# Your cycling gap years



## anothersam (9 May 2015)

I got off a bike sometime in 1983 and didn't get on again until 1996. It was a 1972 Pontiac Lemans that seduced me away, then a move to a new country and an urge to explore it under my own steam that brought me back. (I was so impatient to get going that within a month of buying my hybrid I rode it from London to Fort William just so I could hike up Ben Nevis and shout _Hallelujah! I'm born again!_ closer to the heavens. Or something like that.)

How do you explain your gap years, if you had any, and what brought you back to the fold?


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## dave r (9 May 2015)

Cycled as a child, nothing serious, playing riding to school and generally getting around, when I was old enough to get a license I brought a motorbike and was a motorcyclist for about 10 years, then got a girlfriend that I was serious about and the bike had to go, so I went back to cycling, that was over 30 years ago and we're still together, we've raised a family and now have a granddaughter, I'm still cycling though these days I also run a car, to start off with I couldn't afford a car and a growing family plus a mortgage so I just cycled.


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## Sara_H (9 May 2015)

I never really rode much as a child. Just pottered about with friends. 
I had a really bad bike that never really worked properly when I was 12/13 and that was the end of that. 
I got a car age 18 and was very happy driving everywhere. 
When I was mid twenties it started getting harder to park near to my work. I worked late shifts and often ended up walking a mile or more to where I'd parked up, so eventually I realised it'd be easier to bike to work. 
I continued riding through pregnancy, only stopped when my tummy was to big to bring my legs up when I was peddling! 
I never rode with my son in a seat or trailer, so went back to driving when I had him with me, but always continued commuting.


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## MikeW-71 (9 May 2015)

I did the usual riding about with friends when I was little. We even went out for family rides too, though there was substantially less traffic back then, and I even had a road bike at the time.. A 5 speed something (can't remember the brand) and I was jealous of my mates Raleigh which had 6 

When I went to college for a year in the Lakes at 16, I used my Dads tourer, which was great as it was 12 speed... none of which was really low enough for the hills round there, but I managed.

Then I learned to drive and that was pretty much it for cycling, until I found myself at 41 getting out of breath walking up the stairs and carrying two stone too many without realising it. Team GB was on top in cycling events, Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France, and I remembered the bike I'd bought years back that had barely done 10 miles. Something had to be done, and cycling was it.

Now I'm fitter than I've ever been, 2 stone lighter again and really enjoying myself. I will be riding now until I physically can't anymore.


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## Drago (9 May 2015)

Didn't Cycle much while I was in the Army, though did get straight on the bike when I got home. The current near 3 month enforced break is the longest for nearly 3 decades.


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## LCpl Boiled Egg (9 May 2015)

I'm kind of in one at the moment. I bought a lovely new road bike, but by the time the next nice weather came round my wife was pregnant. Now I have an eight month old and no free time to use the bike!

On the plus side I can now think about trailers, balance bikes and the possibility that the young one will enjoy cycling too. 

There's still the commute though. Without that I'd do no cycling at all.


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## Cyclist33 (9 May 2015)

anothersam said:


> I got off a bike sometime in 1983 and didn't get on again until 1996. It was a 1972 Pontiac Lemans that seduced me away, then a move to a new country and an urge to explore it under my own steam that brought me back. (I was so impatient to get going that within a month of buying my hybrid I rode it from London to Fort William just so I could hike up Ben Nevis and shout _Hallelujah! I'm born again!_ closer to the heavens. Or something like that.)
> 
> How do you explain your gap years, if you had any, and what brought you back to the fold?


Drink and the Devil.


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## Jayaly (9 May 2015)

I cycled as a child when I had a pony in a field to look after and no other way of getting there, but that stopped when I outgrew the pony and had to study for exams. 

The next one was pitiful - my grandmother loaned her shopper to me when I went to university and had to travel several miles from one campus to another. My first day took me up Shooters Hill in London, where the bike came very close to being dumped in a hedge and abandoned. It spent the rest of the term doing nothing more than taking my friends and I to the local takeaway then went home never to return.

Fifteen years later I got a job a couple of miles from home and decided that I wanted to commute. The other half bought me a BSO for £50 from Maccess. Commuting on knobbly tyres lasted two weeks in which time I had three punctures, all from the same half-rusted tacks. Never did find where they had been dumped. Walking home in the dark in pouring rain each time, and having to stop for a breather halfway up a hill the rest of the time, that was my lot as far as commuting went. The bike, however, did very well for a few years of puttering round at the weekends with a child seat on the back for son #1 until it got stolen out the garage.

Another ten years passed bikeless until my Old Bag MOT test showed high triglyerides. Commuting was the only way I could think of to crowbar some exercise into my day at the same time as looking after 1 year son #2. This time the other half got me an elderly Raleigh Vixen mountain bike off ebay. With memories of winter punctures at the front of my mind I went googling for solutions and discovered the wonders of hybrid tyres and kevlar. Different story this time: 10 months in and shopping for my first decent bike with cyclescheme.


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## Crackle (9 May 2015)

I never really had a complete hiatus but a good few lean years, particularly when the kids were young and I was commuting a long way. My bike fitness dropped at that point and I've never really gone back to where it was as the patterns of life have changed. I also discovered running, which I could fit into my lunch break at work.


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## Supersuperleeds (9 May 2015)

Probably the most common scenario.

Rode everywhere as a kid, got a driving licence, twenty years of getting fatter and fatter, jumped on a bike and found I loved it. Hardly drive at all now.


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## contadino (9 May 2015)

I cycled everywhere as a kid, then got stoned at 15. 17 years later, I couldn't remember where I'd left my bike so I bought a new one. Been poodling around on it since then, gradually increasing the amount of use it gets.


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## Dave 123 (9 May 2015)

I used to cycle to school, and in the holidays we'd go 10-20 miles away from home and then usually get chased by a farmer.
Once I passed my driving test I didn't ride much, but bought a Raleigh MTB whilst living in Devon. I used to like riding on the moors and in the woods.
My first 2 jobs in Cambs had tied accomodation and I was doing family stuff, we all had bikes but didn't ride that much.
Aalthough I wasn't riding it started to nag at me, so eventually I got a new bike. I can still remember the ride home from the shop..... It felt like I was going to die!
Still does now some days!


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## Simontm (9 May 2015)

Went from build your own (two older brothers plenty of parts) to a BMX to a 12-speed then pass my driving test. 
20-odd years later, realised I need some exercise and, to avoid commuting hell, got a second-hand bike that was broken (my fault, did not realise there was a hole in the chain stay and neither did two bike shops!) . Then got a hybrid with blancmange back wheel - not their problem apparently according to Evans, what did I expect for £350! - and now on a Diverge A1 Sport that does me 100 or so miles commute a week plus whatever I do at the weekend before Ride London


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## jonnysnorocket (9 May 2015)

The only things needed to be happy, in my childhood /youth, were a football and a bike. 
50+years later, not alot's changed


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## gbb (9 May 2015)

Commuted short distance by bike most of my adult life with a couple gaps here and there but didnt start extending distance and fitness riding till I was about 42. Got seriously addicted, riding circa 150 miles a week, always as hard as i could. But, always struggled in the winter but commuted still so retained reasonable fitness. Redundancy stopped me commuting, too far each day in my new job but ill health at circa 54 then finished it just over 2 years ago. Over the last 2 years I was cycling perhaps 100 miles a year. Just started regaining some fitness this spring.
Its a slow process, mojo is hard to regain, speed is still there but stamina isnt of course, coupled with the thought my struggle is either based simply on lost fitness or long term damage to my lungs/chest.
There a rumour we're maybe relocating work to 12 miles away within 2 years...god I hope so then I can restart commuting, the biggest benefit to fitness you can have IMO.


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## mustang1 (9 May 2015)

Good thread. 

Cycled from childhood to 1994 when I left uni. A job got me driving a car.

