When did you realize that you love cycling?

[kmjohnson02]

I think the day that I realized that I really liked cycling was when one day I went to the mall with my girlfriend after work. I had my bike in the back of her truck and I wanted to race her to my house. She kinda looked at me funny and started laughing when she realized I was serious. It was about a 4 miles stretch with a two or three stoplights on the way. So we left at the same time and sure enough, I beat her home. I thought that was just the coolest thing.That was early on in my cycling "career". Does anybody remember an event/experience that opened you up to the sport?

 

[Steve_A]

km, I envy you. You're young and you're discovering a passion for cyclng. I had a few moments when I realized that I loved cycling. When I was in high school, I had a slightly older friend, and he had a C. Itoh ten speed. No one probably recognizes that name, they sold bikes for a while, then the name re-emerged as a maker of printers. (Not so different from Panasonic, sort of.) Anyway, Al let me ride his bike, and I was amazed at the lightness and responsiveness of it, compared to the traditional 3-speed that I was used to. I bought my Mercier road bike not long after that, and felt the same feelings when I rode it. Flash forward 2 or 3 decades (!): I still had the Mercier, but hadn't ridden it for quite some time. My girls were urging me to get it out and ride, because they were getting interested in bikes. I did that, it was Fall, and it was magical for me. I regained that free feeling from the past. As I rode more and more on the weekends, I got to wanting a more modern road bike, which I got after not too long (but with a lot of research and shopping). This eventually led to my riding a few centuries and other long rides, and starting my own part-time bike repair business. Riding and wrenching both went by the wayside several year ago, and now I'm into my 3rd phase of cycling. I realize about myself that I like the non-riding aspects of cycling as much (or maybe more than) the riding itself. I've had fun updating my bike for my current needs and style, and I'm still looking at eBay and Craigslist. Happy Veterans' Day, Steve

 

[kdelong]

My parents bought me a little Huffy stingray for my sixth birthday and I loved riding it. My grandfather got me into serious riding and wrenching when I was ten, and from that time on I was hooked. Except for the 11 years that I spent in the US Navy, I have ridden at least once a week. I still rode a lot while I was in the Navy due to the duty stations that I was assigned to. I just wasn't able to ride during deployments.

 

[SierraSlim]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Hi, KM![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]I can tell you exactly when -- August 11, 2010!!! I was nearly 60 years old, had not ridden a bike since I was 10 or 12, and was looking for a way to exercise that didn't make my bad knee and ankle hurt, so I could lose weight for intended gastric-bypass surgery. I talked Frugal Hubby into buying me an Electra beach cruiser because it was pretty, candy-apple red and shiny, and because I could sit on the seat and still touch the ground with my feet, knowing that I would probably be pretty wobbly on it at first. I sat on it at the top of our down-sloping driveway, let the downhill slope get me started, headed down the street, and within a block had an ear-to-ear grin on my face and could hardly stop from laughing out loud, I was having so much fun. I didn't know yet that it would be my salvation in terms of weight loss and depression, or that I would be as hooked as I am; I only knew that I felt like I was flying, and LOVED the feeling of the breeze in my hair and the sun on my face. [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Since that day, I've gone from barely being able to bike 1/2 a mile slowly to now going 10 miles daily much faster. [/COLOR][COLOR= #0000ff]I have lost 45 pounds, canceled the bypass surgery in anticipation of continuing to lose weight through cycling, seen my chronic depression almost disappear, had my bad knee and ankle hurt me less each day, found new buddies here to help me with my biking addiction, lol, and signed up for my first tour next summer, a flat-terrain, Sag-wagon-supported all-women's tour on paved bike paths in beautiful country in Idaho. Oh -- and when I get back from Hawaii, where I am currently on vacation, I have a brand new bike waiting for me to help me improve in my cycling and my quest for health. [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Can you tell I'm hooked? And I know the exact day my addiction started, lol. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Be happy pedaling. I know I will be![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Sierra[/COLOR]

 

[sitzmark]

I guess I should draw a distinction between riding my bike and "cycling", but I loved my bike(s) from the day my training wheels came off my first bike. I remember that day well - very excited that dad was going to work with me to finally take those things off. A few passes on the sidewall in front of the house so I could show him I balanced pretty well without relying on the outriggers. The street sloped slightly, so my rides were assisted (and impeded) by gravity. After a couple of test runs, he removed the wheels and held my seat, running along beside me. Maybe we covered 20 yards and then turned around and returned to our starting point to do it again. As we set off the second time, he was running along, but suddenly I felt "free". He didn't say he was letting go, but something definitely felt different. I twisted to look and see if his arm was still extended to my seat .... it wasn't. I looked up to see that I was off balance and leaning to the right. Before me was a russian olive hedge and I was headed straight for it!

