How did you get involved with cycling?

[Uni]

when i was younger my brother made me build homemade BMX ramps in our backyard for him. I never got to ride them though

First time in over 25 odd years getting on a bike, and my first time riding on a MTB trail and I fell hook line and sinker, now just need the fitness and skills to catch up. Oh the friendliness of the ppl on MTBs as well is very awesome for a noob.

[Hackster]

Rode bicycles at school until the 50 arrived. Rode motorbikes into my 30s until I realised I didn't have the talent required for long term survival.

 

A mate and I started mountain biking when they first appeared on the scene. We stopped for 10 years but got back into it some five years ago.

 

This time, the bug has bitten deep. Besides mountain biking, I'm back into road cycling and am also enjoying my single speed roadster.

 

Christmas day last year was one of the lowest points of my life. My now ex-wife had walked out of our marriage without warning two weeks prior, and all my mates and family were away for the Christmas holidays. Felt seriously sorry for myself.

 

So I got on my bike and rode the Argus route. Which turned a really crap day into a great one.

 

Thing is, when you ride a bike, you keep moving forwards.

 

It's a good life lesson for me.

[VicanZA]

wasn't cutting it in porn anymore, liked it dirty! so MTB was natural.

[Wyatt Earp]

Popped out with pedals on my feet and found out they go on a bicycle .

[arendoog]

A bad lower back forced me to stop running and i started gaining weight .Always cycled ,but never seriously .Started by entering a race and preparing for it .Rest is history .Addicted to 5 h a week at least

[Active Monkey]

Buddy did it... So he got me to buy a silverback saturn... That was around 2 years ago, riding ever since. Getting ready to buy my 3rd mtb

[NE1L]

Always been a part of life but really got into it commuting on a shoe string in London trying to save pennies built a whole bike from salvaged parts in the end I only had to by the tubes - loved that bike.

[SwissVan]

As a kid and teenager the bicycle was the only independent form of transport other than hitch hiking (yep, we used to hitch hike regularly in those days). The bike was used for almost every transport requirement around the local neighborhood / town as well as for fun i.e. we used to race each other around the block or build / ride jumps in the veld.

The last bike I had as a teenager was a Raleigh “street bike” with 3 speed Sturmey Archer gears and a steel carrier behind the seat….

 

This was replaced with a Honda MT50 scrambler in matric. After matric did national service and traded the 50 in for Honda XL 250 to commute with. After national service started racing motocross (RM125 and CR125) but after a few years had to stop due to insufficient funds (apprentice salary).

 

A work colleague who was a top ten Leppin IM finisher talked me into trying triathlon which resulted in buying a road racing bike (Peugeot) from Mean machines in Germiston, soon I was saving money by riding to work and doing fun ride races, triathlons and duathlons.

[Tubehunter]

Got my first motocross bike just before I was 2! We're a family of bikers... (Old boy is 70 and owns 4 and does the ironbutt run at least twice a year still.) I was never into road bikes, so motocross it was. Oldman made a runner when I was still a grommet and the finances to race MX ran out. Mom got me one of these:

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i25/Tubehunter/Cycling/53779995.jpg

 

Rode that til the frame was properly bent and got an upgrade to this:

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i25/Tubehunter/Cycling/gt82_1_blowup.jpg

 

Did plenty BMX racing and eventually found I enjoyed the freestyle stuff more. Built a quarterpipe in the backyard and got one of these:

 

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i25/Tubehunter/Cycling/2008_1984_cw_luggage_freestyler_bike_jtfreestyle__lg.jpg

 

Commuted on my bikes everywhere! Moved to the Cape in the early 90s, discovered road cycling. Got an Alpina, commuted on that and eventually tried an August. Did that for a few years and then added Mountainbiking.

 

I can recollect my whole life from the saddle of a bicycle...

[Pusher]

It was a case of learn to ride and ride to scholl or carry on walking. Learnt very quickly!

[Slowbee]

Rode bicycles at school until the 50 arrived. Rode motorbikes into my 30s until I realised I didn't have the talent required for long term survival.

 

A mate and I started mountain biking when they first appeared on the scene. We stopped for 10 years but got back into it some five years ago.

 

This time, the bug has bitten deep. Besides mountain biking, I'm back into road cycling and am also enjoying my single speed roadster.

 

Christmas day last year was one of the lowest points of my life. My now ex-wife had walked out of our marriage without warning two weeks prior, and all my mates and family were away for the Christmas holidays. Felt seriously sorry for myself.

 

So I got on my bike and rode the Argus route. Which turned a really crap day into a great one.

 

Thing is, when you ride a bike, you keep moving forwards.

 

It's a good life lesson for me.

 

Added this to my signature .... rather profound, unless you Danni something or other and can wheelie backwards....

[RocknRolla]

Tought myself how to ride a bicycle one day when my mom went to visit a friend of hers, i was bored, and they had this small orange thing lying in the garden i dont know how many hours we were there, but when we left i could ride (it had no training wheels)

 

Got a yellow and chrome Wheeler BMX (had yellow tyres) for my birthday - and rode that thing permanently. My dad rode with me in the neighbourhood (they were still building roads and infrastructure around us at that time. Me on my BMX and him on his ancient racer

 

Started a paper route in the neighbourhood and saved up to buy a red raleigh roadbike from the hyperama. Rode that from std 5 till i got my license.

 

then basically stopped for a couple of years, bought a crappy bike from westdene cycles for R700 about 10 years ago. killed it on a unplanned jump (they are not made for even small jumps)

 

then a while later the wife expressed interest, bought matching scott hardtails from cajees. The first time we went out on the dirt sidewalk, she kept on shouting "why cant we just ride on the F*#$%ng road!!" and after one or two more rides she was completely hooked.

 

We did a Northern farms race where she got a podium in her category, which unleashed a monster in her.

 

I kept on riding very socially with my eldest son on in the baby seat, and so two my 2nd son.

 

Got an entry for my wife to do the Sani, by buying a car (strill trying to figure out the economics of that one....) then she fell pregnant with my 3rd son and i had to do the sani in her place to keep the entry - she promised all sorts of unholy things if i lost the sani entry. Got a proper bike in December 3 years ago and did my first sani in that may.

 

been riding as much as possible ever since. The scott hardtail is now my singlespeed hack.

 

Next year will be the wife's first sani.

 

Well done for reading this far...i would have lost interest a while ago.

[marko35s]

Rode many miles to school and all over the place when I was a kid.

Then motorbikes took over for quite a few years. Got rid of them when kids started arriving (decided I wanted to have a decent shot at seeing them grow up).

A while back my youngest got a bike and in order to let him ride a little further than our drive I got one a few months later to be able to ride with him.

And the bug bit big time.

[Meentb]

For me it was either ride bus or ride a bike. I hated those busses so I went the bike route

[Jigghead]

I got into cycling when a mate of mine who I had not seen in a while came up from to ride the 94.7 one year and having supper with him one night his first words were "f~ck, but you've gotten fat." Bike was bought and paid for within a week

 

Never looked back, it's been three years now... thanks to painfully honest mates. :clap: :clap:

Edited June 26, 2013 by Jigghead

[mitsu]

Have always ridden bicycles. Raced for a few years in my teens. That was awesome. Everybody should try some track racing to seperate the men from the boys.

 

I stopped riding in my teens when girls & partying became more interesting.

 

Today I tell my wife that cycling keeps me sane and makes me a far more pleasant person to live with.

 

The health benefits are great without too much strain on your body. Most of my friends are on various pills to keep them alive. I have a vitamen tablet from timt to time