I kept the last bike I bought (in 1992). One day, circa 2004, I fancied going for a ride. It was toomwindy and I didn't do well at all.

In Spring 2006, I was working in the yard and the bike was propped up against a wall. I glanced at it with a view of getting rid of it but instead dropped my yard work and went for "one last ride". Only, it turned out to be my first "born again" ride. Never looked back since.


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## I like Skol (9 May 2015)

Cycled since I was a toddler, right through school and college and cycling was partly to blame for me dropping out of Uni. Even when I started working/driving for a living I still cycled on and off with various informal groups until my mid twenties. Bought a kick ass GT MTB with one of my early pay packets and still have it as my front line off-road tool over 20yrs later. I remember vividly cycling around my customers offices dropping off delivery notes and invoices during the fuel protests (can't remember what years they were?). When my family started to grow I bolted on a Hamax Kiss child seat so I could take my young sons to tot's groups and stuff without having to resort to the tin box sat on the drive. The real return to cycling (although you could argue that I never really went away) was when I became an employee and had a place of work to commute to. Have done 3-4k pa for the last few years but trying to cut it down this year.

Kids are now keen bike riders, cycling to school and stuff independently so I guess the cycle continues (see what I just did there? ).


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## robjh (9 May 2015)

I had a bike as a kid and probably used it most at around the age of 10 or 11, but from about 12 I just stopped. I don't remember why but I was moving on to teenage things and a bike just wasn't part of my life (we had loads of buses round my way).
I started again aged 19 at university, as I envied the freedom that it gave to nip round where and when you wanted, and immediately took to it. That was 33 years ago and I've never really stopped cycling since. I've cycled less at times when I couldn't easily commute by bike, but whenever I could, I have. I'm now riding more than ever before, especially since joining a club a few years back which gives me a reason to go out most Sundays for a decent ride in addition to the commutes.


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## andyfraser (9 May 2015)

I cycled from very young to leaving sixth form. I had a couple of bikes then a Raleigh Grifter then a Raleigh Winner. I went everywhere on that Winner. I cycled to school and sixth form and went on long rides in the Oxfordshire countryside with mates.

Then I got into motorbikes and stopped cycling for a few years. After my motorbike got nicked I bought a Raleigh MTB and cycled to work on that. I bought a MTB so I could take a short cut cross country. I never did replace the motorbike.

A several changes of jobs had me on buses and trains for 15 years. When I did finally get a local job I initially walked then started cycling but it was on and off. In 2013 I moved a little further away and walking was no longer really an option and I've been cycling to work ever since. I was around this time I started cycling for fun again.


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## Nigel-YZ1 (9 May 2015)

I cycled until I started driving at 20. I'd dabble a bit after that but nothing serious.

In 2001 I was on antidepressants and knew they weren't a permanent answer. So off the LBS.
I discovered the Trans Pennine Trail and apart from injury knocking me out for a couple of years haven't stopped since.


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## Saluki (10 May 2015)

I rode everywhere as a child and then cycled through young adulthood. I would commute to work by bike but not ride much for fun, then discovered triathlons. I rode my tri-bike until about 2003 when the ex-husband-numpty-braindead-f***wit stole it and sold it. I then didn't ride until about 2009 when current Hubster & I were given a pair of Apollo XC26 MTBs, weighing about 40lbs each. That started us off cycling again fairly regularly, good roadies Autumn 2011 and riding ever since.


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## Simontm (10 May 2015)

andyfraser said:


> I cycled from very young to leaving sixth form. I had a couple of bikes then a Raleigh Grifter then a Raleigh Winner. I went everywhere on that Winner. I cycled to school and sixth form and went on long rides in the Oxfordshire countryside with mates.
> 
> Then I got into motorbikes and stopped cycling for a few years. After my motorbike got nicked I bought a Raleigh MTB and cycled to work on that. I bought a MTB so I could take a short cut cross country. I never did replace the motorbike.
> 
> A several changes of jobs had me on buses and trains for 15 years. When I did finally get a local job I initially walked then started cycling but it was on and off. In 2013 I moved a little further away and walking was no longer really an option and I've been cycling to work ever since. I was around this time I started cycling for fun again.


 A grifter eh?...


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## shouldbeinbed (10 May 2015)

The Grifter, just like a BMX only made out of scaffolding poles and concrete. 

I've ridden since childhood. Rarely *seriously* I dabbled in my teens but have always ridden to get out of the house and to get about.

Longest time without riding was 18 odd months when I first moved down to Manchester to Polytechnic, lived in a bit of a dodgy area without decent storage and within walking (& drunken staggering) distance of everywhere I needed to be so I left my bike at home where my parents got rid of it in a shed clearing mania. 

Bought myself an Asda BSO when I moved out of town but worked centrally and have gone through a few nice bikes since then.


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## Brandane (10 May 2015)

A familiar story after reading other posts.... Stabilisers off age 4 or 5; then riding around the 'hood for years. First "proper" bike age 14 and doing rides of 20/30 miles, occasionally more.

Then found drink and women! Always owned a bike, but used very rarely as motorbikes and cars took over in my early 20's. A spell of living at the top of a long steep climb didn't help much...

In my late 40's noticed I was no longer the naturally thin guy I had always been, and decided to buy a decent bike. People laughed as I spent £700 + on my Tricross, as they thought it would become a dust gatherer. I was so determined to prove them wrong, and covered over 3k miles in the first year. N+1 fever struck (4 times!) and the mileage grew to between 3 and 4.5k miles per year.

I never did return to being the thin guy I once was, but who knows what shape I might have been in if I hadn't invested in that bike!


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## summerdays (10 May 2015)

Started on a big tricycle, and then a couple of bikes, through to a secondhand one as a teen with rod brakes. I just rode occasionally for fun, didn't go that far but I enjoyed it. Left the bike behind when I went to uni and then mostly walked everywhere, but occasionally borrowed a bike for a ride. After uni, settled down with a family and couldn't justify a bike or the time to ride. But we did buy the kids bikes and teach then to ride in the park, as that's what parents do isn't it!

If we were on holiday near somewhere you could do bike hire we would for the day, and always enjoy the ride if not the effect on my backside the day after.

Then the eldest grew big enough for a 26 inch wheeled bike, and she choose this awful monstrosity from Toys r us! But I could ride it when she was at school. It soon fell apart but I was hooked, new bikes for me and hubby, and I've been riding for about 10 years now. I still need a bit of motivation to get on the bike, commuting does that, or a sunny day, but I always like the feeling of peddling once I'm on the bike.


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## Steady (10 May 2015)

Like many I started as a child, fond memories of running the garden path on a bmx bike, and then onwards, my Dad taking me places that felt like hundreds of miles away but in reality were much closer than I realised, they've now fortunately built proper cycle paths around the areas we use to cycle I suppose it saves squeezing through a gas pipe bridge across the river Derwent, but I think that was a highlight in itself!

I continued to cycle _a bit _with my friends at around age 12, 13 because it was just quicker and easier to get places, but I found most teenage girls that were my friends didn't know how to cycle, and those who did just weren't into cycling at all, so that eventually stopped. In my late teens I became fat and over weight, and the only time I used a bike was down to the video/DVD shop and back, and that probably stopped back in 2001, and it wasn't until 2010 when I took up cycling again and have cycled every year since then, progressively doing more mileage each year than the last year.

Looking back now I do wish I'd kept cycling as a part of my life.


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## andyfraser (10 May 2015)

shouldbeinbed said:


> The Grifter, just like a BMX only made out of scaffolding poles and concrete.


Maybe, but it was fun to ride!