Well, I hit the hedge (which was full of thorns) and had a few "mementos" from my first ride, but I loved it! That was before kindergarten, so I must have been around 4 years old. From that time on, I spent my days (and nights) riding my bike everywhere. I had a couple of coaster brake bikes, a touring 3-speed, and a 5-speed Schwinn Lemon Peeler (bright yellow banana seat and stick shifter on the top bar!). My friends and I built ramps and laid side by side as we each took turns jumping over each other Evel Knievel style. We rode paths, climbed hills, and found dry gullies to drop into and jump out of the opposite side. We crashed, often trying to outdo each others worst.. We did not wear helmets, we ate lots of dirt, and had many injuries - luckily none terribly serious.

One summer day a couple of friends and I decided we were going to ride from our house in Lakewood Colorado to Red Rocks Amphitheater - probably 12-15 miles away. We were about 7-8 years old and it was our first "long" journey. Our route took us over the steep "hogs back" along dinosaur park where large foot prints remained in the rock from the prehistoric animals. I selected my Lemon Peeler with 5 gears in anticipation of the climb. We successfully made our destination and played among the rock outcroppings of Red Rocks Park in celebration, then returned home later that day. Funny, my parents weren't very thrilled with our great adventure when I recanted what a terrific day we had. That was the day the "cycling" bug hit me.

There was more of the same unstructured riding until I moved away from Colorado in 1972, but no real cycling. My new friends in Atlanta weren't bike riders, so that pretty much ended my biking until I was in my early 30's and started mountain biking with co-workers. That was relatively short lived - maybe 3 years - then the bike was only used for infrequent rides for the next 15 years.

Fast forward to 2 years ago when a friend formed a team to ride in the inaugural Dempsey Challenge Century ride for Patrick Dempsey's cancer center. I converted my 1990 Trek MTB to a "road bike" by building a custom set of wheels, replacing the knobbies with slicks, and changing the gearing. That first training ride was like Red Rocks ride all over again ... where I wanted to go was just a matter of my imagination and the power I could tap from my body. Now I'm hooked.

 

[swampy1970]

July 1984.

I'd been into cycling for a while, just riding around the local hills for 20 to 40 miles on 10 speed resplendant with rubbish brakes, chromed rims, 27x1 1/4" tires, cranks with cotterpins and simplex plastic rear mech... but defining point was seeing a 10 minute section on the Saturday morning sports show with Robert Millar just killing it in the mountains of the Tour de France. It was a true "WTF is this and where do I sign up?" moment.

 

[kmjohnson02]

Wow SierraSlim, that's actually rather inspirational. I am so happy that cycling has brought that much happiness to your life.

If you don't mind me asking, you were 60 when you started like you said, but now your riding 10 miles daily. How old are you now? You've got to be one fit lady!

 

[SierraSlim]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Hi, KM, and thanks![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]I fibbed just a bit when I said I was 60 when I started. I was actually 59 years and 5 months, lol. I'm now 59 years and 8 months, looking forward -- NOT! -- to turning 60 in March. So I am a little proud of getting to 10 miles a day in a few months; but I'm really wanting to get to 30-40 miles a day without feeling like I'm dying afterward, lol. [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]As far as being a 'fit lady,' I'm not yet... but it's definitely improving all the time with the cycling. I've noticed it particularly this week in Hawaii, where it is suddenly a lot easier to walk up and down steps and hills and to paddle around in the water for long periods of time. I've lost 2 dress sizes, tighten my belt 4 holes tighter now, and am just really hyped that doing something FUN is what's helping me get healthy!! [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Thanks for the encouragement. And join me in my health quest, y'all! We Can Do This!!![/COLOR] /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif
[COLOR= #0000ff]Sierrra[/COLOR]

 

[swampy1970]

Originally Posted by SierraSlim .

[COLOR= #0000ff]Hi, KM, and thanks![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]I fibbed just a bit when I said I was 60 when I started. I was actually 59 years and 5 months, lol. I'm now 59 years and 8 months, looking forward -- NOT! -- to turning 60 in March. So I am a little proud of getting to 10 miles a day in a few months; but I'm really wanting to get to 30-40 miles a day without feeling like I'm dying afterward, lol. [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]As far as being a 'fit lady,' I'm not yet... but it's definitely improving all the time with the cycling. I've noticed it particularly this week in Hawaii, where it is suddenly a lot easier to walk up and down steps and hills and to paddle around in the water for long periods of time. I've lost 2 dress sizes, tighten my belt 4 holes tighter now, and am just really hyped that doing something FUN is what's helping me get healthy!! [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Thanks for the encouragement. And join me in my health quest, y'all! We Can Do This!!![/COLOR] /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif
[COLOR= #0000ff]Sierrra[/COLOR]

When you get back from Hawaii, take advantage of the pre-winter (we really don't have winter in NorCal near Sac) nice weather and get some 20 to 30 mile rides in while the weather is nice. The idea is you go ride to the point where you start to get close to that uphappy 'ive gone to far' place - but not quite. Do that for a few weeks and increase it a little. Before you know it, 20 miles becomes 30... which becomes 40... It's not a linear process either. You'll get to a point where it's not really fitness that's holding you back, it'll be eating and drinking enough and a desire to stay on the bike that'll be the limiting factors, providing you don't ride too hard.

