Fifty Plus (50+) - Do you ride for the same reason?

...as when you started out?

In other words, did you start for health, or gas prices, or the environment, and is that the reason you continue to ride?

I started out because of the scarcity of parking spots. Today, I'm looking out at the huge parking lot just steps from my office. It's now mostly a fun and exercise thing, today.

Paul

Guess you could say I started riding as a kid...just cause it was fun, an I liked playing with the mechanics of the machine. I still am making my own bikes, not that many mind you, and fixing stuff on bikes. And the reason I ride now is exercize. I do some longer rides once ina while but mostly it is ten or so miles to get the heart moving so the blood can keep the arteries clean. That said I could ride more or should ride more but work sometimes puts a damper on that.
peace

It depends. When I first started riding a bike in about 3rd grade it was just a utility thing - a way to get around. Then it morphed into much longer trips less frequently and touring in the summer. By college I was riding for fun and exercise, but not that much. In the past 2 years (since I bought a pretty decent bike, finally) riding for me has been for fun and exercise, in equal parts. I like being outside.

When I was in college and first started riding a lot, I rode because that was my transportation. After college, I rode for fun and fitnesss. Quit riding a while and started back in my mid-40s, mainly for fitness. Now I am back where I started -- riding for transportation since I started bike commuting a year ago. I still ride for fitness and recreation, but I get most of my rides and about half of my mileage from commuting to work.

I admire you folks who ride for all the "good" reasons - environment, health, etc. I ride for the same reason that I have ever since I was a kid. It's fun. 'course now I'm more aware of the good side effects, but if I didn't enjoy it I probably wouldn't do it.

SP

I ask because I started doing it again a couple of years ago for fitness, then got more serious about it a few months ago as a way to do something good for the environment. But now I find that I am having so much fun, I invent reasons to ride.:)

I still ride for fun and exercise. Occasionally commute (like today and tomorrow) but that is more for fun and exercise too than to save gas.

I started cycling as a kid for fun and as a way to get around. In my mid twenties I re-started cycling for the exercise and social aspects. Now I do it for touring holidays plus the exercise. Although I find when I don't have a tour planned the amount I use the bike descreases quite a bit.

...as when you started out?
NO.

Returned to riding last spring, wife said we needed a new interest. Actually we returned to a earlier shared interest, that we passed to the kids when younger, and slid away from as we got busier with the needs of life and involvement with grandkids.

This was to be an alternative to walks through the neighborhood, instead, we ride miles each evening, (great stress reliever/outlet), plan trips to other communities to check out paths and routes.

NO, the reason was just something to do, now it is an addiction. Fun and satisfying.:thumb:

Always been for the enjoyment. As a child, a teenager and an adult. Even commutin to college was enjoyable. Now I ride with my wife, our daughter and her boyfriend, strictly for the enjoyment of getting out together.

Bill

I ride for fun and exercise. I sometimes ride for the competition but that is not a big thing. I also ride to admire scenery. It is probably exercise, fun, scenery, competition in that order.

Bicycles have been a part of my life since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, both for utility and fun. When I was a kid in the '50s, my friends and I rode our bikes to school and explored the neighbourhood. As a teenager in the '60s I still rode to school and my cousins and I would take off into the countryside and the dirt roads with our 3-speed (Sturmey-Archer) bikes. It was also basic transportation to and from the golf course where I spent most of summers.
Late teens and early twenties I had my little Honda 50 (You meet the nicest people...) and when that was stolen I went back to bicycles for fun and transportation.

For a while I worked as a reporter and photographer for a community newspaper and my bicycle was my main form of transportation in the non-winter months. During this time I also started bicycle touring and camping. For my vacation I would throw my bike on a train and head down to the Maritimes to cycle around Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia, usually solo. I look back in wonder now at my tolerance for discomfort and the fact that I did all this with the most primitive equipment that I wouldn't dream of using today.

I met the woman who was to become my wife in a cycling/outdoor club and we did a Vancouver to Montreal cycle camping trip. After we were married we did lots of cycle tours and just plain fun cycling. She no longer cycles because of MS but I have continued to ride both for fun and transportation. I miss not having my wife to ride with anymore. On the upside, when I came home from my ride yesterday, there was a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Through my entire working life, it has never occurred to me to drive a car to work. I either bike or use public transportation. My attitude has always been that there is no way that I will use an expensive car to get to work unless the employer is going to compensate me for gas and depreciation.

In the past two years I've acquired a new mountain bike and a new road bike and the fun is starting all over again.

As a kid I used the bike for transportation around town and to friends in neighboring communities.

As an adult it's always been for recreation and the health benefits. In the beginning it was on the local trails, then took to the roads and a few of the week-long supported tours.

