That one is always handy!

OK,

I have road shoes,
I have MTB shoes.

I guess that counts :D

I don't know where to vote, mountain biked a bunch in Tennessee from '92 - '96, moved to Indiana and biked less until '99, had two kids biked even less. Started riding a road bike this year. So I've had a nice bike since '92, but only a road bike this year.

John

I like the shoe theory but... consider that the Cupertino Riders sported Parcels and Converse (or boots, Sorry Joe)

So then necessity became the mother.

Before that

In 1959 I was pushing a triple that I had fashioned with my own hands, and agenst my constant pleading my mother held fast "I will not spend 28 dollars on a pair of sneakers, I dont care how stiff they are."

I've been cycling seriously for about a year. I rode my BMX bike every day as a kid, but I don't consider that cycling.

I got my license suspended for going 10mph over the limit by a grumpy judge, so I started riding my 35lb Schwinn POS hardtail around town and to work. At the end of my suspension, I decided I liked this whole biking thing and bought a Trek 1200.

I started riding with a friend who used to race about 20 years ago. He had delusions of grandeur and challenged me to a time trial race. There was no way I was going to let him beat me, so I bought a stationary trainer and hired a coach. My friend ended up not racing due to Life(TM) getting in the way, plus he conceded that I would mop the floor with him, but I raced the Santiago TT and posted a time of 28:44... almost two minutes faster than my goal.

My coach introduced me to a local club/team and I started doing group rides with them. Now I joined the team and will be racing in the upcoming season.

I also ride MTB with my roommate and neighbor, although it's more for adrenaline and being crazy than for fitness.

I love this sport!

Well, for me it has been since I was 11. Started racing and BMX racing just after. I got into the freestyle bmx during the boom in the 80's, only sold my BMX about 3 years ago, still have my race bikes (BMX).

I bought my first Mountain bike, gt Avalanche in 1990.

I stopped riding for about 4 years from age 20-24, but always had a shopping/errand bike. I'm 33 years old now, so about 20 years total. The thing is that, I don't know when or if I will stop. When I am my dad's age (he still rides a little at 72) it would have been a long time. Get back to you in 30 years.

Great thread as usual Machka. I voted in the < 1 year category. Of course I learned to ride as a kid, and had a few different cheap. Around 1975, I spent $50 of my own money on a cool new single speed with a banana seat. After about a month it was stolen. Later in college (around 1982) I bought another bike with $150 of my own money (a five speed as I recall), and after a week it was stolen. Later still, around 1993, after I graduated, got married and got fat, I bought two bikes, one for me and one for my wife for about $400. A couple of years later, I sold the bikes in a garage sale for $50. Then around 2000, after getting divorced, and much fatter, my new girlfriend convinced me to buy a good bike. At that time I spent about $450 for a new Gary Fisher mountain bike. What a difference a good bike makes. I was convinced. I married this girlfriend, and over the next 5 years (2000 through the end of 2004) I put on a total of 750 miles, with the highest year being 2003 at 395 miles. Now at this point I did pass the shoe test as mentioned by EventSerivces, (Great insight. I also dance, fly fish, hunt, and hike, and all of these activities pass the shoe test with flying colors.) but I would have to say it was not until this year and the second pair of cycling shoes that I really got "serious" into cycling. In March I bought a new Bianchi Giro road bike that had been gathering dust in a local shop for 3 years, and of course a new pair of clipless shoes. Since March, I have logged 2243 miles on that bike. Bought an old Ciocc and rebuilt it and have logged 212 miles on that bike. Managed to log about 100 miles on the old Gary Fisher. All for a grand total of 2555 for this year. Also lost about 20 lbs. Got my wife a Giant OCR, and hope to ride with her when it warms up. But in the mean time she is putting about 4 or 5 hours a week on the trainer. I have a complete Park AK-32 tool kit, a Park bike stand, and even a torque wrench. Wait I think I'm rambling now. Anyway, I don't know if I'm serious, but I am having serious fun.

Machka, I'm even thinking about joining the UMCA and trying to ride 100 miles per week and 1 century a month this next year. Thanks for the inspiration.

Steve
-I'm not crazy, I'm just intense

Weell, I cannot say that cycling is my main sport, but I do it to enhance my main sport. I originally started to ride the summer of 2004, going into the fall soccer season. I wanted to improve my endurance and hopefully my speed for the soccer season, both of which I did.

But also during that first time of real riding, I found that the bicycle was an excellent way of getting around, and just a nice thing to do, i.e. push your body to do something a little harder, a little faster. I also enjoyed buying my first 'real' bike and upgrading it into it's current state. It is only a Mirage Sport, but it was enough to upgrade and ride seriously with. I have spent only around $700 on the whole contraption, but I find it money well spent.