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## Mad Doug Biker (10 May 2015)

I only learned to ride when I was 8 in 1989/90, so after having seen my friends and so on cycling about for years, I didn't take it for granted! We used to live next to my local cycletrack to Glasgow, so if I wasn't just out playing, going to the shops or similar, I/we would go along the path to places like Bowling and Clydebank and also out to Balloch in the other direction. Eventually it got that every summer holiday was filled with loads of mileage and I cycled to and from Glasgow for most of the summer when I was 15, just gaining fitness and improving my times. Also we would occasionally do daft things like cycle along the Canal from Bowling all the way to Grangemouth or even Edinburgh, quite a fair distance (40 or 50 miles one way..... On heavy knobbly tyred mountain bikes that weighed the same as a small family hatchback and I did over 100 miles on one of these runs..... Average speed c.10MPH! ).

Then, I had Leukaemia at 16 and things were never quite the same after that.

Of course, I still cycled, doing my usual thing of pootling about, going to the shops and so on, but also now, I did Charity rides too!
I cycled through College, but, after about 2005/6.... I don't know, it sort of started to fall away (although it never fully went away and I did buy a BSO at one point), even though I never learned to drive. I have suffered from fatigue for years, so can sleep for Scotland, but had always intended to get back into cycling again and had even looked at bikes.

Fast forward to 2010 when I was in the New Forest and had to hire a bike at Brockenhurst for a week. I had SO much fun!! So much fun in fact that I bought my first road bike in June of that year and cycled everywhere on it as well as joining this forum!! (I did something like 1500 miles in 3 months).
Then, in September, a week after doing the 2010 Pedal For Scotland run, 51 miles of it, a run in which I didn't feel very well, I came down with Severe Ulcerative Colitis and had to have major surgery after becoming very ill indeed and losing any form I had. After that I cycled, mainly reasonably short but intense distances, but I then had to have more surgery in 2013, and since then.... Well, since 2010 really, the fatigue has REALLY come back!!

I have noticed that I have actually started to gain weight here (something I have always had difficulty with due to my thyroid), so I have started to get the bikes sorted out here after talking about it for ages and I will be back to cycling seriously again soon!!

So, basically:
1982 - 1989/90
2005/6 - 2010

Then on and off during:
2010 - 2015


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## jazzkat (10 May 2015)

Usual story for me. I rode my bike everywhere as a kid on my Raleigh Arena 5 speed, but I wasn't a 'cyclist' I was just a kid on a bike.
Then as soon as I turned 16 (in 1985) it was mopeds and then motorbikes all the way. Then in 1999 I went on a school trip (as a teacher) to the Alps and did some mountain biking and I was hooked. As soon as I got back I bought a mountain bike and spent the next six years getting fit, falling off and getting muddy. 
A change of jobs took me to the lakes and I started to ride on the road. Not long after the move up I bought a proper road bike and the rest is history - I'm now completely cycling obsessed.


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## mjr (10 May 2015)

andyfraser said:


> Maybe, but it was fun to ride!


My first ride on a grifter, my first bike with gears, I shifted into high and put it in a big rose bush because I wasn't ready for the acceleration.

My first ride on a derailleur bike, I spent too long looking at the downtube shifters and put it in a field. There's a theme here...

Anyway, I never completely stopped riding but I think that's fairly rare. I only started riding further again once cycleways bypassed some of the "barrier" busy A roads.


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## Hill Wimp (10 May 2015)

Cannot remember never not having a bike.Grew up cycling everywhere with my friends. Finished my A levels and biked around Europe with more friends for a year. Then returned home, began my career but used to bike to my place of work. I learnt to drive but still cycled then my work life balance changed dramatically for 6 years from 1997 and the bike grew cobwebs.

2003 saw the return of bike commuting and touring abroad for pleasure then 2013 saw the purchase of my first road bike which kicked off the stable that i have today.

To be fair i am only just coming out of my cycling winter slumber unless you count my Saturday morning cycle trips into town so it could be said that November to April i have annual gaps as i no longer commute on the bike either.


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## midlife (10 May 2015)

Typical story again here, like everybody born in the 50's and 60's as kids we were never off our bikes (hand me downs).

First real bike was a Carlton Cobra and got into racing that, then worked in a bike shop still buying and racing.

Then went to Uni so stopped competitive cycling but tooled around London on my fixed bike with everything else art home in the garage.

Got a proper job and it basically all cycling stopped 1983 but kept an eye in what was going on.

Fast forward 25 plus years of not cycling and I bought a Basso and started tinkering with the 40 year old kit I have.

Shaun


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## NorthernDave (10 May 2015)

A similar story to many others...
Cycled everywhere as a kid, on a selection of bikes from a second hand no name purple bike with white tyres (bought to see if i really was interested in getting a bike) to a Chopper to Claude Butler 'racer'.
Had a couple of years off cycling after leaving school, then getting sick of taking two buses and an absolute age to work I bought a Raleigh MTB for the commute. With no prep the first week was bloody hard work, but I soon got into the habit & was was able to do the 7 miles each way faster than the bus, plus I was getting fit - to the point where I got a puncture 3 miles from work with no spare inner tube and ran the rest of the way there with the bike on my shoulder!!!!
Then I passed my driving test and the bike started gathering dust, even though the commute was now taking longer in the car...
Fast forward twenty odd years to this February and faced with middle age spread and a pretty poor man MOT I took the plunge and bought a bike. Loving every minute of it and wish I'd done it years ago.


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## howard2107 (10 May 2015)

I had bikes as a kid, and right up until i was 16 and went in the RAF. Me and my mates had a whole host of different machines and between us we would collect scrap ones and build some fantastic concoctions. My pride and joy was my Raleigh Chopper, mk1 in mustard colour. i got it for my 9th birthday, and i can still remember my dad wheeling it around the side of the house when he came home from work. It cost him £33 and was more than a weeks wage back then, and he had a good job. I rode that bike till it eventually dropped to bits, then when i was about 13 my mates uncle sold me a 10 speed racer for a fiver payed for out of my paper round money, which was far too big for me, but didn't stop me riding that to the death either. I cycled everywhere as a kid, and only ever went to school on the bus cos i didn't want the bike to get nicked.

Once i joined the RAF i learned to drive, and took up other sports, so never really considered cycling, and none of my mates did it anyway. On leaving the RAF i went to work for a major holiday airline, and i was never on the ground or in one place long enough to do anything other then to work, eat crap meals and sleep now and again.

So fast forward to 2011 as i approached my fifties, and got a proper job with proper time off i decided that i would like to live long enough to see my grandkids grow up, and my lifestyle of drinking, smoking, bad diet, bad back and going everywhere in the car had to change. I started swimming to ease my back, and eventually after 35 years i finally kicked the fags last July, although i do use a e-cig now and again. Then last year cycling exploded in Yorkshire, and after the initial outlay i worked out that cycling is free, so i decided that i am going to have some of that. So i am now firmly back in the saddle and enjoying it. I now ride a Claud Butler Voyager Hybrid, with front suspension, it is a used model that was used once, and i got it for a song, less than 2 weeks cigarette money, a lot less.

So there you have my life story............enjoy.

Cheers................Howard


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## LarryDuff (10 May 2015)

I had a Dawes road bike as a teen. Green with 5 gears, I liked cycling around the countryside. Then I discovered alcohol and women and apart from hiring the odd bike on holidays I didn't start cycling again until the start of 2012. I had been playing golf on Saturday forming before then but was getting increasingly frustrated by it so I resigned from the golf club and bought a bike instead.
I wish I had done years ago.


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## TheJDog (10 May 2015)

I think I rode fairly constantly from the age of 6-31 (nothing terribly serious, though, a 60 miler probably my longest ride). I broke my arm in 2001, and the bike was stolen while I was considering whether I'd be able to ride pain free again. I eventually got fed up getting the tube or the bus everywhere, so I bought a Brompton in 2006 or 2007, found my arm was ok (ish), then bought a hybrid, then a flat bar roadie, subsequently converted that to drops and I have since been doing more miles than I ever did as a 20 year old riding around Bristol when I should have been revising for my exams


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## simon.r (10 May 2015)

Another 60's child who rode everywhere until the age of 17, then gave it up in favour of motorbikes followed by cars. 

