Caught the cycling bug. Anyone else?

Cycling has been my default way to get around town for most of my life. To me it's the best compromise between the intimacy with your surroundings that you get from walking and the time saved by using a vehicle.

Twenty five years ago I'd go riding just to go riding and loved some of the touring I did, these days I just incidentally enjoy getting around the place.

My kid is just getting competent at getting around on a bike and it's his favourite form of transport by far. I'm looking forward to him getting old enough that we can head out for a night or two.

I’ve been cycling regularly since 2018. It’s something I did a lot as a kid and wanted to get that joy back in my life. I do it for commuting and exercise. I have a folding Dahon bike - Single speed. I also have a Trek composite 3000 - single speed. I do like to go pretty hard and I track my times with an app called Ride With GPS.

My daily commute comes out to about 9 miles a day, 4.5 miles one way. The fastest I have made it to work so far is 17 minutes. I always ride safe though , I am not trying to do anything dangerous. The biggest ride I’ve ever done out here is called the STP (Seattle to Portland). It’s 210 miles total and took me 2 days. I did the whole thing on my single speed Trek, hills and all. It was great but incredibly difficult. I do some small rides every now and then like the Portland Bridge Pedal or some events during Pedalpalooza. I also do a trail out here called the Spring water corridor trail. It’s 25 miles one way so about 50 miles total. I can finish that in roughly 3 hours with breaks.

I can’t say I watch any pro cycling events but I probably should. Those guys and gals are nuts.

Me too! Started using a Peloton bike at my gym last year and lost a ton of weight as a result, finally wound up getting a “real” bike this summer (public v6) and it’s been a blast riding it around the city. I’m actually typing this up while on the train coming home from a ride :)

Indoor cycling is somewhat meditative to me, I just throw on some music and sit with my thoughts for the 30-90 minutes that I’m on the bike. Outdoor it’s just nice to be outside and get some fresh air.

Goal is to do the STP mentioned by @Nivlak eventually, still need to work on some skills first though. I’m not bold enough to do it on a single-speed though!

I picked up cycling again during covid and never looked back. I mainly cycle as a way to get around but iv joined cycle groups for social rides in the past.

I have also done a few tours through Europe and I'm currently thinking about doing a longer one to Asia next year. I have read a bunch of cycle travel books and have come to the conclusion that cycling can be a very political act. I think or also the best way to experience the world when travelling.

It's a great way to get around. I ride my bike for transportation and errands (sometimes my commute). The fitness benefit is an extra for me, in the same way that living in a walkable place keeps me healthy. What I like the most is the neighborliness and camaraderie of serendipitous encounters with other people biking; there's a special joy in those person-to-person interactions that's rarely replicated when we're in cars.

I run infrastructure campaigns with my city's bike advocacy nonprofit. We've had a lot of success mobilizing community/political support and funding for better bike lanes and pedestrian improvements. I started doing this because a friend of mine got hit by a car (sadly common). It's given me the opportunity to connect with a lot of amazing people and communities I wouldn't otherwise have met. Nice to bring people together. :)

So I do occasionally do bike rides for fun, but most of my time on my bike is spent commuting (which I do enjoy). I commute year round, so temperatures range throughout the year from +30C to -35C (not including wind chill). I ride the same bike year round, which is an old mountain bike (without suspension) that I swap tires out between seasons so that I am running studded tires in the winter. While both sets of tires are 26x2 (which makes it easy for stocking tubes), my studded tires are almost double the width of a contact patch due to the very different tread patterns.

In the summer the enjoyment of riding is due to being able to ride faster and do tighter manoeuvres. I normally make sure during the summer that my bike is riding smoother with some maintenance, with more aggressive braking and try and get my shifter indexed properly.

In the winter riding is this fun challenge that provides a different level of enjoyment (most times). If the conditions are good (which means the snow is packed down, as partially packed down snow gives me a tendency to fishtail) then I find it relatively easy to bike. It does require being a lot more intentional about weight distribution. I do quite enjoy winter riding, as there is an intensity of it where you need to be paying attention and it does require more effort (rolling resistance is higher in the snow). Bike maintenance is tougher in the winter, since a lot of bike components are not designed to work well when it gets to about -20C. Also, the spring melt with the salt just wears down parts quicker

When I go for longer periods without driving, I have found that my brain adjusts to the speed of biking, and find that for some streets, the speed limit for cars is too high. When driving consistently, going 50km/h down city streets seem fine. However, when your brain is used to going 25km/h going 50 km/h seems quite high, and you realize how much of situational awareness you are losing at that speed.

I visited a cousin in Brooklyn ten years ago and he had an extra bike and suggested we go for a ride. At the time, I hadn't been on a bike for more than ten minutes since I was a child, but I said yes. We rode over the Brooklyn Bridge and tooled around Manhattan and did about eight miles that day. I was immediately hooked. The wind in your face, the feeling of freedom, and the ease of getting around are all intoxicating. It was just a lot of fun.