If you keep riding and keep enjoying it you'll get to where you want to be.

One other side benefit you may not have thought of yet but you'll discover it at somepoint - if you help yourself to get fitter you'll find that your doc will be much more helpful in helping you as you're doing a lot to help yourself.

 

[BHOFM]

Slim, the wife just turned 39, she told me if I EVER mention the "four o'" word I will never
see the sun rise again! I am looking for a couple 20 year old's to replace her! BTW, the
sixth of January we will be together sixteen years. It just seems like 60!/img/vbsmilies/smilies/ROTF.gif

One of her rare days in the sun, she will brave the sun to go to the airshows. She doesn't
like her picture, "plaster on the internet" but this one is OK!



Her senior picture!



I don't really "love" cycling! I love the scales reading 216lbs instead of 270lbs. I love mowing
the yard in three hours, instead of three days. I love getting up in the morning and feeling good.
I love seeing people I have not seen in years and they do a double take and comment, "I didn't
recognize you for a minute"!

I enjoy cycling, I love the side effects!

 

[SierraSlim]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Hi, Swampy![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Thanks for advice! Sometimes it feels like I'll never get past 10 miles a day... but then I remember I was there, then had surgery and had no riding for 3 weeks by Dr.'s orders... then almost got there again and got bronchitis and was off for another 2 weeks.... and now (poor me, lol) I'm in Hawaii for 2 weeks. I had hoped to bike here, but I've never been on streets with heavy traffic yet, and that's all I can find here for bike lanes. That and dirt paths straight up the mountain, which I'm definitely not ready for, lol. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/redface.gif So I'm paddling around the ocean (instead of pedaling, lol), hoping to keep the leg muscles somewhat ready for cycling.[/COLOR] I will eventually get to 40 miles, I know, and will be following your advice to do it. I do think having my new bike will help, too, since I've only been riding on my beloved cruiser.

[COLOR= #0000ff]I've already found what you said about the doctor true. On my last visit my previously high blood pressure is down to below normal -- "like a 20-year-old's" in her words -- and she was very adamant that I should continue what I'm doing. So it's working, it's working. And I LIKE IT!!! [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Thanks, buddy.[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Sierra[/COLOR]

 

[SierraSlim]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Hi Brad![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]I posted this a while ago, same time as my other post, but Frugal Hubby's laptop ate it when I clicked on Submit, so will try again, lol.[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Tell your wifey (Kim??) that I found my first gray hair 2 weeks before I turned 40 -- and cried for days. It was not a happy time for me, lol. But by the time the actual day rolled around, I had dreaded it for so long that it was just one more day, and kind of anticlimactic. (Besides, as cute as she is, they'll never know.) [/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Congratulations on your 16 years together! We've had 42... I think, lol.... so have a few on you yet. The first 20 are the hardest, lol.[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]I love all the things you love about biking, too. I saw a chiropractor I hadn't seen in a year last week. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me and said, "Why do you look younger???" I could get used to that! Plus my hubby is ticced that somebody here said he was here with his 'two daughters." ROFLOL! He did not seem to see the humor in that -- but I did. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]I never like my riding for the first 20 minutes or so. That's when my legs hurt and I feel out of sorts and not settled in yet. After that, though, when I get into rhythm and settle in, I can truly say I love the riding. So I love the riding AND the side effects.[/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Have fun riding with that cute wife of yours![/COLOR]

[COLOR= #0000ff]Sierra[/COLOR]

 

[BHOFM]

I have been asked more than once if she was my daughter.

What is really funny is when her and the grand daughter are shopping and
Kayla calls Kimber "Grandma"!

Short story,, When Kayla was getting ready to start school, first grade, Kimber and
my sister flew her to LA for three days of power shopping for school cloths. That was
five years ago. Kayla still thinks shopping should involve, chartered airplanes, rented
Corvettes and truffle omelets. If you look in Websters under "spoiled", it says "see Kayla"!

 

[davereo]

Back in the early 70's I learned that you could cut the forks off of columbia bikes with a hack saw and pound them to fit onto Schwinn forks to create choppers. My next door neighbor's father owned a welder so we used to weld the forks in place while our parents were at work. I never got off those bikes when we were kids I rode everywhere. I have loved cycling all of my life. During my adult life I only took a 6 year break once. That was after we moved into the house we live in now. I did all the finish work in the house and landscaping. I cycled over here everyday from our last house while it was being built to check on the progress. My only requirement was the house had to located in an area that I could ride my bike.
Just a side note about the house. We have never stopped working on it. Every Fall we take on a project to upgrade. For the past four weeks we have been without a kitchen. It will be completed this weekend in time for Thanksgiving. At least now when we work on the house I can still ride.