My Dad suffered a heart attack in 1993 when I was 30 (he was 60) and I realised I was heading the same way - desperately unfit and a few stone overweight.

A secondhand Trek 850 MTB was purchased for £50 and was ridden round the local bridle ways, my fitness improved and the excess weight dropped off. Numerous bikes gave come and gone since that Trek, I've had periods of a few months off the bike due to other commitments, but I've considered myself a cyclist since 1993. 

Incidentally, Dad also took up cycling again a while after his heart attack and is still riding at the age of 82.


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## Stonechat (11 May 2015)

I am now 63.

Yes cycled as a child. a variable amount. I remember doing the 10 mile to Oxshott in 30 minutes - at about 17 - which I could not do now. Also at a similar age I cycled round Cornwall, staying at youth hostels. I had ridiculously overloaded bike, and off course only 5 gears.

Then came gap number 1. About 1971-1980.

After some years in 1980, aged 29, I started working for Siemens. Didn't want to walk, bus was overcrowded or late so got a bike. It was a Peugeot. I started doing occasional outings. I remember going up Box Hill in this period. Later had a Claud Butler.
I did a cycling tour of Worcestershire. After a few yearts I started bird watching. I would go everywhere with my bird watching equipment. Took the bike around the country, especially Norfolk, Suffolk, Dorset, and Anglesey. When Siemens moved to Bracknell I got a car, and cycling died away.

Gap number 2 was longer, about 1991-2012.

Oct 2012 I took the offer of voluntary redundancy. I did think I might still work a little but family isdsues etc mean it didn't happend. Anyway started cycling again, first a hybrid, Mistake, then a road bike.
Did 100 mile New Forest Sportive last year, and doing Sportives.

Interesting in cycling throughout, Followed Tomy Simpson, and remember some of Robert Millar's audacious attacks in mountain stages.

In mid 2012, my weight had balloned to 80kg - ok I know it's not a lot for some. It is now 64kg and I feel healthier.

Cycling has helped me cope with pressure in ife over the last two years - dad getting ill, Mum needing help when Dad was in hospital, then Dad died, then our house flooded, and when we eventually got home, Mrs S got ill and was in hospital.

Cycling has kept me sane


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## ScotiaLass (11 May 2015)

Due to balance issues I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was about 11.
I then got a lovely gold coloured Raleigh for Christmas that year, and spent many happy hours out and about on it.
I bought my first adult bike when I was 19 and a student nurse, and commuted to work for 2 years or so.
I moved away to work (down south) when I was 21, and the bike got left behind. 
The kids came along, as did a motorbike for commuting, then more kids, and a car....
I got back on a bike 28 years later!


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## nobbyp (11 May 2015)

Rode everywhere as a kid including places you probably shouldn't - owned and wrecked a catalogue of bikes - incl Raleigh boxer, grifter, chopper. Built worlds heaviest "racer" as a teenager from a sturdy peugot frame (kitted out in the derigeur red white and blue fade paint job) promptly wedged it into the back of a ford Capri as the suicide brake levers lived up to their name.

Had a Trek mountain bike at Uni - which got nicked - I wisely spent the insurance money on beer instead of replacing my trusty steed. That was Gap Nr1

10 years on I bought the worlds heaviest full suspension MTB from Halfords - rode it until it fell apart - 18 months later. That was Gap Nr 2

Bought an EBC revolution MTB and pootled about for couple of years but not a right lot in last 3/4 years really.

Went on holiday to Majorca last year - hired a CF Kuota for 10 days and fell in love with "racers" again. 

Bought a Focus for Xmas and now planning first 100 miler in the summer.


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## gavroche (11 May 2015)

I cycled to work in the late seventies and early eighties but wasn't interested in cycling then. It was just a means to get to work. My real interest in proper cycling didn't start till 2011 at the age of 61 although I always followed the TdF since 1960. I learned to ride a bike when I was 5.


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## sannesley (12 May 2015)

ABikeCam said:


> Now I have an eight month old and no free time to use the bike!
> 
> On the plus side I can now think about trailers, balance bikes and the possibility that the young one will enjoy cycling too.
> 
> There's still the commute though. Without that I'd do no cycling at all.



I know that scenario too well. Now you pass on your love of cycling to your child when as they grow up and someone to go out on a ride with in the future


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## Globalti (12 May 2015)

I learned to balance a bike aged very young when the daughter of a family friend pushed me off at the top of a grassy slope with a pond at the bottom. I can still remember the feeling of elation. Rode and fettled bikes from then until I was old enought to ride a moped, which progressed into bigger and bigger bikes and 12 years of motorcyciing. Then I moved to Paris and despite living 2 kms from my office down quiet leafy flat boulevards I drove to work and back every day, wasting hours of my life and getting very unfit. Back to England and in 1987 I spotted a Raleigh Maverik in the window of a bike shop in Harrogate; fell in love and bought it on my Barcalycard then set off to ride the seven miles back to Summerbridge with no setup at all, tyres under-inflated and seat too low. After three miles I was shattered so I put it away and didn't touch it for six months. Then I thought: "Hang on - people ride bikes for hundreds of miles! I should be able to ride seven!".

Soon after I moved to my new permanent home in Lancashire I tried somebody's Specialized Rockhopper and that was when the love affair was re-kindled. Five years ago I was growing tired of the mud and filth of mountain biking and I found a stolen and abandoned Roubaix in a river; took it to the Police who gave it back to me a month later - and that's how the road obsession began. I have't biked off road since then.


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## Col5632 (13 May 2015)

Cycled as a kid but never any far distances, got a paper round in my teens so used the bike to do that every day which was prob around 3 miles a day.

Passed my driving test at 17 and cars become my whole life, member of various clubs and drove everywhere even just to sit in car parks.

Done no cycling until my other half at the time bought me a Apollo mountain bike at the age of 21, done a few cycles in my jeans and jumper and entered a 25 mile charity cycle, done that and then a 50 mile event.

Decided I could commute to my work a few times a month, then every day going the direct way and now I try to atleast commute every day then extra at night and weekends if i get time and I only use the car at the weekends for my second job and don't even care about cars anymore


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## Toshiba Boy (13 May 2015)

Dad was a keen amateur racing cyclist in late 1950's early 1960's, so I was plonked on a bike at about age 4 and have always had a bike(s) since. 

So here I am 47 years later with 9 bikes, ranging in age from 30+ years to last year's N+1 purchase.

Nowadays, it's very much Sportives and commuting, but hey, it's out on the bike.


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## martinclive (13 May 2015)

Tom Jones made me do it
2011 - he was at newmarket races - I was trying to avoid having to take 2 cars so I cycled to work and my wife picked me up to go there
I did a few more runs and she insisted I bought a helmet - so i did - and a new bike to go with it
20,000km later.......................


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## RichK (13 May 2015)

Usual tale for me. Rode everywhere as a child/teenager/student but only as cheap transport, had no real interest in cycling. Got a job/car in early twenties and stopped for 20+ years. Then got given a bso about 8 years ago and it's just escalated from there.


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## w00hoo_kent (13 May 2015)

Equally, learnt in the 70's, don't remember what on I know at one point I had something like a Chipper, bright orange baby brother to the Chopper by Raleigh and definitely not a Budgie. Learnt not to lock the front wheel on gravel on that one. Also had a Grifter (one of the first ones when they only came in red or blue) and they did weigh a ton. Bought my first drop bar bike in the mid 80's, again some no-name brand from the LBS in Rainham, Kent. at 15/16 this was my freedom to go everywhere until I either out grew it or broke it, because I definitely remember having to use my mothers shopper for a while. Then I got in to cars and ignored bikes for a couple of years. My old man appeared with a purple completely unbadged mountain bike he'd bought off a bloke in the pub for a tenner (looking back, almost definitely nicked) and I started riding that a bit. In to my 20's and was engaged, living 7 or 8 miles from work and commuted the purple thing, probably to get thinner for the wedding. Got married, went on a fortnights honeymoon, came back to winter, didn't touch the bike for weeks, then months, then got in to motorbikes.

