General Cycling Discussion - what was your most exciting ride when you first started?

i was curious what your most excited/freaked (or both) time was on your bike? mine was when i was in whistler, pretty much my first time on a mtb (a department store chunk of metal and plastic), i was flying down this ski run that had 2 foot ditches every 50 ft. that i didn't know about and my brakes weren't working very well at my momentum... to make a long story short i cought huge air (for a first timer), got down the hill safetly and realized that that was what adrenaline was like. ive been hooked since.:D

When I first started I was riding a 50lbs mt bike and decided to take a chance down what I thought was a huge down slope filled with baby heads, dithces and very sketchie sand. Went down like a mad man and realized how much of a rush it was to be on the brink of losing it but all the while keeping control. Since that day I have been bitten by the bug.

When I was 4 I was rideing on some distant venture from home. My pant leg got stuck in my chain so I had to park it on the side of the road. Terror struck when I spotted one of those monsterous street sweepers coming up slowly behind me about four blocks away. Naturally, I began to cry hysterically, knowing full well that the street sweeping beast was going to eat me alive.
Some strange lady came out of her house and pulled my leg free and I was off again.

I guess it wasn't very exciting. Mostly just scary. Exciting was the day I ditched that lame training wheel on the one side of my bike. I remember trying to turn so sharply that my pedal would scrape the pavement. That was pretty cool.

I miss that little yellow bike.

For me it was on one of my first big organized rides. I was riding along in a rather large paceline when we passed a paceline that had crashed. There was about 20 riders on the side of the road with various amounts of pain and blood. I looked around and it occured to me that if somebody went down in front of me I would be in the same situation. Because of where I was in the line I couldn't just get out so I kept riding but I was really worried.

To this day I am very particular about what pacelines I get into.

Probably the first day I was old enough to stop taking the school bus and start riding my bike to school.

I was free, and it was the best part of school.

I still remember a few of the rainy and foggy days and the hills on my Stingray.

I returned to cycling in 1999. Didn't do a lot of riding until late spring 2000. I didn't have any riding goals until I read about an upcoming ride (century and metric) that would take place in Oct 2000. I sort of trained but had never done anything longer than 30 miles.
I completed my first metric century that day thanks to my riding partner. He had been riding for several years and stayed with me. He gave me the encouragement and motivation to finish!
After it was over I felt great and bragged for days to all my family and friends. They were amazed that a 55 year old person could accomplish such a task. :)

First time I ever climbed Palomar Mountain.. Didn't think I could do it and did. The other- when loaded up new Touring bike and headed south down Big Sur. What a scene to look at and feel the independence of being on the road.. Or maybe completing my first century..

I was an experienced rider at the time but...

I was doing a one-day ride across Michigan (157 miles) and was getting tired and tired of being alone at about 70 miles. Along came a paceline of THREE tandems. I fell in behind and sucked wheels for the next 70 miles - FLYING. Crosswinds split us up at the end though.

Challenging myself to cycle to the stables 4 miles away and back for the first time I cycled properly when I was 17 I thought yes I can do this!!!! :D I made it and progressed to the all the mileage that I do today!!!!!

my first day on my bike.. had just moved into the city(huge)and didn't know my way around yet.. so decided to explore..ohh a bike lane..ohhhhh a path to the lake...ohhhhhhh pretty water... where does this road go..?
oh crap.. i am on the parkway.... clipped in no less :(
and cars are merging into my lane!!!.. i took a big gulp and swerved between cars... got over to the right side and fell into the grass..bike attached to me still , cars honking as they passed.
yes i felt stupid as i walked my bike up the on ramp.. and as i headed home.. i discovered streetcar tracks and slicks do not mix... and that ppl do not look when they are opening car doors..... sigh.. it was an adventure..
i can't wait for more. :fun:

I bought my bike in April, 1998 (I was 58 yo at the time) and started serious training for the first time ever. Got 1,100 miles in by June and did the 7 day "Ride the Rockies," which was the most exciting ride I have ever done.

I was seven when I got my first bike and I've been riding since. I can't remember when my most exciting ride was when I first started, but . . .

I was 15 and had a road bike. I was riding along the west side of Vashon Island, where I grew up. I came across this guy in a fancy jersey and shaved legs. Turned out he was a racer. He rode with me for a while, all the while talking to me, being really cool. Then, at a hill he said, "I'm gonna attack this thing" and took off like the hill wasn't there. I decided to follow. I finished about ten bike lengths behind him, or so I remember. The bike bug bit me then and there.

Twenty years later my bike and I are still best friends. I still get excited every time I do a century, or a double century. It makes me happy when I can set a personal record for a tempo interval, or when someone says "for a big guy you sure can climb". (I'm 6'1" and muscular).

