I'm usually mostly a lurker but what the hell. I'm 46 yrs old, living in Manhattan. I started riding last June. Although I'd been on a bike on my youth (a kindly uncle who thought it was insane that I couldn't ride a bike), I'd never really rode a bike more than a few blocks.

For a few years, I'd been putting on my new year's resolution list "learn to ride a bike." Finally, during a period between jobs I decided it was time so I took a few lessons (in NYC you can find someone to pay to teach you anything!). And I got my first bike of my life--a Trek 4500FX (hybrid). I love it though I'm also gently breaking the news to my girlfriend that *of course* I'll need a road bike next year.

Riding in traffic (and we've got lots of it here!) still freaks me out, but I'm getting where I need to go. Ok, sometimes I take the coward's way out, like this morning, when I left the house at 645am--not too much traffic on Memorial Day at that hour--even in NYC!

Did my first metric century last week (the Bloomin Metric in Connecticut). Next goals: 1) at least one century this summer, and 2) ride my bike to work.