Motorbike accident saw me unable to do much beyond walk around slowly due to constant back pain which ended up taking about a decade to sort out and couldn't have considered a bicycle if I'd wanted to. Lots of inactivity, lots of weight gain. The purple thing went to the tip around 2008 in a clear out 'if I need a bike, I'll buy another bike' I still kind of regret that, it had lots of good memories and did what it did well enough and once I learnt what the spec meant, I found it had been pretty well kitted out. It would just be called a hybrid now anyway. Did an imperial century on it one year on the sponsored church ride.

2012 with the Olympics coming up and I was already walking a lot more and watching my weight (still well in to triple figure kg's though) and the parking restrictions around Greenwich were so draconian that I wouldn't be able to drive and walk for months. Bought a second hand hardtail Mongoose off ebay on advice from a friend. First 3 mile ride almost killed me. The Child was now in their teens and riding and just ran rings around me. But I kept at it until I could do the loop, then a bit more, then the 7 miles I'd worked out to get to work. Used the Mongoose for a year until it was stolen, replaced on cyclescheme with the Sirrus and carried on from there.

I have medical issues going on at the moment (nothing like some on here) which make it a bit of a grind, nowhere near the fun it was last year, but I'm determined to keep doing miles and not stop this time.


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## mjr (13 May 2015)

w00hoo_kent said:


> Also had a Grifter (one of the first ones when they only came in red or blue) and they did weigh a ton.


I really don't remember the Grifter weighing a ton, either at the time or when I moved on to racing bikes. Did they vary over time or by model, or did I just not notice because all my bikes until then weighed a ton?


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## andyfraser (13 May 2015)

I only noticed how heavy my Grifter was when I compared it directly to some friends bikes. It never stopped me though. I don't really remember my Winner being much lighter though.


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## nobbyp (13 May 2015)

w00hoo_kent said:


> I had something like a Chipper, bright orange baby brother to the Chopper by Raleigh and definitely not a Budgie.



A Budgie - I forgot about them - I didn't have one myself but it was the bike I learnt to ride on - I wasn't allowed stabilisers or anything like that so I was plonked on the back of this orange machine by my elder brothers and set off down a hill - either fall off or stay upright - god bless the 1970's - I'd probably be put in care nowadays with such a lack of care for Elf n Safety


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## midlife (13 May 2015)

I remember when the Grifter was launched, the Raleigh reps were made to ride them around the big stage in their suits and they hated it. 

Yes, it weighed a ton !

Shaun


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## contadino (13 May 2015)

w00hoo_kent said:


> Equally, learnt in the 70's, don't remember what on I know at one point I had something like a Chipper, bright orange baby brother to the Chopper by Raleigh and definitely not a Budgie.



A Tomahawk? A mini Chopper, missing the key knob-nobbling shifter?


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## ianrauk (13 May 2015)

The Grifter weighed a ton and the mudguard broke too easily.


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## NorthernDave (13 May 2015)

ianrauk said:


> The Grifter weighed a ton and the mudguard broke too easily.


Especially if you bent the end of the mudguard round to rub on the tyre so it sounded like a motorbike...


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## NorthernDave (13 May 2015)

All this talk of old bikes has me searching a well known auction site for an early 1990's Raleigh Amazon...Mrs ND isn't impressed that I might be watching one or two...


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## andyfraser (13 May 2015)

NorthernDave said:


> Especially if you bent the end of the mudguard round to rub on the tyre so it sounded like a motorbike...


I remember trying that! I also remember breaking the mudguards. And the gears.


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## bikeman66 (14 May 2015)

anothersam said:


> I got off a bike sometime in 1983 and didn't get on again until 1996. It was a 1972 Pontiac Lemans that seduced me away, then a move to a new country and an urge to explore it under my own steam that brought me back. (I was so impatient to get going that within a month of buying my hybrid I rode it from London to Fort William just so I could hike up Ben Nevis and shout _Hallelujah! I'm born again!_ closer to the heavens. Or something like that.)
> 
> How do you explain your gap years, if you had any, and what brought you back to the fold?


Cycled pretty much all the time and everywhere as a kid/teenager, on pretty much all kinds of bikes, including my mums old Vindec shopper, various rat bikes made from frames from the dump with a pair of cow horn bars, a beauty of a Raleigh Chopper (which I still own), and two fantastic racers (at the time) a fine Peugeot (Equipe, I seem to remember) with snazzy chromed lower fork legs and lower seat stays, and a Viscount (which I absolutely bloody loved, and rode into the ground). 

Upon turning sixteen in 1982, and having got myself an apprenticeship in the building trade, I went out and spent the princely sum of £351.00 on a brand spanking new 50cc Honda MB5. Apart from getting me to and from work, I was certain that this magnificent red speed machine (all the terrifying 36mph of it anyway) would have the girls queuing at my door (it didn't)! My bikes gradually got pushed further and further to the back of the garage until they (apart from the Chopper) and the Honda were all sold to pay for my first car (a 1972 Hillman Imp), a bargain at £250.00.

In all honesty, that is pretty well where my cycling days well and truly got put on the back burner, having passed my driving test in January 84, I didn't ride another bike until my brother in-law turned up at our house in 1993 on a Raleigh Amazon MTB. "What an absolute beauty" I thought. A visit to Halfords that afternoon, and a lightening of the wallet by about £200 and I was king of the road (and the mountain) I marvelled in the fact that this awesome machine had 21....yes, 21 gears!

Probably no more than a couple of months went by before I found myself in a bike shop (probably only for something as mundane as an inner tube) when I spotted it......an end of season deal on quite the sexiest bike I had ever seen, a 1993 Kona Lava Dome. I divorced the Raleigh Amazon without a second thought. Me and the Kona (which still sits in my garage and overall is still my favourite bike) spent years together. We've ridden 1000's of miles across trails, in XC races, trailquest events etc etc.

The arrival of kids, steered my attention away from cycling again, apart from the odd jaunt with a two year old on a tag-along attached to the Kona (sacrilege), until I was bitten by the cycling bug for a third time in 2006, when the good lady treated me to a lovely Scott Reflex 20 MTB as a 40th birthday present. It has never had the kind of use (and abuse) that the Lava Dome did, but it's certainly done me proud on the trails and for ferrying me to and from my other passion, rowing.

With the kids taking up rowing too, and with the amount of kit we seem to have to take with us, the Scott was temporarily retired to the garage in favour of the Mass Transit Device (........errrrrr, a Ford Transit, in fact).

Fast forward to August 2014. We are on a family holiday in Provence and end up driving up Mont Ventoux. An almost constant line of cyclists climbing the mountain ignites something inside me, and for whatever reason I announced to the Mrs and the kids that I was going to ride the mountain before I was 50! Got home and bought myself a nice Felt F95, my first road bike in over 30 years, and although not the lightest or highest specced machine, a bike that I absolutely love riding. Fast forward again to April 28th 2015.............and I kept my word, riding to the top of Ventoux (with 13 months to spare).

Cycling has always been part of my life. Sometimes it has had to take a bit of a back seat, other times it has been right up there. Probably been responsible for some of the best times I've had and this time around it is here to stay, to the point where I am in the process of research potential cycling based business project at the moment.

Great original post, and I've really enjoyed reading some of the other takes and accounts in reply.


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## bikeman66 (14 May 2015)

NorthernDave said:


> All this talk of old bikes has me searching a well known auction site for an early 1990's Raleigh Amazon...Mrs ND isn't impressed that I might be watching one or two...


Hahahaha! No Way!! Just been writing about the mighty Amazon in my reply to this thread!


