BR46

I looking for a way to get this number under control

phillybill

As a child in the 60's, the bike
was my way of extending the reach of my world. Now it is just something I like to include in my life.

phillybill

+1 on that..... anytime extended off the bike my A1c shoots through the roof.

missjean

My first bike that I remember was a 3 speed Raleigh girls bike that I got for Christmas when I was 9. My older brother had a 10 speed Schwinn and I can’t remember what my older sister had, or, if she even had a bike. That sort of thing may have been too childish for her.

At that time we lived on a huge cul-de-sac w/a green space in the center in a military housing apartment complex. All us kids in the neighborhood would play bike tag for hours during the summer, riding around and around and around that ring. I do remember loving the feeling that I got when I pedaled really fast and was able to catch up and “tag” one of the other kids.

Then, when I was a teenager and my brother was off at college, I used his 10 speed to get around and ride to my part time job. I remember liking biking at that time, but not necessarily loving it. It wasn’t until 20 years later when my husband bought me a very basic Giant mountain bike that I really fell in love with biking.

bjjoondo 

Started back in 1963, my Mom, a poor working stiff busted her bunns on a bit of overtime to get myself and my brother a couple of used bicycles for Christmas!! It was COLD but we rode anyway and I've always had a "bike" from then on.

I'm on the 20 inch in background, my brother Bob on the 16 inch in the foreground!

az_cyclist

A couple of friends went on a bike trip from west-central Indiana up to Indiana Dunes in 1974. When I would come back "home" for a weekend we would take some shorter rides. In 1979 I bough a Schwinn Varsity 5, and progressed from there.

baj32161

Sone fun and inspiring stories here....lovin' it. Anyway, as with many, I started when I was a kid, of about 6 or 7. It wasn't really safe riding in my neighbourhood in Mt Vernon NY but I would take my bike with me in the summers when my parents sent my brother and I down to Virginia to stay with my grandmother, and I would ride from sun up to sundown on those wonderful empty country roads. Once I graduated high school and entered college I stopped riding. I got diagnosed as a Type II diabetic in 2003...at 290+lbs and had the 2 outer toes of my left foot amputated. It took me 14 months to fully recover and after that I vowed to become more active (I thought I was already pretty active as it was) and in 2005, bought my first new road bike since 1977 to get myelf back in some semblance of "shape."

I am now, stil,l a work in progress but down to 210lbs (6'1"), and I feel better now than I did in my 30's (I am now a youngun' at 50). I feel so good riding. Not only for the exercise, but for the overall freedom it provides. I will keep riding for as long as the Good Lord allows.

Regards,

Brian J.

Pamestique 

Started riding about age 5 as a means to get away from my mother... seriously. I've also always enjoyed being outside (maybe because mom was not there????). Anyway, have never lost the passion for cycling although at times I have been more gung-ho and into it. Now for me its still that lovely means to get away from it all and get outside and enjoy the smells, breeze, sounds, color of nature. I hope I can ride to the day I die... as an adult, I really got into cycling after suffering a bad stress fracture from running in around 1980 or so. In 1986 I rode across the country, back and across and back again. Took 9 months to tour. Talk about the ultimate adventure! In around 2002 I got into club riding and doing centuries. 2005 I had a bad accident with a serious head injury and in 2007 I was dx'd with cancer and went through surgery and treatment. Stopped riding with a club, slowed down but developed a passion for mountain biking. Old gal can learn new trips.

CACycling

Started at age 5 with a Stingray knock-off. As a kid, I loved riding and working on bikes. Then, got my driver's license and the bike mostly sat. Eventually had a couple of kids and bought a new bike to ride with them. Ended up only using it a couple of times a year. Around my 48th birthday, I noticed my older son needed a larger bike so I gave him mine. Decided I didn't want to be "bikeless" so I started scouring CL for a replacement. Found an '86 Diamond Back MTB that was cheap but needed a lot of work.

I started working on the bike and taking it for test rides. Working on the bike reminded me how much I enjoyed wrenching and the test rides reminded me how much I enjoyed riding. Once I started riding regularly, my wife started riding with me. Ended up putting over 1,000 miles on that old Diamond Back in about six months. That led to getting a pair of vintage road bikes for us (late '70s Schwinn Le Tours) and, eventually, modern road bikes. Along the way, I decided riding to work made sense so I started commuting as a way to get more exercise and save on gas. Cycling has become a big part of our lives.

