What got you started into bikes/riding, ?

[RichMc]

The "hook" settled in slowly over the years. When I was a freshman in high school I had a 3 speed "Stingray" with the twist grip shifter. So did a lot of my buddies and we raced those around like dirt bikes. A new kid moved in across the street from me and he had a red "english" racer. Didn't even have tape on the chrome racing bars and had the trigger pull Sturmey-Archer shifter. We swapped bikes one day and I thought "Wow! This is fast" but never really wanted one because I was working my way to motorcycles and cars.

Forward to early college days. Got the Austin Bugeye Sprite but when it broke down I needed a way to get to school. Another college buddy of mine said let's get bikes. I wound up with a Raleigh Super Course and he got the Raleigh Gran Prix. In those days, in Honolulu, you bascially had a choice between Raleigh and Schwinn. The Paramounts were godawful expensive (far more than the Raleigh Professional) and they were the only Schwinn worth considering. So then I started riding the Super Course to school every day. 25 mile round trip, rain or shine. One weekend my buddy & I did an around island ride, including hiking with the bikes around Kaena Point on the northwest tip of the island where there is no paved road. That trip and those school rides were the second hook.

A couple of years later the local bike community decided to recreate an around island bike race that hadn't been run in over 20 years. A two stage, 2 day race. Some other friends & I go for it. 1st day was the long stage of about 75 miles. At around 60 miles into the race and climbing hills I discover that my front derailleur is frozen from lack of maintenance (did I say rain?) and I can only use the outer chainwheel. I also find out that I can't get into the largest cog in the back for somewhat the same reasons. I'm running four out of ten speeds. Oh well. Guy passes me on the flats, I pass him in the hills. This goes on twice and after I pass him the second time coming into town I never see him again. But I also got lost and missed a critical turn (no course marshalls or signs) and by the time I find the course again the guy has finished the stage ahead of me. Second day is shorter, from Waikiki out to the north shore. I'm with the front group and we are fast out of town. Going up the hills in central Oahu someone passes a waterbottle down the line (you mean you can put waterbottles on the bike??) I'm about seven back in a front group of nine. I pass the bottle to the guys behind me and wait for them to pass it back. Instead they drop further and further back. Now I see the main group start to surge and I go after them but can't close. Screamed as hard as I could to Haleiwa and finished 6th overall. I think that's where the hook really set deep.

Now a lot of years have passed since then. I've raced some triathalons. Doc's have told me that if I want to walk when I'm seventy I had to give up running in the style that I liked (that meant doing the old or fat mini shuffle style which I just cannot do - I like long distance and hills) so it got back to biking cause the knees just can't take the running. As much work as cycling is I've seen great results and it doesn't piss me off like golf does. Got a second place in my age group and class in a circuit race last summer. The hook sets deeper.

[William]

Would any new forum members like to add their experiences?

William

My father grew up in the northern part of the the Netherlands and delivered bread on bike (see picture). When he moved to California in 1946 he continuted to ride often. As a kid in the 70's he introduced me to cycling (mainly touring) for pleasure. We took long rides in the rural farming country of the California central valley. My first serious bike was a Centurion LeMans he bought second-hand. We rode many hours. In the night, we had the old generator headlights. I inherited his Nishiki and when in graduate school (1987), I used student loan money to buy my Centurion Dave Scott Ironman (Shimano 600's, downtube shifters). I was worried he would blow a gasket so I didn't tell him that I spent loan money on that ($550). He just smiled! At 74 years old, he now rides a dual suspension MTB off road patroling the trails by the river.

Last week I took possession of my Serotta Couer d'Acier. I had a custom decal made of the Friesian flag (Dutch providence where he grew up) made and placed on the back of the seattube as a tribute to him.

I hope to do the same for my 14 year old who is showing interest in trying out the old Ironman.......

[OldDog]

How about an old forum member? I was a kid in the early seventies when the "bike boom" hit. I was already a fanatic, tearing up the 'hood on my Stingray Fastback. My older sister picked up a Gitane 10 speed. "Orange, just like Eddy's" her boyfriend told me. Eddie who I asked.

What a boyfriend. She should'a married him.

My first bike was a purple Sears bike with a racing slick on the back and a banana seat and it seemed like a dragster or a Plymouth RoadRunner since it was the early 70's. Later my dad traded it in for a new orange Gitane 10 speed with alloy wheels. My Gitane was like my sports car and I always had it polished. I loved that bike!

One Saturday my mother dropped my brother and I off at a movie theater for Saturday matinees. That particular old theater in my hometown has since been torn down. Anyway before the movie and during the previews we saw this clip of a huge bike race somewhere in Eastern Canada. The clip was shown in black and white and it was a huge pack racing in some older city approaching the finish. The race conditions were raining, cold and probably misrable. The field was picking up speed bolstered by the crowds yelling and waving. Crashes were occurring and after seeing the finish I thought to myself "Wow! I would love to race like that!"

There were no opportunities growing up in South Dakota to race bicycles where I lived so I accidently became a distance runner. Later while in college I tried a bicycle race and did very well with not nearly the effort I had put into running and loved the dynamics of racing. I became addicted!

