> I've been cycling for 3 days! Getting back in the saddle after 24 yrs. I got bored doing an hour of C.V. in the gym, but I have found out that 20 mins on a bike is the same as an hour on a cross trainer! My aim to be able to cycle 13 miles to work.



You can do it no problem


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## The Jayler (15 Jul 2009)

Hi to everyone,
I am registered partially sighted so have ridden every where on a variety of bikes over the last 25 years. Will never be able to drive so the trips to work and every social meet is done on the bike. 
Been nicked once for drunk in charge after a lockin at my brothers pub and for speeding once (again after a lockin) after passing a speed gun at 38 in a 30 at 3am.
Ride a Trek 6700 at the moment but im about to get another road bike, Still deciding which and thats a whole other thread.
Rich.


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## mad al (15 Jul 2009)

I've been on* & off* bikes for 50+ years now. Did a bit of competitive stuff up until I was about 45 and could still do "evens" when I quit the game at that age.
I was into running big time and just jumped on a bike as and when I felt the need to chill so it came as a bit of a shock when I did my 1st ever race which was A 10 mile TT and rode a little over 27mins...........I was hooked


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## Woz! (15 Jul 2009)

I started when I was tiny, I think my first bike was called a BoBo, which was a rip-off miniature chopper. Much smaller than a Tomahawk. I then moved on to a proper genuine Yellow Chopper, which was my pride and joy. I did envy all the Grifter riders, but my chopper could pull the best wheelies! I remember going over ramps was a nightmare on it because it would just flip straight over. I _think_ I might have had a Grifter or something like it for a while, but my memory of that has faded.
The next bike I remember getting was a Sun 10 speed racer, which I used for a paper-round as well as general getting about. The left pedal used to fall off unless you rode it _just so_ which proved to be good because it was stolen at least 5 times and recovered by the police with the pedal nearby! They actually got to know me and one time took the bike back to the papershop before I'd even finished my round!
Sadly, the last time it was nicked, it got run over 

Then I moved on to one of the first Dawes mountain bikes, which I used to use to visit my then girlfriend (now wife ). I used to frequently run out of batteries for my lights (expensive and I only had a paper round!) so I'd tell her I HAD to leave before dark. Of course, several hours of teenaged wossname later (we were 14), I'd have to ride home in the dark down unlit roads through the woods. I vividly remember one patch where I was convinced werewolves lived after watching American Werewolf in London!
I was never killed on this ride home, which is a bit of a miracle to be honest - it's a fast straight Roman road which cars go down quick!

That Dawes lasted me a good long time and I used it to commute to my first job, which was about 3 or 4 miles from home. Once I had some money and me and Mrs Woz bought our first flat, we bought matching GT bikes. Mine was a Karakoram, which I still have and love. 






I commuted on the GT to work, and used it to ride the local massive woodland near my house, and continue to do so. She's 18 this year I think!
Since I bought her, I've done a stint of work in Oxford and London, so commuted by train and bought a red Brompton for that.
Then I got work that was 10 miles from home, and did infrequent commuting by bike there. The next job was 13 miles from home and I didn't think the roads were ones that would be safe for year-round commuting so my cycling reduced a bit. However, I bought a racer off a mate for 20 quid:




and found that contrary to the opinion I'd held for the 5 years I've been working in this town, the commute is actually blissful!
The racer just wasn't up to the 26 mile round trip, and on one occasion I got 5 flats in a single day 
So I joined the cycle to work scheme and bought a tourer:




Which has been fabulous. I still ride the racer for nipping to the shops and the GT gets an occasional blast in the woods too.

So, I've been riding pretty much non-stop since I was maybe 5, which is 35 years now. I'm a bit more militant about it recently though and I consider myself a Cyclist, rather than someone who happens to ride a bike!

Funny thing is, my friends seem to think I'm always buying bikes but in the last 35 years, I've only ever bought 4 new ones!

Ooops, sorry for the long post!


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## zoe mcdonald (8 Sep 2009)

*looking for mature female cyclist to interview*



Jane Smart said:


> Nice blog HJ


Hi there

I'm a journalist writing a feature for The Lady magazine, and I'm looking for a woman who got into cycling in her late 30s or 40s - 60s, having not been interested in sport before. Is this you?

My email is zoemcdonald@sky.com


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## Perfect Virgo (8 Sep 2009)

Learned to ride a small two-wheeler at age 8 and moved up to steadily larger steeds through my teens. Like so many, I switched to motorcycles in my 20s then cars to transport a young family. I always had a Raleigh of sorts tucked away in the shed to spin out with the kids. After a busy few decades living and learning to be middle-aged I sneaked back to motorcycling on an R1 in my late 40s. Returned to cycling properly last year at 51 when running became too hard on my ageing ankles.

So a total of 44 years, off and on.


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## MarkF (8 Sep 2009)

4 - 16 years old, probably every day, I was never off my bikes.

16th Birthday, bought a moped and did not ride a cycle for 27 years.

I am 47 and bitterly regret not starting again sooner, still, at least I started again


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## Ian H (8 Sep 2009)

I think it was 42 years ago I rode 60 miles out and back to Aldermaston with a friend. We went to visit his aunt. She was out. 
Had a break for around ten years in my twenties, then started touring and racing. Another partial break to start a business, then got into long-distance, audax cycling. Still mess about with time trials a bit.


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## Randochap (9 Sep 2009)

Wow! Interesting to read this resurrected thread and my post, written just five days before I got mowed down by an infernal combustion machine.


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## roundisland (9 Sep 2009)

About 6 months and really loving it  hope nothing distracts me over the coming years and my strenght and fitness grow's into my 50's


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## tordis (9 Sep 2009)

I used to cycle a lot back in Poland, then I had a long, 4-year break from riding. I got back to cycling in May. At first, it was mostly bike paths along the Thames, but then I started commuting and I've been doing that every day for over a month now.


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## swee'pea99 (9 Sep 2009)

Started when I was a kid - used to cycle to school a mile away on busy city streets when I was eight - carried on thru' my teens, with holidays everywhere from Wales to Cornwall to Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, up till early '20s when I discovered motorbikes, then a break till about 40-ish when my monthly travelcard cost hit about £1000 a year, and I thought 'I wonder if I could cycle it instead'. Got a 20 year old Dawes off ebay for £62 and never looked back.


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## rh100 (9 Sep 2009)

Started when I was about 5 or 6, on some kind of mini chopper clone, when I first rode it my brother had to hold the back to keep me upright and I peddaled, then one day I looked back to find him way back up the street, and promptly fell off.

After that I had my brothers hand me down bikes, firstly a nice chrome BMX with (skyway?) plastic wheels, then when he started driving I had his Raleigh racer which I went nearly everywhere on. When I started work I was using buses all the time and the racer got sold on, then used my Dad's mountain bike now and then but completely stopped (guess when - when I got a car at about 19).

In about 2003 me and GF bought a couple of BSO's from Halfords, but they ended up left in the shed until about 4 weeks ago.

My reason for starting again: got Sciatica , end result was being advised to go swimming or cycling, so the bikes came back out the shed, spruced up a bit and now enjoying it.

View attachment 4183


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