How old when you started road biking?

2»

Comments

  • ColinJ
    ColinJ Posts: 2,218
    I got my first bike when I was about 8 or 9 way back in the mid-1960s. I pestered my parents for one until they finally relented, but they made it a condition that I took my Cycling Proficiency Test soon after I got it, and I wasn't allowed to ride the bike unsupervised on the roads until I did.

    It seems amazing now to think of 8 year olds whizzing about solo on city roads, but they really were a lot quieter then. I sometimes ride my single-speed on those roads in Coventry now and how things have changed... I wouldn't feel happy having any 8 year old of mine cycling there without me or some other responsible adult being with them.

    That first bike lasted until I outgrew it at the age of 11. It was falling to bits by then anyway. It was replaced by a 5-speed racer which I rode to school on until it was nicked from the school bike sheds (remember them :wink: ) when I was 13.

    THEN, A LONG BREAK FROM CYCLING... :cry:

    1989. Greg Lemond wins Tour de France for the second time. I watched the Ch4 coverage and thought "Oooh, I need to lose weight and I fancy having a go at that - I'll buy a bike!" Er, that's have-a-go at cycling again, not winning the Tour :wink: !

    I now have two racing bikes, a mountain bike and an exercise bike.
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Rode a bike as a kid - had a couple of road bikes too but only because that was what people rode in those days - never even knew a competitive cyclist. Dug the old school bike out a few times from the age of 16 but really started cycling about 35 when I started using the old bike for fitness and moved on to joining a club and a bit of racing.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • Mark Alexander
    Mark Alexander Posts: 2,277
    26
    http://twitter.com/mgalex
    www.ogmorevalleywheelers.co.uk

    10TT 24:36 25TT: 57:59 50TT: 2:08:11, 100TT: 4:30:05 12hr 204.... unfinished business
  • Captain Fagor
    Captain Fagor Posts: 739
    Finbar Saunders wrote:
    Been riding since I was 5 and started racing my friends on a Raleigh Chopper....

    Finbar - did you like getting your Chopper out? :wink:
  • Nuggs
    Nuggs Posts: 1,804
    29. Can't believe it took me so long!
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    I started road biking properly in march, but before then I had a MTB that I cycled to college on, 10 miles there and 10 miles back, I seem to have improved alot as since about may when I started doing longer rides with my club I have been doing about 300miles a week although that has been cut down now as it was giving bad results but every week I did a single ride on a sunday with the club and that was about 120 miles sometimes and other times about 160 miles, climbing into the dales so was a hilly ride too. I'm 19.
  • DavidBelcher
    DavidBelcher Posts: 2,684
    Captain Fagor wrote:
    Finbar Saunders wrote:
    Been riding since I was 5 and started racing my friends on a Raleigh Chopper....

    Finbar - did you like getting your Chopper out? :wink:

    I had the one with the purple paint job, which I've been told was the rarest of the standard production models. Pity I didn't keep it, otherwise could no doubt have flogged it to a collector of '70s stuff for a sizeable chunk of cash. :(

    David
    "It is not enough merely to win; others must lose." - Gore Vidal
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    willhub wrote:
    I started road biking properly in march, but before then I had a MTB that I cycled to college on, 10 miles there and 10 miles back, I seem to have improved alot as since about may when I started doing longer rides with my club I have been doing about 300miles a week although that has been cut down now as it was giving bad results but every week I did a single ride on a sunday with the club and that was about 120 miles sometimes and other times about 160 miles, climbing into the dales so was a hilly ride too. I'm 19.

    Been out with the Wheelers much?
    I like bikes...

    Twitter
    Flickr
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,665
    redddraggon wrote:
    willhub wrote:
    I started road biking properly in march, but before then I had a MTB that I cycled to college on, 10 miles there and 10 miles back, I seem to have improved alot as since about may when I started doing longer rides with my club I have been doing about 300miles a week although that has been cut down now as it was giving bad results but every week I did a single ride on a sunday with the club and that was about 120 miles sometimes and other times about 160 miles, climbing into the dales so was a hilly ride too. I'm 19.

    Been out with the Wheelers much?

    Went out with them first time couple of weeks ago, tbh I never liked it, I was cold and felt bad that day (my fault for wearing shorts, sorted now that is though, was 64 miles, might come out this Saturday if they going to plan anything but there is not much people out at the moment.
  • majikman
    majikman Posts: 6
    i started when i was 7 yrs when i was in aussie land, my brother put me on this bike on a hill he said you'll be reet just turn road the corner and off i went down this hill , didnt meet the corner straight through fence bruised face and chest, a few tears got back on and made the corner. have been cycling on and off for years, now back on a bike a trek 1.7 triple, trying to ride regular round my work commitments , i have just registered for the york 100mile charity race next year (fool) so that my next ambition to complete.


    majikman

Categories