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## Tojo (14 May 2015)

My Dad plonked me on a bike when I was about 4yrs old and I couldn't get my balance, so he ordered some stabilizers, but by the time they arrived, I didn't need them, after a few years all my mates had choppers and I wanted one but my Dad, having raced bikes when he was younger wouldn't get me one and said he'd get me a proper bike, I was miffed at at the time but not for long as he got me a wee road bike, he was right I loved it and have never looked back he even diverted me in my early teens from spending my money on girls when I realised what the opposite sex was all about by getting me a hand built road frame , so my funds went into buying the best components I could afford to build it, needless to say girlfriends didn't last long...!.
Even though I did buy a MTB later on, when I got it he looked at it and I thought he was going to say WTF but he said "good choice for the winter riding and keep your road bike good and service it for Spring" I was gob-smacked, still got the old Orang Clockwork, still love it, but road bikes 2 at the minute and 6 wheelsets....got to upgrade..Passion,,,,


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## mjr (14 May 2015)

andyfraser said:


> I remember trying that! I also remember breaking the mudguards. And the gears.


Blooming heck, my Grifter led a charmed life then. I only remember a bit of surface rust in the usual places that suffered stonechips from questionable riding on dodgy surface dressing.


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## w00hoo_kent (14 May 2015)

ianrauk said:


> The Grifter weighed a ton and the mudguard broke too easily.


I recall every time it came to an incline knowing just how heavy the Grifter was compared to all my mates bikes. I think mine came with tiny mudguards at best, I vaguely remember us pop riveting a bit of rubber to the end to make it work which flopped about and caught in the tyres but wasn't stiff enough to make interesting noises. A year or so after mine came out they added a black one with red detailing and full mudguards, etc which I remember lusting after but (probably fortunately) not being bought. I seem to recall at some point mine got a gold spray job, or possibly it was painted from an old can with a stick. I have honestly no idea what happened to it. I presume at some point it hadn't been ridden for a while and needing the space after a move it was unceremoniously taken to the tip.

Like the mini chopper/chipper/thing my overwhelming memories of the Grifter are poor. Having some chavs steal it off of us in the woods that we weren't supposed to have ridden to (but fortunately bring it back after a bit). Out on a ride with my dad (no idea what he was on, he wasn't a bicycle rider at all) and the front wheel locking up and sliding me through gravel. He is positive I panic braked again, I'm positive the stupid huge square speedo thing from Halfords that measured speed using a bent bit of metal jammed in the spokes of the front wheel malfunctioned and jammed through the spokes. Classic 70's, he flagged down a random car and the stranger drove me home while he 'rode' both bikes back the three of four miles.


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## andyfraser (14 May 2015)

mjray said:


> Blooming heck, my Grifter led a charmed life then. I only remember a bit of surface rust in the usual places that suffered stonechips from questionable riding on dodgy surface dressing.


Nothing else went wrong with it. The rest of the bike was pretty solid for years.


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## Smithbat (14 May 2015)

I rode a bike as child as all do, then by the time I was 15 I was too cool to ride it, late teens early twenties, too busy with boys and alcohol. Late twenties to April this year, I felt I was too big to be on a bike and that my bum would swallow the saddle. Finally on Easter Saturday this year, I gave in to nagging from my daughter, got on her bike and felt like I was flying. 

Bought my new bike on Easter Monday and I now ride to work most days as well as at the weekends. Not huge distances, I am hoping to crack 10 miles in one go this weekend. I love it.l


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## taximan (15 May 2015)

I gave up cycling when I married in 1964 and spent the next 40 something years getting fat & lazy. When I retired in 2010 I had a senior moment and bought a BSO and the first time I took it out my legs were like jelly. However I persevered and never looked back I no longer have the miles in my legs that I once had but I regularly ride 20 - 30 miles around the North York Moors and go further afield for the occasional camping trip and now feel as if I wasted over 40 years of my life.


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## ACS (15 May 2015)

Always had a bike as a kid progressing to a fixed wheel, gas pipe special with rod brakes I used to grind back and forward to town where I worked as an apprentice butcher. Left home and joined the RAF where running was the preferred method of getting around during duty time and staggering at most other times.

Got into running in a big way until the constant pavement pounding took its inevitable toll. Warned that unless I moderated my weekly mileage I would be taking part in wheelchair racing I took up Triathlon for about 6 years before drifting into time trailing. Had a specular RTC which forced me to stop training so I went and got an education which took about 15 years to achieve.

Left the RAF after 29 years and established myself in a second career. In Apr 09 my granddaughter (then aged 4 years) asked when the baby was due and I realised that perhaps a change in lifestyle was worth considering. Got my 531 road bike out, tried a 5 mile circuit around the local roads and it nearly killed me but I also realised that I missed exercising. Purchased a second hand hybrid off Fleabay and started to commute the 11.5 miles to work and back.

30,000 miles later, I'm 4 stone lighter, the second worst climber in the entire world and have fallen love with riding again.


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## dee.jay (15 May 2015)

I had a black single speed bike when I was very small then when I was about 9-10 I had a Lew-ways Trackstar in white and green. It had "oversized" emblazoned down the top tube and my word it weighed a ton.

I rode that everywhere (it was a 12 speed so wasn't very cool compared to any bike with 18 or more - apparently more gears the better) until I were about 14 then stopped due it being a bit small and me doing different things.

Fast forward to last year, 31 years old, school, college, a degree, several certifications in Microsoft and Cisco, 11 years into an IT career later... I'm quite the lard arse and decided that buying a bike might be a good idea given all the cycle paths that I live nearby now (moved here in 2009) and I set about my quest by buying a cheap Apollo in Halfords aaaaand then subsequently returning it within a week. 

It was pretty craptastic but what did I expect for 129.99 retail? Nevertheless - I managed to cut my teeth again and start riding. The first day I rode I don't think I went more than a mile away, had to come home and go to bed feeling ill... But I had done it. That was September '14. On October 3rd - I was commuting the 6 miles to work on the Claud Butler hybrid I'd bought to replace the Halfords special. 

I even did a 29 mile ride at the end of October with two colleagues from work so progress was being made. I managed to commute pretty much throughout the whole winter - I had a broken spoke in November though and that was the beginning of the end. I had most of January off commuting by bike as I was preparing for the CCIE exam in February. I passed the exam and soon got back to work - within a week another spoke broke and that was that - it was time to buy a proper decent bike. Hence my latest bike - which I clocked up nearly 200 miles in 4 weeks on - my Cotic Roadrat. I love cycling. I did a 31.3 mile ride on it within a week of owning it and am looking forward to many more longer rides this year.


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## Moe (15 May 2015)

I never had a bike as a youngster (very sad and almost criminal I know!!) I didn't even learn to ride a bike until I was around 10 or 11, it was my best friends bike I learnt on! I remember it very clearly, it was a gold/yellow coloured chopper type! I bought my own second hand bike around the age of 12 and rode it the first day ALL DAY and suffered for the next few days terribly! (Ouch!!) Then, boys came into play who had motorbikes and that was that for the next 30 years! I then bought myself a cheap mountain bike which was torture to ride but came off it on black ice after only a few months and never got back on it again for over two years. Then the Tour De France came through my home town and I got hooked... I dug out my bike and off I went again. Bought a better mountain bike through the cycle to work scheme but very quickly wanted a road bike, so I saved hard and got one!! I am doing my first sportive at the end of June so I am working hard on getting my stamina and distance up!


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## nickyboy (15 May 2015)

Like everyone, rode a bike everywhere as a child. Last memory of riding a bike until recently was cycling to Wednesday night rugby training when I was about 19. It always seemed to be dark and raining and was really hard getting home after an hour of shuttle runs.
Can't remember riding a bike after that for more than 20 years other than the odd bike hire on holiday. Decided about 6 years ago to try to lose some weight and get fitter so bought a Halfords hybrid. Rode that in the Peak District until it fell apart. Stopped riding for about a year after that. My Dad had always been a keen cyclist (hill climb comps and CX races) and he'd just bought a Raleigh road bike. He passed away on a ride with his mates so I inherited the bike so I decided to get back into it more in his memory than anything else. Really enjoyed it but after a couple of years I'd ridden that bike into the ground too. Bought a fancy carbon, campagnolo thing a couple of years ago and haven't looked back


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## vernon (16 May 2015)

anothersam said:


> How do you explain your gap years, if you had any, and what brought you back to the fold?



