50PlusCycling

I ride for my sanity. I began doing long distance rides in my troubled teens, the physical effort and being able to go to somewhat faraway places made things easier, until I got a car, that is.

Nowadays life is busy, I run a business, have a family, with a kid of my own in private school. The city is big, crowded, and noisy. I get more peace from riding than I do from sleep. As soon as I start pedaling, the rhythm calms me down, and by the end of a good ride, I feel recharged.

livedarklions

World wide, I would bet that there are a lot more people regularly riding out of necessity than for fun. Even in the U.S., I think there's a lot more necessity riders than people here are describing--just look at the number of delivery guys there are in Manhattan, for example. I don't think people who ride out of necessity spend a lot of time posting on General Cycling, however.

There's been some threads here where the general tone has been rather condescending and dismissive of people who ride from necessity. I find that kind of snobbery pretty silly.

Maelochs

Makes sense.

Most snobbery better defines the snobs than the target of the snobbery.

I am decidedly snobbish in my anti-snobbery beliefs. I will Not tolerate intolerance.

aclass

I am genetically programmed to be fat so I've taken up cycling to battle the bulge. I did not realize how addicting the sport would become. I enjoy/hate a long challenging ride as well as a short stroll so I guess my answer is "both".

It's weird how something can bring so much pain and suffering and be fun.

Happy Feet

I would say distance.

I bike commute to work and enjoy a leisurely day out but my main focus is long distance riding/touring and all my planning is based on making X distance each day. In the last year or so I've tried to increase X distance but I would say that is more by focusing on efficiency than strictly worrying about time. Efficient rest breaks, gear selection, cadence, fitness etc...

355Mono

Usually bike for distance. I swim for time because I can't wait to finish! "if you're feelin' lonely and you got the need, I'm built for distance baby, not for speed".

fds

Both

Ky_Rider

Same

yukiinu

I ride because riding is THE ansolute best physical and mental therapy for me. I can feel terrible both physically and mentally and literally within 30 seconds of getting on the bike I feel better, both physically and mentally. I ride for distance, being in the city with all the traffic stops eliminates riding for time. After about an hour all my body systems are in sinc, and by then I am somwhere with no traffic stops, and then I concentrate on a steady long slow distance cross country cadence that I have used in 9,000 miles of loaded touring. Two years as a bike messenger I used to sprint most of the day, after starting the day by swimming laps for an hour, "but that was yesterday, and yesterdays gone". Old people will get the song reference.

mrMike88

Fun and exercise (and health/weight loss) and the experience of looking at the towns I'm going through in a different way. It's the only exercise I have ever done that I don't really want to stop when I get near home.

Hypno Toad

I have so many 'goals' with my bikes, many are extremely esoteric. Some of the 'goals' that keep me riding and motivated:

• mileage
• elevation gain
• longest ride
• fastest ride
• new KOM/PR on Strava
• new badge in Zwift (I'm working on Unemployed and Masochinist currently)
• VeloViewer Explorer Max Square
• riding instead of driving - taking the money saved on gas and spend 10x on bike stuff
• keeping myself in good condition
• training for the next race/event/ride
• number of smiles
• burn off the stress of work and life
• get the best frost beard selfie

Frankly, I don't think I've met a bike goal I don't like!

stephr1

I ride for the exercise. Then I ride for time. I have a fixed distance that I do 3x per week in the early morning, like at sunrise (barring bone-chilling cold or rain or getting sick) and I know I'm improving when I see my time drop to a certain point.

aguerci

I commute daily to work by bike, route is 14 miles round trip. On the weekends, and on vacations, my wife and I ride our tandem - usuually at least a thirty mile round-trip. We ride for the pure enjoyment of biking and reaping the benefits of participating in an activity we both love.

HBCruiser1

I often ride for distance as my prime motivation because I like to be ready for anything interesting that may pop up. A buddy of mine asked a couple of weeks ago to join him on a 200k and I'm bummed that I wasn't ready for it.

It's funny to read some folks don't like a bike computer because they look at it too much. My buddy said the same thing and removed his computer, yet on our rides I'll ask him "did you see this or that" and every time he says "no". Cracks me up. I don't know what he's looking at, but he's still missing a lot of scenery. LOL

Scenery or something challenging are my favorite rides and I do like to log them (RWGPS / Strava). I like to see between 3500 and 5000 miles per year. For me that seems to be a max if you're still married and not retired.

Cycle Tourist

I commute rain or shine. 20 miles one way. My work has showers and bike lockers so it's easy. I went from a Cannondale to a recombant recently. It keeps me in pretty good shape for a good long tour (2-4 weeks) once a year.

Viich

Almost exclusively commute, so I ride to the destination.

fietsbob

Tacos & Beer

Doctor Morbius

My bat crap crazy sister was over for 15 minutes today - 15 minutes! In that amount of time she managed to push my pissivity levels into the red zone. A 30 minute session on the trainer followed by some morphine really helped calm me back down.

stanion

TSS. I do consider time and distance for how long I'll be away from the family, and how uncomfortable my seat will start to feel.

jonc123

Took the words right out of my mouth.

The_Joe

Mostly I ride for enjoyment. I could plan to ride for an hour and wind up being out much longer. My secondary motivation is fitness/strength. There are a lot of hills where I live so my goal is to become a good enough climber that I won't have to worry about making it back home when I take new routes.

fietsbob

in 91 I took a Bike tour that included some of eastern Europe a few months after the Eastern bloc /Warsaw Pact broke up ..