What age did you start back cycling?

Schecter01

Just wanted to get a feel for the inspiration That sparked you to start cying again and what stage of your life did it happen?
As most irish kids we used to cycle everywhere, used to love going shopping for our xmas bike in stagg cycles, that unique smell of a bike shop is such a nostalgia trip, can't get that in euro cycles!
I'm 32 now, started back as I tried the gym, but don't have time with 3 kids and long hours, I hate running, so I figured I would've to start cycling, but the prices of bikes always held me off, until somone explained he bike to work scheme, I didn't realise how much you could save, so now I have my road bike, a cube peloton race, and I love it, only thing annoying me now is the cold!!
Hopefully I can get myself up to do a 40/50km by the summer.

What about you?

ted1

Schecter01 wrote: »

Just wanted to get a feel for the inspiration That sparked you to start cying again and what stage of your life did it happen?
As most irish kids we used to cycle everywhere, used to love going shopping for our xmas bike in stagg cycles, that unique smell of a bike shop is such a nostalgia trip, can't get that in euro cycles!
I'm 32 now, started back as I tried the gym, but don't have time with 3 kids and long hours, I hate running, so I figured I would've to start cycling, but the prices of bikes always held me off, until somone explained he bike to work scheme, I didn't realise how much you could save, so now I have my road bike, a cube peloton race, and I love it, only thing annoying me now is the cold!!
Hopefully I can get myself up to do a 40/50km by the summer.

What about you?

Stopped at 18 when I finished secondary, started again last September at 35 on the same bike as yourself. You be surprised how easy it is to do distances. 50km is a 2 hour cycle with no impact to your joints. You could do it in the morning without any bother . Try it.

Beasty

Just over 7 years ago, on moving to Ireland, and wanting to get to a reasonable fitness level while looking to lose a lot of excess ballast through cycling the 23km or so to work. I initially did it for charity targetting 1,000 miles over the period from 1 October to 31 March. It was in aid of Laura Lynn and I entitled it "A thousand miles for a thousand smiles". Ended up doing about 1,600 miles raising 7-8 grand. Would have been around 46/7 at the time

drogdub

Schecter01 wrote: »

Just wanted to get a feel for the inspiration That sparked you to start cying again and what stage of your life did it happen?
As most irish kids we used to cycle everywhere, used to love going shopping for our xmas bike in stagg cycles, that unique smell of a bike shop is such a nostalgia trip, can't get that in euro cycles!
I'm 32 now, started back as I tried the gym, but don't have time with 3 kids and long hours, I hate running, so I figured I would've to start cycling, but the prices of bikes always held me off, until somone explained he bike to work scheme, I didn't realise how much you could save, so now I have my road bike, a cube peloton race, and I love it, only thing annoying me now is the cold!!
Hopefully I can get myself up to do a 40/50km by the summer.

What about you?

About 7 years ago SSI matured. Had a bit of cash. It was either take up cycling or golf, until I remembered how much I hate playing golf and cycling would get me fit. So ordered a BeOne from CRC and that was me hooked

Roadtoad

Ten years ago, age 45, Mrs R bought me a second-hand road bike with Biopace shiney stuff for €100. A Wicklow 100, SK160 quickly followed.
Then Brian Cowen gave me 50% of a new one, Wicklow 200s SK160s etc. and the rest, as they say.....
Like myself, its clapped out now, so Mr Noonan, where's your 50%?

darkvalley

In may of 2013 I was 49 years old, living a very sedentary lifestyle, smoking 40 fags a day and panting while going upstairs. Something had to be done!
Heading on 2 years now, I have 2 bikes, a Cube Peleton Race,(great bike) and a Genesis Equilibrium kitted out for the winter and audaxing. I can cycle 200km in a day, go to Pilates 1 evening a week and swimming 1 evening (for the core!)
It strikes me as bizarre after spending over 30 year doing nothing to have morphed into fitness man!! but the cycling is addictive.

