Fifty Plus (50+) - My main reason for riding my bike is...

WHY do we really ride our bikes? Not all the reasons, with the flowers and prose. What's the REAL reason you ride? Really.

Me, I think I do it because it simply makes me feel better. Granted, if I ride as long as I like, it makes me feel physically tired and exhausted. But the riding does something inside me - maybe it releases those brain chemicals. Maybe there's something primal inside my cells that needs the stimulation which exercise causes. But whatever is going on in my bio-chemistry, I feel good.

And why my bike? Why not jogging or swimming? I think I've become addicted to the exploration and adventure. I think I've become ADD over the years, and I can't tolerate boredom. In fact, I will load up my bike and drive several miles in search of a trail or road where I haven't been before, then ride half a day! I like the mental stimulation as well as the physical.

It makes me feel better!

A poll question I was saving for the winter is this: do you ride to get TO something or AWAY from something?

There are so many reasons I like to ride.

When I was a kid I had very vivid dreams of flying. No wings or machine. Just me pushing off the floor and making a mental effort to fly. And in my dreams, I did.

Riding my bike is as close as I can come to capturing that dream. I guess this is why I love descending a hill as fast as I can. Carving "S" turns for fun on an empty country road. Feeling the breeze on my face. I turn into a 57 year old kid. Flying.

The omnipresent zen koan, but for those who may have been trapped in some Chilean mine and missed it:

Five students of a Zen master returned from the market on their bicycles. As they dismounted, their master asked : "Why are you riding your bicycles ?"

Each of them came up with different answers to their master's query.

The first student said "It is the bicycle that is carrying the sack of potatoes. I am glad that my back has escaped the pain of bearing the weight"

The master was glad and said : " You are a smart boy. When you become old you will be saved of a hunch back unlike me"

The second student had a different answer. " I love to have my eyes over the trees and the sprawling fields as I go riding"

The teacher commended : "You have your eyes open and you see the world"

The third disciple came up with yet a different answer : " When I ride I am content to chant 'nam myoho renge kyo'"

The master spoke words of appreciation " Your mind will roll with ease like a newly trued wheel"

The fourth disciple said : "Riding my bicycle in live in perfect harmony of things"

The pleased master said " You are actually riding the golden path of non-harming or non violence"

The fifth student said " I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle"

The master walked up to him and sat at his feet and said "I am your disciple!"

> What other reason is there?

L.

It makes me feel better!

I sleep better.

Long story short, pre kids it was motorcycles during kids, bicycles, post kids now both. Why, fun and dangerous.

I ride for several reasons. I love riding through the countryside with rolling hills, farms and forests. I always feel better after a ride. I do 2-3 rides per week with my club. Club members have become very good friends, we're like an extended family. It's all good!

I just like to ride, no reason is needed, or wanted.

Fitness.

I love to just ride. I've really gotten into club riding and randonneuring. I've been surprised to find that I enjoy commuting to work by bike more than any of it, plus that saves me gasoline and wear and tear on my truck.

But the why of it will always be fitness.

. . . . I do it because it simply makes me feel better . . . And why my bike? Why not jogging or swimming? I think I've become addicted to the exploration and adventure . . .

It makes me feel better!

Me too. Your post reads as if you had direct access to my brain.

uh... to paraphrase George L. Mallory "Because it's there"... :)

train safe

Started out as a need for fitness. I promised my wife I would outlive her, (she buried her first husband) and I was in pretty poor shape.

I had both hips replaced in 2008 and couldn't be a runner any more. Biking, specifically MTBing has grown from a need to get in shape necessity to an I love love chugging around these trails escape. I have also met some great people. I have taken a few tumbles on the trails and have learned to ride within my abilities because i want to do this for a long time to come. I do enjoy swimming and will do more of it this winter. Maybe next spring I will try biatalon.

Biking has really broaden all of the rest of my life for me.

I ride because I like to ride.

I ride because I like it.

Fitness plays a part, being "green" plays a part.
Ridding with different groups of people, allows me to interact with many.

But mostly, I enjoy ridding, I love the quite of the sun rising.
The feeling of flying down a road, by myself.

I just like to ride my bike.

Like the OP I ride because the exercise makes me feel better.

I choose cycling over other forms of exercise because I enjoy riding more than walking, running, swimming, etc...

Fun, fitness and arthritic knees.

