Flash

for me: Breaking Away

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/breaking_away/

waterrockets 

I lost my driver's license street/drag racing.

BarryJo

seriously, a hot looking girl who was into bike riding.... Spent a fortune ($250) on a 1988 Bianchi Advantage hybrid bike just so I could ride with her.

lunchbox1972

Heart attack. Needed to get in shape and I've always enjoyed riding. Now I do it much farther and more frequently.

Dr.L'Ling

I've always been around bikes. I'm drawn to them by the mechanics. I'm in school for Mechanical engineering.

But road cycling in particular: I did it for stress relief one day and never looked back.

Wested

Opec

Big M

Moved to a town with a beach 3 miles away. Felt ridiculous driving there, and I had this old mountain bike just laying around. Slowly but surely, my enjoyment grew to the point where I commute 21 miles round trip, and do 30 mile rides on the weekends just for fun.

And I still remember when that 3 mile ride to the beach would KILL my legs for the rest of the day

MSC

It's just what we did as kids. Ride bikes, all the time.

But this helped, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs02oztH0S4

JoesInBoston

I was looking for another way to stay in shape for hockey, as playing hockey 5 days a week becomes real expensive, real fast. I built up a bike and have been hooked ever since I first clipped in.

I have since realized that cycling is only slightly cheaper than hockey if you catch the upgraditis bug.

Dorsilfin

My Car was rear ended and it broke my back.. the pain was unbearable and doctors kept forcing pain meds and Physical therapy on me.

I was over weight and woke up one day in the most extreme pain in my life.. and went for a bike ride..


55 pounds later, i'm still riding harder and harder.. and slowly but surly i'm decreasing my pain

Pinyon

When I was 14 years old, I was sweet on a girl that lived about 12 miles away from my house, and I used to ride out to hang out with her and her freinds. I lived in the suburbs, and she lived in a rural, farming community. We broke up after a few weeks, but I remained hooked on riding through the country-side.

DataJunkie

My wife was driving my car and it was totaled by an idiot rear ending it while she waited for a pedestrian to cross the side street she was taking a right into. Combined with the fact that she had just quit her job and I recently topped 210 lbs I started riding to work.
The rest is history.

TeddyKGB

Haven't seen this movie...does it still hold up today? Maybe I'll watch it.

Anyways, I just started riding but I was inspired by this years Tour de France.

Flash

It's a fabulous movie, certainly about cycling, but also a great buddy flick and wrong-side-of-the-tracks versus pretty boys theme. Great acting by a young Dennis Quaid and several others. But Remember, this was 1979 so prepare yourself for the time period.

Ih8lucky13

In the mid eighties watching Sean Kelly win the Paris-Roubaix, with the awesome announcing of John Tesh.

dunningrb

Hurricane Katrina. When gas prices went through the roof, I started commuting to work by bicycle. It took about three rides to become completely addicted to my bicycle.

climbhoser

I grew up hanging out with some motocross youths. They all had BMX bikes, and I had a mountain bike, but they showed me how to jump it...Eventually we found some of the epic singletrack Colorado had to offer. We explored it pretty thoroughly, and it really stuck with me. Ended up racing MTBs for years.

Then I met Mike Creed (Rock Racing). Went through high school with him. He showed me the track, I showed him the trail. Road cycling didn't stick hard with me until college, but when I picked it up I was in love. I love riding technical singletrack, but I like riding road even more. I realize I should have been on a road bike all along

Naterider

Co-worker was commuting by bike and I thought it was a cool idea. So I started riding my old hardtail to work. Now it has come to the point where all I do is ride my road bike all the time with no practical reasons except for enjoyment and to become a better cyclist. I even drive to some of my rides if it's cold in the morning. What the hell happened!

kudude

moved to CA, bought a hybrid to get around on. Went on one long ride (~30mi) across the GG bridge and decided I needed a real road bike.

Red Rider

My friend asked me to train her to ride 50 miles in the Lance Armstrong Tour in Austin. While I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to ride 50 freakin' miles, I agreed to help her. By helping her I helped myself rediscover my passion for cycling.

JaRow

I played hockey for something like 10 yrs. When I went up to college it was tough to find a really flat place to skate. I wanted to keep my legs in shape so I figured le bike was the best way to do it. I wasn't wrong.

Business810

Convenient transportation during college, followed by a desire to go fast.

pirate

I painted a sign for the local on campus bike coop while I was in college and they gave me a schwinn mtb. I would get high and ride with my friends all summer, but I never really saw it as something that I would become obsessed with. When I wrecked that bike I bought a pos singlespeed from the coop for $30 and rode it into the ground. Riding a road bike was so much more fun than a knobby tired mtb, and it was all history after that.

Fremdchen

When I was a kid I wanted to race bikes. I always thought the roadies were so cool in their bright outfits (and even then, I liked seeing butts in bike shorts) But when teenage years hit and we moved, I had other matters on my mind and never got back on the bike.

Got on a scale last fall and decided I needed to do something about my weight besides *thinking* about exercise. Going to the gym for weight training is a PITA due to my work so I decided to get a bike. Got on trainer over winter just to get some muscles started in my legs. Today, still going modest distances but I will start the commute by bike as soon as the weather cools down some!

subframe

Moving farther away from the train station

Used to be about 6 blocks to the train I take to work, when I moved, it was more like 2 miles so I had to get a bike. I thought I'd never be able to ride that far, lol. Best move I've ever made, honestly.