Daroxtar

I kind of did it twice, when I moved to Dublin in 2000 aged 24 I forsook the car, bought a beat up Raleigh Mustang and cycled to work every day. Spent a year abroad and continued cycling to work and all over town when I came back until moving out here, Meath, in late 2005. Couldn't commute this far by bike so i bought a car. The bike died . I didn't cycle again till I got a hybrid 2 years ago. Fell in love with cycling again and bought the road bike last July. I'm 39 now.

rtmie

Used to cycle around town as a student and a 5 miles each way commute. Gave up early 90s. Bought a hybrid on the bike-to-shed scheme couple of years ago. Finally took it out last August as my son got a bike and wanted company cycling, I was age 49. Hooked straight away. Bought a road bike in Nov, doing 60k on Saturday s, 50 on Sundays and commuting round trip of 40 couple of times a week.
After 25 sedentary years have lost 10kg so far and spend all week looking forward to Saturday spin. Can't wait for better weather and longer evenings.

Puggy

July 2012 aged 51, Cube Peleton Race. Commuting daily. The next best thing to cycling is joining a club, did this late 2014.

drogdub

darkvalley wrote: »

In may of 2013 I was 49 years old, living a very sedentary lifestyle, smoking 40 fags a day and panting while going upstairs. Something had to be done!
Heading on 2 years now, I have 2 bikes, a Cube Peleton Race,(great bike) and a Genesis Equilibrium kitted out for the winter and audaxing. I can cycle 200km in a day, go to Pilates 1 evening a week and swimming 1 evening (for the core!)
It strikes me as bizarre after spending over 30 year doing nothing to have morphed into fitness man!! but the cycling is addictive.

You off the smokes?

darkvalley

drogdub wrote: »

You off the smokes?

I wish Mostly on the E-fags with the odd break out. E-fags help with the breathing a lot.

Pinch Flat

Like most I had several bikes growing up - a raleigh medale was my pride and joy until it got nicked in 1992. Bought myself a Scott Sawtooth mtb with a few bob I had made working for summers in Germany. At the time it was a huge purchase - the guts of £500 odd from memory.

It was my primary means of transport when I started working in Dublin in 1995 when I finished college. Bike still sits in my shed as a 'winter project' that will happen some winter!

Fast forward to 2009 and after a bout of 6 months off work having been made redundant - I regret now not cycling during that period but cash was prioritised elsewhere - I purchased a new giant mtb for commuting a short distance to a new job. Picked up a second hand giant scr on here and that was it - mtb took a back seat and 2 years later I'm training for the etape on a new Stevens bike. Built up a Dolan which got nicked and bought a b'twin for commuting / winter training. Would love something nicer like a ribble or genesis steel bike for the commute but so be it.

Love my cycling - I'm I the bike virtually 7 days a week between commuting, spinning around with my 8 year old son and club spins / sportives on Sunday's. It keeps me in decent shape and I wouldn't think twice about a long cycle - managed a solo spin Dublin to Galway in a day a few years ago as well as w200, mick Byrne and numerous other sportives.

Edit - was 37 when I got back on the bike, 43 now

Oryx

Start back? How about just starting at 38? Never really learned as a kid. Its a bit of a steep learning curve as an adult!

secman

Took up cycling at the age of 30 ish having stopped playing footy. Did triathlon for about 10 years. . Had to stop most sports for about 10 years , had the 2 knees done, shoulders are well shot too. About 3 years ago started back on the bike at weekend down in Wexford. Still have my 1992 Raparee Columbus ALL tubing, Full dura ace on the go, and over the last few years started back sea swimming from May till October. 57 NOW and still trying..... my younger brother asked me one time why do you put your body through all that and I said " because I Can " as some day I won't be able to.........

nak

Stopped around 13 when my bike was stolen. Got a road bike at 26 and started cycling to work. Racing (use that term very loosely) 3 different disciplines now and maybe a 4th one this year.