Now, as I recover from a broken clavicle (car vs. bike accident on my commute to work 3 1/2 weeks ago), I find myself stuck riding the spin bike I'd bought for my wife last year. I long to be back out on the streets but at least I'm able to keep my legs moving so I'll be ready to ride once my shoulder is ready. And I've got lots of time to decide what my new commuter bike will be. I'm thinking cyclocross.

B. Carfree

I apparently started just before my second birthday when I took off on someone's trike to find my missing sisters (they had gone to school and I didn't understand why). While I didn't find the school, a friendly cop did find me and return me to my frantic mom. A few years later I'm sure she would have been even more frantic if she had known that my friends and I were regularly doing forty mile rides that included tours of Huey Newton's house. Still, most of my riding was purely for transportation; I had a car, I just preferred to travel by bike.

During college, the lure of longer rides finally took hold. I still remember my first century; I finally got feeling back between my legs the next Thursday and I haven't used a Brooks saddle since. I was one of only two people who rode bikes to my community college. I remember riding from S.F. to Yosemite and back and seeing only one other cyclist. Then I moved to Davis and thought I had gone to heaven. In a town of 40,000 people there were about 39,000 who went just about everywhere they could by bike.

I used to hope my fellow citizens would leave the car behind as they recognized the insanity of all the damage car-dependence does. I've since given up on that notion. However, I am still optimistic of seeing something like Davis circa 1979 again in America, but it will likely be due to either economics or supply disruptions rather than any conscious choices made by anyone.

Phil85207

I road as a child of course and then after the kids left home I got a bike to keep the pounds off. Got away from exercising and the weight came back on. at about 55 I happened to look into the mirror after a shower and really saw my reflection. I said out loud "Thats just disgusting" I started ridding again. Lost over 50 lbs. and have done lots of centuries and thousands of miles from coast to coast. Love cycling.

otg 

I remembered, while I was reading this thread, my dad running next to me holding up a small bike the first day the training wheels came off. When he let go, I managed to stay upright, but veered into the side of a parked car. Got my ear pinned between the handlebar and the car somehow! I was probably around 4 or 5. Haven't been without a bike since, but my old Schwinn spent the better part of two decades in the basement. I got back into it this summer to lose weight, and try to ride three or four times a week now. I've got an older mountain bike that I ride most of the time, but I've been looking at a Jamis Coda Comp at the bike shop lately...

Jim from Boston

How I got into cycling...you?

In my introduction to Bikeforums, I wrote:

I can recall literally the exact day of my epiphany in Ann Arbor. I was a student at Michigan staying in town over the summer, and needed a job. One sunny day in May I decided to make applications at several businesses down State Street over a length of a few miles. I asked my roommate if I could use his Schwinn Varsity to make the rounds. He explained that you must pedal while shifting, and I was on my way. I was amazed at how quickly I could cover the distances I only knew previously by car; and my life was changed forever.

Wino Ryder

Didnt get my first bike until 1967 when I was eleven. It was a 'buzz bike'. By the time I was twelve I was riding out of town to the 'swimmin hole' and back (bout 10 miles) . Rode that bike everywhere. At night, me and some other kids use to ride all over town stealing water mellons, so 'yeah', you can steal watermellons while riding a buzz bike. We also stole bananas and other produce in the middle of the night, riding our buzz bikes and holding the produce crates onto the 'ape hanger' bars. Had a few scrapes with the law until my dad came back from Vietnam and beat my a'ss.

Didnt get my next bike till '77 (by then I had renounced crime) so I could ride with my GF, who had a Panasonic girls 10-speed. I was more interested then in getting into (well, you know what)...with her than anything else, so the road bike I had was just a conveyance. We rode around together and it got me hooked on road bikes (and her). Sort of dropped out of it for a while as kids started popping up and I had to work for a living. Got diabetes in '97 and also heart surgery, so I picked right back up and started riding again, only this time a bit more serious. Bought a Fuji road bike and put 1600 miles on it in six months. I was loving it, so I dropped some major coin on a fancy Italian bike in 2001 that was ten years old and never looked back. Since then I acquired a nice Centurian road bike and a GT mountain bike to add to my collection. Riding bikes has virtually saved my bacon, so I'll never give it up again.

