I picked up a bike in 1984 during the big bike craze, mostly because everyone I knew was riding. I loved it, and rode it pretty much everywhere...to college, to my internship, to work, to the bar after* work. I had a car, but I preferred the bike. Never went so fast I got too sweaty, though.

Then I got hit by a car, followed quickly by moving to a place where it regularly gets above 110 in the summer. Both the bike and me were never quite the same after the accident. Moved back to MN, but only worked a couple miles from home and I could take the bus for a dime and not worry about parking the bike. Anyway, long story short, I forgot about the bike and gained 80 lbs over 12 years.

I'd try to ride my old bike every once and a while but it hurt. Got a new bike, and I've been riding every day.

Funny thing, when I was riding the heavy cruiser, I lost 10 lbs in a month. Now, even though I'm riding almost a hour a day, sometimes 1.5 hours, I haven't lost a lb.* since I got the new bike.

Sad, sad, sad. But I'm down 30 lbs in all so far, so life is good.