Sex and drugs and rock and roll lured me away.

A tentative diagnosis of heart failure brought me back.


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## summerdays (16 May 2015)

vernon said:


> Sex and drugs and rock and roll lured me away.
> 
> A tentative diagnosis of heart failure brought me back.


How long ago was that?


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## vernon (16 May 2015)

summerdays said:


> How long ago was that?



Twelve years ago. Extensive investigations failed to get to the root of what was going on at the time and the medical investigations were extended when it was inadvertently discovered that I had different blood pressures on the left and right side of my body. It was a scary time and finding out that all my organs were behaving as they should or better than they should was not reassuring. 

It was eventually signed off as a post viral malady - I'd had full blown flu three months earlier.


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## Fnaar (19 May 2015)

Having spent most of my childhood on a bike  I carried this into adulthood, but cycled mainly for transport, with only the odd leisure ride (in jeans and t-shirt etc). Had bike nicked just before leaving uni, and bought a fab Raleigh tourer; moved abroad for a couple of years, and the bike was forgotten about, and I believe eventually given away (pity, it was a great bike, and I could have made more of it). Didn't cycle then for 6 years or so, and eventually bought a bog-standard MTB, which again, I used for transport and the odd venture out into the countryside (I was in my 30s by this time, had 3 kids, and leisure time was limited).
Following redundancy, I got a new job in Newcastle, moved to Northumberland, saw the countryside, and just HAD to get a bike. Bought a £30 second hand MTB from a colleague (I still have it, it still gets used), then graduated to a roadie (nowt special, but I've had in for 9 years, and it's changed my life!!!!) Now have a tourer too, and basically plan my life around cycling!


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## hatler (19 May 2015)

Only two true gaps in my cycling, though I wasn't really a cyclist until the current job.

Gap 1 Birth to when I got my first bike.
Gap 2 1990 - 1994 Had always had a bike but in 1990 I returned from a summer holiday (cycle to Blois for a friend's wedding, then train with bike to Geneva and cycled from there to Martigny) to start a new job. I hung my bike on the wall in my room and there it stayed as the job was as a regional engineer sizing and running construction jobs all over my patch. No way a bike could have done that. Lost that job in '94 and had just had an ACL re-construction so got the bike off the wall and used it for my physio. No further gaps since then. Though things got silly when I started cyclo-commuting in 2004, ten miles each way, five days a week, all year.


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## User16625 (19 May 2015)

anothersam said:


> I got off a bike sometime in 1983 and didn't get on again until 1996. It was a 1972 Pontiac Lemans that seduced me away, then a move to a new country and an urge to explore it under my own steam that brought me back. (I was so impatient to get going that within a month of buying my hybrid I rode it from London to Fort William just so I could hike up Ben Nevis and shout _Hallelujah! I'm born again!_ closer to the heavens. Or something like that.)
> 
> How do you explain your gap years, if you had any, and what brought you back to the fold?



Crikey your one fit ****er! I rode a bike round Scotland and also hiked up Ben Nevis. My bike had a 1250cc engine in it tho. My legs werent in a condition for any more work for several days after that. Also that A82 through Glen Coe, show me a nicer road in the UK and I will show you a live dodo.


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## mrbikerboy73 (26 May 2015)

Rode everywhere as a kid and was outdoors all the time. None of this internet rubbish back then! Loved BMXing and then got a "racer" in my teens. Stopped riding when I got my 1st motorbike at 17 and then two years later a car. That was 1990 and I didn't get back on a bike until 2002. This was, however, a necessity rather than a conscious decision as I "mislaid" my driving license for a year. It was bloody hard work as I drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney at the time. 
I then got fat and decided to get back on a bike in 2008. Gave up the fags and the beer, lost some weight and decided I was never going back there. Best thing I ever did.


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## Bazzer (26 May 2015)

Had cycled all over the place as a kid from about the age of 7; playing, cycling up the A6 to Lyme Park, getting the weekly shop, collecting big bags of sawdust for my dad who bred hamsters, etc. We moved house when I was 15 to the the top of a very steep hill, but my school didn't change. So I had a 6 mile each way ride in all weather, which included a steep road called Brabyns Brow. Even after descending it on the way home, I had another steep hill to get home. So by the time I left school,the joy of riding had left my legs.
Work and marriage intervened, before I bought another bike about 20 years later, in the late 80's.


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## bikeman66 (27 May 2015)

Inspired by the tales of all your cycling gap years, and reading about various bikes you guys have owned (and maybe still do own), I ventured down to the shed today and dug out the Raleigh Chopper featured in my own reply earlier in this thread.

Actually quite fired to get to work with the tool kit and see if I can make some headway with restoring this genuine 1972 beauty. Without this thread, it would, scandalously, probably still be in that shed. Still love this bike as much as I did back in the day!


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## ianrauk (27 May 2015)

^^^ Brilliant, me wants.... My one was bright yellow. Great to see the original 3 speed shifter on the crossbar.


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## Chris Norton (27 May 2015)

Rode everywhere when I was a kid. Started racing at 16 with time trials, moved away to hillier area, kept racing. Got absolutly destroyed in time trials even when I felt good and against guys I thought would never beat me. Speed seemed to be the reason (not mph). So I indulged, got serious about speed and less about cycling. 20 years passed and life changed.

Got bikes to get to work, enjoyed it, bought much better bikes, now aiming for 3000 miles this year.

I'm never going to be that 17 year old kid again so I probably enjoy it more now than I ever did.


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## Tojo (28 May 2015)

bikeman66 said:


> Inspired by the tales of all your cycling gap years, and reading about various bikes you guys have owned (and maybe still do own), I ventured down to the shed today and dug out the Raleigh Chopper featured in my own reply earlier in this thread.
> 
> Actually quite fired to get to work with the tool kit and see if I can make some headway with restoring this genuine 1972 beauty. Without this thread, it would, scandalously, probably still be in that shed. Still love this bike as much as I did back in the day!
> View attachment 90032




I wanted a Chopper but my Dad insisted I had a proper bike, as in a road bike which he bought me, he was right as I've never looked back from there' but I would have loved a chopper to rake around the doors on with my mates......never happened....oh well, never mind.....


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## nobbyp (29 May 2015)

bikeman66 said:


> Inspired by the tales of all your cycling gap years, and reading about various bikes you guys have owned (and maybe still do own), I ventured down to the shed today and dug out the Raleigh Chopper featured in my own reply earlier in this thread.
> 
> Actually quite fired to get to work with the tool kit and see if I can make some headway with restoring this genuine 1972 beauty. Without this thread, it would, scandalously, probably still be in that shed. Still love this bike as much as I did back in the day!
> View attachment 90032



Those were the days before the velominati decreed that dork discs had to be removed - I want a chopper style disc on my roadie now and if only I could get a 10 speed handle bar mounted space ship styled gear changer!!!


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## Blue Hills (30 May 2015)

What's the furthest any kid ever rode on a chopper? 

Was it possible to sit on that saddle and ride without waddling like a duck?**

Wil try to add my cycling gap years thing when I have a mo.

** I did sit on a friend's once and ride it a short distance.


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## bikeman66 (30 May 2015)

Blue Hills said:


> What's the furthest any kid ever rode on a chopper?
> 
> Was it possible to sit on that saddle and ride without waddling like a duck?**
> 
> ...


I actually thought the Chopper was comfortable enough, but I may be looking at things through rose tinted specs. Anyway, even if it had been like sitting on fence post, the cool factor would have been worth it!

Only slight issue was that if you sat too near the back of the seat (especially when riding uphill) and gave it some beans it was all too easy to pull a sudden and dramatic wheelie and flip yourself right off the back..........not so cool when the girls are watching!


