Several bikes from Sears starting with a trike and ending with a 10-speed Free Spirit. Dropped out of cycling in high school and through most of college. I worked as a store room clerk in my college caffeteria. That required me to, among other things, walk up and down stairs carrying heavy loads. My feet started to hurt. I thought I had stress fractures or something. Went to my mom's GP. He examined me, and then something alog the lines of the the following exchange took place:
Dr: You know why your feet hurt?
Me: No. Why?
Dr.: Because you are fat. What are those? (points to my stretch marks).
Me: Stretch marks.
Dr: Lose weight.
I was 6'2", 265 lbs. I bought a Centurion DX 500 and started commuting to and around school. Got hit by a car (his fault, hit and run), bought a better bike and started riding more. Whenever I could. To class. Between classes. At night after studying. Crashed that bike (lone bike trail accident. Go figure.) and bought an even better one. Lost 90 lbs. in 9 months. Haven't stopped since. I ride for sport. I ride for transportation. I ride for travel. All of it for fun. I am confident that I have ridden a bike more miles than I have driven a car.