Cycling UK Forum

StellaLdn. wrote:

ukdodger wrote:

StellaLdn. wrote:Being from a cycling city and all my family cycling, it was only natural that I learned it, too. I still remember calling over my shoulder, 'Are you still holding the bike?' From a distance I heard my uncle replying, 'Of course.'
When we moved to a place a little more outside the city centre, I had to start cycling to school, or take the school bus. I preferred the bike. That was 7th grade. Been cycling every since and still prefer the bike to public transport.
I've only started fiddling with bikes this year, same as dipping into longer rides. Couldn't live without my bikes or cycling.

Me neither that's for sure. '7th Grade' are you American?

'Are you still holding the bike' ???

Nope, German. 7th class, then. My uncle was balancing the bike while pushing me forwards and I kept saying, don't let go, don't let go, he let go and I cycled on my own (unknowingly).

I see I see. Should have known as I did the same to my daughter. One final shove and she was off and cycling.

I see I see. Should have known as I did the same to my daughter. One final shove and she was off and cycling.

Best way to learn, methinks. Can't remember how old I was back then. I guess around 6 or 7. Got a blue folding bike, but crashed it when I went down a hill and it folded. Uh! Then began cycling daily at the age of 12/13.

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Got a 2nd hand bike when I was about 4, don't know why, stabilisers, then without. Grew a bit, got a bigger 2nd hand bike. Grew a bit more got a brand new 5 spd Raleigh Arena. cycled to school, got a paper round, used my brothers Grifter in the snow, cycled everywhere. Got a job and another drop bar Raleigh. Learned to drive, stopped cycling. Took up mountain biking for a few years, stopped again. Mate of mine invited me mountain biking, loved it, wondered why I stopped. Bought a New mountian bike with disc brakes, what a difference from cantis. Turned my old bike into a tourer. Built a recumbent Tadpole trike, plans to build a 2 wheel recumbent and a gravity bike. I may have faltered a couple of times, but I always come back to it. I can't put a finger on a definitive "why I cycle" though. Much like when people ask me why I climb mountains, I normally reply "If you have to ask the question, you wouldn't understand the answer"
keep on spinning.

Neil

I think I wanted to ride like my parents did off and on. Then it was an easier way to get about than walking or buses. Now it's an easier way to do short journeys than driving and more fun for day trips. So I never really got into it as such: I've just done it more as driving gets worse and I've done more campaigning as councils get worse.

I was a Venture Scout in east Cheshire in the late 1970s. Another Venture's family had a holiday home near Lake Vyrnwy, and we used to ride out there for Unit expeditions, as well as, more regularly, into the Peak District. We chose to do cycling for the sports section of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. One of the Ranger Guides in the same unit was a club rider, and arranged for someone to come along and talk to us.

He told five of us about the various forms of cycling available, and advised us not to get into racing too soon, as we had plenty of time. We immediately got hooked, and did so much racing that we never had time to earn the Award...

Hi,

ukdodger wrote:Today trolling through old pics (on paper) I found my first bike. Bought second hand from a neighbour for ten shillings (50p today).

Wow weren't you lucky.................mine was second hand, rod brakes 10 shillings and shared with my twin

StellaLdn. wrote:

I see I see. Should have known as I did the same to my daughter. One final shove and she was off and cycling.

Best way to learn, methinks. Can't remember how old I was back then. I guess around 6 or 7. Got a blue folding bike, but crashed it when I went down a hill and it folded. Uh! Then began cycling daily at the age of 12/13.

Holding onto the back of the bike didn't work for Mini V. I tried and tried, and she just didn't get it on her own. Then, I showed her how to push off. I asked her not to scoot along, or pedal, but just to see how far she could go with the first push before she had to put her feet down. Once she got that, I aked her if she could put her second foot up on the pedal, as well. I was going to show her with my bike, what I wanted her to do, but when I looked up, she was pedalling off down the street.

Vorpal wrote:

StellaLdn. wrote:

I see I see. Should have known as I did the same to my daughter. One final shove and she was off and cycling.

Best way to learn, methinks. Can't remember how old I was back then. I guess around 6 or 7. Got a blue folding bike, but crashed it when I went down a hill and it folded. Uh! Then began cycling daily at the age of 12/13.

Holding onto the back of the bike didn't work for Mini V. I tried and tried, and she just didn't get it on her own. Then, I showed her how to push off. I asked her not to scoot along, or pedal, but just to see how far she could go with the first push before she had to put her feet down. Once she got that, I aked her if she could put her second foot up on the pedal, as well. I was going to show her with my bike, what I wanted her to do, but when I looked up, she was pedalling off down the street.