~ oh yeah,...I wound up marrying that cute chick on the Panasonic

Loose Chain

I got a bicycle for Christmas, never been without since.

Gravity Aided

I went from a kiddie car that looked like a Hudson to bikes, then went through Stingrays and Varsities to Raleighs. When I went to college, I got an old Columbia three speed with rod brakes. After college, I got intorunning, but gave that up after I got married. I went backto bikes, a Murray from Montgomery Wards. We were a one car family, and I used the Murray a lot, then went into the photo biz and worked long hours. I got back into biking when I got a Huffy in a church sale in 2004 after the photo businesses all tanked, and I was working in Security, walking alot and getting fit again. I got a Giant mountain bike after the Huffying and Puffying on the hills around my house got to be too much. I've been into fixing and riding bikes ever since. I now have a Ross Signature, a Giant Cypress, and a Fuji Grand Touring. The Fuji I'm currently restoring.

Kurt Erlenbach

I stopped riding and playing tennis after law school and getting a "real" job. Four kids and 26 years later, at 47, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I read a study that showed a strong negative correlation between physical acitivty and the return of colon cancer for stage 3 folks like me, so I pulled the bike out of the garage (while doing chemo) and did 3 miles. I came back and laid on the bed panting for 45 minutes - later I found that my red count had crashed, which got me my first shot of EPO, and I've been hooked since (on cycling, not EPO, but that stuff really is magic juice). I also started swimming, but in 2004 3 hurricanes came by a wrecked my house (2004 was a really crummy year), so it was just biking. Cancer came back in 2005, so after more surgery and more chemo in 2006, I got serious about it based on a strong fear of imminent death. Quite the motivator, fear is. And also this:

Except the 'bent part.

david58

Like so many, I was cycling as a fresh-outta-college guy, then progressed to being half of a married cycling couple. But then we moved to Texas, learned about Texas driving and roads and cycling, had kids, and the bikes rusted.

Last year, we started helping make breakfast for local college triathletes before their Sunday morning ride. Two of the kids we have known for quite some time, and they and the others started working on us to climb on a bike again. They were sly, and used videos of Portland's Cross Crusade as the bait. We bit.

Bought a Fuji Cross bike in April. Followed soon thereafter with a used Motobecane Fantom Cross for my Bride. I have become a riding fool (going out today in the cold and wet with this stupid cold), and my wife is using the word "addicted" in reference to herself.

We have progressed to having bought new road bikes in October, and are shopping for a spin bike on Monday (Dec-Feb is really dark and wet here) so my wife can keep spinning in spite of her ugly work shifts. I live close enough to commute, picking up about 17-18 miles each day.

Being in our early fifties, this has turned out to be an activity that we can do together, and it doesn't hurt. As we expand the folks we ride with, we can ride together, solo, or with groups that match our individual training paces. Organized events are a blast, as are our rides out in the rolling farmland together.

And, the Hopyard and Brewery are only 13 miles from the house, so it fits very well into our riding plans as well. Beer and cycling, life is good!

CrankyFranky

I've been asthmatic from an early age so I didn't do much physical exercise. My 12th birthday present was a Schwinn "tank" which I rode around my neighborhood for maybe four years. I lost interest, started fiddling with electronics <part time job fixing electronic amplifiers and organs <Pop music<rock band. At age 20, working part time jobs, needed cheap transportation, bought a 3-speed and noticed that bicycling induced a shift in my perception of space-time or something... anyway, it got me out of identifying as needing a car for everything. Was given a beat-up 10 speed Raleigh Blue streak by a visiting English "natural foods" entrepreneur, and spent the next two years burning up the streets until it cracked at the DT shifters. In 1972 I bought my first 531db-framed bike, and have been riding ever since, touring, commuting, and just pootling around.

longbeachgary

Was a 2 pack a day smoker. Quit smoking and used my cigarette money to buy a bike.

lphilpot

As a third-grader (I started late) my dad bought a weather-beaten black Schwinn 20" mini-cruiser from our neighbor for $5. I learned on that, which was better than the (seemingly) 2000 lb. 24" J.C. Higgins cruiser my older sisters rode, which also had balloon tires, a rear rack and front basket - Nothing a self-respecting boy would be seen on!

