are there more complete beginners?

[Mistygoth]

i'm a slightly experienced beginner, owned a bike for a week and rode it twice, then sold it. Got a new mountain bike earlier this year at aged 33 (so around 16 years since I last had a go on a bike) and began cycling in April. The furthest I rode was about 30 miles round trip. Unfortunately I had a bad accident and haven't ridden for 8 weeks due to a knee injury, its still not 100% but I think i'll have to live with it now, so i'm trying to get my confidence back to go out on the bike and am back to being scared. I'm sure i'll be ok, but its that leap of faith again and fear that I'll have another off and injure myself again.

I wasn't even anywhere tricky, it was the TPT converted from an old railway line and I found a way to fall into a ditch!

 

[taxing]

It's funny how quickly I've gone from classing myself as a beginner to just thinking of myself as an average cyclist. Not a good one, I'm slow as anything, but I'm safe and know what I'm doing (most of the time). Before six weeks ago I hadn't picked up a bike in 10 years (since I was 14), and now I'm riding everywhere.

 

[Boston Biker]

I have ridden a bike for my entire life (20 years) but I just started getting serious this past month. I bought a CatEye bike computer and have now been keeping track of my rides so I can work on improving. I'm in decent shape but I want to knock off all of my extra weight quickly and start getting into doing more hills in preparation for an eventual mountain climb (hopefully Ventoux). I was able to do a 40 mile ride a few days ago and am still a bit tired but it was very satisfying. I did a 12 mile yesterday after work. Enjoy and don't overdo it!

 

[JNR]

I'm new too and for a couple of weeks I felt NOTHING improve. But then things got better and now I can do 15 miles without much trouble. I say without much trouble, I was passed today by an older cyclist and followed him. Had a drink of water after a hill (as I was struggling!) and because I can't pedal AND retreive and put the bottle back in the holder I lost ground and just couldn't catch up. I think that is being scalped?

It just makes me take my bike out even more though. I bought a really nice white Cateye computer to uprgade my tesco £6.99 one, it was bought using vouchers my colleagues kindly got for me and it's superb, it's mounted on the stem to free up the bars. It said I did the 15 miles at an average of 14.7 mph. Don't know if that is good but I'll improve on it.

Cyling is defintely the best thing I've taken up.

 

[taxing]

I overtook two PCSOs on bikes today, I was dead chuffed.

 

[G81]

Hi, I think 18miles is very impressive and on a MTB too, so well done you
I'm a newbie, used to do the commute when I was younger and child free but now just starting again and doing my best to try and get out without a kid seat and some 9 year olds with me (I sound like such a nasty mother, its not true just some adult riding time would be nice, but alas the perils of reproduction)
Keep on going and you'll be conquering routes that at the moment you never thought possible, you'll be breaking 20, 25, 30 milers and onwards.

Enjoy your riding