nuke_diver

While going through some of the issues I had with the fit of my current bike I got asked a similar question multiple times..."is this your 1st road bike"
I got my first road bike with paper route money in the late 60's (might have been 1970 I don't recall exactly). I used it to deliver papers which at times could be an adventure (I recall a couple of great crashes while riding one handed downhill over a dirt and gravel road) so I think that counts. I had that bike until 4th year university when it was stolen and I got my current steel bike which was my only method of transportation from the early to mid 80's. I also used the bike extensively until the early 90's when I stopped for various reasons to cycle regularly. I restarted to cycle as regularly as I can which means a couple of times a week in the summer and about once a week in the winter about 5 years ago.
So it's either 5 to 45 or so years depending on how you want to count

Road Fan

I started with trikes as you did, and moved through middleweights, a Phillips 3-speed, and Falcon and Rossignoli 10-speeds until about age 24. Then I took up cars and later motorcycles. About 30 yo, wife and I took up pedaling again, and kept at it until about 40 yo. Took it up again at about 47, and been at it since, now 60 yo. About 44 years of cycling in some form.

zacster

I bought a UO8 when I was 15 and I've been riding ever since. The first time I rode to Nyack from Brooklyn and back everybody thought I was just crazy. That was in 1970 or so. It is a 65-70 mile round trip. I was always the only one on route 9W on a bike. Now, 9W is the training route for all of the Manhattan riders and it is a steady stream of riders. In between 1970 and now I've always been the one to ride what was considered a crazy distance, except that in the last 20 years it doesn't seem so crazy anymore.

NVanHiker

What are they training for?

rekmeyata

I was going to tell the story but it's too damn long. So I guess I started riding when I was 8 but when I got serious to the point where I wasn't stopping and restarting road bike riding was when I was 24 or 25.

Ramona_W

When I explain to people that I learned to ride as an adult two months ago, they usually say "Really? I thought you'd always been riding. Don't you work at a bike shop? Doesn't your boyfriend ride?" Yes. No. Yes and yes. And, no, you can't win with that question.

yodatic

That is a vague question, lol, but it could be a good conversation starter. tom

zacster

Whatever. There are the tri folks, the cat 1-5 racers, the hard core recreational riders, the fitness buffs, the teams in their matching kits, the guys with the full kit riding a low end bike. Oh, and me. Up until the last few years I used to be able to keep up with the best of them.

CroMo Mike 

First hand-me-down bike (training wheels long gone) from my brother at age 3 or 4, English 3-speed at age 7 (rode to school and everywhere else), first 10-speed in college in 1971, First "good" Italian 10-speed in 1972, haven't quit riding since then. So, at age 65, 42 years seriously riding. But I don't try to tell non-riders about all this, they are used to exaggeration in all things and sometimes don't appreciate the real numbers. I just say "most of my life, how about you?" Glad I found this site.

rekmeyata

I hear you, that's all I say to people too. I get enough non-cyclists who can't figure out why someone needs a bike that cost more than $200 too, or why does a person need more than 1 bike, so when they ask me how much I spent on bike I say "oh, not that much", or how many bikes do I own, I say "a couple". Keep it simple or they get wacked out.

Walter S

What's it like to learn as an adult? How exactly do you do it? I learned to leave training wheels when I was five. It was classic deception that taught me, after the fact, what my body had already learned. My big brother held the cycle up while pushing me, as I got his occasional promises to not let go. Then of course he did let go and I rode unassisted for a considerable distance, genuinely balancing the bicycle. Then when I discovered the lack of support I promptly crashed the bike. But then like millions before me it all sank in as I learned to not over-think it and just let it happen.

Is this process similar as an adult? Did somebody hold the bike up? (seems cumbersome to hold up an adult rider). If not, how do you make the sudden transition to riding?

i find the non-intuitive behavior of a bicycle interesting. Specifically, the reverse effect (rotate the bars to the right to turn left) of a cycle at speed. I think many people learn to suspend conscious thought about that rather than really learn it. I know that as a child, I didn't have a conscious understanding of that. But my arms still did the right thing. Then after I understood the physics of reverse-control, my body might do the wrong thing when faced with an impending crash - the old intuitive control of tricycles would somehow take over.

Then with some significant work and training as a semi-pro motorcycle racer in my 20s and 30s I finally learned to accept on all levels, how a bicycle/motorcycle really works and apply that knowledge consistently.

I'm not unique in this respect. I've seen the pattern over and over in new racers. The classic scene is where a crash happens in front of a cyclist. Then with plenty of time to do otherwise, the cyclist's muscles freeze up and demand a panic-level of control that comes from a child like understanding of physics. As a result they slowly enter the crash scene, horrified with their sudden inability to control the bike - and not only that, to be applying exactly the wrong control.

One of the main ways to quit doing that is to train yourself not to look at what you want to avoid. Look where you want to steer the cycle. Not where you don't want to. Then the unconscious will send you in the right direction.

Mvcrash

I had a PX10 in early 70's on Long Island but then moved to Florida. I removed the sew ups and threw on a set of Rigida rims back then. I used to ride to the beach all the time and did not want to foul the PX10 with sand so I purchased a U08. Rode them both through college and then moved back north to finish college. Once I went into the work force I stopped riding until the 90's
I did not pay for either bike, needless to say 250 for a bike (and extra rims and tires) back then was big money but I was unemployed.


Same for me except I started up again with a Marin Police mountain bike during the 90's to cycle with the kids. Stopped again until recently but have not purchased a new bike yet.

I use the mountain bike on the road now. Probably look to upgrade a bit in the spring.

Foldable Two

A very, very long time.

These photos are from the late 1940's.

Wife and I had matching bikes before we were married in the mid-60's, and still ride now. Daughter grew up on the back of our bikes, and still rides as does our 16 yr old grandson.

Lou

FBinNY 

It's hard to define when one may call himself a cyclist. I started doing weekend bike tours in 1964, and the first multi-week tour in 1965. So I guess sometime next year, it'll be 50 years.

Myosmith

Not as long as I should have been.

Like nearly everyone else, a bicycle was my primary transportation from grade through early high school but I couldn't call commuting to school and around town on my Schwinn Varsity "serious" cycling. It was about four years ago that I started cycling again for fitness and quickly got seriously hooked. I wish I had stuck with it from my high school days as I would have probably avoided the health and fitness problems that plagued me in my early 40s.