Fifty Plus (50+) - Cycling quotations

Thought it might be interesting to collect our favorite quotations about cycling. I'll offer my former signature line, which I think I found somewhere (I can't remember for sure, but I don't think it's my own creation), to kick things off:

Cycling is 50% physical and 90% mental.

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving."
-- A. Einstein

Essay on "Taming the Bicycle" http://www.online-literature.com/twain/1323/
-- S. Clemens aka M. Twain

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- S. Clemens

"I'm still about as pigeon-toed as you can get. But I learned to manage pretty well on a bike. Should have had a bicycle then, when I was a kid, but our family didn't have the money for such luxuries. I saved up to buy one myself a few years later."
-- N. Rockwell

... Cycling is 50% physical and 90% mental.

"Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical."
-- Y. Berra

"Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical."
-- Y. Berra

Ah, thanks for that. I have frequently wondered where I got that from!

Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history. ~P.J. O'Rourke

No!!! Not another #$%$%* hill!

No!!! Not another #$%$%* windy hill!

No!!! Not another #$%$%* windy, snowy, hill!

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. ~Ernest Hemingway

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- S. Clemens


That's my favorite.

A quote of my own:

Wind is like hills, only more convenient.

This must (for now) go unattributed -- a sig. line from a fairly frequent poster on these boards (don't know whether original to that poster or a quotation), usually in the context of some "speed advantage of ti vs. stainless crankbolt" thread or other: "... in the end, we're all just dorks riding around on bikes, right?":D (edit: may not have quoted precisely, but one gets the idea, right?)

An old Aussie cycling term,

Bike riders......Strong in the legs..weak in the head

"You sure do have to move your legs a lot to give your $@# (arse) a ride."

It's a hill. Get over it.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark...when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go for a spin down the road without thought of anything but the ride your are taking.
--Arthur Conan Doyle

Always look on the bike side of life.

Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill. (Attributed to Fausto Coppi)

It's all about legs and lungs.

He neither drank, smoked, nor rode a bicycle. Living frugally, saving his money, he died early, surrounded by greedy relatives. It was a great lesson to me. - John Barrymore

Never race a fat man downhill.

"Climbing fast is easy, just put it in a big gear and spin". Andy Hampsten
Hampsten on the Tour de France; "The best you can hope for is that you're not sick and your tires are full".

"Flip it!"
-- BF Road Forum

I think my signature line is also a pretty good bike quote...

My son when I told him we would ride from his home to the sea shore (3 miles) "From Here?"

No!!! Not another #$%$%* hill!

No!!! Not another #$%$%* windy hill!

No!!! Not another #$%$%* windy, snowy, hill!

Ah, but half of every hill is down.

I stole this from Beverly, who posts on this forum.

"The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community."
- Ann Strong, quoted in the Minneapolis Tribune in 1895

Also good are: (from www.quotegarden.com/bicycling.html)


Why should anyone steal a watch when he could steal a bicycle? ~Flann O'Brien

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle. ~Elizabeth West, Hovel in the Hills

A bicycle does get you there and more.... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun. ~Bill Emerson, "On Bicycling," Saturday Evening Post, 29 July 1967

Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling. ~James E. Starrs

What do you call a cyclist who doesn't wear a helmet? An organ donor. ~David Perry

I remember a quote from Paul Dudley White, personal physician to President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s who said something about wishing he could put everyone on a bicycle (for their heart health). I found something similar attributed to him, but it did not mention bicycles. He was a big advocate of people on bikes. A photo of him riding a bike with some congressmen can be found, but not the quote I thought I remember.

Me - "It is more fun to refuel with food."

I'd rather be sitting on my bike thinking about God than sitting in church thinking about my bike ...

This marks the beginning of my 30th year as an adult cyclist - and I have never even pondered a bike quote. Having read the thread though, I like this one most:

"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark...when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go for a spin down the road without thought of anything but the ride your are taking."

