uncle uncle

I thought it might be interesting to read the age of C&V'ers in comparison to the age that they learned to bicycle.

I am 53, and I learned to bicycle at age 5 or 6.

vonfilm 

I am 59 now and did not cycle until I was 7. It was a red Western Flyer.

Velocivixen

I am 32 with 21 year's experience . I learned on my neighbor friend's bike without training wheels. He was kind enough to share with me. I was 6 years old. After I rode down the whole block worth of sidewalk, I layed down his bike and ran home, came in the door and shouted, enthusiastically, " I can ride a bike!"

I didn't get my own bike until I was in the 5th grade.

Kilroy1988 

I'm 28 and learned to ride when I was four or five. I remember having a bike with training wheels for a while, then one day my dad took me out into the street in front of the house and took them off. I was scared to ride without them so he held onto me, and we went a few yards then stopped. I can't recall if this happened more than once. Anyway, at some point I was moving along and he let go, unbeknownst to me. I turned around and realized that I was doing it by myself, and never looked back.

I rode infrequently as a kid because I lived way out in the country and couldn't get into town on my own. I really got into bicycles after I moved home from a private university to go to community college in 2008, starting out with big lowrider bicycles! My uncle has been a cyclist since before I was born and he convinced me to get a road bike, which I did, and again... Never looked back.

-Gregory

Reynolds 

I'm 66, learned to ride later than my friends, about 10 or 11. But since then I've probably ridden more kms than all of them together...

Renngrrl

54, I learned around 5 and thus began my ritual groundings until about age 8. I would just ride for miles until I was lost sending my parents into apoplectic shock.

sunvalleylaw

54. Trike, then a large wheeled chain driven trike, until receiving my Schwinn Stingray in October, 1969, when I turned 7. Grandpa ran behind me hanging on to the sissy bar, then let me loose. And I was off! No training wheels ever.

One of the happiest memories of my life!

Kactus

I'm 61 and got my first bike for my 10th birthday (Schwinn Typhoon). I probably learned to ride about a year or two before that.

ddeand 

Age 69. Started at age 5.

2cam16

53. Started when I was a toddler, no idea what age. I just saw pictures. lol

Lascauxcaveman 

I have been riding for exactly 50 years, possibly to the day, as it was about sometime in the the late spring that my dad took the training wheels off my Schwinn Bantam. I was 6 1/2 years old, in 1st grade, in 1967. I remember it pretty well, as I made a point of riding my bike to school every day after that. Exactly one block.

Hardrock23

That's basically me ^ kind of anyway lol...

I am 28 also. I started on a tricycle as a toddler though and moved onto a bike with training wheels. I'm thinking around age 3. By age 4 or so, my dad took my training wheels off and held onto the back/saddle area of the bike while running down the court behind me until he felt I had my balance and let go (without telling me). I think that's the only way for some kids to learn though, when they have that fear. Had he said "I'm letting go now", I surely would have fallen right over! lol

I stopped riding around the time I got my license, of course. I started riding again in early 2015.

randyjawa 

Closer to 70 than 69 and I started riding when I was four. That first bike was a fixie with solid rubber 12" tires. It amazes me that I actually enjoyed that bike enough to keep riding.

bwilli88 

61 next month, started on an old balloon tire step thru blue bike with the neatest white pinstriping. real actively when my brother got a paper route and I was helping him, got a new 27 inch Sears bike with baskets

Lazyass

49 and no memory of not knowing how to ride a bike.

gearbasher

I'm 56 and taught myself to ride at 13 (on a big old store delivery bike). By 16 you couldn't get my off a bike. I missed 3 years of riding in the early '90s when I bought my house. I started keeping accurate logs at 20 and I should turn my 300,000th mile some time next season.

52telecaster

I am 60 and started riding at 4 or 5. My dad had 3-4 bikes for the 6 children. You picked out the one that fit you best. My favorite ride was an english 3 speed that had 24" wheels. I guess I was destined to read the C and V forum.

mwalsh5757

In my 57th year. Don't know which of these will count as learning to ride a bike, but I'm assuming the second picture. Don't remember when the training wheels came off.

qcpmsame 

60 y.o. now, learned to ride when I was 5, first bike was a red Sears Roebuck 24" wheel beauty, in 1963 Was 6-1/2 at that time.

Bill

rustystrings61 

I'm 55 and I learned to ride when I was eight. My first bike was a secondhand fully-chromed Sears Spyder with a fat slick rear tire, banana seat, top tube mounted 3-speed stick shift, and non-functioning rear brake and Shimano gearhub. I was late to the party - all of my friends were riding when I was six.

John E

I have never been a natural athlete, and, as a child, I had significant physical coordination challenges. I was finally up the task of learning how to balance a bicycle the summer I turned 12, and my first ride was a 45lb. Schwinn "middleweight"with 26x1.75" tires, a "cantilever" frame, "paperboy" handlebars, and a 2-speed Bendix coaster hub shifted by a handbrake-style lever. I bought it for $15 from a middle school friend who later became a bicycling companion.

I asked for a road bike that Christmas and got a $55 bottom-of-the-line Bianchi Corsa with Huret gears, wingnuts, a tensioned leather saddle, steel rims, and steel Universal sidepull brakes. I put a lot of miles on it and during my college years gave it to my girlfriend (now wife of almost 44 years), when I bought a $150 1971 Nishiki Competition. For what it's worth, those were the only new bicycles I have ever owned -- everything since has been purchased used.

top506

58, the training wheels came off at age 5 3/4.

Top

oddjob2

My family moved from Queens, NY to NNJ in 1962, when I was 6. A year or so later, family friends gave me their son's Stelber, a tank cruiser. We put training wheels on it and I soon learned the joys of two wheels. My first new bike must have been when I was 8, and it was a muscle bike from EJ Korvette. I rode that bike all over the neighborhood and eventually wore out the single speed hub brake from doing skid stops.

Born in 1956.

easyupbug 

Mom won a bike much to big for me at 5 and I crashed into the mailbox at the end of the driveway, trying to stay vertical for the next 62 years.

Wildwood 

65. I was about 10 before tall enough to fit on the family's balloon tired bike. And the only person in the family to ride it after that day.