I've been using a bike that I got from a friend to commute to and from university for the past few months. The main motivation was to save money on bus tickets (saves me $12 out of the $150 I live on each week) and some vague inkling that I might lose some weight and get fit after quitting smoking at the end of last year.
Friday morning I woke up at about 7am in a foul mood for a variety of reasons. The sky looked less than entirely evil out the bedroom window so I got up, breakfasted, and jumped on the bike for no reason other than to blow out the cobwebs. About 25 minutes later, I was cresting a hill, jousting with peak hour traffic and grinning like a loon. A few minutes after that I hit Beach Rd. Down to Beaumaris, then back up to Brighton. By the time I got back to Oakleigh, I'd done around 50-60km and I felt great. I think I now know what proper cycling shorts are for though.
Not a particularly big ride by the standards of most, although it was the longest ride I've done in one go to date. The big difference was that I did it wholly for the sake of riding rather than to get somewhere Something of a turning point, I suspect. Now I just need to get out there more often instead of just thinking about it. Anyone out there riding socially on a regular basis who doesn't move too fast (I'm on a mountain bike with road tyres, that morning I did about 22-23km in the first hour and slowed down a bit after that) and who wouldn't mind someone else tagging along?