Now if I could just get the ice off the roads and the temperature up about 40 degrees. I could follow that advice. :(

edit: another trainer day today

It never gets easier, you just go faster...- Greg Lemond

What I instinctively reply when asked..."You didn't ride in TODAY, did you?"

"Well I certainly wasn't going to carry it all the way here!"

It never gets easier, you just go faster...- Greg Lemond

Probably a Misquote from Greg

Hills don't get easier- they just take less time.

My favourite applies to a lot of sports- mainly when contemplating whether you should attempt it or not

Just do it.

I'd rather be sitting on my bike thinking about God than sitting in church thinking about my bike ...

Maybe you need to find a different church.

Maybe you need to find a different church.

What better church than the great outdoors?

Maybe you need to find a different church.
Or maybe, some of us find the church God built far more inspiring and spiritual than the tiny little man made ones.

Not a quote, but a simile: As easy as falling off a bike. Or, something like that.

- "Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle repair kit."
Billy Connolly

"Cats don't like riding on a bicycle....no matter how much duct tape you use."
-- Anonymous

"Bicycling is a healthy and manly pursuit with much to recommend it, and,
unlike other foolish crazes, it has not died out."
-- The Daily Telegraph (1877)

"Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort
of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle."
-- Helen Keller

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then
I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and
asked Him to forgive me."
-- Emo Phillips

"The world is my church, the wind in my ears is the choir and my handlebars are the alter I pray at."
-- zcubed

If it isn't fun, it won't be done.

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
H. G. Wells

...I came out for exercise, gentle exercise and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on the accursed machine, than off I go, hammer and tongs....
H. G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance.

What better church than the great outdoors?

Since you asked, the outdoors are great for a natural knowledge of God. You see His power and majesty displayed in creation and conclude God exists. But, you have no idea Who God is from observing nature, nor how He feels about you, nor how you can know Him. If your involvement with God stops with what you can observe in nature, you eventually create a god who is a lot like yourself. He approves what you approve and condemns what you condemn.

A revealed knowledge of God is necessary to know Who God is, how He feels about you, and how you can know Him. Churches are assemblies of people who believe God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, and the Bible reveals Jesus Christ to us for our salvation.

"On the road again, I can't wait to get on the road again!" -Willie (Nelson)

twobikes,

I promise not to discuss my religious leanings if you'll stop tossing yours into the discussion.

twobikes,

I promise not to discuss my religious leanings if you'll stop tossing yours into the discussion.

+1, or +3, or +72, depending on your personal beliefs.

twobikes,

I promise not to discuss my religious leanings if you'll stop tossing yours into the discussion.

I believe it was Willbikeforbeer who first introduced a religiously oriented comment. What he wrote made me very uncomfortable. So, why are you addressing me?

(Someone will have more precision about the date and the event, but I think it was Stephen Roche in the 70s, emerging from behind to the winning post at the top of a mountain in France to win the World Championship, and collapsing)

From behind his oxygen mask ---"Pas de femmes tout de suite.." (" No women just for the moment..") :D

I believe it was Willbikeforbeer who first introduced a religiously oriented comment. What he wrote made me very uncomfortable. So, why are you addressing me?

Two,

I simply provided a cycling quotation (per the OP) that I find spiritually meaningful.

Regardless of your discomfort, there was no intent on my part to proselytize. That would be presumptive, inconsiderate and inappropriate, especially in the context of a cycling forum.

Thanks for your interest though.

I believe it was Willbikeforbeer who first introduced a religiously oriented comment. What he wrote made me very uncomfortable. So, why are you addressing me?

He didn't say anything about his beliefs. He didn't try to tell anyone else what they should believe or where or how they should act on those beliefs.

Believe whatever you want. I will too. But we don't need to discuss that here.

Peace.

It never gets easier, you just go faster...- Greg Lemond

In my case, it never gets easier and I never go faster.:o

"There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin." - Linus van Pelt

Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle, bicycle, bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

by a true bicycling Fred....
Freddie Mercury

In my case, it never gets easier and I never go faster.:o

Amen to that, brother!