Wow! That's amazing. Watch out, she'll probably go and become a professional.

My father was CTC member before WW2, and had lots of tales of touring NI & Donegal. We had bikes as soon as he could afford them, and I rode borrowed bikes before that. I learned to ride a 2-wheeler at the age of 9. My first bike was bought in the early 60s, and was reputedly a local build on a Raleigh frame, although it didn't have the trademark Raleigh fork. It had a Sturmey-Archer 3-speed hub & a Dynahub powering a bobby-dodger. My dad fitted his old drop bars to it. I've no idea how many miles I put on it - a good few. The saddle was pretty horrible - an old-style cheapie Brooks with the metal bits raising ridges in the leather, but through school trousers and Co-op underpants I never noticed it hurting.

I stopped cycling when I went to university across the water, and never returned to it in my father's lifetime. I often wish he was around now to compare notes.

No family history of cycling for me. My dad bought me a bike when i was 14, my best friend's dad worked with a bloke who was a member of the local cycling club and they started a junior section around the time me and my friend joined. Lots of my school friends joined but most gave up after a few months. I loved the freedom of cycling and I kept it up, until I was the only one of the original group left. By that time I'd made friends within the club and just kept going. I raced, toured, did club runs, the whole shebang. I've now been a member of the same club for 40 years. I don't race much anymore but still do club runs and more and more touring as I get older.

My son always wanted to come cycling with me, from being small. When he was 8, I bought him a small Raleigh racer and started taking him out. He's now 25, an elite road racer and still loves cycling as much as I do.

ukdodger wrote:
Surprised cycling was possible with a damaged hip joint.

Non-weightbearing.

my brother took to cycling at about 4, I was 2 years older, I had a Raleigh 'Constable' (I think it was called that)..red thing and he had a Raleigh boxer.
After that a progression of varying bikes until I got a Red & White Raleigh racing bike when 14 or 15..rode that to Bridlington and back from N.Hull one day during the summer holiday's (about 55 miles)..my mate was on a BMX..and tbh we didn't even give it much thought pedalling along the main A165

My father bought me a seconhand Rudge when I was 7. Off I went cycling to school, into town and so on. When I was about 14 he bought me a Raleigh. Neither had gears. That lasted me a while as it was too big when bought. When I was working in London aged about 29 I bought a mail-order cheap bike called a Rudi Altig. It was a load of rubbish but had 10 gears, but I got interested in fitness cycling and my commute was 9 miles each way. To train I used to continually ride up steep hills near where I lived in South London. When I came back to Ireland, I first bought a cheap Carlton 27inch job but quickly bought a proper bike of Vitus tubing, a Peugeot Roubaix and after that several other racers of 531 tubing, Columbus tubing etc and my first touring bike in 1988. That really started something because I've done 75 or more bike tours. I'm getting nervous of cycling. Motorists are becoming more and more agressive in their driving and I ain't happy..

This was shot by a GoPro on my handlebars within the last few days...
In Cork, English car, but very probably an Irish driver. This kind of overtaking manoeuvre leaves no space for the cyclist...

[youtube]BP2_ky90wAU[/youtube]

It was fashionable at the time to give a child a bike for passing the eleven plus. I think I was about 12 when I got mine. Its frame number (do bikes still have frame numbers?) was 316602H. Does that mean it was a Humber? Maybe. I rode it until I was 21 (I was tall for my age at 12.)

It was black with sit up and beg handlebars. They were not cool, or whatever word we used in those days. In due course I turned the handlebars upside down This gave a nice bat's wing sort of rake to the bars which was cool.

Wherever I went, I went on the bike. It had only the one gear it came with, and I was rather scornful of dropped handlebars and multiple gears. They were for what we called racing bikes. I loved it, but my bike was definitely a vehicle, not a sports accessory.

I was confirmed in this view when youth hosteling. The walkers, like me, were quite spry at the end of the day, and talked about whatever they wanted to. The cyclists were all exhausted and talked only of miles covered and hills climbed.

Years later I left the bike in a cellar at college. I tried to hitch hike there from home to pick it up but could get no lifts so abandoned it. (It was, after all, still the bike I had been given for passing the eleven plus).

I started riding again twenty years later, having talked about doing so for fifteen. I now know that the exhaustion of a cyclist is a deeply satisfied feeling and that there are few pleasures equal to pedaling up a long, steady climb. Regrets are silly, but I wish I had continued cycling for the missing twenty years, when I was quite strong.