It wasn't long before the Schwinn was replaced one Christmas by a bright metallic green MTD Sting Ray clone with a sparkle-finish plastic saddle. After adding fake exhaust pipes, I was ready to go!

Later I sold the MTD and bought my BIL's red 26" 3-speed Rollfast, complete with horn, mirror, saddlebag and generator light. Eventually that was sold to a friend who habitually left it out in the rain.

Next, a 26" coaster brake "lightweight" cruiser (brand unknown) showed up at the house. I think my dad bought it, but I rode it little. It was my high school days and around there, only dorks without cars rode bikes...

That was about 1976-77, which was the last time I was on a bike until getting my current ride in the spring of 2010. It's been a while...

Nightshade

Had to have a bicycle to deliver on my newspaper route. Poor ol' 3 speed carried tons of newspapers before I retired it when my family relocated.

NCbiker

Yeah, I have to give credit to Santa also. For a man that commutes by sled he sure gives out a lot of bikes.

Mobile 155

I started as a kid with a Western Flyer. Still miss that bike.

As a pre and early teen I had a French Knock off with a Simplex derailleur. Still miss that bike.

First Adult bike was a Schwinn Varsity. Don’t think I miss that bike.

Next Adult bike was a Schwinn Continental. No soft spot for that bike either.

I still had the Continental when a friend of mine talked me into going to the LBS with him and I found a Viscount Aerospace Pro. The first bike lighter than my old French knock off and something I enjoyed riding even when I didn’t have to. I even made a kid trailer to haul my son around and we did our shopping by bike.

Promotions and better homes in better neighborhoods got in the way and I was off the bike for close to 20 years.

When I retired and moved back down to the flatlands from a mountain community I started thinking about cycling again. Once again I went to a LBS, ended up with a multispeed comfort bike. N+1 was a MTB. Then N+1 was a road bike, then a better road bike and now a CF road bike. I now ride about 7000 miles a year. I sold two road bikes and believe I have been infected with N+1 again. Thinking TT or Touring or maybe a classic rebuild.

John E

The day they gave out athletic ability, I must have been locked in the fruit cellar at the Bates Motel. I was very late at beginning to walk, was always the last person selected for team sports, flunked every physical fitness test, had lots of very worried teachers talking to my parents about my ineptness and clumsiness, attended "posture class," wore corrective shoes, and normally brought home a straight-A report card, except for a "gentleman's C" in physical education. I finally figured out how to balance a bicycle around age 12, and my parents were delighted to oblige when I asked for one. That used 2-speed Schwinn middleweight was the start of my continuing love of bicycles and bicycling.

My participation kicked up a notch when I joined the Earth Action Council as a UCLA undergrad and began commuting on my bottom-of-the-line Bianchi 10-speed and exploring Los Angeles on weekends and on weekdays with light class schedules. I had finally discovered a sport I could truly love, and at which I could actually perform decently. Cycling was health, freedom from gasoline shortages and traffic jams, and just plain fun. It was also a source of income -- I worked part-time at a bike shop during the first two years of grad school, and I met another part-time employer, a 50-year-old UCLA physics (my major, as well) PhD who ran his own medical equipment sales firm, while cycling. His became my cycling mentor and convinced and coached me to do the impossible -- a 12:18 double century on 4 months of preparation. That remains my one big athletic achievement in life.

Today I am as klutzy as ever (a fact my wife, an artist and amateur ballerina, accepts but still does not understand, even after knowing me for 43 years), but I have great cardiovascular fitness, thanks entirely to bicycling, which has also brought me numerous friendships in person and online and hours of enjoyable mechanical tinkering. In true "the more things change, the more they stay the same" fashion, today I ride a fat-tired Schwinn and a Bianchi road bike, just as I did at the end of 1962.