How old are the newbies to road cycling?

Whyscotty

I'm 49yrs young and not rode a bike since leaving school.

Needed to lose weight, I'd hit 20st plus (08/2014)

Always enjoyed cycling as a kid and thought I'd give it a go.

Got a Sensa Trentino road bike - feeling like a kid again (a very unfit/fat kid)

Couldn't manage 5 miles when I first got back on a bike, now upto 15 miles and below 18st.

Hoping to start doing some decent miles as the weather improves and get below 16st buy the time I'm 50 (07/2015)


Happy New Year to all

nicube

Hi, I'm 42yrs. Been commuting on a hard tail MTB for some 8yrs now and discovered the thrill of road bikes only 5 months ago, I love it to the point where I now have two

italianstallion

25 years old here. Picked up my first road bike (and my first bike I've owned in 10 years) about two months ago. I love it from a fitness and wind in my hair perspective.

ashtec

I was 31 when I took up road cycling
I'd spent 8 years racing motocross but the faster you get the bigger the crashes and 12 weeks of work in 2 years are not good when you don't get sick pay lol I gave up racing and started clay shooting well that was my exesize for 3 years walking round fields and woods with a 12lb lump of metal getting fat lol

A friend was on about getting a road bike and I thought what a great idea so after I thought about it I went and got a giant defy compisit 3 Im a fair weather rider lol I try not to do wet or cold. I'm not out to win any race but like riding round the south downs taking in the views you don't get a chance to apreate in a car.

Keyringkey

I am 55 yrs young

I started cycling 2 months ago to keep my fitness levels up. After serving in the Army I needed to find a new challenges. I do a lot or i did until cycling took over, hill walking.

I have a Carrera TDF this is the 1st bike I bought and a good buy to. Cycling gives me that sense of freedom especially when I am up in the hills.

I have decided to do a cycle challenge and raise money for a good cause. 560 Miles and due to some good advice I have received from experience riders I have just bought a Raleigh Verenio . its still in the box at the moment.

The Carrera TDF has 14 gears and it certainly makes you work going up hills.

DG

CoolChris909

Been wanting a ride for some time now but finally just got a chance to spoil myself at 36.

FiferBrian

60 in the summer :-)

Back in the saddle after more than 20 years without a bike after heart surgery made me realise I wasn't as fit as I thought I was.

brandonisbudd

15, I'm trying to get into cycling for fun and long term fitness reasons. I plan on cycling on the roads because it looks like a lot of fun and is great exercise. I've always loved cycling and used to cycle a lot as a child but i don't often cycle anymore.

I plan on buying a road bike soon because at the moment i have a mountain bike but its not the best and definitely will not be a good bike to go on long cycles.

I plan on getting a bike in the £200 - 300 range because I'm a child so on my own i cannot get much.

RobSomerset

49 years old (50 next month).

Decided to give cycling a go as I have Achilles Tendonitis so have to avoid impact sports now. Used to run a bit but since leaving the Army in '95 haven't keep up fitness as much as I would like to have. I smoked up to a year ago and to be perfectly honest drank way to much. Since meeting my new partner I have had a change of lifestyle. She doesn't smoke and is fairly fit, gym and all that. I started using my old hybrid (CB Explorer 500) to cycle to work last year and enjoyed the ride (6 miles each way). Took me 30 mins average which is only 15 mins or so slower than my car. Started again this year when clocks changed and decided I wanted to take it a bit more seriously. My longest cycle ride was the London - Brighton back in 2001 with my old gym. I did that on a crappy Saracen Mountain bike. Took me 5 hours and hurt to buggery.

I have just ordered a Felt V95F flat bar roadie which I intend to hybrid my own way so can use it all year round with a few gravel cycle paths thrown in and some longer mileage on days out. Next stage I guess will be joining the local club but as I work shift work and 4 weekends out of 6 it gets kinda difficult to go on club runs. I work next to the Strawberry Line so am taking my partner off on a ride when my bike arrives. Its a 20 mile round trip from Yatton to cheddar and back.

Will just see where the road takes me now.

kelliano

30 years old.

After a bit of lull due to work, sportwise, back into the swing of things with Football, Running and now Cycling.

Have wirral peninsular on doorstep, so plenty of routes for me and my missus to try out, and daughter lives in North East, so have the moors there if I can get out before she starts calling the shots. Have plans to do a couple of sportives this year, and been looking at the Ride It and Wiggle events, any other suggestions?

