John_V 

I quit riding when I started high school and never owned another bike until I turned 39. At that time, I was a SWAT Medic with the Sheriff's Office and we trained every day in one form or another. I bought a used 10 speed Schwinn and rode about 10-15 miles every third day for about 2 1/2 years. When I got off the team, I quit riding again and became a big couch potato. At 5' 7" and 145 lbs, I gained about 40 lbs (got up to 185), and developed a gut to the point that I couldn't see my feet unless I bent over. My doctor kept trying to get me back into exercising but it went in one ear and out the other. He was ready to put me on cholesterol and blood pressure medication and then it happened.

In 2009, on my 63rd birthday, I came home from work and my wife said we needed to go pick up my birthday present, a Giant Sedona ST. I didn't know what it was until we got to the LBS. When we got to the LBS, I said "Oh crap, not a bike!", saw the big E word staring me in the face and panicked. Well, I rode that evening, after dinner, and didn't get out of the driveway before I ended up dumping the bike trying to correct an oversteer. Within a week, I was doing one mile rides with my legs feeling like jello at the end of each ride.

That year was a very cold winter for us, so I didn't get much riding in. In May of 2010, I found a Saturday morning ride club and stared riding with them on this heavy, steel frame Sedona. In July, I gave the Sedona to my brother and bought the Cypress because it was aluminum and much lighter. I started riding the Cypress on a daily basis, getting in around 10 miles riding in my neighborhood and continued doing the Saturday morning club rides. The problem now was that almost all of the riders in the club were on road bikes so in October of 2010, I bought the Defy and from that point on, I became heavily addicted to cycling. On January 31st of this year, I got the N+1 bug, again, and bought my Colnago.

I've been riding on a daily basis since I got the Cypress; going from 10 miles a day to my current 30+ miles a day. All this riding has to stop at some point, but I guess that will happen when the undertaker is done with me. Oh! And I'm back down to 150 lbs.