PaddyFagan

Used to cycle to school as a kid, but stopped around 18 when I started college. Had restart attempt 1 about seven years ago, bought a hybrid, but I was around 100Kg and just didn't get into it. Over the last 3-4 years I've lost a good bit of weight (around 83Kg now), mainly through gym work and diet. Last summer I broke out the hybrid as an occasional alternate to the gym, got hooked. Bought a road bike in December, still breaking both it and me in - but enjoying. 39 now.

Paddy

quozl

Oryx wrote: »

Start back? How about just starting at 38? Never really learned as a kid. Its a bit of a steep learning curve as an adult!

I did that at 34, about 21 months ago. Started off with someone running behind me holding my seat post :-)

Did my first 200km ride 11 months later. Wish I'd learned years earlier.

nilhg

45, back in Jan 12 my daughter announced that she was going to run a marathon in April and challenged me to get off my backside and do something to get fit as well, our deal was that I'd cycle the route the day before.

28,000km or so later I'm still going.

Mugser

At just gone 38 I got a bike on the BTW scheme worth less than half of the allowable €1000 and it sat in the shed for 18 months until the wife's nagging of: "If you're not going to start using that bike then why don't you sell the bloody thing" finally got me going. One last weekend on the tear and off I went for myself for a 10k or so cycle. I quickly realised that I wasn't in my prime anymore, infact about half way through that 10k there was a little ramp of 100 metres or so, about 7% maybe at it steepest but I had to stop and get sick at the top!! But I kept at it and after I managed, round my 40th birthday, to do my first 50k it just seemed to get a bit less taxing. So what did I do next? Joined a club. Best move ever. 1 year of doing sportives and leisure/charity cycles and I took myself out a racing licence. The bike has been replaced and upgraded a few times now, safe to say,the BTW scheme wouldn't cover the price of the wheels now.

Wishbone Ash

Cycled almost daily until I was 28 (was cycling to work in the 1980's and 1990's when no one else was!). Drifted away from it for 14 years before returning to it in 2010 when I was 42.

Schecter01

Wow lots of really inspiring stories, great to see so many not afraid to get out there, I have the guys in work teasing away at the gear etc getting their giggles out of it, but I'm glad I won't be the only one on the road on similar tracks very play to everyone. Total respect!

drogdub

darkvalley wrote: »

I wish Mostly on the E-fags with the odd break out. E-fags help with the breathing a lot.

Same here, but from 40 a day to e-cigs is good going

not yet

4 score and 8..

tomasrojo

Didn't really stop for very long. Took the bus to college as I was persuaded it was too dangerous to cycle (incorrectly), but then I got a girlfriend in college I liked to visit outside hours facilitated by public transport, so back in the saddle, so to speak.

Wishbone Ash

Speaking of smoking, I was on 50/60 a day until 1997. I used to smoke on the bike which seemed perfectly normal to me at the time - it would look ridiculous now!

not yet

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Speaking of smoking, I was on 50/60 a day until 1997. I used to smoke on the bike which seemed perfectly normal to me at the time - it would look ridiculous now!

Ditto, and they were major too...

DanDublin1982

Just a couple of months shy of my 31st birthday and just a few pounds south of 20st.

Started with the hybrid and have had a few stalls along the way but cycled the ring on Kerry last year on my hybrid and now have the road bike which I'm beginning to get great use out of these days.

Have my eyes on the Wicklow 200 this year and now am just a few pounds above 14st.

cjt156

Cycled everywhere as a kid and teenager. Parked the trusty 10-speed racer in my parents' shed when I got my first motorbike at the age of 18.

Took it back out 23 years later, replaced anything too rusted to salvage and completed 3 Olympic distance Triathlons on it before I got my Canyon Roadlite on the BTW scheme. Mid-life crisis? Probably!

Unknown Soldier

darkvalley wrote: »

I wish Mostly on the E-fags with the odd break out. E-fags help with the breathing a lot.

drogdub wrote: »

Same here, but from 40 a day to e-cigs is good going

I really do have to do something about my habit of 2 packs a day

This was how I ended up taking up cycling @ 40

Did about 7,500km in 2014 and had high hopes for this year but an accident in January has messed the start of the year up

neris

Cycled to school in the mid 90s but my tyres kept getting punctured so stopped and move to school close to home. Off bike for bout 10 years to early 2000s when i gota hefty aul yoke in halfords to loose weight but gave up shortly after then restarted in 2010 on a decent bike and been on and off it since and loving it

Darkglasses

I only really started when I was about 20, I had bikes when I was a kid but I hardly used them, especially once my family moved out of Dublin.

alanucc

not yet wrote: »

4 score and 8..

