Etherwing

I can still recall when I first managed to ride without training wheels when I was 5 years old. It was exhilarating. When I was a kid, I used to cycle around the neighborhood and visit friends and such, but I never actually used the bike as anything practical. I only thought of it as a big toy. Completely forgot about cycling during my late teens and early 20's. As a rather lazy and inactive person, I also thought of the bicycle as too much effort to ride with any regularity.

It wasn't until last year when I managed to inherit a very beat up mtn bike from my roommate that I decided to cycle again for fun. I had another friend who just started commuting with a new bike the year before, and we both decided to take on the trails around town. Did my first 20km+ run, and realized that I could go anywhere I wanted on a bike, instead of having to rely on transit. Now I'm into my second year of commuting by bike, bought a brand new hybrid commuter and I love it. I'm getting a bunch of my other friends involved in switching over too, it's great.

Just_Ryan

I grew up at the bottom of a hill on a long dead end street. Long before I could pedal the bike up the hill, I would push it to the top, and ride down as fast as gravity would allow. Then of course a huge coaster brake skid at the bottom and a huge grin. 25 years later, not much has changed, except I can ride up the hill now instead of pushing.

Artkansas 

At age 3 I watched my older brother ride his bike around the corner at the end of the street and disappear from sight, and I realized that a bike meant freedom.

ummbnb

I have very distinct memories of learning to ride my bike. I don't recall ever riding with training wheels but I'm sure I did. I rode *everywhere* until I turned 14 and could get my moped permit (which was the hot thing to do in my day in tinytown Iowa.) Then at 16, of course, I got my license and my bike sat gathering dust for two years until I was first able to experience a RAGBRAI overnight. I almost immediately started biking again, started doing the ride each year and kept going. When I had my first child in my mid-30's I hung up the bike again, but started biking again two years ago, completing my first RAGBRI in thirteen years for my 39th birthday. I serve on the board for a non-profit bike shop and advocacy organization.

My whole family uses our bikes as our main fair-weather mode of transportation....and I ride in not so fair weather. We are fortunate to have work, school and other things within a reasonable distance for my kids. We are definitely a bike family.

AdamDZ

Hm. I don't even remember when I learned. I must have been a very little kid. I remember learning to swim, but not riding a bike.

Adam

bemoore

Blame (give credit to) my sister, who is 9 yrs older than me. When I was about 10, she invited me to ride with her to visit some friends who lived about 5 miles away. I said "You mean, ride there? On our bikes?" I was hesitant, but agreed to do the ride. That was it. I realized then that a bike was more than a toy that could only be ridden through your neighborhood.

Midol_Mohawk

I remember being a little one (around 6 or 7 maybe?) and my grandfather teaching me to ride my bike. We went down to the high school parking lot and I rode alright...into the side of his dodge ram pickup...d'oh. I rode a bike on and off until seventh or eighth grade and became pretty hardcore about skateboarding. Instead of a bike, I rode my board everywhere. Then I got my license and drove everywhere.

Then the summer after I graduated college, a friend of mine had finished a ride called the cross state trek and tried to get me to do the Autumn Escape Bike Trek. I told him I hadn't ridden a bike for more than 10 feet in a few years but he told me to get one. So I did. I couldn't do the Trek that year since I couldn't get the time off work, but rode when I could (which unfortunately wasn't much). When I left that job this past May, I rode a lot to clear my head. I never stopped riding. Since then, I bought another bike and did the 2009 Trek. I've already registered for this year's, and plan to do the 5 Boro Bike Tour too!

surfrider

Been on a bicycle for as long as I remember. Starting in high school I found out bicycling's a cheaper infatuation than women.

(Oops, I used "fat" and "women" in the same sentence . . . I'm doomed!)

devianb

I have always liked anything mechanical that moves so really ever since I got my first tricycle.

kokorozashi

Hey! You must've grown up down the street from me! How come we never met?

In all seriousness, though, that's pretty much what I was going to say. I used to love pedaling downhill until there was no resistance left in the pedals. Thank God my parents weren't paying attention

hshearer

Surgery. From about age 18 onwards, pain had always kept me from being very active, and that lead to weight gain, depression, and more pain. After my surgery, the pain I'd endured for over 15 years was gone, and I was able to go from bike commuting short distances, which I'd always enjoyed for the speed and fresh air, to full-out bike love.

I discovered that there's so much more to cycling than just getting to work and back. Now I'm car-free, and I ride almost every day of the week with 3 different clubs (road racing, long-distance, and mountain). I've experienced the thrill of competition, and have pushed myself harder than I would have thought possible. I have seen the beauty of nature in a way many people never will, by riding though a frost-covered silent forest, or with horses pacing me along the road as far as their enclosure lets them run, and once even with a bald eagle gliding right over my head then slipping down beside me to land in the river I was riding along. I've seen some beautiful sunrises, and survived some terrible weather. I know that my legs can take me almost anywhere, on a perfect machine that's so simple I can fix almost any part of it myself. I feel like a normal person again. For the first time in my life, I'd even call myself althletic, which is something I'd never expected of myself. It wouldn't have been possible without the surgery.

Paul Y.

The thrill of riding since 6 years old. It's the same now but now it's just a very expensive obsession. Still great.