 

[vspa]

Originally Posted by swampy1970 .

July 1984.

...but defining point was seeing a 10 minute section on the Saturday morning sports show with Robert Millar just killing it in the mountains of the Tour de France. It was a true "WTF is this and where do I sign up?" moment.

That year (or 1983) also hit me but it was Fignon which i saw in the 15 or so seconds !! of the TV news dedicated to international sports. My father bought me my first road bike in 1980 when i was also into watching F1 (F1 was broadcasted integrally at that time) so i would climb this 6 kilometer hill and then descend it like i was Alain Prost , this road bike i keep until today in storage.
But the most significant drive was the 2 weeks national amateur tour held every year in my country that gave us some realistic ground where you could dream of participating.
p.s. Greg Lemond's articles in 1985 or 1986 in english speaking magazines was also a revelation and the perfect boost needed for serious training

 

[kdelong]

I have a friend who did the same thing without the welding. To make a long story short, he walks sort of funny ever since the fork blade was removed from his leg.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davereo .

Back in the early 70's I learned that you could cut the forks off of columbia bikes with a hack saw and pound them to fit onto Schwinn forks to create choppers. My next door neighbor's father owned a welder so we used to weld the forks in place while our parents were at work. I never got off those bikes when we were kids I rode everywhere.

 

[Tech72]

During grade school, one of my best friend was racing BMX's - I remember drooling over his chrome Hutch and Redline - but my parents didn't have the funds to buy these high end machines. I was scooting around on department store and yard sale bikes. Anyway, I initially caught the "bike bug" around this time - mid 80's. My buddy was a very mechanical kid even at that age and tuned up his own bikes. I tagged along and learned a few basic things - like how to change a tube or to replace a chain.

Then in the summer of '87, when I was in 7th grade, my parents sent me to France for the summer to stay with my grandparents and cousins. I was a kid from Canada, so this trip changed everything in my cycling world. As it turned out, my older cousins dabbled in road bikes and had a Peugeot and a Motobecane, I remember the frames were Reynolds 501 and they had a mis-matched collection of Speidel, Stronglight, Mavic and Shimano 600 parts. They explained to me the various brands and "high end" parts (all new to me then) and took me to some of the bike shops in one of the Paris suburbs. I still remember a blue and white Eddy Merckx with Mavic SSC and a black Vitus 979 with Dura-Ace that I drooled over at one of the shops. I remember studying their bike magazines and cycling parts catalogues - pics only, can't read Francais - and them telling me that Dura-Ace is better than 600. I even came home from the trip with a new 3TTT handlebar that I bought with what little cash I had for the trip and a beat up 3TTT stem and a drive side only Speidel crankarm that my cousins gave me. I still have the Speidel crankarm in my garage, but they never gave me the other arm.

Coming back to Canada, it took me a year of doing odd jobs afterschool and picking fruits at a local farm the following summer to save up enough to buy my first real road bike - a red '88 Miele Beta with Shimano 600 SIS index shifting, Columbus tubing, Ambrosio rims, Keywin clipless pedals. I even got a good deal on my first cycling shoe from the shop - a lace-up Vittoria with wooden soles (yes wood!). I killed the soles from changing the cleats so often, every move is new holes screwed into the deteriorating wooden sole. It was also during this time that CBS was showing their TdF and Paris-Roubaix coverage with the John Tesh and Yanni music, it was awesome and inspiring stuff I used up the family stock of VHS tapes to record every minute. I still have the tapes. It was after I got my Miele that I also found out about the local cycling club, which was very racing oriented at the time. I started showing up for Saturday and Sunday morning rides, then started racing cadets (13-15 y/o), then onto juniors and beyond. The Miele was evenually sold and replaced with other rides. The rest is history....still riding 20+ years on. The bug hasn't gone away.

 

[baker3]

For me as a school kid, watching Claudio Chiappucci attack on the first climb of the stage and arriving in Sestriere with Miguel Indurain and Gianni Bugno unable to chase him down.

 

[vspa]

Originally Posted by baker3 .

For me as a school kid, watching Claudio Chiappucci attack on the first climb of the stage and arriving in Sestriere with Miguel Indurain and Gianni Bugno unable to chase him down.

that was a classic, even spanish journalists from Indurain's side glorified Chiappucci that day

 

[bikelover]

First time I rode two wheels for myself was great but when I did a wheelie on my first Mongoose BMX bike ....I knew that my life without cycling would be imposible.