When, How and Why

[cyclenic]

When, how and why did you all start cycling?

I learnt when i was a kid, living out on the sticks, as teenagers (makes me sound old though i'm only 24) we used to go out cycling every weekend round the local back roads.

Moved in with my fella 2 years ago, sold my old cheepo bike i'd had since i was about 15. Last year i boought a nice bike after having a few problems. Thought 'i need a hobby, something to take me away from things and take my mind off stuff'

And thats exactly whats happened, I get out every weekday when i can, when i'm not working, and cycle around the backlanes.

I have a Giant mountain bike, nothing flash, a few hundres quids worth, i've no interest in upgrading stuff, and am more than happy when i'm pooteling along watching the world wizz by.

And i think this autumn is lovely.

Anyway thats me in a nutshell, what about you?

 

[Mr Pig]

When I was a kid I was out on my bike all the time, playing in the streets, going runs with mates, down the glen, making ramps, you name it.

Moved into my own house when I was 21, then a flat when I was about 27 and was too near middle of town to want to cycle.

Then, about ten years ago, we moved to a bigger house surrounded by countryside so I bought a bike straight away :0) It's pretty good. We can go out of my drive and within two minutes you're passing horses and sheep with hardly a car to be seen.

 

[ChrisKH]

Obviously as a kid I cycled. used to chop up bikes and re-make them in my teens. This is when I started touring locally (i.e. home counties) even did a bit of lone touring from the age of 14. Used to cycle long distances with cycle club friends as well. Then from the age of 17 to 37 I didn't even touch a bike.

Following a long illness, surgery and my right knee giving way I needed to find a form of exercise that wouldn't stress the knees particularly, so started commuting home to work for starters. The rest is history and I have no car now, but I do have four bikes in the garage.

 

[Young Un]

Cycled around when I was younger (about 10/11) then started getting interested in bmx dirt jumping. Found out that I hurt myself to o much doing that so stopped. IN about may this year I went on a diet and started doing more exercise(I had some extra unneeded weight). At the end of may I was in a cycling club and by mid June I had a road bike, and the rest is history.

Steve

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

at 16 I rode from London to Paris with some schoolmates on a bit of a wing and a prayer. Then I never really rode again until 2 years ago when due to a 'negative happiness situation' I started to ride around the park...then I rode around East Anglia, then down the length of Germany and then down to the south of France.
Cycling has been good for me.

 

[colly]

Like most as a kid. I remember my first bike, 2nd hand three wheeler but I really can remember ever learning to ride a two wheeler. Obviously I did at some stage.
For me as a young teenager it was simply a means of transport. We did as youngsters add bits and pieces to our bike to make them look better but I was never into racing or touring, but we did cover some great distances to get, as a group, where we needed to go.
We did however always manage to find old bike frames which could be turned into something workable along with found wheels etc.
Gave up my pushbike when about 14 or 15 it being seen as 'uncool'.
Roll on the years and I arrive at early 40's and a mate gave me a beat up old road bike which I began to use.

Been an addict ever since.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

I was on a bike lots as a kid, but then I broke my bike just before passing my car test, bought a car and that was that .. fast forward 20 years to needing a bike to keep up with the Little-LCs on their bikes going round the local parks (well, it was that or .. <<shudder>> run ) which forced me and Mrs-LC to buy bikes. Once I'd got used to it, I did the ride to work once or twice and that was that.

That was about a year ago and I'd say I've been well and truly bitten by the bug.

 

[cookiemonster]

I was 11 and inherited a Dawes roadie. Fell completely in love with cycling from then.

 

[nickb]

You may as well ask when, how & why I started walking. I've had bikes (or trikes when I was a tot) for as long as I can remember.

 

[mickle]

I went to a cheap boarding school in Welshpool because my family lived in Malawi and the school there was a bit rubbish. I used to stay with family in Hereford during half terms and exiats and my Uncle Jack got me a second hand Raleigh Flyer when I was about 13. Partly because he had always been a cyclist and thought every one should have a bike but mainly to get me out of the house. I loved it and used to spend all my free time pedalling around Hereford and I really missed it when I was at school. So I took it back to school having convinced Jack that it was allowed. All the boys thought I was mad bringing it to school and that I would be in the sh!t and so I was. I was summoned to the headmaster's office and told in no uncertain terms that bikes weren't allowed at school and that it must be returned to Hereford on my next visit. Well I wasn't going to give in. I pointed out that nowhere was it written down nor ever been mentioned that bikes weren't allowed. I reminded him that I was rubbish at football, cricket, golf, tennis, cross country running and horse riding and that cycling was a valid sport. I think he saw how enthusiastic I was and gave in! I couldn't quite believe it. The condition was that I started a school cycling club. I felt so smug telling everyone I'd been allowed to keep it. So when all the other boys got togged up to play football I would jump on my bike and f off around the lanes for a couple of hours. Oh happy days. Eventually there were three or four of us with bikes but it was never as good as those first few months when it was just me and my Raleigh Flyer.

 

[Sittingduck]

On bikes every day from the ages about 4 - 15 then didn't touch one until about 4 years ago when I decided to do the decent thing and give Halfords 90 pounds of my hard earned cash for a delightful Raleigh MTB. Had a bit of a go for a few weeks on and off then it pretty much sat rusting in the back yard.

Decided in July this year that I would try commuting by bike as I don't want to do a "John Candy" and be in a wooden box by the time I'm 40, due to balloon-like proportions.

The Raleigh stood up to about a month of me sat on it each day before it started falling apart. Got a Specialized hybrid in August

I seem to be obsessed with cycling now though and am enjoying it very much... although I must stop spending money on bike things!

 

[beanzontoast]

I learned with my dad. I had a Raleigh for Christmas when I was 9 and we used to put it in the back of the car and head off to a long, straight country road near our house where, in the freeezing air with him running alongside, pushing and guiding, I acquired balance and really learned to ride.

It's one of my all-time best memories of him.

 

[Fnaar]

Basically lived on my bike(s) as a kid

 

[Crackle]

Learnt to ride when staying with my much older cousins. Taught myself by half footing, half coasting until eventually I was cycling.

I continued scratting about on bikes, once doing a 30 mile ride to a mates on a Chopper. Eventually I got a Carlton 10 speed racer and became a regular, cycling to school and off to visit said mate at the weekends.

Whilst on one of these visits, we went out on our bikes exploring the lanes and byeways of Cheshire and were totally enthralled by the freedom and adventure of it. From this our first tour was born but that's another story.

 

[Belly]

One Sunday morning in 1968 me dad told us we (me and my brother) were coming out for a bike ride with him. My dad was a time triallist, so I knew about cycling, but before that day I'd never been further than the shops on my bike. He took us to the Eureka Cafe at Two Mills, and although it was only 10 miles from home it seemed to take all day to get there and back.
About a month later the three of us went on a cycling/camping holiday in North Wales, which included going over the Bwlch-y-groes from the Bala side. I was 10, my brother was eight. If Childline had been around then, I would have phoned them. I think I started whinging as soon as we left Llanuchlwynn and hit the gradient, and didn't stop crying until we got to the top of the climb, several decades later. And that was how it was for the first two years of my cycling life. Pain and misery. I kept at it though, so there must have been something in it.