Who got you started on cycling?

[caligurl]

what.... not who.... i dropped a bottle of wine on my toe and couldn't do my other forms of exercise.... so started riding.... now it was hubby who made the "mistake" of saying "if you keep this up... we'll have to get you a road bike".... (i was riding my old walmart/kmart bike that has been hanging in the garage for years!!!!!) well... i did... we did.... and now i put on more total miles than he does!

[hurleygirl]

what.... not who.... i dropped a bottle of wine on my toe and couldn't do my other forms of exercise.... so started riding....

Okay, now that's a great story.

[caligurl]

Okay, now that's a great story.

lol! and i forgot the add... the wine (and bottle) were just fine!!!! phew!

[Cassandra_Cain]

Hi melstar - welcome to the forum

I'm with ACG on this one - I got myself into riding. Actually I've introduced a few partners to riding rather than vice-versa.

One of the biggest things, maybe the biggest (besides not having a job, scrubbing the tub, and not needing to do taxes) thing I missed about being a kid was riding my bike.

After doing lots of swimming in high school and running later on.....I thought about it a lot and finally decided that I wanted to ride again. That was in, hmmmm, let's see, around 1998ish.

Bicycling is the one activity that never feels like work to me, never feels like a chore, or something I 'have' to do (the way running or jogging does). Even though I'm working out, getting exercise, etc - I always have fun.

[Bikingmomof3]

Great topic.

My husband and sons decided I needed to join them and their love for biking. I resisted for 37 years (I had a fear of bikes-I do not know why). So, reluctently I let them get me a Giant Suede (Mode/Comfort Bike). I found this group-YAY-learned everyone was nice and so supportive. I gained knowledge and confidence. By the 3rd week I had done all my Giant was going to allow me to do. I went bike shopping and bought a manbike (sorry-love that phrase) Trek 1000. That was almost 2 weeks ago. The board has since convinced me (great enablers here) to buy jerseys, shorts, new saddles, shoes, clipless pedals, and my recent purchase (actually it will be in tomorrow) a CycleOps Fluid 2 Trainer. I have learned the importance of an excellent bike shop, even if mine is a long way away. I love them! They are buyng the other bike off me-yippee-store credit!!

[mtbdarby]

I'm in the "me" group with a dash of "guy". Count me in on the generation of kids that rode bike every where. In college I continued - riding my bike to work. After I had my little guy, I was looking for a sport for me that gave me flexibility to do it on my own, with others, and from where ever I happened to be (work, home etc), with not too much investment (yeah, right!). My bf at the time was into mtbing but since it was winter we just talked about it. After he departed I started riding my old hybrid on and off road, and now I'm the proud owner of 3 - hybrid, road and mtb (I have a secret motivation to beat him in an annual 24 hour mtb race here he does as a 4 person team in the over 35 division. Think I could recruit some TE ringers to do this??? Sounds like an Amici Veloci team needs to be formed in Wisconsin!

[CorsairMac]

My parents: it was just a given that when we reached a certain age, we were taught to ride a bike.

[Aggie_Ama]

Well if you are talking about the avid cycling... My old work and DH. My work was awesome and wanted everyone to be active (they paid all our insurance so it kept their costs down). I had been there almost a year and they offered to pay for the Shiner B.A.S.H. for employees AND spouses. I only signed up DH, but after seeing him ride 93 miles on a mountain bike I was inspired. He bought me a bike two weeks later for our first anniversary (May 2004) and two months later I did a 50 mile ride with my work!

It took about a year and my work sponsoring us in the 2005 MS150 to really get me hooked. Prior to that I was running more than cycling. The bug bit me hard last year and now I am shooting for 3,000 miles this year (and a new bike). I only run about 1-2 times a week. Sadly, we moved from the town with the fabulous company but they definitely helped get me started.

[mimitabby]

Being a serious co-dependent, I approached this in my typical bass-ackwards sort of way.
DH was having a lot of fun riding and i pretty much avoided it. He even took our sons and got them involved, I did sag.
He had a group of friends he rode with and a few years ago; they all moved away. So DH sat and vegetated and got depressed.
I realized that the only way to get him off HIS butt was for ME to start riding... Even though I said more than a 5 mile ride was too much for me...
So I got him to "train me" for the STP ride, what, in 2003. and I haven't looked back.