Have a Boardman Sport Ltd Ed. Longest ride atm is 40 miles, but building that up weekly, and I find it goes hand in hand with my running, in particular half marathon training, as its helped me with my breathing.

Already tempted by the idea of something like Paris Roubaix sportive next year, or the Coast to Coast Day Sportive, but need to walk before I can run.

gken74

Hi All,

40 year old newbie here, got lots of questions so will find the appropriate forum for them.

Cheers

nothernerdownsouth

38 years old

Have done some cycling on and off all my life but never with any regularity but just ordered my first road bike, a giant defy zero with ultegra crank and brakes which I pick up this weekend.
I'm using cycling to get fitter for my main hobby of 20 years which is rock climbing.I've never trained much for rock climbing and have remained a bit stale for years so decided to get better.over the last 3 months I've stopped eating badly and have dropped from 69kg to 64kg and have started running upto 3 miles and doing some deadlifting and core exercises and my climbong is getting better.
Going to use cycling for fitness first and foremost but I also enjoy it so maybe it will become a second hobby.
My first aim is to cycle round the Isle of Wight

laytonasmus

Q: How old are the newbies to road cycling?
A: I'm 26, started road cycling when I was 25.

Q: What are your reasons for picking the sport up?
A: Last summer I wanted to ride my bike to work, which was a 10 mile commute. I decided to get an entry level Jamis Ventura Sport for $675 USD. It worked wonderfully for commuting, but when I started getting a little more serious, it just wasn't up to par for more competitive uses.

Q: Also what cylcling / exercise / fitness history do you have?
A: I mountain biked now and again, like twice a year in the past. Nothing much. I also only played basketball in high school on a rec team for exercise, I didn't really do much real physical fitness in the past. Road biking is what kicked off the best physical fitness year of my life so far.

Q: Finally what bike have you bought / now use?
A: The bike I started with was the 2013 Jamis Ventura Sport with Shimano Claris components. Nothing special. I enjoyed cycling so much I decided to go all out this year and got myself a 2014 Giant Defy Advanced 0 with a composite frame (all carbon) and Ultegra Di2 shifting system (electronic shifting). This bike cost me a cool $2,000 USD. It is the best purchase I have ever made, because it retails for $4,499 USD. I looked around for a couple months before I found this. In the last couple months I have put nearly a thousand miles on it. It doesn't fail to impress on the daily.

laytonasmus

RobSomerset wrote:

Decided to give cycling a go as I have Achilles Tendonitis so have to avoid impact sports now.

Careful with the Achilles Tendonitis, I actually got that from cycling at the end of last year. Make sure your bike is properly fitted to your body. If not, you could aggravate the injury. It completely ended my season last year. Turns out my cleats weren't properly fitted, as well as my seat height and placement. Just as a heads up.

Wicki

54 mtb for the last 25 years hated the roads in the uk to scarry,

moved to france lovely quiet roads and the French treat bikes with respect you get your share of the road here, so i bought a tourer mail order only to find that road fit is complicated, i got the wrong size and a 55cm with a 578 top tube , now i have ordered a px london road to build with the parts.

shutz

Wow, Am I too late, its 2015!

I'm 55 very nearly, looking for exercise, lower blood pressure, fitter body, and encourage my young kids to get out there.

Shutz

ba983

I'm currently 24 years old (25 in August) and started road cycling when I was 23 years old. I'm a bit late too, to this forum. Hello 2015!

mostly

42, started running about 8 months ago in a quest to lower blood pressure. Bp lowered but destroyed feet, hence bike purchase (allez) about a month ago.

Noelpen

Hi I am 57 years young

My reason for cycling is to keep fit.

Started cycling with the wife around the country lanes of somerset but found her pace a bit lathargic,so have bought myself a racing bike a couple of weeks ago.

My bike is a Viking San Marino xrr 2011.

cgyacht

I am 44 and feeling it.

I just started riding. Before in the military I ran all the time. Then 15 years of nothing.
Now I want to get fit again and decided to start cycling. working my way up through starting as a commuter and weekend group rides. Hopefully entering some amateur races and centuries later down the line.