Oh, great, I'm rambling........................

20-24 is a fair guestimate for me.

I voted for the < 1 year. I rode my bike alot as a kid, but the bike was more toy than tool, but now at college, its my only means of transportation, and thats when i found my love for biking, so now, hopefully, around late january or february i plan on purchasing my first road bike. Then i won't have an excuse to not rack up the miles over the rest of my life

Since 1989 and my knee injury. Trust me, I'd still be into running. Ah running. Strap on your friggin Nikes and go for a 10 mile run. God I loved running. No bike crap, clothes, booties, spare tires, road grime, crash worries, bike weenies, etc. But my right knee has about as much cartilidge (no I do NOT know how to spell that) as Paris Hilton has brains. So running is out.

I did try running again about 7 years ago. Had a nice 4 mile run in less than 32 mins. And a day later my knee was the size of a volleyball. Oh well. Cycling doesn't bother it. In 80K+ road miles since 1989 it has blown up like that twice.

I voted 3-4 years.. it's how long I have been obsesive about cycling... of course been riding and crashing bikes since I was about 3... red tricycle... first crash.. needed surgery to remove broken parts of some baby teeth that got implanted.. Ouch!!.. remember my 1968-9 chopper... then my first rode bike, a 1973 Raleigh Supercourse, used to get to the racetrack, the beach, the basketball game, etc. Can't seem to remember the bikes from then till 1989, when I bought a Cannondale R600.. thought it was an insane amount of money for a bike ($600).. Rode to the beach, and the basketball games and the occasional 25-30 mile weekend cruise. Then I got bit in summer of 2001, even bought a bike computer for the first time... Summer 2002 became obsesive.. went to replace the R600 with another Cannondale and ended with a Seven Alaris with Ultegra and regular wheels, while the frame was on order, changed to DA and Kysrium SSC SL wheels... now have a six month old Seven Elium with the required OCP parts... and the cost is insane but found ways to justify it.. :D like riding 4500+ miles this year..

Refuse to train, cause then it becomes "serious" and the fun will go out of it.. So I won't be in the TdF, but I played hockey and basketball for a long time and knew I wasn't headed for the Stanley Cup or NBA finals.. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I remember my 1st 'ride', at 7, in Geingen, Germany, while visiting relatives. A 2nd cousin, 2 years my senior, had a bike. He proceeded to 'teach' me how to ride. Which was 'sit on the seat', point downhill, push off and go. Was an unbelievable feeling! Even at the ride's eventual end when I augered into a row of rose bushes at the bottom of the 'hill' - went back up and did it again - 2nd lession from him was waht brakes were and how they worked... :)
But seriously... got my 1st 10spd in senior yr HS - '66, and even though I consider myself many things, at my core I will always be a 'rider'. Was married on a sunny Saturday in '76, fabulous day and wedding night, next morning went and rode a Sunday Morning Crit in No NJ. Sunday afternoon we took off for Europe, to visit family, tour a bunch of countries AND visit just about every frame builder and shop I could squeeze into the travel schedule.
Riding is a disease, terminal in nature. Riding is 'junk', caffeine, chocolate, but not sex. Sex is still sex. :p
Shame on me; I stopped riding almost completely (less than 200 miles) from early 98 to May 04. Lured by the sister activity of motorcycling, I lost touch with reality.
But I'm back now, and even though the moto still calls, the pedal bike is almost my daily fix. When I stop riding I will be dead.
peace out

Bike patrol 2 years ago, started seriously cycling about 15 months ago, racing 9 months ago.

First rode a bike a 21 years old, has a skooter as a kid.

I'm in the 10 - 14 year range. Like everyone else the bike was main transportation until the drivers license kicked in. About 92' a good friend who's brother was a pro road cyclist started getting into Triathlons. He already had a decent Univega with Shimano 600 components. I had a late 70's Sears 10 speed. I could run a 40 minute 10K but the bike was just transportation to my van pool meet. My buddy convinced me to go for a ride with him and we switched bikes for a short while. I couldn't believe the difference!!! If I was going to do Tris' I had to have a road bike. I played tennis every week with a KHS sales rep and he got me a KHS Aerosport 14 on his discount, $270. Started riding with friends, Tri groups, doing Tri's and Centuries. Learned to swim laps a little faster and did a 1/2 IM in a little over 5 hours. Just broke that frame last summer when an old lady cut me off and I hit her bumper. I loved that bike. Never fear, I bought an old frame and put it back together.