My bike & I have had some ups and downs. I've had health issues, traveled a lot, been enmeshed in work at times, but I always come back.

Originally posted by juciluci
my first day on my bike.. had just moved into the city(huge)and didn't know my way around yet.. so decided to explore..ohh a bike lane..ohhhhh a path to the lake...ohhhhhhh pretty water... where does this road go..?
oh crap.. i am on the parkway.... clipped in no less :(
and cars are merging into my lane!!!.. i took a big gulp and swerved between cars... got over to the right side and fell into the grass..bike attached to me still , cars honking as they passed.
yes i felt stupid as i walked my bike up the on ramp.. and as i headed home.. i discovered streetcar tracks and slicks do not mix... and that ppl do not look when they are opening car doors..... sigh.. it was an adventure..
i can't wait for more. :fun:

Tell me about the fact that people do not LOOK when they open cars doors it really p*sses me off happens to me about 10 times a day and thats if I am lucky!!! :crash:

My very first organized bike ride, a three day adventure through North Georgia hooked me for life. I was not a very experienced (or good) rider but I was strong as an ox, young and feerless (stupid). That first day we went down the backside of a small mtn on a paved/rock road (bituminous). I crouched over the bars, got aero, built up speed, handlebars almost vibrating out of my grip, looked at my cateye comp., 55mph. :D That was it I was hooked.

Blake

Cycling to a nearby village, though it seemed a fair bit away (probably 4 or 5 miles), and going to it's playpark and sitting eating the sandwiches mum had made for me.

Lazy summer day and it was my first "tour". I've been hooked on touring bikes ever since, but that ride was done on a "chopper type " bike. I think I was 11 or 12

My first ride without sidewheels as 5 year old boy, oh yeah!!!



:D

Originally posted by mountaindew
i was curious what your most excited/freaked (or both) time was on your bike? mine was when i was in whistler, pretty much my first time on a mtb (a department store chunk of metal and plastic), i was flying down this ski run that had 2 foot ditches every 50 ft. that i didn't know about and my brakes weren't working very well at my momentum... to make a long story short i cought huge air (for a first timer), got down the hill safetly and realized that that was what adrenaline was like. ive been hooked since.:D

Yep...almost same story and even the same town ;)

Island hopping on the east side of Okinawa. It was only a 40 mile ride but it was my first ride of any length up till then. There is something about being able to drive between cities or in this case islands (road was built up out of the ocean between them) that is just awsome feeling. Just completed my first century not too long ago and that was a pretty good rush too!

Last summer, my wife and I purchased el cheapo department store bikes. I got hooked while riding one of those monsters. A couple of months later I took a bad digger off of it and separated my shoulder bad enough to require surgery -- twice. As a get well present my wife gave me a new 2003 Cannondale.

Can you imagine how I felt going from a heavy clunker to a "real" road bike? I'll never forget that first ride. The first few days I just lay in bed at night anticipating the next morning. You know what, sometimes I STILL get that feeling.

My first bike was my brothers old shwinn stingray. My dad replaced the banana seat with a regular saddle--I was to short to sit on the banana seat. After I'd been trying to ride it awhile folks told me to go out and ride it down the hill. They meant the little embankment by our driveway, I thought they meant the big grassy hill of which the embankment was just a small part. Had me a very memorable ride down that bumpy old hill! I don't remember getting hurt or even if I fell, but I do remember it was exciting.

Any time I ride a new trail/road is an adventure.
I still need a small bike though...
kari :)

My first "real" covering of ground, summer 1968, I was thirteen years old, planned a ride using a Los Angeles street map. Ventura Blvd. from our Hollywood home to Topanga Canyon, Topanga to PCH, through Santa Monica, West LA, Beverly Hills and Hollywood on Santa Monica Blvd., and home up Outpost Road to Mulholland up into what used to be called Hollywood Knolls and now mostly has signs saying "private security, armed response." All done on a Schwinn Collegiate Sport 5-speed with bald tires, no spare tube or pump, and rat-trap pedals. Took me about eight hours and I felt like an adventurer. Totally warped and ruined me for life. I grew up in a "sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll" time and neighborhood in the Hollywood hills and that green Schwinn made a total deviate outta me!

Los Angeles forum users will know the best part of this ride--descending that last five miles of Topanga Canyon into a beach mist on a summer morning.

Originally posted by Feldman
Los Angeles forum users will know the best part of this ride--descending that last five miles of Topanga Canyon into a beach mist on a summer morning.

I know it well.

That was quite a ride you described.:thumbup: