I used to ride MTB trails before getting married, then we were busy creating a business, and the wife isn't very coordinated, so eventually the riding stopped, and the bike sat in the garage, and I started plumping up. The kids came along, and I wanted to live by example and be active with them involved, so I fixed up the old Specialized Rockhopper, and put a child seat from a yard sale on the back and got him a helmet ($120 total spent). This was in Feburary ('05), so there was little light out once I got home, so we might have had a 20 min. ride around the neighborhood, and realized that there wasn't much we could do without riding on a more serious road.
We
loved it! So I knew we had to find a way to do more. There was a park 6 or 7 blocks from our house, and I thought that I saw one of those exercise trails, so the next time we went over there to check it out and rode up and down, until we lost the trail due to poor signing. I started researching it on the web, and went out in my car trying to find where the trail continued. Each time we rode again, I'd add a mile or two on until I got to a new point of disappearance.
I didn't start out riding for the weight loss, though I hoped that would be the direction I moved in. I've gone from around 240 to about 225, and dropped a pant size. This fall, I modified my bike so that I could put a second boy on the back
[more info here] , and the trail we ride has increased to ~40 mile roundtrip, and I keep learning about further connections I can make to extend it. Out of 40 miles only about 1 mile of it is in the road and when it is, it's all wide roads, low traffic and slow speed limits.
I don't really consider myself a "Clydesdale" rider, I always thought that in order to be one you had to buy special equipment to handle the weight. I did buy a custom rear wheel and got a great price at REI, but my first broken spoke occured once the second boy was added. I'm certainly a big rider, and even now that I have a weight loss goal in mind I'm not looking to necessairly be under 200 lbs. I'm 6' 1" and officially "big boned" so at around 200 lbs, I'll no longer be considered "overweight", so that's good enough for me. My brothers are models, and I shudder to think of all the great meals they stop themselves from having (not to mention pie).
I've just this week completed my first commute as well on a borrowed recumbent. 21 miles each way on a Bacchetta Cafe (the brand new <$1k model) and I love riding it. It has a max weight limit of 275 including your luggage. My LBS forgot to shorten the chain when they built it, so I had a little incident, and motorists around here are obnoxious, but I'm going to try to start doing the commute 1-2 times a week.
Everyone seems to have posted pictures of road bikes (& a couple MTB), any other large riders using alternative rigs?