Fair play for starting back at 88 years of age!

Started cycling to work myself around 24 and it has slowly taken over my life the last few years.

not yet

alanucc wrote: »

Fair play for starting back at 88 years of age!

Started cycling to work myself around 24 and it has slowly taken over my life the last few years.

Nice catch, I was just testing ya..

2 score and 8....HA HA

NeedMoreGears

Same as many, the bike was my only means of transport until 25. We had a car I cycled to work for a few years. Nothing much until late 2007, almost twenty years later. You know the rest........

The tax man

Like most kids in the 80's I went everywhere on my bike. Had a go at BMX racing but it wasn't my bag. Got into touring and joined the CTC when I was around 14. Then got into racing for a few years but in my late teens "other" things in life seemed more appealing. A brief stint mountain biking in the early 90's and then nothing till 2008/9.
Got back into cycling as a way to stay off the smokes. Still use an e-cig these days.
@Wishbone I still see riders at events having a quick fag before setting off.:eek:

eeeee

Grew up in a place 8 miles from the nearest town so bike was the main way of getting about. Moved to Dublin and brought the bike, don't have a car so never stopped cycling for transport. Started track last year, hopelessly hooked. Love racing on track, hope to branch out to race in Corkagh, maybe some road races too, depending on nerve

Inveterate bike rescuer, I have adopted/saved too many old men/lady bikes. Hate to see them thrown out. Need to stop turning my room into a vela retirement home…I never stopped naming bikes either To be fair they all have names, people just don't want to admit it

Carpenter

I started back @ 48 and was on 20 major a day I bought an e-cig and never looked back .
The hills are my friend now the steeper the better and when I am on them I have to catch up with the person in front its like a little race inside my silly head sometimes it works and sometimes I get dropped I don't really care but it is nice to cycle with someone that is 20 years younger than me and be able to keep on there wheel .

Borderfox

Started racing when I was 21 till I was 25, stopped due to work. Found my old racing bike last year and got the bug to get going again at 43.

A lot healthier and lighter and happy now

Inquitus

Stopped when I went to Uni, started again at 35, was 18 stone and massively unfit, now 38, 11 stone and racing A3!

Wishbone Ash

Inquitus wrote: »

... and racing A3!

Now I don't feel so bad that I couldn't hold your wheel on Howth the other night! :cool:

ted1

OP. Where are you based? Perhaps your near a fellow boardsie who could meet up with you and help you do your first 40/50.

RobFowl

Never stopped

ted1

Inquitus wrote: »

Stopped when I went to Uni, started again at 35, was 18 stone and massively unfit, now 38, 11 stone and racing A3!

Savage, fair play, any tips?

ford2600

At 30 was still playing a lot of gaelic and lots of hiking in off season. In Patagonia in February 2006 met up with a charity company on the beer in a mountain refugio at about 3000m.
They asked me did I cycle much, "nice bit" says I. Bottle of Malbec later and I was in as a group leader for London Paris charity trip in April.

Never got back to playing Gaa seriouly and my hiking boots are in good nick and cycling regularly since.

nc19

I started back in March '14 aged 33

really enjoy a good cycle now

ROK ON

I recall cycling at 8 - red and yellow bmx. At 11 I got a lovely Peugeot racing bike. White with single front ring 5 or 6 cog on the back. White saddle and white tape. Class machine. Had that till 14. Then I got a nice Raleigh 14 speed with Shimano front and rear derailleur. Lovely down tube shifters.
I raced my neighbours up to Cratloe woods and back. I had that bike till I was 22 and finished my undergraduate. It got me to school, work, college, on dates (cycled with a mate of mine from Limerick Ennis as a teen to meet up with some girls we met on holidays). That bike kept me fit for the rugby season. Loved it.

