How old are you? How long have you been riding?

[hermitclub]

Rode as a kid to get everywhere. Got a bike in 1996 to use as primary transportion from 1996 to 1999. Got back into biking in 2004. Bought my current bike in March 2006 and got the bike bug big time.

Broke my leg, on said bike, May 27, 2006. Couldn't ride again until late July 2006. Found this TE site, read a lot, posted a little. Did a ton of gear shopping as I kept my leg elevated in a cast for 2 months.

Now I ride year-round, weather permitting. Just started commuting to work again April 2008, 10 miles each way. I am hooked!

[mimitabby]

why do so many women turn to biking at middle age?
Oh, that's easy. it's good exercise with low impact. If you never ran before you were 50, it's probably never going to happen. But bicycling? you can pick your speed. you can amble, or you can race. You can just do flats or you can MTB your way through hills and rivers.
I've considered Soccer, but didn't want to get slammed, i guess there's a lot of body contact. And organized competitive sports just don't do anything for me.
Then bicycling has another side to it. Not only is it fun exercise, but it's practical transportation as well!

talk about win-win!

[elk]

why do so many women turn to biking at middle age?
Oh, that's easy. it's good exercise with low impact. If you never ran before you were 50, it's probably never going to happen. But bicycling? you can pick your speed. you can amble, or you can race. You can just do flats or you can MTB your way through hills and rivers.
I've considered Soccer, but didn't want to get slammed, i guess there's a lot of body contact. And organized competitive sports just don't do anything for me.
Then bicycling has another side to it. Not only is it fun exercise, but it's practical transportation as well!

talk about win-win!

plus bikes are such sexy looking machines and they purr just like cats...;-)

[emaline]

I'm 26, have had a bike most of my life, rode a lot when I was in middle/early high school, virtually none in college (tiny campus) and this year I decided to give up my car, bought two bikes (1990 Terry Chrom and 2007 Novara Pulse) and have been happy ever since. It's been six months. I don't anticipate being on four wheels again unless I'm pulling a trailer on a tour

[IFjane]

plus bikes are such sexy looking machines and they purr just like cats...;-)

And there is no litter box to clean!

[mimitabby]

so what i want to know is what happens to women after they're 65?

I'm hoping it's just that they are not as computer literate as the rest of us.

[shootingstar]

why do so many women turn to biking at middle age?
Oh, that's easy. it's good exercise with low impact. If you never ran before you were 50, it's probably never going to happen. But bicycling? you can pick your speed. you can amble, or you can race. You can just do flats or you can MTB your way through hills and rivers.
I've considered Soccer, but didn't want to get slammed, i guess there's a lot of body contact. And organized competitive sports just don't do anything for me.
Then bicycling has another side to it. Not only is it fun exercise, but it's practical transportation as well!

talk about win-win!

+1 Even in my lowest times and after not cycling because of snow, therefore becoming cycling unfit....I always feel better...even after a slow, short ride. At least i got around..somewhere! The effort for cycling at any speed over whatever terrain, expected and unforeseen, is like a great positive metaphor for life.

The latter has kept me on the bike this long so far in life.

Cycling gives you many more possibilities in life travels...metaphorically speaking.

[Cyclo Kitty]

Rode all over Chicago as a kid with my dad-- school, parks, and for errands as a teenager (say, 10 years).

College I walked, mostly. Grad school, I rode for a year. Bad bike fit was my enemy. Got a bike for my birthday from a boyfriend (who asked me to move out two days later-- now that I had a way to leave??). That fit a little better, rode for about 6 months until I got a job that required hose.

Got married, and started riding again, and eventually spent some of the money we'd been saving for a new car on a bike. We rode for 4 years, until DS was born.

Started riding again two summers ago (June, 2006) because I was desperate for exercise, and DS was able to ride to camp drop off. Now I ride to work and for errands every day, and longer rides on the weekends. Our mechanic told us not to buy a new car---waste of money, he says. We buy gas once a month and use the car only for grocery shopping and errands where we can't take a bike. We're thinking about a Surly Big Dummy, or the Kona Ute to replace the car; all the utility shopping here is uphill coming home, so it takes some training and some thinking to haul food or ice melt or lumber home...but it could be done.