First "real" bike as a kid was my Schwinn Stingray with the 3 speed shifter. I had a little odometer that clicked once a revolution. I still remember coming up on my 100th mile in less than a week and thinking this was going to be a milestone event. How an 8 year old knows a milestone is beyond me but I just knew it was going to be huge. Well, it was huge because just as I clicked 100 I was attacked by a dog. The poor dog, defending his territory, ripped my knee wide open and left onlookers in horror. Stitches and physical rehap cured my ills and the dog was forced into a fenced yard.

Fast forward 8 years and I now own a Cook Brothers Cruiser. The rumor was there was a nudist camp in the neighboring town. Needless to say at the age of 16, the thought of seeing a nude woman was enough to warrant a 25 mile ride to find this alleged camp. We never did find the nudist resort but we had a blast cranking out the miles. It was that ride that got me hooked.

Fast forward another six years and I am stationed in Germany riding a Cannondale "Black Lightning" that I bought from a guy returning to the states. It was way too big for me and I actually had to lower the seat to rest on the top tube but it was fast! I eventually graduated to a used Bianchi with Campy components that was a hand-me-down from my then girlfriends father. He was part of the German national team in the 70's - or so he claimed. All I know is that he rode a Colnago and routinely left me in the dust no matter the distance or terrain.

I just (last week) graduated from a Trek 1000 to a Serotta Fierte and couldn't be happier. I'll leave the story there since it feels like I am discovering cycling all over again!!

[Frankwurst]

Early 70's, going to college, My girlfriend dumped me, thought I was in love and decided to take my depression out on my body but found out over time I wasn't in love and riding made me feel a whole lot happier and better than she did.

[kbwheels]

Hi, this is my first post and what better wayto tell you about myself than how I got started riding. I lived next to two brothers who I considered to be my brothers. They had both started racing and of course I had to follow in their footsteps or should I say their draft. Anyway, I had some success racing as a junior in the mid 1980's and that continued into the early 1990's. For a few years I keep riding because I thought I was still going to have a "career" as a cyclist, but that was not to be. I now enjoy riding for many different reason. Although, I still do a few races each year. Since this is my first post I would like to thank Mr. Ben Serotta for providing this forum and allowing such free discussion about so many topics. It's great to be part of the club.

Tailwinds,
kyle

[Ray]

Thought I'd contributed to this thread the last time around, but I guess not. I rode everywhere for transportation as a kid, like most of us did in the late 60's and early 70's. Rode a little bit for fun and transportation in college, but not much, and then basically dropped it completely. I always worked out and stayed in some sort of shape, but as a young adult, with a new career and young kids, I didn't have a "sport" that I really loved or spent any time on any more (played a lot of football, basketball, and tennis as a kid).

I was always waaaay into music and was something of a Deadhead. Catching a few Dead shows every summer was kind of a hobby (although they were getting pretty bad in the last couple of years). But then Jerry died and that whole scene went away. I was looking for something to do the next summer and a friend convinced me to get a mountain bike. I fell in love with mountain biking that summer, but found myself putting slicks on it and riding on the road a fair amount and really liking that. So, in the autumn of '96, I bought a lugged steel Specialized road bike. I rode 2000 miles the next year, bought a Rivendell and rode 5000 the year after that, and I've been lost in it ever since.

It's always been a release and an escape from the pressures of life, so I've never trained or raced (well, aside from a couple of mountain bike races early on), but I can't seem to get tired of riding a bike.

-Ray

I got into cycling for fitness reasons. I'd always been a runner, but the pounding was taking it's toll. In 1983 I bought a Trek 620. I still have that bike, but it needs a bunch of work.

[William]

Newer members to the forum, What got you started?


William

Originally Posted by William

Newer members, what got you started?

William

I rode bikes as a kid around the neighborhood with my friends. In my 20's, I would ride a couple of times a week on the Loveland bike trail, then for some reason, quit riding. I played tennis, walked, snow skied, etc. - not competitively, but for fun. Blew my knee out playing tennis in 2001 and gave that up.

I can thank Mr. Metro for getting me into cycling. The first couple of years we dated, he would go out on various rides. In March of 2003, he bought a new Cannondale, I looked at the bike and thought "this is something we can do together." I bought my first bike, a Specialized Sequoia, logged over 4000 miles that year, and the rest is history.

Cycling has provided me with an outlet for stress, a means of conditioning my body that no other sport can, and so many lifelong friendships. I would have to say the latter is the most important to me. The friends I've made cycling are very special, probably more so than at any other time in my life.

in walpole mass there was this cool
little guy and his bike shop. i would
ride over and oggle at the european bling.

then there was the bicycle exchange
in boston where a french dude (con moustache, beret, shorts)
took down from the ceiling a GREEN nova,
proffered it to me and declared, 'thizfitteau'.

lemond sunk the nail.

[97CSI]

As a consultant I spent too much time in too many different cities away from home. Wanted something I enjoyed as all those expense-account meals started weighing on my waist-line. I can only do so much time in a gym and lack of cartilage in one knee makes me a non-runner. Bought a Trek no-suspension MTB and stored at the plant I was working on for several months. Nice bike trail in Plano to get in about 20 miles per night. Took a permanent job at the plant and decided to get back into being a roadie. Many miles and $$ later, here I am with my very nice CdA (and Paramount and Trek 770).

[beungood]

<<<Am I the only one on this forum who was never a jock?



Ahhhhhh yeaaaahhhh. How exactly did you get in here?

Umm, wait right here.>>>>


Tme to activate myself...Ahem! hey you! Show me your hands, step away from the Forum! Do it now!