I started riding again about 18 months ago. I ride year round. The late fall to late spring are utilitarian miles.

Today I was on the phone with a fair weather biking friend of mine and he mentioned that as he traveled, by car, around our small city of 15K today in 30F weather, he saw at least 10 cyclist out there. He noted that he would expect to see riders in Madison or the Minnesota Twin cities, but not in our small northern Wisconsin town.

My point is that as more of us ride, and ride all year long it begins to give permission to others to ride. Then, it becomes cool. (No pun intended.)

I also took a decade or three off of riding and am so glad to have rediscovered this thing.

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

when I think of the stupid rides I did as an 18-20 year old - 50 miles from home with $0.75 in my pocket, no food, no tools, no pump, one small water bottle... no cell phones back then, riding skinny tires on gravel roads; I'd say I wasn't mature enough until my late 20's.

My nephew just got his first bike - for his second birthday. He wants to be like his Unker Steve (that's me) so now I have to build him a little trailer to pull behind his bike

CollectiveInk,

My bad. I should have given credit on your thread. Many folks on here tend to stay in only one or two sub-forums. Here's the original thread with pictures. Great story!

https://www.bikeforums.net/recreational-family/475552-11-year-old-s-victory-defeat.html

I started riding at 50 after hardly noticing bikes for 20 years. It was less a case of increased maturity than one of living in a place where commuting by automobile is very slow, inconvenient, and stressful. I had the typical hybrid that had been sitting in the garage, ridden only a few times in the five years since my wife gave it ti me as a Christmas present.

Paul

??? Is there any place where it ISN'T all of those?


SP

But when you were 18- $.75 would have got you a phone call for a Taxi and a Double burger and coke while you waited for it.

As you can see I started early. In the photo I'm already a "veteran" at 12 y/o. I was lucky to grow up in England, when, relatively speaking, the roads were blissfully free of motor traffic. I didn't think twice (and neither did my parents, evidently) of heading out into the South Shropshire Hills for a 60 mile spin.

In North America, due to a well-established hatred for the infernal combustion engine, I resisted driving until just shy of my thirties, when I took my driver's test. I still didn't own a car. The one I own now is parked and uninsured.

I have waited for the world to mature enough to discover the joys of bicycle travel but things just keep deteriorating. (And now gas is going down ... and don't get me started about the looming industry bailout)

I failed to convince my offspring of the same. They married acolytes of all things infernal-combustion: cars, motorcycles, ATVs.

Just to piss me off.

I tried to get my son to ride with me prior to the driving age. When he was around 14 we did an approximately 10 mile ride that included Heartbreak Hill on the Boston Marathon route and he kvetched the whole way. A couple of years later it was no problem to do that ride to see his girlfriend ;-)

For his freshman year in college we bought him a bike for some low-mileage commuting, and much to my surprise he did some work at a bike co-op. This summer, at age 18, we did a ride again including Heartbreak Hill and I could barely keep up. My excuse was that he didn't give me enough time to warm up; his excuse was that his gears weren't working right.

I posted to the above thread about introducing my son to cycling and on re-reading other replies, I noted most correspondents discussed their own personal journey into cycling. Back in the 60’s in the Motor City around age 12 - 14, I rode my bicycle quite a bit to get around, with one friend in particular. I had an “English Racer,’ and we even considered a 40 mile overnight ride, but by ninth grade I mostly walked and bummed rides until I could join the car culture.

In Ann Arbor MI in the 70’s I really realized the utility of bicycles for commuting. I can remember the specific day, virtually an epiphany, when I borrowed my roomate's Schwinn Varsity and realized how far and quickly I could go on a bike and soon began riding and then touring on a five-speed Schwinn Suburban. Within a couple years, I bought a Mercier as did my girlfriend, later my wife. We toured in Michigan and Ontario and eventually crossed the US by bike on our honeymoon to move to Boston, and have lived car-free and car-light since. I once told a new, somewhat aloof secretary that I live "an alternative lifestyle" to shock her--I commute by bike ;-)