At What Age Did You Start

18 years old in 1972. I was a college freshman coming back from a serious near death injury and resultant emergency surgery. I started on a borrowed 1970 Schwinn Continental to try and regain my fitness within a few weeks I was hooked and bought my own new Schwinn Continental. A few weeks later I rode the 210-mile TOSRV tour.

I rode a few miles here and there as a kid, but more for transportation than as a sport. As a sport, I started at 48.

When I was a kid I already know how to use a bike. I was in my twenties when I started going long miles exploring other places and cities.

I don't remember the age anymore but I started with my serious riding when I was past 30. That was the time I was starting to gain excess weight and a friend suggested biking as an activity. We would be going to parks where there are bikes for rent and together with the kids, I would bike for an hour or 2 in the morning. When we had nothing much to do at home, we would stay in the park until afternoon so I could ride again for an hour.

I became a fan of competitive downhill mountain biking aged about 8 or 9 as my cousin, who was a few years older than me, was already competing in local events. I had been riding my bike for as long as I could remember, but I had to wait until my thirteenth birthday before I got my first mountain bike and was allowed to ride in the competitions. My Dad said to me 'If you smash that bike up racing down a hill like a fool you won't get another one'. I rode that bike in about 200 events and it retired in perfect working order a few years later.

I started around 8 or 9 I believe, maybe a little older.

I was a nervous and slow learner and it did not really make me feel safe that my feet couldn't reach the floor on the bike I had. My brother who was about 4 or 5 at the time learned before me so as you can imagine, that made me feel a little bit intimidated haha!

Been riding bikes all my life since I was 4. But took up road cycling in 1996 and have been riding consistently since with anywhere from 4,000-7,000 miles every year.

We had a few franken-bikes when I was a kid(random frames+wheels) that I shared with my gigantic family. We only rode in the backyard, I'd say I first learned how to properly cycle a 5-6 months ago at the age of 28.

I think I was around six or seven when I got my first real bike, and then it was probably a few more months until the training wheels came off. I grew up in a really small town so me and the other kids in the neighborhood pretty much had free reign to cycle all over the place.

I didn't start 'seriously' riding until I was about 18 though, and started hanging out with people who were really into mountain biking. I jumped into that pretty hardcore and eventually started road biking long distances as well. I've always been really into hiking and camping, so for me mountain biking was a natural extension of that. I'm not really into team sports either, so it ended up being a great way to stay active and actually enjoy myself while I was doing it.

My folks bought me my first bike with training wheels when I was around 6 years old. I would ride that bike for at least a year but I noticed that many of my school friends were riding BMXs. I asked my folks to get me a BMX for my next birthday, they weren't too keen as many kids were getting injured with their BMX bikes. Eventually, my dad caved in and bought me a BMX which also came with training wheels. But after two weeks, I took the training wheels off and started riding properly. I was around 8 years old at the time.

CAMPYBOB said:

18 years old in 1972. I was a college freshman coming back from a serious near death injury and resultant emergency surgery. I started on a borrowed 1970 Schwinn Continental to try and regain my fitness within a few weeks I was hooked and bought my own new Schwinn Continental. A few weeks later I rode the 210-mile TOSRV tour.

I like your story. It is inspiring. It goes to show that with persistence and faith we can accomplish anything within human capacity.

I learned to ride on my mom's bicycle, which was too tall for me that I couldn't mount it. First I just stand on one peddle and slide it down hill, like an over sized scooter. After I was quite comfortable with that, I start to do something many other kids did in the neighborhood -- standing on one peddle and reaching the other through the triangle of the frame. I rode in this awkward way until I was tall enough to mount it.

I learned to ride before my brother who was 3 years older, but it took me like a month to learn it, and he did it overnight -- because he's tall enough when he started to learn.

This happened in China BTW.

When I was in middle school I rode bike for commute for a period of time.

In high school I liked to ride bicycle to a nearby city from my home in the morning during weekends. China's roads were no where near as regulated as those in the US (for one thing I don't recall we had such a thing called "lanes"😉, but then bicycle riding was so common that drivers were used to cyclists. So I didn't feel very intimidated back then.

It is kind of embarrassing to say that I had a difficult time learning to ride of until I entered adolescence. Not everybody will be at the same level and that's what I'm finding out as they go along in life. So I don't let the memory of. Whenever we start is not the issue.... the issue is whether or not we actually start. I'm riding well today.

b_t said:

I rode a few miles here and there as a kid, but more for transportation than as a sport. As a sport, I started at 48.

I can imagine. Those were the days when bicycles were a main stream type of Transportation.