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

[cyclingmama]

I'm 34. I started biking (post-childhood) in 1998 when my then-BF (now DH) bought me a bike for my birthday. We rode a lot from 1998-2002, then I had a baby, and then another baby, and let myself fall away from it. I started riding again a month ago and its like falling in love all over again.

[sundial]

I'm in the 40+ club and I've been riding something since my childhood--tricycle, Big Wheel, and bike with a banana seat and streamers. My first *real* 10 speed came from Ace Hardware. The bike was yellow and the shift levers never stayed put. After I married, hubby and I bought some mtb's and we rode it everywhere. Then I bought my first serious road bike in 1996 and rode nothing but hills until my good knee started konking out on me. I bought another road bike that fit me better in '05 and I've not stopped cycling since.

I've wondered though, why do so many return to cycling in their middle years?

[imdeanna]

Maybe it's the 'easiest' exercise for our middle aged bones??? LOL

I'm 35 (for another 26 days anyway) and JUST started riding a couple months ago......

I'm starting my son early tho...he just turned 10 on Sunday...and I bought him a rode bike for his b-day!

[mudmucker]

I am 48. I have been biking for 26 years. In my 20's, I biked for transportation: to college, to work, to laundry on an old 70's Schwinn Continental. None of it was really more than 8 miles at a time as I lived very close to everything. At that time, I rode the bike about 50%, as I also had a boyfriend with a car. In my early-mid 30's I strictly rode a mt. bike. I lived in Shutesbury, MA and was a lab analyst at UMass, Amherst for 7 years. I'd commute to Amherst occasionally on the mt bike. But I lived on a 5 mile dirt road that wasn't kind to road bikes. As recreation I rode pavement and single track with the mt bike during that time at least 3x/week. In my late 30's to now I moved to the "eastern" part of the state and lived in various towns with no dirt roads but pavement . I bought road bikes for my new pavement riding. Now I ride for recreation 20-60 mile distances - maybe around 100 miles/week during peak season. Actually though, since the gas price increase, starting last month I have been doing a partial commute on my Specialized Ruby, about 32-40 miles round-trip and having a blast doing this.

[BarbaraAlys]

I am 47 and never learned to ride as a kid; I had a trike when I was little, but never a bicycle. I learned to ride in July of 2005, at the grand old age of 44. That was on a moutain bike, on which I quickly installed slick tires. I did my first organized ride two years ago on that bike, 37 miles on flat pedals. Death seemed preferable to finishing that last mile!

And yet I rode again!

Now I'm on my new Trek 2.1 WSD. It is beautiful!

Barbara

[northstar]

I'm 28 and just started really riding last year. Always had a bike as a kid, but fell in love with road riding last summer.

[GLC1968]

I'm 40. I've been riding regularly for 3 years next month. Prior to that, I was an occasional mountain bike rider.

[indigoiis]

I'm 40. I grew up in a very bike friendly community, and a big family with lots of rusty old bikes to pick from. Every summer we'd lose our bikes or they'd get stolen - right out of the front yard - and at end of summer my Dad would take us down to the police station and the chief would open the garage and he'd say "find your bikes and take em." Often we would end up with bikes that weren't ours but we only had so much time to run through that garage.

As a teenager I had a Huffy Strider named "Chrome Cruncher" because she dented a chrome fender once. She never got stolen because I had a really good lock on her. She was my pride and joy.

I depended on my bike for all of my transportation. Less so in my 20's but after my daughter was born I took her everywhere with me from 8 months on. I had a big old orange cruiser - steel - with back rack and a kid seat and I could put three bags of groceries on each of the handlebars. Red Rhodie can imagine what going down Bellevue from Stop and Shop must have been like in summer with a kid and groceries. And no helmet on me.

Moved out to the sticks and didn't ride much again til last year when my husband pumped some air into a mountain bike that someone had given me. I rode because I got fat (for me) and I needed something to burn calories. Little did I know it would lead to all this!

[BluePeace2]

i'm 24, rode as a kid and now my BF is a rider and he got me going again, so i'd say just over a month

[callmecrazy]

I rode as a kid, but not when I was any older than 10 or so.
I am 23 now, and just got back on a bike again not even two weeks ago just to do some recreational/fitness riding on local trails. Since I'm already a runner and swimmer, I think I've also filled the missing link to start doing triathlons, which will hopefully fill my competitive void left after years of soccer!

[pranachick]

43 yo...same as most replies - rode as a kid, then off an on since then. Bought a new bike this past xmas (for a cycling vacation in Corsica last month). Started riding in January...totally hooked, again! will have 1700 miles in after this weekend's Albuquerque Century.

BTW - cycling trip in Corsica was AMAZING! Great views, great food (and wine), great people...350 miles with lots of climbing, which means lots of descents

[redrhodie]

Red Rhodie can imagine what going down Bellevue from Stop and Shop must have been like in summer with a kid and groceries. And no helmet on me.

I can imagine it only if I replace the you I know with a nuttier version of you in the lead role I always check out the bikes locked at that rack. Very interesting assortment of your old bikes, most likely. I think you can take whichever one you want, or is left, when you leave.

[IFjane]

54 here - rode to school and back on my bike from Kindergarten through grade 6. Then rode horses through mid-30's. After that, back on an ancient road bike, then a mountain bike with my college-age son (starting in '94), then back to road bikes in 2002.....

[cyclinnewbie]

I've wondered though, why do so many return to cycling in their middle years?

Well, the answer to this for me is that after years of jogging/running, my arthritic knees/hips/ankles cannot stand any more pounding. Cycling is the perfect aerobic activity!

[cyclechick2008]

I rode seriously in 05. I did TNT at lake Tahoe. Took 2006 off.
Back at it sorta serious since march 07.

Kim