1. Sanity
2. Fitness
3. Flora
4. Fauna
5. Enjoyment

The main reason is fun.

Everything else (fitness, challenge, identity, community, entertainment, etc.) is a by-product (sub-unit?) of fun.

Rick / OCRR

It makes me feel happy and healthier. Improves my mental outlook
Minimizes the use of our car and the need to buy petro.

what everyone else said but mainly to make my heart work hard for a while and make the blood flow faster....and I like the scenery, fresh air, etc.

When I ride I'm free of pain in my legs letting my spirits soar! Walking for me is tough but put me on a bike and I'm very good!! :thumb::thumb:

What Floyd said ^ plus I think the feel of finely tuned high quality machinery has something to do with it as well.

I'll agree with " because it makes me feel good!" But also....................

When I first got (back) into cycling in 2005, we were doing our normal 20 mile ride after work that we did a couple times per week. This time though was in the late fall and by the time we finished, it was nearly dark. As we were coming back into the main part of the town, we passed under a street light and I saw my shadow!! I was 50 at the time and the last time I saw a shadow of myself on a bike under a streetlight I was maybe 13 or 14 years old! It was a nice feeling but strange too. We stop doing things at different times in our lives and never even think about it. I used to love that streetlight shadow thing. Also, I was usually going FAST because I was suppose to be home before (or when) the streetlights came on.

So, maybe cycling also makes us feel good like we did when we were young.

I don't like walking. And as I drive for a living- I don't like driving either.



As I say- Don't like walking due to knee problems and driving 1200 miles a week I don't even drive my own car unless I have to. And the Cafe with pie is 10 miles away.

Great stress relief, because I just like to ride!!!

I'll go with "makes me feel better" as well. I'm in better health (mentally and physically) plus I always feel better when I get back from a ride than when I left.

To keep what is left of my sanity, and because I love it.

I remember like yesterday as a kid riding my bike with a goofy grin and not a care in the world.

I still experience this every time I ride.


Therapy...

My initial reason is to get in-shape for winter Ski; mostly on the hardtail MTB around the city paths. But few months ago I started getting into the road bike, now I am hooked (ask my wallet). I even got my wife 43"-650c Trek (yep, she is pretty short).

I am also thinking about getting on some organized ride next year; we have so many of them here in Colorado.

It keeps my chains from rusting and freezing up.

Believe it or not, I"m not really sure why I ride. Of course, like the rest of you the root of the answer is that I like to ride, I like how it makes me feel, and I like the improvement to my health. But I could get all of those things with 3-4 20-30 mile rides/week. So the question becomes, why do I ride *as much as I do*? Why do I go on 70 mile rides that obliterate most of a Saturday and then on Sunday turn around and do another 50? I have a demanding job, a family, and an old house to take care of, and riding takes a huge portion of my discretionary time. why do I let it when much less riding would give me 90% of what I need? Or would it?

Some nights, as I'm going to sleep, I have this incredible feeling about the ride that I did that day - powering up a hill that used to waste me, the section where I did a hard bridge, or the feeling of accelerating through some curves - and it gives me a great swell of accomplishment. I'm a thinker - a researcher and a college professor. Virtually all of my identity and ego have been, up until now, entwined with my intellectual pursuits. After decades of pouring my heart into that, I needed something else, and the else that I found was cycling. I dunno why, really, but as they say, it works for me.

Riding is my fountain of youth. Where else can a 75 year old not be invisible than on a bike?

Well, I guess on a mountain, too, maybe. Here's one I climbed last month:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4B7zBpSZ7o&feature=related

Avid cycling has had such a profoundly positive affect on my life, it's hard to keep it simple. But in trying to do so, I'll say that it makes me really happy - I'm more fit, physically and mentally, than any prior time in my life, and that just makes everything in life both easier and better.

A poll question I was saving for the winter is this: do you ride to get TO something or AWAY from something?

Answer to this and the OP's question is simple: I ride both To and For Fun and Fitness. Part of the Fun is meeting and socializing with others along the way. I ride To and For Leadership 101: Take care of yourself first or you can't take care of anyone else. Or, as the airlines say it: Put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others...unsaid but strongly implied...or you won't be able to help either of you.

Riding my bicycle gives me wings!

Yeah, I'll agree with the previous 35 posts.