[chickwhorips]

i always had some kind of bike since i was a wee-one.

did a few rides in the summer with my stepmom and her sister. the big higlight of that was going to taco bell, we didn't have fast food where i lived in the country. use to ride around everywhere, mainly to get away from my stepmom when i got older.

when i turned 16 i begged for a mtb from my parents when we moved to phx. want that instead of a car. i got the car.

finially once i moved up here i got the mtb that i always wanted thanks to my BF and am now really into cycling. i actually know about it now, instead of something i just did to get away. well i still do it just to get away, but you know what i mean.

[winddance]

My dad got me started. He's always had a passion for cycling. When he was a kid, he used to put together complete bikes from parts he would find, and he put my brother and I on tricycles and bicycles as soon as we were big enough to reach the pedals. I always had a bike available, but never really liked my last mtb, so I stopped riding.

He bought his first schmancy road bike a year or two ago, and I got jealous. I rode my mom's hybrid while visiting and couldn't keep up with him, so I decided that I wanted a road bike too! Whenever I go to visit my parents, I bring my bike with me and my father and I chase each other to the beach. I definitely have cycling to thank for bringing me closer to my father.

[Melstar]

Thanks for sharing your stories! From childhood family activities to romantic courtships, medical advice and family bonding time, not forgetting Caligurl's falling wine bottle cycling roots!! Really fun to read all about other peoples experiences haha.

I actually got sucked into cycling when i was working overseas for a bit. I got to know some friends who used to invite a group of us to their countryside estate on the weekends, where we got to go biking/sightseeing. I loved it so much that i decided i simply had to get a bike when i got back.

I was in fact toying with the idea of going on a tour around the country, but after chatting with some people who have done it, it sounded pretty tough, so i guess i've put it down as one of those things I would like to do in the distant future.

~E~

[mlove]

I started watching cycling on tv when I was in France in 2000 and got interested in it as a sport. Then I thought maybe I could take up riding. Eventually I started taking spinning (my gym calls them cycling) classes to see if I thought I would like riding. Finally, after two years of talking about buying bikes with my husband--who still doesn't have one--I went out and bought a bike this year. Riding isn't much like stationary cycling, but I really enjoy it. As a nonathelete I feel that I have accomplished something when I finish a group ride.

[Hub]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]My beloved Big brother . . . and 9/11. He got called back into the Army just after 9/11 and he had to get fit again. His knees were too worn out to take upi running again so he went to the bike shop in Augusta SC (he was stationed at Fort Gordon) and bought a bike.- a Trek X/O we both call blackbike. He really started digging it so we went back to the bike shop and bought a 5200-(carbon fiber baby ) He brought it to my house at CHristmas and told me to ride it . ." it's faster than Harry Potter's broom."

I had not ridden a bike since I sailed over the handlebars of my roommate's
(way too small) 10-speed in college- about 18 years ago- I took the Lord's name in vain- in front of the Baptist Student Union- shortly thereafter went to the ER for stitches- I was done with bikes.

Forward a lot of years & it's cold And I'm riding down my street on 2 teeny tires that look as big as my pinky- my tennies grasping at clipless pedals... scary, but cool.

He took the bike back to SC with him, but left a copy of "It's Not About The Bike". That made Lance my hero and showed me how cool bikes can be.

Brother gave me my Giant Sedona for Xmas the next year- I was riding sporadically there for a while, but now I'm on a roll- planning to ride across the Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock on October 1- [/FONT]
http://www.bigdambridge.com/

The Sedona is named Boo-sikki ( It's blue, Boo is my brother's nick name and we're country). Boo also promised to take the X/O to the shop for a tune up and pass it down the line-- Besides he's got the 5200, a Madone & A rock Hopper

[dachshund]

I started when I was a kid and kept going until I was doing regular centuries in my late 20s. When we were kids we all rode bikes to school, so everyone had one. I started with the blue Schwinn, too.

Sometime in my 30s I stopped due to back problems and other distractions. I've been going to a gym, but lately it seems like such an artificial activity. That and I'm 50, and while the 30-year-olds are nice to look at, I sometimes feel old and rumpled there.

So I started walking on my local multi-use path, which follows the creeks and is quite lovely. Then I started noticing the people go by on bikes. They were going a lot faster! Most of them had smiles on their faces! Somehow I must have mentioned this at home, because one day my GF said, "why don't you buy a bicycle?" That did it! That was in May this year. Now I feel strong and not the least bit rumpled. And I've met some really nice people here.