Stopped at 23 and didn't cycle from then till I was 32. Put on 5 stone and ended up at 18 stone weight. Moved to Chapelizod in Dublin and bought a hybrid to occasionally cycle to work in Dublin. Hated the hybrid as I never had a bike that felt heavy and so upright. But one to two days a week I cycled to work.
At 35 I got a drop bar cross bike and started doing some mileage and did the Ring of Kerry. Cycling since. Should never have stopped.

thesimpsons

I was 48 years old in january and never having never done any sport of any kind, I targgeted Ring of Kerry. Did it that year, twice more and managed over 5,000km last year. Hooked now, cold, rain or shine I'm out.

Mercian Pro

Started back sometime in the early 70s having tried to kill myself a few times on a Yamaha 100. Been at it ever since, mainly commuting up to 2009 when I signed up for a Dublin-Paris sponsored cycle. Rediscovered the real joy of the open road and have been addicted to sportifs and the mountains ever since. Highlights have been a week in the Alps in 2011 followed by Ventoux and then the Pyrenees. Just signed up for this year's Hospice cycle from Genoa to Rome so the addiction continues.

tacklemore

Did it all through my teens. Stopped when I went to college. Got back into it 2 years ago when I was 28, after I stopped smoking, 20 a day. Got a hybrid on my bike to work, 9 months later got a road bike on my gfs bike to work. Bug well and truly caught. Joined my first club this month. And so it continues.........

crosstownk

As with so many others, I cycled absolutely everywhere since my early teens. When I was 16 I started doing longer spins on my Peugeot Triathlon racer. The following year, Stephen Roche won the TdF and I, like so many others then joined a cycling club. I cycled with the Irish Road Club back when they were sponsored by AMEV Insurance.

At 19 I went to college and had full time use of my Mam's car. I got a part time job and then discovered the wonderful nectar called beer. A woman followed shortly after. The bikes - Peugeot Triathlon for winter and a Raleigh Road Ace Select for summer - got left in the shed and eventually I sold them. In hindsight that was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made.

At 37 I bought a decent hybrid and started cycling to work but after 6 months I changed employment. My new job had me travelling the length and breadth of Ireland so the bike got resigned to the shed.

My kids became old enough to cycle a reasonable distance so I dusted off the hybrid and started going for 8/10km spins with the kids. Then I began to go out on my own for 20/25km spins but I knew from previous experience that the hybrid was making the task harder so I did the obvious - I bought a road bike in December 2013 six weeks before my 44th birthday.

Over 5,500km later and I haven't looked back. I did the Wicklow 100 last year and am planning the 200 this year. I'll be on holiday in the French Alps this summer and already have bike hire sorted..........Don't tell the missus

I just do it to keep fit and compensate for my 15 or so fags per day but I do like to set targets for myself and find Strava an interesting tool in this regard.

It costs a few quid though - in more ways than one. I'll be paying someone to do a painting job in the house that I'd usually do myself because the time it will take will interfere with getting out on the bike!

Tomred13

Like Taxman and other's i never stopped cycling. started at 12 inspired by roche and kelly, Early and the legend off shay elliot. My aunt had a huge crush on Roche so i think thats how i first started watching the Tours in black and white back in the mid 80's. Instantly fell in love with the comotion , noise and spectacle thats the TDF..Hooked!! Lived in the midlands so instantly fell in love with the freedom that cycling brought. used to disapeared on my bike for hours usually ending with the local gardai being called. Joined Tcc in the midlands at 13, raced as a junior for athlone cc and other clubs through the 90's. Moved to the big smoke for college and became a bike courier for 5 years which was an experience ( not on a fixie like the lads today, used ultralite mtb's with pure slicks back then) . Since then ive been racing crosscountry mtb and the occasional road race. Was bitten by the bike bug as a young child and as a 41 yr old ive never looked back. Heaven knows its an expensive love affair !!