What is the main reason you ride bicycle?
 

Would like to see the poll results. Notice it's about the *main* reason, since there can be many reasons. If you answered "Other", please explain. Thanks :)

For me, more specifically, it is exercise that is also fun, unlike jogging or doing stuff in a gym, etc.

Mainly for excercise. Its fun and its amazing how much more you see when riding vs. in a car.

Exercise here too, but I'm using it more and more to get around as primary transportation too. Saves on gas, parking is easier, and the local police aren't handing out tickets or citations, whether it's a speed trap or a traffic cam rolling right on a red light. When the economy is tighter, funny the police use "driving safety" as a tool to be out in full force ?

I ride because it's fun. Everything else is secondary.

How about ... all of the above?

My main style of cycling is long distance cycling. In order to do long distance cycling, I need to ride a lot and be fit. So much of my riding involves getting fit in order to be able to ride long distances. The types of long distance cycling I enjoy are randonneuring and 24-hour races ... endurance sports. So all that riding I do to get into shape results in riding events, or as a sport. I couldn't do long distance cycling if I didn't enjoy it and find it fun.

I also enjoy touring. In order to be able to tour for a month or more, I have to ride regularly to be fit before the tour ... so back to the exercise/fitness option. But touring, and all the prep work is fun ... so I ride for fun.

I also enjoy riding to explore my area ... I use many of these rides to get in shape for long distance cycling and touring, but I wouldn't do these rides if they weren't fun.

These days I usually walk to commute and run errands etc. The shopping district is about 500 metres away, and my place of employment is 800 metres away ... no point getting the bicycle out for that. But I spent 6 years being car-ownership-free and I cycled to and from work year round, as well as doing some of my errands by bicycle too. I enjoyed that, because those rides (especially the commutes) were great training rides for the long distance events, which brings me back to the exercise, fitness, and fun choices.

And then there's the whole challenge and adventure thing!! Challenge and adventure gets me through some of the long rides I do when the fun aspect diminishes. Long distance riding is a challenging adventure ... it pushes me to my limits, and has also opened up the possibilities of places to go and new things to see. Because of long distance cycling, I've cycled extensively in my local areas ... seeing things which many people don't see (many people don't explore the area where they live) ... and I've travelled to various parts of the world. Touring has also allowed me to go places and see things I may not have if I weren't a cyclist.

And let's not forget about relationships. I (a Canadian) met my Australian husband, Rowan, on a long distance ride in France. We got to know each other on subsequent rides (long distance events and tours) in various parts of the world, then were married after a century ride (100 miles) precisely 2 years ago. Today is our anniversary, and cycling is still an important part of our lives. Despite the winter weather today, we got out for a short ride on a borrowed tandem. :)

My health, then all of the above.

Whether it is exercise, commuting, training, chores, etc it all boils down to fun.

That, and I ride because it makes my Diabetes easier to manage.

This!
Trying to control my diabetes without meds. And of course my family. I'd kinda like to stick around for a while :)

You forgot an option: to maintain sanity.

Happy Anniversary! :D

+1

But mostly because it's fun.

all of the above.

I ride my bike to get to wherever it is I want to be.... and where I want to be could be defined geographically, emotionally, intellectually, physically, or spiritually...

I dont do much shopping so I quess I could mark out that one.

I should also add the option "Adventure", since it's is so dangerous to ride on the streets these days :twitchy:

Because my government spent all the money on War and Nuclear weapons stockpiling , instead of Public transportation

and I refuse to spend what little I have left on running a Car, just to go down to the Tavern , 1.5Miles away,
have a pint and a few laughs with friends , then get arrested on the way home.


and when I do visit countrys with passenger trains I get to see the places between stations at 7 MPH.

I bike just to bike. Exercise and saving gas is a positive externality.

Because it's fun! Some of it is more fun than other parts. Down wind is always more fun than into the wind.

Exercise, saving gas, green lifestyle, all come in second.

I really hope every one rides because it's fun!

The judge took away my license again.

And for exercise, gotta get that excercise.

As a cover story for my bulimia and lycra fetish.

Because I look so hot in lycra.

I'm a little surprised there are not so many voting for 'commuting'. Guess it will be different if I post this on the Commuting forum. ;)

I bicycle mainly for my health by commuting which is enjoyable (most of the time) and better for the environment.

Happy Anniversary Machka.

"Just for fun" is probably closest, but that's somehow not emphatic enough.
I ride because it gives me a happgasm. I coined that word about a decade ago when I was dating my ex-wife. There's nothing sexual about it, it's just the itchy, giggly sensation you get in your chest when you are in a state of extreme happiness.
The only time riding doesn't give me colossal pleasure is when I'm utterly exhausted, or my butt's too sore from sitting on the seat for too many hours. Because those are frustrating reminders that my spirit is willing, but my $#*t is weak.
I'm at my happiest at 170+bpm with my pulse thundering in my temples and the wind shrieking in my ears. I don't care for racing, and sometimes I don't even care about the scenery--those things just distract me from the sensations and results of my effort. And my effort is probably the only thing that is truly mine. My possessions will eventually break or be sold after my funeral, and my body won't last forever, but my effort will always be mine.
I own & watch all the Tour (every year since '86), Giro & Classics dvds, but I don't give a rat's tail who wins, who's doping, or who's riding for which team; I watch the DVDs over & over again for the same reason a pilot can never look away from an aircraft in the act of landing.

I recently learned that I did so many things more for the sake of how they sounded in cocktail party conversation than for how much pleasure I actually got out of them: paddling my kayak to Catalina Island, riding centuries, motorcycling across the country & back, running marathons. I stopped doing those things as soon as I realized this, but I eventually gravitated back to riding long & hard. And since we are creatures who cannot resist quantifying, measuring & comparing everything (even our own efforts), I now concentrate on sub-five-hour centuries. I learn a little something new every century, and I have a mini-breakthrough at almost every ride.
It's been years since I've crashed badly enough to lose any skin, but I still have nightmares about sliding on my bare hip sometimes when I fall asleep on my side. It's been years since I've had a girlfriend, and I wouldn't mind having one again, but only if she felt the same way about riding. Abnormal perhaps, but normal is for the happygasm-impaired, IMO.

http://www.calamarichris.com/images/...-pmar-chr2.jpg

If I don't get in at least 100 miles per week, I feel like a slug. And hey, today is only Tuesday and I've already met that goal. Maybe I'll hit 200. :)

I love riding my bike. Nothing else matters during that few hours I'm out there on the road. I can coast along and enjoy the scenery or I can ride hard and focus on my cadence. Either way, it's a joy.

I enjoy it. If it isn't fun, I don't do it. Which brings me to why I STARTED cycling. Running wasn't fun anymore and I wasn't content not being active. I felt sluggish and lazy and my doctor scolded me for being in poor health at a young age. So I voted fun. In reality, its probably tied for fun & fitness.

That's what she said.