Familiar theme here. Started at 4, couldn't keep me away from bikes until I was 16 (well, thieves did cause some interruptions). When I was 15 my dad had a friend who was a pretty passionate cyclist and we all rode together for about a year but at that point moved from a fairly flat locale to a very hilly one, and my dad took on a job with killer hours, and with no buddy of his to keep him motivated he stopped riding altogether. I did buy him a bike many years later when he was retired and he rode for a bit again but no real passion nor did he have anyone to ride with (I lived in another state); we did ride together just once more during a visit when I hauled my bikes along before he put the bike away permanently.

I didn't ride much at all, even though I usually had a bike around, from 16 to 31, even though I usually kept a bike around. I was a loyal Schwinn guy most of my life, growing up around Chicago I think that was a natural bike choice (my grandfather had even played golf occasionally with one of the Schwinns). In 85 I noticed these newfangled mountain bikes and bought a Schwinn High Sierra but promptly parked it in the garage for the most part until a friend of mine found out and took me out on my first actual ride on a mountain and I was hooked. Never had kids, but I would hope that I would have found a way to make riding a family passion. Judging from many of my riding friends' families, it certainly isn't hereditary...and maturity certainly is something I'm still striving for but not too much