How did you get back into cycling?

[alan]

I got made redundant the bullet in 1989 & therefore lost the company car which at that time was the only vehicle we owned.
I got a job with a local employer working shifts not sympathetic with bus timetables so I bought a bike to ride to/from work.

[Polar Bear]

I got made redundant the bullet in 1989 & therefore lost the company car which at that time was the only vehicle we owned.
I got a job with a local employer working shifts not sympathetic with bus timetables so I bought a bike to ride to/from work.

It was quicker to get to my first job than walking.

[JohnP]

After a 25 year absence, I met 2 couples near the top of the Aubisque. Chatted for a while, discovered they lived within 11 miles of me in Herts, knew many of the cyclists that I had known around the racing scene, envied their ability to tackle the Pyrenees West to East. Bought a bike shortly after returning home. Still no idea how they got up the Aubisque, or to the same hotel as us that evening.

[woollypigs]

I have always been into cycling, so not gone back to it, just been away from it because of work

[TimO]

I've never really stopped, I've cycled to some degree or other pretty much continuously since I was a kid.  The biggest gap was when I was at University, and for some reason it never occurred to me to cycle, although I still did in the holidays when I was back at my parents.

[Chris S]

One day at the tender age of 46, I remembered the great times I had when I was 16 and riding a bike everywhere.

Middle aged bloke desperately attempting to recapture lost youth.

[RogerT]

Seemed like a good way to get rid of excess fat..

[woollypigs]

Yeah

Seemed like a good way to get rid of excess fat..

Yeah 5+ stones over the last 2 years

[numbnuts]

A mate gave me a bike had it for about three months, but it got stolen, so I bought a MTB and then found C+ and bought a touring bike now I have an empty wallet .....well there is always something to buy

[PaulF]

When that guy tried to drive his car into Glasgow airport last summer my wife said "I'm not happy with you on the tube every day"

"OK" I say "I'll cycle in"

Cue face fall

Initially it was going to be on my (actually her) old MTB, just until I need lights, keep the knobbly tyres because if it's harder work I'll get more fitness benefit.

Now here I am 14lbs (and about £1000) lighter commuting in on a road bike - used the tube for work 3 times since July - in all weather, all year round.

Just now need to work out how to explain the benefit of n+1...

[David Martin]

When that guy tried to drive his car into Glasgow airport last summer my wife said "I'm not happy with you on the tube every day"

"OK" I say "I'll cycle in"

Cue face fall

Initially it was going to be on my (actually her) old MTB, just until I need lights, keep the knobbly tyres because if it's harder work I'll get more fitness benefit.

Now here I am 14lbs (and about £1000) lighter commuting in on a road bike - used the tube for work 3 times since July - in all weather, all year round.

Just now need to work out how to explain the benefit of n+1...

How much would the tube have cost?
How much have you spent on the bike?

The difference is what you have available to spend.

..d

[juliet]

Initially when I went to university (Oxford) & a bike was intermittently useful for getting around.  It became much more so when I was doing my Masters, was flat broke, and needed to get across town daily to my job.  Carried on commute cycling when I first started working because it was a lot cheaper than the tube.  When I got a bit more money it became a bit more intermittent, but then I made a NY Resolution to cycle in 4 days in 5, & after that it became a habit again quite easily.

Non-commute cycling: blame the Dun Run & then you lot

[Greenbank]

How much would the tube have cost?
How much have you spent on the bike?

The difference is what you have available to spend.

You can't spend negative amounts.

Grew up cycling everywhere (most do in Cambridge).
Stopped at University and for a few years after that.
Started again to get fit and lose weight.
Stopped when I moved to the US.
A few years after being back in the UK my brother goaded me into doing the London to Cambridge.
Read Maladict's Ride Report of the L2C on urc where me mentioned "Audax" and it's gone silly from there.
3 stone down, wouldn't mind shifting another by the summer.

[PaulF]

How much would the tube have cost?
How much have you spent on the bike?

The difference is what you have available to spend.

..d

well it's a little more complex than that . My official workplace is home so I can claim for my travel in. That means every day I go in puts a few quid into the bike fund

You can't spend negative amounts.

Now you're taking my wife's side

[marna]

I got a new job that was 10 mins onna-bike from home, rather than the other side of London.

I used to cycle when I was a child/teenager,  but I lived in a very small and quiet town (with too many hills!).  I left the bike behind when I moved to London, and when I borrowed my cousin's bike, one summer, I scared everyone with my lack of balance. So I concluded that I had lost my cycling powers and didn't really consider it for several more years.

Then new job, and Juliet led me about the park on her hybrid, and I did not fall off! Or even wobble too much. So I bought a bike, and now cycle almost everywhere.

[Julian]

I was quite active at school / university, although without doing any exercise in a formal sense.  Then got a desk job which involved sitting on my increasingly lardy arse all day, with a stagger to the tube station before and after, plus comfort food, plus suddenly having earned income which led to a rise in the BEER consumption. 

My bro had started cycling a couple of years earlier, and he was a toned, tanned, fit young thing, so I asked his advice on getting a bike.... and that's how it happened.

[alan]

When
Just now need to work out how to explain the benefit of n+1...

It doesn't work like that...explaination of n+1 is not negotiable/necessary in the same way that some women have no explaination/justification for a proliferation of shoe,handbags,hats etc..

if I have not posted again within the hour you can assume that I have been crucified by the feminists.Being of sound mind I bequeth my cycling stuff to...

[civvy]

A few friends turned up at my house and asked if I wanted to ride with them to the pub.

[hugo15]

Road lots when I was in my teens but stopped when I went to university. Started to work with some guys who occasionally went out on the MTBs so started to ride with them. Changed jobs and met a guy who had just bought a road bike. He badgered me for months to get my road bike sorted out, which I eventually did. That was 7 years ago now have been riding since.

[JonBuoy]

Stopped riding bikes when I got a car.  20+ years later the fear of losing my licence was restricting my drinking - so I bought a bike.

Probably not the best of reasons but it worked for me !

[IanDG]

Another 'always been into it' here.

[MSeries]

and another, why  do some people give it up ?

[JohnP]

and another, why  do some people give it up ?

Far too many other calls on limited free time.

Accountancy studies & exams; squash 4 nights a week; work; marriage; family; motorcycle training; long distance touring; MGing; aging parents .... free time available again (or at least, reprioritised).

[Elleigh]

My boyfriend at Uni was a cyclist, so I started cycling too.  I contunied cycling through my degree, PhD and first Post Doc (at Birm most PD's cycled, so it was as much a social activity as a necessity of getting to and from work).  Then I moved back home and stopped.  I started pootling again when I met MrLJ.  His girl loved taking their bikes out around the park and cycling with them was the easiest way of keeping up.  I joined C+ when I had trouble with my bike and wanted advice on how to mend it .  Within 2 years I had moved from cycling 4 miles at a time to 600K at a time!

[TheLurker]

Another one of the, 'never gave it up' crowd, but there were a few years when it had to be organised as a special activity rather than an everyday thing because the work commute went from a handful of miles to a hundred mile motorway round trip.