What got you into cycling?

iain_j

As for me - it's in the family. My dad used to, my brother does. Got a bike to start riding to university as it was cheaper than the bus, and it gave me something to do on empty afternoons/summer hols. Started doing "proper" touring rides after I read Tim Moore's "French Revolutions" and it was an honest case of "well, if he can do it, well..." . I'd been brought up watching the Tour de France on Channel 4 every year so that's how I got into watching racing, but never took it seriously until the Armstrong years (I'll give him credit for that). And finally, local stages of the Tour of Britain in the last few years, the Tour de France's phenomenal visit to London last year, and GB's success on the track (Manchester velodrome is only an hour away) got me into going to watch the races road/track-side.

What's your story?

Lagavulin

Dad. He was a keen cyclist in his youth. He used to race, time trial and go off on 100-150 miles rides.
When I was a kid he was always keen on getting me to watch the TdF on Channel 4.
When I was 9 or 10 I did receive a 5-speed drop handled bar Apollo racing-style bike for Christmas but I was the only one of my mates to have one. Though I did pass my cycling proficiency on it, I couldn't follow them down the rough tracks on it and eventually it ended up rusting away in the garage and I went to Hardisty Cycles for a shiny new MTB.

He used to talk quite pasionately about cycling and how he dreamed of a Campag-shod bike ("such and such had this but I couldn't afford that. I had to make do with Simplex gears... etc."). Also, whenever it was new bike time for me, with hindsight, I think he was always a bit disappointed when I was adament I wanted a BMX or mountain bike.

Went a few years (maybe 14 - 18/19) without really a rideable bike but while at uni I did buy a cheapo Diamondback full-susser and rediscovered the joys of the bicycle. Watched that years TfD on ITV and decided during that to buy my first road bike. In September 2006 I bought an Allez Sport Double and cycling in it's various forms has since become my most expensive hobby to date.

SpinyBike

Torn cruciate ligament, needed low impact excersise

mathi

Breaking my leg playing rugby ....................i was never as quick when it got better

Gary D

My children.....

Hadn't ridden a bike for 30 years. When my eldest girl was 6 she got a 20" wheel bike and learned to ride it around the local park. I got fed up of running after her to make sure she wasn't going to end up in the lake, so I bought a Claud Butler hybrid.

The rest is history. Nearly 3 years later I have 3 bikes and am thousands of pounds lighter in the wallet and a quite a few pounds from around the waist.

Just should have done it earlier...... :roll: :roll:

Gary.

on the road

We've always been a cycling family, my brothers cycled, even my mum done a bit, so it's something that stuck.

Been a cyclist for 36 years now, on and off. Just the odd fews years when I didn't have a bike but cycling has always been in my blood.

ConsciousPilot

I was getting fed up going to the gym and thought cycling would be a healthier and cheaper option. So after nearly 40 years since my last bike I got a hybrid and started putting in the miles. Now instead of being at the top end of ideal weight I'm having to eat more to stay at the lower end So I definitely feel healthier but the cheaper option didn't quite work out what with all the extras I've bought, new slicker tyres, cycling clothing, shoes, pedals and now forking out for my first road bike

chuckcork

While I road a bike to Uni, stopped doing so after my year out from architecture, and didn't go back.

After a gap of 10 years and at that time into motorcycling, I then dislocated my knee quite badly and started cycling to work to build up my leg strength. At first it was 2 miles or so, then I moved house at that became 5 miles. Soon enough I sold the motorcycle (getting married in any case and wasn't using it any more) and changed jobs and that became a 6 mile commute, then changed job + country and it was a 14 mile cycle.

Now consider a 50 mile run in the country a nice pleasant distance.

Mark Alexander

I rode the 2 miles from my village to the bus to work for 4 years on a Giant MTB and weighed about 10 tons. It took what I knew to be a family loss to come. I started to ride around the vale to get away and think. I rode up to 5 miles letting me vent my frustration and anger. Even now I focus it into racing.

After the loss, I began to ride further and bought a speedo. I realized that I was slow and didn't like it. I went off to a friend who ran the LBS and said I have no idea what i'm looking at so got good advice. I had my 1st road bike. I started getting stronger, going faster and started loving it.