I came back to riding after joining a gym last August and spending time on the stationaries reminded me of how much fun cycling is. So I bought a bike. I ride for fun, and it happens to help with fitness. I ride for fitness and it happens to be fun.

No. When I started riding, a little over two years ago, it was for something to do. I had made a career change and suddenly had lots (relatively speaking) of time on my hands. So I was looking for something to do besides golf.
Then I got involved with the Jimmy Fund/Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the rest is history. Now, the PMC has become the major focal point in my riding, as well as my life.

Here's one reason. I can be seen, very very briefly, in the clip...wearing a tan jacket and bright yellow baseball cap....in the part where they are talking about Coleman, the pedal partner for Team Perini.

I also have an individual pedal partner, Brett Hobson, age two.

http://www.necn.com/Boston/New-England/PMC-cyclists-meet-their-inspiration-/1210456549.html (http://www.necn.com/Boston/New-England/PMC-cyclists-meet-their-inspiration-/1210456549.html)

I think fun would be the main reason I began riding as an adult.

I started riding regularly in about 1980. I wanted to get back into shape, and did not really enjoy running. That has not changed today (although I do run during the week now). I just added more reasons (or benefits) of cyling. One is riding weekly wiht my club. The fellowship makes for a great experience.

I started riding again because Malkin (wife/stoker) suggested that we participate in a charity ride on the gathering-dust-in-the-garage-tandem. It was a casual "OK" that has turned into a lifestyle. I ride now becasue she continues to suggest fabulous rides (and because it gives me an excuse to wax my legs, but that's another thread...).

Cheers!

Like lmost everyone else I used my bike as transportation, as a kid, because our mom's did not have a second car like everybodys' does today. I started to ride a road bike in college when a broken ankle forced me to continue training for Track and Field by riding. When the same ankle turned against me, due to arthritis, in my mid 40's, I had to give up basketball, running and softball and took up riding. Riding has been my excersize for the past 12 years and has been my pathway to fitness. It gives me the freedom of movement that I don't have with my feet. Due my bad ankle I can't even walk more than a mile at a time but can ride for 100+ miles with no issues. I rode for years, mostly by myself, until my two son's graduated from college and began riding. We would ride together and I was holding them back from their sport. So, I got my new mojo last May, lost 40 lbs, started to ride on fast group rides, went to cycling fitness classes over the winter, and don't hold back my son's when we ride together. This year I began racing so I even get to be competitive again.

1959 - 'Cause all the other raggazi were learning to ride,
1963 - To get around the town, school, church, and farms,
1965 - To get to small town work gigs,
(1968 to 1977 - Black Hole of Cycling wherein I was tied down by the small arms fire of this-and-that: jungle interlude, early career, and a new marriage)
1978 - A decade and a half of commuting.

1959 to 2008: Fun, exercise, mental therapy, exploration, and solitude.

As a young lad, it was my only viable mode of transport.
I suppose, even though I wasn't overtly aware of it at the time, I did it because it was fun, too.

In my 20's-30's it was strictly for fun.

In my 50's it was for health and fitness but I chose cycling as my method because it was the only thing I knew would be enjoyable enough to sustain. I was right and still do it for those reasons

Like most, I started riding as a kid for fun and never stopped. The health and fitness factors came into play only during the later years of my life.

No. It wouldn't go over too well with my wife if I still rode as a way to meet women. :trainwreck:

In an effort to protect his five kids from danger, my father took our bikes away when I was 11. It was devastating.

I bought a bike as soon as I moved out of the house and earned my own money and I've been making up for lost time ever since.

did you start for health, or gas prices, or the environment, and is that the reason you continue to ride?

All of the above, and yes.
:)

I started riding in the 70's because I wanted to wear short shorts and tube socks.

Yes

Started for exercise and stiil ride for exercise. It's the only exercise I enjoy. If I didn't, I'd be much fatter.

...as when you started out?

In other words, did you start for health, or gas prices, or the environment, and is that the reason you continue to ride?

health, fitness and pure enjoyment, and I continue for the same reasons, in no particular order.

When I was a kid I biked because I lived in a small town and I could get anywhere on it.

When I was just out of college I biked because it kept me from buying another motorcycle to replace the one I'd wrecked....and because I had a lot of time on my hands (this is pre-kids, of course).

Now I bike for fun and fitness. Commuting to work during the week is the best way to get in daily exercise; biking on the weekend is a great way to travel through the region I live in, stay fit, and reduce stress.

I started for the exercise but today I ride for fun.

I started riding at age 45 because I had sold my horse but still wanted to be able to get around and see things and enjoy myself. My husband had just got into cycling too, so there was another reason. The exercise played into it, but it was mainly for fun. When I have some place to go, like the bank down the street (about a mile away), then I will just jump on my bike or walk the dogs down there rather then get the car. For me it's the enjoyment I get out of it, no matter where I cycle. I think I would be happy (for a while anyway) just riding around in a parking lot, as long as I get to ride my bike.