I put in 3-4 years even though my first 10-15k miles were put on a 35+lb wal-mart bike and I may be going back to it due to getting sick and tired of blowing 30 - 60 bucks a month on tires. I got back onto the bike after a year of sedentary life after the car accident left my cardio vascular system hurting really badly. I've always ben on the bike though since i was a kid and it was my main form of transportation for 6 years before i finally got my drivers license beg of '05

I purchased my very first bicycle (Specialized Expedition) 4 years ago at age 56. My cyclist cardiologist recommended cycling as the most beneficial post angioplasti activity. My wife and I each own 3 bicycles now. We enjoy as many supported tours as possible and have organized a tour. We are members of Adventure Cycling and NBTDA (National Bicycle Tour Directors Association). FWIW: my doctor has attributed my cholesterol drop from 435 to 105 to "improved" diet and activity (cycling). I think retirement helps :>)

First started riding when a friend and I agreed to do a triathlon in 2004. I borrowed an old HUGE steel Lotus with flat bars, clipped aero bars on top of the flat bars and rode a bunch of solo rides, two sprint tris and one olympic. loved the riding.

fall of 04 bought my bike (04 Trek 5000) and have been riding since. Really enjoyed riding this past season and can't wait for spring to begin and the Montauk Century!

Since the 70's when I used to track race at the T-town velodrome

Anyone else?

1977

When I was young and stupid, my lovely bride of slightly less than a year suggested that we go roller skating with a bunch of people from her work. I jumped at the chance because, after all, I was young, stupid, head-over-heels in love and couldn't resist her. I wasn't a skater, had only been on roller skates once, I think, but, hey, I was young, stupid and full of testoterone! If she had said "Let's jump out of airplanes, naked without parachutes!", I'd done it because...well you know.

We were having a wonderful night and I was even letting go of the rail by the time we decided to leave. I wasn't going out into the flow but I was at least moving at enough of a speed that I didn't get passed by the old ladies anymore! About 30 feet from the exit off the rink we were going to take, one of my feet slipped out from under me, then the other. I came down on the right ankle first, hit the outside wheels on the floor and the momentum of the skate folded my ankle inward. I felt the sickening crunch as the fold in the leather snapped off the bottom of my fibula, followed quickly by a tension break of the tibia. Hell yes it hurt!

Ambulance, ride to the ER without a splint and, in order to cushion the ankle, a backboard under it. Every bump slammed the ankle down on the board and brought me to new levels of pain.

At the ER, the doctor (who I would meet again after a bicycle/car accident but that's another story) said, "Well, what have we got here?"

"I broke my ankle roller skating", I replied.

"Nonsense! No one ever breaks their ankle roller skating!" he said.

After X-rays, the "know nothing" doctor came back in the room and, gleefully stated, "Well you certainly fooled us Mr. Black! Your ankle is broken!" (I think I muttered something about Sherlock and a lack of excrement at this point.) "You need surgery so we'll put it in a splint and you can go see your doctor in the morning. Oh, by the way, you can get crutches at any drug store. Good luck!"

And, with that, he had someone splint the ankle, they told me not to walk on it, pushed me into the parking lot and told my wife to take me home. At that point in my life, I weighed somewhere around 240 lbs and I stand around 6 feet tall. My wife weighed 90 lbs and stands 5 feet tall. We lived in a split level house with 6 stairs up and 6 stairs down from an entry landing. And it was now somewhere past midnight. Back in that day, drug stores that were open for 24 hours were very rare. Drug stores that were open for 24 hours, and carried crutches, were nonexistant, regardless of what some "know nothing" ER doc said. Eventually, after many tears from my lovely bride, we figure out how to get me to her parent's house and to a doctor the next day. That doctor said something pithy about newbie ER docs and sent me to have a plate, 2 screws and a pin put in my shattered ankle.

For those of you who have never had hardware put in a weight bearing part of your anatomy, let me tell you, it hinders a lot of things you can do. Even after the 4 weeks in a nonwalking cast and 3 weeks in a walking cast, my ankle hurt like the dickens and swelled like a balloon after about 30 seconds of standing. It also make lots of walking next to impossible and running on it was out of the question!

Since I had signed up for a weight loss program before I decided to shatter my ankle and a major component of that weight loss program was exercise, I decided to dust off my old Sear's 10 speed. Sure, I had to wear a brace to keep the swelling down (that took nearly 2 years) but at least I was getting exercise. And, since I was a fat kid, running had never appealed to me anyway. Twenty-nine years, around 87000 miles, and 25 bikes later, I'm still riding! And I ain't going to quit until they pry my cold hands from the handlebars ;)