After a year I moved to Cardiff. Another year, I was at the same LBS when a guy I knew said join m for a ride home to Cardiff he expected me to be weak, which I thought I was. H disagreed. Sept 06 he suggested that I have a go at a TT and invited me to join the club.

The rest as they say, is history. I've done things since that I never thought I'd do. Something great came from something terrible.

SCR Pedro

Hey there,

I used to do some road cycling on a mountain bike, but it wasn't very hardcore. Then I just forgot about it for a couple of years.

It was really the 2007 Tour de France that resparked my interest. I'll get slated for saying it, but watching the Astana team really inspired me. I then bought my first road bike, and have done over 8,000km since.

The smug satisfaction of being fitter than most of the Fish&Chip, Irn Bru guzzling population is enough motivation to keep going.

Pedro

downfader

:oops: As a little lad I watched ET :oops:

Got a BMX when I was 8 and havent looked back since... 31 now..

davbay

A back injury.

Injured my back at work aged 22. Put on some weight and exercising was tough at first.

Bought a bike and got fit. Then became a Fire fighter. Exercise does the world of good for my back aches and pains.

I now commute 12 miles there and back to work and love cycling.

I ride a superb roadbike: Schwinn/fastback Comp 07.

markos1963

downfader wrote:

:oops: As a little lad I watched ET :oops:

Got a BMX when I was 8 and havent looked back since... 31 now..

Your not Chris Hoy are you?

Started out just riding around with my mates as a boy in the seventies but got keen and started doing some time trials. Then found motorbikes,girls and a mortgage but now back riding mainly to lose some weight and get fit. The bug has bitten though and plans are afoot for some cat4 racing next season and to get my 10TT time under 25 mins.

FitzyNC

Been a while since been on here.
My dad suggested rather than waste my freetime kicking a ball around the street and being a general yob, i should take up cycling he'd been a member of Kirkby CC for 15 years. He put me in touch with a local club BNECC and i started from there on a falcon five speed racer, that was 21 years ago, and enjoyed every minute. there has been a couple of years when i was without a bike. but coming back to it it been fantastic. 8)

rossbarney2003

I had cycled around the streets with my friends when I was a little kid, but after moving away from all my friends I totally stopped cycling. Years later (when I was around 17) my friend persuaded me to buy a bike so we could go out. I ended up buying a raleigh mountain bike cus that's what my friend said was cool. I went out with him a few times on mountain bike trails, but when I went out on it myself I prefered the roads and noticed that other cyclist that went by were on road bikes. I got interested and decided to buy my first road bike a couple of months later. I haven't looked back since lol.

I do sometimes wonder why I have an interest in road cycling. Nobody else in my family are even in to cycling in the slightest. I just really love it.

owenlars

Type 2 Diabetes, diagnosed about 18 months ago. Got fit, got rid of the diabetes and now do about 150 miles per week to stay rid of the diabetes.

edhornby

family all cycled and it was primary transport when younger including getting to school and summer jobs - don't know why I left it so long to start commuting on it to work... loving it, just wish the ride was a bit longer than 3 miles...

dennisn

Longtime friend and classmate whom I lifted weights with in our teens(wannabe
bodybuilders) sold me one of his spare bikes in the early 70's. I never looked back,
although I did do some running(10K's, half marathons) in the midst of it all. That's about all there is to tell. Hooked at a fairly young age and still at it. Be 60 in a month and have no plans to stop.

Dennis Noward

unclemalc

Had a trike from aged 3. A bigger one aged 6-8. A bicycle soon after and got rid of the stabilisers at about 10. Then kept pinching mates' 'proper' bicycles until my Mum bought me a Raleigh 3-speed for a Xmas pressie when I was ~16. I took this to college, rebuilt it a couple of times (thank's Walton St Cycles...) and finally broke it in Wolverhampton, going over a particularly nasty hole, in the late 70s.
Didn't bother with bicycles again after that because....well, don't know really . W Mids traffic was one reason and I lived 20 miles out of town, so the commute was a bit dodgy at the time. Got overweight and unfit.
Then was given an old (Raleigh) 5-speed in 1996 and, together with a workmate, spent a year getting the fittest I had been since college. That bike also broke (snapped frame - it was v. old...) so I bought my first 'proper' bike - the ever faithful Dawes (now the winter bike) in 1998.
Not looked back since.