Cyclaholic

OMFG! YOU WIN!

I start getting annoyed at the cold as soon as it drops below +15c and anything less than +10c I'm just miserable.

Anyhow, my moment was walking into work one rainy morning with blood streaming down my legs. Just half a block from work I got clipped by a lady pulling out without looking, went down (fortunately at only about 7 or 8mph) and lost some skin. The rain diluted the blood and made it look a lot worse than it was, the top of my socks were soaked red.

When I walked in to work everyone started freaking out, some started insisting that an ambulance be called, ect. I told them what happened and that it's just a bit of skin and blood, no big deal, and headed off to the shower like nothing happened. After that everyone thought I was bulletproof.

chephy

When I discovered a rural-like road in the city, and had a 28 km/h average for the overall trip and close to 40 km/h average for the ~3 km-long stretch of the road.

When my boss was driving from a meeting, and I was biking from there, and I beat her to the office.

skijor

Not a specific moment per se. Rather anytime I complete errands...pick up groceries, pay bills, visits to family all without burning a drop of gas gives me the warm fuzzies. Oh, and the first full winter commuting on studded tires (Nokian Hakkapeliittas) was sweet too

no motor?

Good for you! There are too many folks working in our sickness care system that could benefit from some health care - glad to see you influenced one of them to change.

dedhed

It's a toss up between the time I found the $20 bill or the time I found the ½" Milwaukee drill. Probably the $200 drill.

firequall

Living car free for eight months while I lived out of town for school and doing it all through a Canadian winter (a first for me).

Also surviving two consecutive falls on black ice during rush hour in a heavy snow storm. Ironically, my winter fall count was only three and all of them occurred along the same road (two were in the same exact spot) within a week or so of each other.

urban rider

My proudest moments:

a. Arriving to work in a snowstorm on my snow bike.
b. turning down a rider by a driver in a snowstorm because I was having too much fun.
c. Getting to work before the drivers in a snowstorm
d. Convincing others at work to ride there bikes
e. outriding several young people who thought I was old and out of shape.

joe4702

First time 5 days in a row.
1000 miles.

Kens6161

Making it up that @*%$#*& hill and not stopping or hopping off to walk!!

crhilton

Probably this December when I finished a full week of ice skating to work. Sure, my average speed dropped below 10mph but I was successfully riding on one of the slickest surfaces without falling down.

Close second might have been the day it was 10 below zero (Fahrenheit). Cold ride. It gets pretty cold around here, but it rarely goes that low and it tends to be windy.

stevage

For me there's something about turning up drenched from the rain and getting all the "omg u nutter" commentary

Eggplant Jeff

Yeah I gotta say the first time I rode home in a pelting, drenching, huge-raindrops-that-hurt-when-they-hit-you, water-running-down-the-street-like-a-river rain... was absolutely freaking awesome. I was soaked, didn't have full fenders so water was pouring off my back tire right into my shoes (like someone had a hose on them) as I pedaled, and I had this insane grin on my face the entire ride home.

And I used to be proud of the fact that I had never, even once (in my first 2-3 years or so), let the weather stop me from riding... but unfortunately common sense has taken over after I nearly got hypothermia last time I rode in freezing rain, so freezing rain now stops me (snow is no problem though).

rhm

I ride the same train every morning, and the same train every evening, pretty much. I see the same people every day on the train, so you could say we all know each other. People offer me rides on the nasty days, etc, and --best of all-- they make room for me when I carry or roll my folded bike down the train corridor. There's a friendly camaraderie. But I'm the only one who arrives by bike, and though I suppose some people may admire my perseverance or something, hardly anyone exactly envies me. A lot of them probably think I ride because I'm crazy, epileptic, alcoholic, or poor or maybe all of the above.

Well, a couple years ago our train broke down on the way home. The A/C died, the lights went out, and the train stopped. Every time the crew restarted it, it would go 50 feet then stop. So they put it in reverse and somehow got the train back to the station and opened the doors. At this point everyone got out and stood around on the platform, where they could watch me unfold my bike and ride away. They and I all knew, 20 mile ride notwithstanding, I was going to be home long before they were. And I could tell, now they envy me!

noglider 

Now THAT is cool, rhm. Have you seen the ad for the folding bike that the guy pulls out of his trench coat? I want to do that.

scottmorrison99

My proudest moment was hearing from my niece that she had a customer ride into Home Depot and mention he had seen me on TV and was inspired to start getting around by bike.

GodsBassist

Once drafting off a pickup truck full of privates on Fort Gordon: Dude, we're going 25 miles an hour!! This was of course, after I had told them of my 15 mile commute while stopped at a red. I hope they assumed I go that fast the whole way.

uke

Got a new one: riding home at night in a flash flood with lightning, thunder, the works. A bunch of folks (myself included) were clustered under the building waiting for the storm to subside, but it didn't. And I got tired of waiting. On the way, there was a point where I couldn't go faster than walking pace due to the height of the water. Normally, I'd have been doing 22+ in that section. The water was at least two feet deep with more coming down, and of course you couldn't see the bottom, due to it being night and the whole flood part. There was a car stalled there with two folks trying to push it out of the valley. I dropped the bike and helped them push it out, then got back on and continued to home. Was thoroughly soaked--clothes, backpack, everything. My iPod and lights never skipped a beat. One hell of an experience.

dobber

The first day I rode into work and sat outside on the bench drinking water and enjoying the crisp morning air.

Back then it was just a 10 yo mountain bike, a backpack and some hiking shorts.

Artkansas 

As bicyclists we would do well to remember that pride comes before a fall.

tarwheel 

My proudest moment was realizing, after my first year of commuting, that I had cut my annual driving in half from 10,000 miles to 5,000 miles.

Commuter76

My proudest moment so far is beginning to commute by bike. I ride less than half way to work and take a bus the rest of the way. I ride the bus for free, so it seems silly not to take advantage of it.

My future goal is to ride the whole 23 miles in to work. I'm still working up to that one though. I may try it on a weekend when I don't have to be there by a specific time.