I've always had a bike around since I was a little kid. Until I was old enough to drive I rode a lot for transportation, after that is was just an off and on thing for fun. About the time I got out of high school I got a Schwinn LeTour that lived in various garages for a good 20 years. Shortly after I got married we got my wife a bike and we rode off and on but never seriously. Then in the mid '90s we traded those bikes in on a pair of Trek Navigators. We still didn't really ride a lot but the Navigators made the occasional rides more comfortable, so it was a good plan.

Then a couple of years ago I decided half a century was long enough to ignore and/or abuse my body and that I better start getting into a bit better shape and the bike was my weapon of choice. It wasn't pretty; I started out doing laps on the Navigator 400 peddling my 240 pound carcass around the neighborhood. Well, it wasn't laps when I started since one lap (roughly 4.5 miles) would leave me gasping for breath and my butt screaming for sofa.

Going on two years later and down between 185 and 190 I feel better, look better and I'm not sure how many laps I could do on the ol' Navigator if I would dedicate the time to the test. I've also found that I really enjoy my time on the bike and the Navigator is great for exercising, but there was a problem. There are several other people that ride the same neighborhood and it started bugging me that I couldn't keep up to them even though I seemed to be trying harder than they were. I was also starting to think about taking longer road trips that the Navigator wouldn't be much fun with so I began shopping for a road bike.

Now I’m the proud owner of a Trek Pilot 5.0 ('07 model year end clearance!) and working hard on technique but loving it. One guy still passes me, but he’s a strong rider that trains for mountain biking on his roadie, but he doesn’t whizz by and I intend to put a stop to being caught up as technique/strength continues to increase.

So I went to riding for fun as a little kid, to riding for transport as a teen, to riding for fun as an adult, to riding for fitness as a seasoned citizen and I seem to be swinging back toward fun again, though fitness will continue to be an underpinning going forward.

http://www.pointhappy.com/gcf/Gordons1stBikeSm.jpg
http://www.pointhappy.com/gcf/GordonOnStiletto.jpg

Actually no.

1990 and I took up biking because I realised how unfit I am. 18 years later and I still realise how unfit I am but I have turned into a masochist.

I started for the exercise but today I ride for fun.

Yep - that's my story, too.

Even worse, I started out on an almost level rail/trail once or twice a month. Now I ride the rail/trail with my girlfriend on the weekends, but on the road during the week. I'm at the point where I actually enjoy climbing! Am I crazy for thinking that hills are fun?

Am I crazy for thinking that hills are fun?

Absolutely:)

Artkansas, there's no way your feet could touch the pedals of that first bike!

Artkansas, there's no way your feet could touch the pedals of that first bike!
I'm going to hazard a guess that's what those blocks on the pedals are about.:)

Artkansas, there's no way your feet could touch the pedals of that first bike!

It was a real stretch. I had already taught myself to ride a bike ( a schwinn pixie), but that thing was so huge I had to learn all over again. Fortunately there were few curbs in that neighborhood, so you could ride off onto the grass and crash. :rolleyes:

http://www.pointhappy.com/gcf/Gordons1stBikeSm.jpg
http://www.pointhappy.com/gcf/GordonOnStiletto.jpg

Actually no.

You and your standover height are going in opposite directions.

I used to ride for fun. Now I ride for blood.

I started my adult riding because running had ruined my knees. I continue to ride because it's just so durn much fun!

Started for fun, turned into something we enjoy doing together, and then noticed we were both losing weight and getting fit. So it's still fun, but has added perks. :ride::ride:

I started riding as a kid for fun, for mobility, and for family togetherness. Sunday was "Family Day" and in the summer that meant going to Green Lake (in Seattle) and riding around. In college I rode back and forth to school as a way to save money and be eco-friendly. I also rode for fun and fitness. Today I ride for fun, to be eco-friendly, and as a way to maintain good health as I age. And did I mention, it's fun?

You and your standover height are going in opposite directions.

Apparently. Neither bike really fits. :p


But now I am old enough that I am shrinking back down to the chopper's size, as I grew into the Fleetwing. ;)

I started out because it was fun and I got away for a while. Now I do it because it is fun and I get away for a while. Some things never change.

As a kid, I started riding for the freedom.

Now, it's the ability to glide effortlessly through the countryside on a beautiful, soft spring evening like tonight.

I started riding as an adult to get in better shape for dirt bikes in the desert. I soon realized there were a lot more women on bicycles than on motorcycles. I also realized how much cheaper bicycling is, and sold my last dirt bike in 1991, or so. Once in a while, I think about getting a dirt bike for cross training, then I just go ride the mtb until the urge passes.