How long have you been cycling?

[The Jayler]

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.

 

[mad al]

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

 

[Woz!]

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!

 

[zoe mcdonald]

looking for mature female cyclist to interview

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

 

[Perfect Virgo]

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.

 

[MarkF]

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

 

[Ian H]

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.

 

[Randochap]

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

 

[roundisland]

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

 

[tordis]

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.

 

[swee'pea99]

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.

 

[rh100]

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.

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