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

[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.

[Jiffer]

I guess I'm in the majority so far, age wise. I'm 39 and I've been riding for almost three years. First the tandem dh convinced me to ride with him, then a year ago, my own single. Not counting the bikes I rode as a kid, of course, or the hybrid dh bought me about five years ago that I lolly gagged around on a few times.

[sfa]

I'm 39. I rode everywhere when I was a kid, then after college spent a year touring Europe by bike. When I got back, I still spent a lot of time riding around for fun and exercise.

Then life got in the way--grad school, marriage, work, kids. The usual. Three years ago I decided I *had* to get myself back in shape, so I started running. It worked well to get me in shape but I hated every second of it. Then a few months ago, when I noticed I was avoiding running with all kinds of lame excuses, I remembered that cycling was always fun, even when it was exhausting and miserable. So I pulled out my 18 year old bike, got it fixed up and just got it back last week. I think most of my cycling is going to be commuting right now--it's a perfect way to work exercise into everyday life.

Sarah

[newfsmith]

I learned to ride as a kid, but it took me 3 years to do it. I rode a lot in college, especially after my brother was killed. When we moved east I basically stopped riding until 2000 when a new job let me start bike commuting. Regular riding made me realize I had never had a bike that fit, so I got a new bike that turned me into a "fanatic" according to my family. Now I love going for all day rides.

Oh, yeah, I'm 61.

[7rider]

I'm in the 35-45 age group.
I've been riding since...um...1991 or so. I lost a lot of weight and started walking to keep it off. My sister gave me her old Fuji road bike (waaayyy too small for me), and got a hybrid when I moved to Massachusetts in 1992. In 1995, the hybrid was stolen at a friend's house on Cape Cod and the insurance money bought (half) a new road bike. Picked up a mountainbike in 1997...and well, the addiction began and I've been riding (and buying) bikes since!
And there, in a nutshell, is my cycling history.