gerv 

I stopped almost every other mode of personal transportation when I started riding a bike 12 years ago. After all that time, my ride to work in the morning still really wakes me up... yet the ride home relaxes me totally.

I look forward to riding. I love long weekend rides and even short rides to the grocery store... even in the winter.

I just cannot get as excited riding a car or catching the bus...

What about you?

Machka 

We wouldn't have spent a weekend like last weekend if we didn't enjoy riding bicycles.


This past weekend was a 5-part saga.
So ... 500 km of cycling in just over 60 hours ... with a day off in between.

B. Carfree

That sounds like one fun weekend. I'm jealous, but in a good, cheer-leading sort of way. I'm still in the process of slowly building back up to riding again after a perfectly horrid winter of severe illness. I'm finally back to a normal weight and such and I'm just about to start doing rides longer than 75 km.

Regarding the OP, there are very few things in life that I enjoy as much as riding my bikes. I'm old enough I don't have to make excuses to ride. Lucky me, my wife is the same way.

rumrunn6

don't remember, it's been almost 2 weeks since I've been on a bike :/

reppans

Riding is great, I love that it is not only the most efficient form of human-powered transport, but is also the most agile form of wheeled transport, and can uniquely combine fun/exercise/sightseeing/transportation/utility in a single ride. However, it has its place: long distance, tough elevations, poor weather, and dangerous roads means I will always need other forms of transport.

2manybikes

I always enjoy being on the bike. My favorite thing to do is a ride that keeps me away from home all day and half the night. It helps my health, both physical and mental. An all day ride is like a one day vacation for me, but inexpensive.

gerv 

Considering about 99% of my trips are < 5 miles, the bicycle is an ideal candidate.

cooker

I enjoy it most of the time. When you bike to work every day it can get a bit tedious going more or less the same route every time, and I do vary it a bit, but mostly I take the route that has proven to be the quickest and easiest. When I moved to a new office 3 or 4 years ago, I really enjoyed exploring the new options for the lower part, and recall being disappointed that the upper part ended up being more or less the same old same old. However, as I said in an earlier thread, even on days biking to work kind of sucks, alternate choices would suck more.

wipekitty

Yes! I love riding bikes. I really don't even think about other forms of transportation anymore - I just get on my bike and go.

Riding a bike is also my main source of recreation. Most of my miles, in fact, are not for transportation...

Crawdaddy

But of course. Almost beyond rules. Out on the streets like a car, onto the grass like a pedestrian

Jim from Boston

Do you really enjoy riding a bike?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerv

I stopped almost every other mode of personal transportation when I started riding a bike 12 years ago. After all that time, my ride to work in the morning still really wakes me up... yet the ride home relaxes me totally.

I look forward to riding. I love long weekend rides and even short rides to the grocery store... even in the winter.

I just cannot get as excited riding a car or catching the bus...

What about you?

I describe my riding experience similarly, as a cycling lifestyle (of 40 years). I once listed as my credentials: a carbon fiber bike, year-round cycle-commuting, a cross-country tour, and a serious car-bike accident. Fortunately/unfortunately I have a great, but busy job and in a paradox, all my cycling is as a commute, often precluded by the demands of the job. With the nicer weather and extended daylight I’ll be out more. FYA, @cooker, I have posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

To prevent boredom on the Road, I have posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I'm very motivated by novelty, and stymied by boredom on a bike, but I do have the motivation of commuting to work. I have found that when I drive my frequent, decades-old routes I often notice things I had not seen before. I think it’s because I can look around at more than just the road surface when driving. So when the commute [route] is getting too familiar, I just raise my head higher and lookover a wider field of view….

One other whimsical technique on familiar roads is to imagine I'm riding with a certain fellow BF subscriber from the Midwest I enjoy reading, and I'm showing him around on my route. I particularly enjoy having visitors to Boston and take them on tours…

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Wright

”I have an imaginary friend,but he won’t play with me.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

A local BF subscriber @rholland1951 who contributes hundreds of photographs to the local Metro Boston thread from the same 11-mile long MUP he rides, once commented something like that just the lighting / time of day / day of the year makes the ride “different.” So too does the direction, one way, or the reverse.