I went to my LBS (local bike shop) and bought a Giant Escape 3 hybrid for $350. I rode the hell out of it, added toe clips to the pedals, bar ends, and a rear rack. I used it for my first big event, the 5 Boro Bike Tour. It was great. They shut down a bunch of major roads and the Verrazano bridge and you get to circle the whole of NYC with 30,000 other cyclists. My skill level at the time put me well ahead of most people and well behind the elite riders, so I spent most of my time trailing the lead pack. I would catch up to them at certain holding points, and when we were given the ok to go, you’d hear a hundred people clip into their pedals at the same time and it was a cool sound.

After about three years on my Giant, I decided I was ready for an upgrade, and I kept reading about this new trend of gravel biking. I was scoping Craigslist for months when I spotted a very lightly used Fuji Tread with drop bars and disc brakes. It retailed for about $900 and I got it for half that. I tried clipless pedals for the first time with that bike, and, as is custom, fell over embarrassingly the first week, but never again since (knock wood!).

I had several great bike trips during this time. I did my longest ever ride, which was 70 miles from Ocean City, NJ to the Cape May lighthouse and back, following along the ocean and taking every little drawbridge. It was a memorable experience but one I won’t be repeating. It is more mentally draining than even physically. I also biked every single State Park in my home state of NJ. Personally, there is nothing more soothing to me than a long, empty, sun-dappled road snaking through the Pine Barrens. I also took a summer bike trip with a friend to Seattle and Portland. We rented road bikes and did 40-50 miles every day exploring the entirety of those exceptionally bike-friendly cities.

I also became a winter biker. I considered buying a stationary bike or a trainer, but indoor cycling just never seemed to provide even a fraction of the enjoyment that outdoor did. I was also once at the LBS and was asking one of the mechanics about trainers and he gave me the full rundown. But when I asked if he used one, he just laughed and said no, he was a “purist.” I think that lodged something in my brain and I decided right then I wanted to be a purist too. I had more than my share of bone-chilling rides before I dialed in the gear just right. You can’t just look at temperatures, you also need the windspeed and humidity to know how to dress properly. Even if it’s a bright, sunny day in the high 60s, you can still freeze your butt off if it’s also very dry and windy. Also, in the very cold, don’t try to bundle up in heavy padding. It’s unwieldy and you’ll overheat. The key is to have a thin outer layer that blocks the wind. Once you have that, your riding will generate sufficient body heat and the wind won’t be able to steal it from you. Also, super thick gloves or mittens will impede your dexterity a lot. Bar mittens or pogies are much better.

My smartest move was creating a bike clothes journal. I made a spreadsheet with every item of clothing I wear while biking. Then I add a new day for each ride that lists the weather details and I check off everything I wore. If I was too cold or too hot, I would note that when I got back. Then the next time it’s time to ride, I check the weather and find a day on my sheet that looks similar and see what I wore. After two years of that, I have pretty much every weather condition figured. More than once I’ve looked at what I wrote and thought “that can’t be right,” but I’ve learned to trust it!

My second smartest move was deciding I didn’t care how dorky a rearview mirror mounted on my eyeglasses looked. I don’t know how people ride without them. I tried sideview mirrors on the handlebars, but they are useless when turning. After ten years of riding with my eyeglass mirror, I don’t even notice it. It’s like having eyes in the back of my head.

At some point I decided I wanted to know more about bike wrenching and found a LBS that offered classes (which isn’t that easy given that most shops don’t want to teach you how to do services they sell). I spent a couple hundred bucks on nine hours of private lessons from a really great bike mechanic, and a similar amount on new tools. I still don’t entirely trust myself on everything, but I know how everything works now and have technically rebuilt a bike from parts, which is all very useful information. That bike mechanic also taught me how to change a tire, which I’ve thankfully only had to do once roadside.

Three years into my Fuji and I decided it was time to upgrade again. I genuinely enjoy mountain and gravel biking, but if I’m being really honest with myself, I’m a road dog. MTB and gravel take way more skill and focus. It’s not to say I lose focus while on the road (you ignore the risk the cars pose at your own peril), but I get into a zen-like state while road biking that I can’t on a trail where I’m trying to navigate tricky rocks and roots all the time. I’ve seen gravel riders and underbikers who are like billy goats effortlessly traversing trails where I would have to walk my bike, but I never got that good and eventually decided I was happier on the road.

My first two bikes were relatively cheap. They were aluminum frames with no frills groupsets. The Fuji had Shimano Claris, which is barely above entry-level but also a very capable, reliable and low maintenance drivetrain. Still, I wanted to try something more. The bike I rented in Portland was a vintage steelie that had been upgraded with Shimano Tiagra (two steps above Claris) and it was quite nice, so I was determined to get something at least that good.

I agonized over the decision for too long, filling out extensive spreadsheets with options, listing weights, groupsets, and stack and reach lengths, before deciding I was never going to find a goldilocks bike and to just bite the bullet and go for something. I saw an ad from a different LBS near me for a sale on Cannondales and went for a test ride. I ended up with a 2022 Synapse with a 105 groupset (one above Tiagra) in carbon for $3,000. It’s an endurance road bike, which means the geometry is a little more forgiving than road bikes built for racing, but it’s still plenty fast and nimble. It’s definitely one of my favorite toys ever.