I have a BH G5 carbon frame, Zipp 404 tubulars, Dura Ace 7900 group, Zipp aero bars and a Fizik Alliante saddle.

giantdefywarrior

45 years old, humbly starting commuting to work, hopefully to bring fitness back up, in prep for a two year hike starting 2017, luckily my achilles are finally recovering from last years 4800 mile hike

Bholland957

33
Wanted some good cardio and move around to different locations, ect ect.....
Ridley Fenix AR2 2015
Craving info and advice

niallmo

I'm 39.

Would like a bit of fitness back and it's an escape from the usual routine. Would like to do some big rides in the future. Started off with a small 6.4 mile circuit which I've done four times and improved every time and did an extra 8.4 miles tonight to see how my actual fitness was. Pretty happy so far. Need some more clothing, just have a heap pair of shorts but a decent Adidas jersey so far.

Bought a Carrera Vanquish, not massively bothered about brands yet, if I get properly into it I'll start spending on better stuff. It's probably a little big but I'll shorten the stem length and it'll feel fine.

Have ridden for a long time on and off, mainly mountain bike stuff but mostly on road and latterly a very tired and too big Giant CR5 hybrid. The Carrera is a revelation compared to the stuff I used to ride. Fast, reasonable comfortable and controllable.

Bobbylank9

36.

Gotten back into it after getting tired of getting injured doing every other form of physical exercise going, to reduce the tire growing around the middle after quitting every other form of physical exercise going, and to cheapen the commute.

Thought it would be a cheap hobby too but my addiction to buying stuff isn't helping with that.

Chrisderboarder

Age: 21

I´ve been mountainbiking since age of 13 or 14 (My Dad really likes it so he got me a bike and we did some tours together in Germany, Austria and Italy and we still continue doing it).

2014 we started at Challenge Roth which is a long distance Triathlon (3.8km Swim - 180km Bike - 42.195km Run) as a Family Ralley. Little sister swam, Dad did the bike distance and I ran. It was a great family experience and since we had a road bike for that purpose I tried it out several times. On top of that friends of mine bought some really nice road bikes (Cannondale Synapse, Cube Agree, Bianchi Vertigo) in the past couple of weeks so I felt like I need one on my own and just ordered last week a Planet X Rt 58!

Also I plan to start at a Triathlon (Olympic Distance; 1,5km swim - 40km bike - 10km run) in 2016!

Cheers, Chris

simon_mac

Hi,

Age: 45

Reason: Have done local cycling on tarmac/gravel on horrible old book, and wanted to see more on the roads and put my effort into going faster/further rather than shaking to bits on rough stuff.

Bike: Specialzed Allez Elite

Extras: Splashed out on a Garmin Edge 510 to help the motivation.challenge.

Enrgkid

I am 22 going on 22, Lost my motorbike licence, had a mate who rode push bikes saw how much fun he had, so I picked up a Cell Lapa 2.0 and all the gear and started riding Old Pacific highway(Sydney), now I ride every morning before work and try to ride as much as I can!

I love it, who knows might replace motorbike with push bike!

Rode bikes like any other kid when I was younger, is my only experience a few mountain bike trips with my dad when I was a kid, but nothing huge.

I have signed up to some charity rides coming up including 100km through the streets of sydney and across the harbour bridge to the olympic site. Which I'm looking forward to!

wez130

38

Back in the saddle with my first ever road bike, treated myself to a Giant Defy advanced 2. Been riding it for almost 3 weeks now and am already noticing visible improvements in my health / stamina. Enough to keep me interested anyway. I'm not heavy (11stone i think), but i am a bit unhealthy, hence starting to ride again to do something to sort my health out before it's too late. It's addictive now, i just can't wait to get on the bike again.

Desbolita

29 and tried it because of football injuries and impact on leg sports causing pain and swelling.
Cycling i thought i would try and it seems great and then i tried cycling for aggresively and my knees still felt fine so that it i have thrown myself into cycling as it seems like the only athletic sport i can do.

I know also love it too but it was this way round rather than loving cycling first..

Just have damaged my knee though in normal daily activities and have ben told im a year out and need an operation - typical!

I progressed from just starting to doing london to brighton to doing some cat4 crits and all in one summer, i was at the back of the field but loved it

7plymaple

Hello all,

I'm 39 and just got my first road bike. About 10 years ago I got a set of slicks for my mountain bike. It was used for commuting. Then I changed jobs and could not use the bike anymore. After a few years of not getting much exercise I decided to get back into bikes with a proper road bike.

This is my first post here so I should start by saying thanks. For all the advice from these forums that's showed up in google searches as I was getting set up on my road bike.