Walter S

I'm the same way. And the division between recreational and "work" is kind of meaningless when you think about how much fun it can be to get out at sunrise and ride to work. Or do some grocery shopping on the way home from a ride to Stone Mountain

kuroba

Even when it's torture, I love riding my bike.

I think the only time I'm not happy with my bike is when I get a flat

gerv 

Ha, ha... it's true. Some days you leave the house and wish you had stayed home in bed. But if you know your route and watch the weather, it's rarely a torture... more often it's just a challenge.

riderxtreme

I feel alive when riding my bike. It's fun! It's fun to give all that I have got! What I dislike about bicycling is all the cars I have to endure.

Roody

I enjoy riding a bike more than any other activity, with the possible exception of sex.

The saddest thing about my life now is that my poor health has made riding difficult to impossible for the last couple years

tandempower

I love walking/hiking, and I wish I had more time to do more of it, but biking has many advantages over walking/hiking, even though it's basically the same thing but with mechanical advantage to get you more speed for your effort.

I also find that biking makes for a more sustained cardio workout than walking/hiking. If I was good at running or jogging for extended periods, that would probably be as good or better, but I get winded after jogging/running for a few minutes, whereas I can keep up a good heart rate on a bike for hours.

Whenever I drive, it just feels unnatural compared with human-powered locomotion. I've come to think of power and energy in terms of natural concentration-levels, which correspond to different levels of perception and reflex. So, for example, when burning fuel, I think of the power levels as natural at a certain level of heat/pressure underground, but when we bring those concentrated levels of energy to the surface and use them efficiently to produce motion, they result in unnaturally intense speeds, noise-levels, etc. I.e. they are unnaturally powerful. So I enjoy moving at speeds that match my body's natural energy/power levels, even though you could argue that cycling pushes perceptions and reflexes beyond natural levels by adding mechanical advantage to natural leg/heart power.

Dahon.Steve

I do get excited riding the bus. LOL Especially if it's a Greyhound!

I only use the bicycle as an exercise machine during the weekends. I know people use it for transportation but those days for me are long gone. I'll put the bike on the bus rack and take it to the next town or about 8 miles and simply ride back home.

wolfchild

Yes I enjoy riding bikes. Riding bikes is fun.

Bikewolf

I enjoy riding a bike more than ever before.

Strange and a bit silly perhaps, but one day I realized that I had been riding my bike all year long, and beyond. I embraced cycling.

Biking is fun indeed. I kinda like the ‘rebel’ and adventurous side of it :-)

Robert C

Sort of. I am fine to about five miles, then it starts to move toward uncomfortable, by fifteen it is just plain painful. That is what I switched to recumbent bikes for any distance.

Yes, I enjoy riding my recumbent bikes (there are more than one).

Zurichman2

I get a natural high every time I ride my bike. I came to cycling in 1992 after a running injury and a botched surgery. My first bike was a Trek 540 touring bike and believe it or not my first ride was the Hanover Cyclist Labor Day Century ride. I got lost on the bike 2 miles from the finish line and have been lost on the bike ever since. I guess you could say I love the ultra stuff although I haven't done much lately, I have hit a deer which destroyed my Specialized Allez then on to a Lemond Zurich and then a Lemond Victoirre. I have had hypothermia 3 times while riding and on some of the ultra rides like Furnace Creek 508 now Western States 508 I believe they have in the rules that you can ride, walk or drag your bike. Thank goodness I have never had to drag my bike and since 1992 they might have only been 1-2 times that I hated or didn't like my bike too much. lol Ride on

hay

Good vibes Roody , Hope your roll is smooth

seanallant 

Riding is a spiritual experience for me. However, I've never made the transition to fully riding everywhere. I commend all that do and hope I can one day do the same.

kickstart

Having a 8 mile commute with long hills in the 15% to 18% range, short hills up to 20%, bad knees, and a physically demanding job was starting to become a real issue for me.

Getting an e-cargo bike helped immeasurably. If an e-bike is a viable option, it can be a real blessing.