When e-bikes started becoming popular, I figured I should give that a try too. I got a folding Rad Power for around $1,100 which was a good deal at the height of the pandemic when everyone was buying up bikes left and right. It is certainly enjoyable and I’ve put several thousand miles on it, but it just doesn’t scratch the itch that human-powered pedalling does. I never feel the same sense of satisfaction afterwards. I sometimes bike with my dad who is getting up there in years, him on the e-bike and me on my standard bike. He likes to go fast and I would struggle to keep up with him. So when I went to visit him in Florida this winter I rented an e-bike. We did several long rides together and it was very nice, but I came away convinced it just isn’t for me. Next time, I’ll rent a regular bike and just continue to struggle to follow him. It’s better that way.

These days, most rides are about 20 miles, and I get them in pretty much whenever the weather permits, which works out to something like 1-2 days a week in the dead of winter and 5-7 in the warmer months. I average about 3,000 miles a year. I enjoy riding with others from time to time, but usually I’m alone and I like the solitude of it. Once you develop sufficient muscle memory and familiarity with road patterns, there is something so calmingly simple about it. Leg up, leg down.

I've been riding an electric bike to work 3-4 days a week for the past 2 months. It's an Aventon Aventure 2, which has a throttle up to 20mph and otherwise a torque sensor that assists up to 28mph. I just use the throttle uphill, but there's a ton of hills on my commute, so it's pretty often. I'm still pedaling on the uphills because many are steep enough that the motor can't hit 20mph on its own. On the flats and downhills I'm just pedaling, though that still gets motor assist. It's about a 13 mile ride, which takes me 35-45 minutes on the bike.

It's kind of cheating, but only in the same way that driving a car is cheating. I track my rides with my smartwatch, and I usually spend ~70% of my time in zone 2 heartrate, which is basically perfect for sustained cardio workouts. In any case, I'm just trying to commute, so there's not a lot of serious working out involved. Although some would consider 3-4 hours of zone 2 per week to be a pretty good workout.

The only thing I miss about driving is all the audiobooks I would listen to while sitting in traffic. I tried the bone conduction thing, but the wind is just way too loud at the speeds I'm riding to consistently hear narration without cranking the volume to dangerous levels.

I don't bike much due to the weather (consistently 28-32C, 70%+ humidity, UV 6-7), though I've considered picking up a helmet so I could at least do a bikeshare or something when my spouse has the car. There is an excellent resource from Virginia Tech rating bicycle helmet safety. They've got other sport/activity helmet sections too.

I've never really been into cycling myself, but I can definitely see the appeal around here. We've got some unbelievable mountain views nearby, paired with equally unbelievable steep hills. I guess one of the perks of island living is that everything is either uphill or downhill, with barely any flat ground in between.

I'm always seeing world-class-looking cyclists grinding their way up the roads every now and then. A coworker of mine also started cycling recently, which has brought some interesting convdrsations, it feels like a new "cycling fever" is slowly developing.

I suck ass at riding a bicycle. It's one of those things that I've been meaning to get better at, and it's pretty amazing how bad I am at it.

I do HIIT, and I can run for miles, row for a long term on an erg, do burpees well, you name it. I'm not a cardio beast or anything, but I can hang in there. When it comes to biking though? Five minutes at a decent pace and I'm done.

I don't know why I'm so horrifically bad at it, but I have been all my life. I'd like to get into cycling at one point just to see if there's something about my physiology that makes me terrible at it or if it's something I can overcome with practice and conditioning.

I hope to get to where you are soon! I've been meaning to bike for leisure and exercise more than just for running quick errands. I'd like to bike more year-round but the weather always intimidates me :(

I got really into cycling around 2021 - it started as trying to be a bit more fit, especially as the city I was then living in had got a bunch more bike lanes and also the reduced traffic made things less intimidating.

I started with the city's bike share bikes for about 6 months, then got my own Giant Escape 0 bike which I'm using still. I've moved more rural since and it's pretty much perfect for getting across the smaller town I live in now, and I've taken it a bit more down country lanes and similar too.

I'm actually considering getting a second gravel bike now. One part is to see what all the clipless pedals and drop handlebar fuss is about, one part is my current bike is pretty configured for town use (racks, panniers, etc) and it would be nice to not have to reconfigure it back and forth when I want something a bit lighter.

The options in local bike shops are (depending on the shop) some selection of Giant, Trek, Cube and the bike shaped objects, so I'm leaning between either a Giant Revolt or Defy for the new bike. I'm probably more leaning towards the Revolt for the less aggressive position and wider tyre support, but I already basically entirely use gears 6-12 on my escape so that has me wondering about a faster bike. Also even the tyre on my Escape is a physically strenuous activity to get on/off so I'm a little worried that even wider tyres might be worse there.

The outside option is to get a folding e-bike because the full size bike spaces on the train to the city get booked out quick these days, but given how rarely I go to the city it feels like I may as well just grab a city bike while I'm there when I can't get my own there.