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## bikeman66 (30 May 2015)

Blue Hills said:


> What's the furthest any kid ever rode on a chopper?
> 
> Was it possible to sit on that saddle and ride without waddling like a duck?**
> 
> ...


................and I did manage 11 miles on one during the summer holidays from school. Had to ring my mum to come and pick me up though, as I couldn't face the ride home!


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## Blue Hills (30 May 2015)

Top marks for honesty 

Choppers too expensive for me as a kid, just had a succession of questionable second hand bikes, never remember in all those charmed years fixing a puncture or changing a tube, which is maybe why the second hand way too big for me moulton disappeared from the scene after i blew the tyre and tube doing a deliberate skid. Pity it never stuck around though i have the impression that that particular model may have been a bit of a rust-bucket.

My personal impression of the chopper is that it was a bit barmy/dodgy/crap but top marks to raleigh for trying. And that gear shifter was truly a work of genius barminess.


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## Zojam (4 Jun 2015)

Used to cycle from mid 70s to early 90s when my kids came along then having had a bonemarrow transplant in 2006 i decided in 2011 I better start trying to do some exercise and had 3 bikes made by some old frame builders I hadn't seen for nearly 20 years. Have put on loads of weight due to all the medication I'm on. Going to attempt Chiddingstone on Sunday.


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## Blue Hills (5 Jun 2015)

Rode a motley collection of second hand bikes as a kid and not entirely sure that my dad knew much about bikes though he always rode his bike to work - wouldn't take the car to work like so many others did as he didn't trust the ICI dust.

None of them were more advanced than a sturmey archer 3 speed though some friends had mysterious machines with drop bars and more than three gears.

Rode to school with books in a plastic bag over the bars until the day the bag went into the wheel just outside the school in front of a bus - seem to remember someone laughing as I flew through the air and landed on my head and had double vision for a few hours. Mum got me a rack after that. Can't remember when I stopped cycling though it must have been until 18, at least in theory, as my somewhat liberal grammar school allowed you to nominate solo cycling around the country lanes as a sports activity in the sixth form - for me, that consisted of cycling home, jumping in my dad's somewhat wonky vauxhall and driving to a neighbouring town to watch a film.

After that, cycling disappeared, off to london and two vespas, the second one written off in a head on crash.

Then no wheels at all for a while, then two company cars - the second one a nice big red audi that was also written off in a crash. A bit of a pattern emerging maybe, though the audi incident did distinguish itself by managing to have the head-on/ish crash with a policeman (plain car but a convenient radio in his glove box), the intervention of a following ex policewoman, a mysterious helicopter overhead, and a bunch of savage chained dogs.

It seemed to be a good idea to get a bike as I conveniently changed jobs to one without a car. One lunchtime, escaping from the madness of the new job I wandered into a bike shop called wheelie serious (sadly long gone) in covent garden and bought a chromo ridgeback in the sale. When i picked it up the guy in the shop suggested i could ride it home to my house in the suburbs which at the time seemed to me to be madness. Soon after life events meant that a move from london was pending but in the interim I spent a few wonderful weeks cycling all over london using a very early lcc cycling map. Heaven.

Off to Nottingham where I cycled with some impressively fit 70 year olds in the peak district etc. Inspiring.

Since returned to London and despite now having 6 bikes, some quite pricey, some too clever by half, that chromo ridgeback, now pushing 20 years old but suspiciously similar looking to some of Ridgeback's latest touring offerings, is now my favourite bike. Just upgraded it to 8/24 speed - back to the future


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## Ciar (5 Jun 2015)

Started riding as a kid can't remember exactly late 70's early 80's first bike was a raleight strika, then on to BMX and finally MTB rode bikes until the girl i was with at the time changed all that in my late teens, kept my MTB did the london to southen and brighton but didn't really ride like i used to until 3 years ago, got back in the saddle and now commute 4 days out of 5 and regularly MTB.


worst thing i ever did stopping riding and then the best getting back on the bike years later ;-)


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## Big T (5 Jun 2015)

Happy to say that I don't have any cycling gap years. I started cycling at the age of 14 and never gave it up. I'm now 56 and in my 43rd year of being a regular cyclist. I've ridden around 200,000 miles in that time.


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## Heigue'r (13 Jun 2015)

I got a yellow bmx around 1985or 86 from Santa claus,I cycled to school every day that the weather permitted, I was 5 or 6 yrs old, I remember my first ride like it was yesterday.My father brought me down the road to a creamery,the creamery building was in the middle of a ring road, probably no more than 50m around, there is a little river that runs at the back with a 2 ft drop off into it and probably 6" of water on a normal day, I got on the bike and after a few trial runs with my father keeping my balance it was time to go it alone, I panicked went wobbly, forgot how to steer and couldn't remember where the brakes were, straight over the 2ft drop and into the river.It is a very fond memory.From here I cycled everyday I could, throughout school and into my working life, Id cycle to the pub, to my friends, to work, to the nightclub 5 miles away.Basically everywhere.I moved to London over 12 yrs ago at the grand old age of 22 and that was the end of cycling for me.London life took some getting used to, having to get up in the middle of the night,5.30am to get 30 or 40 odd miles into work for an 8am start, the equivalent journey in Ireland would have taken half an hour.Life turned to working sleeping working sleeping with a little time for socialising.I became a father for the first time 3yrs and 3weeks ago.I was 17stone and realised this wasnt good enough,14 stone is an ideal weight for my height/build so I wanted to do something about it.I ended up buying a bike in the summer of 2013.Stopped cycling again for 6 months after this but now I get out when I can.planning on getting out at 5 tomorrow morning and looking forward to it.Im also looking forward to getting my son his first bike and teaching him which will be soon as he is showing a keen interest in my bikes and asking where his one is.my daughter is 3 weeks old so looking to get a tow thingy for her eventually. Im hoping cycling will be a big part in my future for many years to come


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## Cathryn (14 Jun 2015)

My cycling gap years started in 2010 when I had my baby and it was just too much hassle to cycle with him! And they ended last month!!! SO nice to be back on my bike!


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## coffeejo (14 Jun 2015)

I had a bike as a kid, which I used to ride all over our smallholding and the neighbouring farms - I think the only time I ever rode on a solid, man-made surface was when I did the Cycle Efficiency wotsit at primary school. That bike was abandoned when I was old enough to go out on my own on the various ponies that accompanied me through childhood but I was given a new bike as a teenager - birthday or Christmas, I assume. I only really rode it to visit my best friend who lived in a neighbouring village. I've just checked out the route to hers on bikehike. In my memory, it was really hilly and I had to walk the last section but either I'm a lot more accustomed to hills today or they've levelled my corner of rural Wales!







The ride home was always fun, though, apart from one Sunday afternoon when my wheels vanished from underneath me after an encounter with gravel on a corner and I ended up hitting the deck. Bent the handlebars and caused some other cosmetic damage to the bike but also sprained my thumb on my dominant hand. This is was an immediate problem as I couldn't straighten the bars one-handed so had to push the bike home, which was as much fun as you can imagine with one hand out of action and the bars no longer corresponding to the normal direction of travel. Even worse, I wasn't magically healed by the time I got home so couldn't do my French homework, which landed me in detention as it was the third time in a row I'd not done it. 

And now a confession - I stopped cycling in the end because I got a puncture, didn't know how to mend it and either my parents didn't know or couldn't be bothered to help. With nobody else to ask, it went in the shed and may or may not still be there to this day.

I got another bike in my second year at uni but didn't really "cycle", just freewheeled down the hill to campus in the morning and then further down the hill to work in the evening, and then pushed it back up the hill, usually via the SU bar. I think I left it behind when I graduated - a gift for whoever rented the house next.

That was that for a decade or more until I sold my car, decided that the buses round here are rubbish and got a bike for transport. Then I discovered that the bit between A and B was great fun and that was that. Now I've got three bikes and cycle about 6000 miles a year.


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