Point A ... :giver: ... Point B

You guys and gals inspire me. I think we love riding for how it makes us feel. We love the freedom of flying down the roads and paths, taking in the sights. And several of us ride also because it makes our minds and bodies feel better.

I think my bike is saving my life. And I love her for it!

MinnMan,
I dentified so much with your explanation. I have spent my entire life focused on thinking, books and computers (and most of my adult life in higher ed). I'm not sure I even knew I had a body other than as a container for cognition. My life of the mind was compelling and satisfying. But one day I realized that I should move around a bit if I wanted to prolong that life for additional decades. Running seemed like an option until my knee said no more. So I decided to try the bike - and I fell in love. I fell hard and fast, like a teenager experiencing that quick intake of breath and a yearning so strong that it hurts.

I embrace the exhilarating combination of freedom and control, the opportunity for solitude and serendipitous company, the discovery of new sights amid well-known places, as well as new landscapes and vistas. But as good as all of that is, it doesn't hold a candle to what you describe - that feeling of physical and psychological accomplishment that remains so new and powerful as my body and my mind recall what I did that day on my bike, outside, moving through space and time. My only regret is that I didn't discover this many years ago.
~pam

Believe it or not, I"m not really sure why I ride. Of course, like the rest of you the root of the answer is that I like to ride, I like how it makes me feel, and I like the improvement to my health. But I could get all of those things with 3-4 20-30 mile rides/week. So the question becomes, why do I ride *as much as I do*? Why do I go on 70 mile rides that obliterate most of a Saturday and then on Sunday turn around and do another 50? I have a demanding job, a family, and an old house to take care of, and riding takes a huge portion of my discretionary time. why do I let it when much less riding would give me 90% of what I need? Or would it?

Some nights, as I'm going to sleep, I have this incredible feeling about the ride that I did that day - powering up a hill that used to waste me, the section where I did a hard bridge, or the feeling of accelerating through some curves - and it gives me a great swell of accomplishment. I'm a thinker - a researcher and a college professor. Virtually all of my identity and ego have been, up until now, entwined with my intellectual pursuits. After decades of pouring my heart into that, I needed something else, and the else that I found was cycling. I dunno why, really, but as they say, it works for me.

after my heart attack, i started riding again to live longer.
now i want to live longer so that i can keep riding.

To get to the other side. :p

My wife's ingenuis plan to keep me from doing this...:(

http://www.cehoward.net/kit_1248.jpg

I ride because that's how I roll.

I ride because I like to.

I really don't care about the health aspects all that much. Even if it made me fatter I'd still ride incessantly!!

Makes me feel like I'm in my 20's again!

It's the one thing I do that's purely selfish. I feel so special on my bike. I'm not stuck in a car "doing" or "going"; I'm riding, and each ride is like an adventure!


My daughter's friend's Mom was the passenger in a car that passed me riding, and she just about climbed out the window to yell my name and " You look awesome baby!" I grnned from ear to ear :D Now, she wouldn't have done that if I had been simply walking the dog.

Fun

My only regret is that I didn't discover this many years ago.


So true.

Addictive like crack but not harmful like crack.

The most fun you can have without worrying about STD's. (Can't remember where I read that.)

I ride for so many of the things said in this thread. For me, the #1 reason is that riding allows me to forget the time continuum and be in the moment.

MinnMan,
I dentified so much with your explanation. I have spent my entire life focused on thinking, books and computers (and most of my adult life in higher ed). I'm not sure I even knew I had a body other than as a container for cognition. My life of the mind was compelling and satisfying. But one day I realized that I should move around a bit if I wanted to prolong that life for additional decades. Running seemed like an option until my knee said no more. So I decided to try the bike - and I fell in love. I fell hard and fast, like a teenager experiencing that quick intake of breath and a yearning so strong that it hurts.

I embrace the exhilarating combination of freedom and control, the opportunity for solitude and serendipitous company, the discovery of new sights amid well-known places, as well as new landscapes and vistas. But as good as all of that is, it doesn't hold a candle to what you describe - that feeling of physical and psychological accomplishment that remains so new and powerful as my body and my mind recall what I did that day on my bike, outside, moving through space and time. My only regret is that I didn't discover this many years ago.
~pam

From another professional academic I also identify with and commend MinnMan's thoughtful response. Well-done MM! It also seems clear to me that, aside from just the compelling experience of riding, a good many of us also enjoy the mechanical aspects of cycling, i.e. assembling and maintaining bicycles.