So what got you into bikes? If you’ve always been into them what brought you back to the saddle after a family?

Always, I mean ALWAYS had a bike? Mid life crisis? Watched a particular race/tv event? A mate lit your fire or an implanted chip from a distant alien abduction?

My personal story – once upon a time a wonderful guy (me) was dumped by the love of his life. Ooh some years ago now but I remember been so cut up about it. I even rang the Samaritans a few times. After much soul searching I realised I needed to get a hobby that was my own. No memories of her, just new memories. The sad thing is in a weird way she is still bleeding me dry. I’ve always named a particular jump after her and so far it’s cost me 1x buckled xt rim, 2 rear mechs and a couple of taxi trips to the hospital

Bitch

I’ve always named a particular jump after her and so far it’s cost me 1x buckled xt rim, 2 rear mechs and a couple of taxi trips to the hospital

😆

I wanted an alternative to getting the bus to work.

Whoa, yeah mate that is a bit weird, I think you need to get over it ( no pun intended) I thought you were trying to forget ……….
she must have been a helluvva jump !!

She must have been a very good ‘Jump’ 🙂

Started riding with my dad, still do that now but met my best mate riding and going to the Alps with him and a few others at the end of August and I can’t wait.

I wanted an alternative to getting the bus to work.

This

Cheap but decent mountain bike for riding to work, local paths and trails.

It got nicked and the insurance replacement was much nicer, up to this point I had though a bike was just a bike. Decided to see what difference a bit of money would get me and got my first proper MTB.

Worked out at this point that a bike was a series of components that could all be changed / upgraded and the rest is history!

muppetWrangler – Member

I wanted an alternative to getting the bus to work.

For Three Grand ?! Cudda bought a bus 😆

Always loved bikes, took about eight years off to get drunk, mate suggested a bike ride one time, got back into bikes, don’t drink much now.

Was getting a little porky. Bought MTB for commute. Bought another. Bought a road bike. Bought another.

No need to justify spending. If I can afford it and I want it, I’m having it.

For Three Grand ?! Cudda bought a bus

True 🙂 . It was more of a response to:

So what got you into bikes?

My first bike was around £300.

I love the outdoors and am lucky enough to live in the North Downs, riding singletrack is the closest thing I can do in the UK to skiing and anyway it’s always fun to learn new things.

Started playing about on bikes about 13 years ago, never stopped! That and I’m a sucker for the latest gadgets…

learned to crawl (~6 months old), learned to walk (<1 year old), learned to cycle (~2 years old), never looked back.

OP – MTFU

No woman is worth having your life (or bike) ruined over.

I’ve always ridden bikes regardless of what has been happening. It’s one of the few constants that has kept me sane. I intend to keep it that way from here on in.

😀

I have had a decent-ish bike since the point of having any disposable money as teenager and I hope that never has to change. My opinion of what i ‘need’ seems to have grown a bit since then though (in 1996 i REALLY wanted a suspension fork, seemed unrealistic at the time).

I don’t really know why i started, but probably the accessibility of local trails and mates that were starting out were the main causes. Today its a mixture of habit and friends, as well as the enjoyment of the whole darn thing that keeps me in it.

Holidays as a kid were always arrived at by car, Devon, Cornwall, south coast. So hours on motorways were high. As an only child I had no one to fall out with in the car, so in my head was an imaginary bmx rider belting along doing tricks off all the motorway furniture. Yeah that’s right – McKaskill came from MY imagination – and could do about 60 mph on motorways.

At about the age of 6 I had an operation and as a reward for, actually I think for living, I got a BMX, have had an active bike pretty much ever since. I just love the ability to get to places under your own power.

I love the feeling of riding along flanked by birds, I think it’s the closest I’ll ever come to flying with them.

Bikes are great, geeky, maintainable creations.

I didn’t do any riding this weekend but bled and sorted a hose on my MTB with my best mate yesterday. Something we don’t find time for much any longer but a rewarding way to spend a bit of the day.

I also hate traffic and bikes are rarely stuck in traffic.

I’ve messed about on a bike since I was a kid. From learner bike to BMX to MTB and loved off-road riding ever since. (edit to add, missed the point about the 3k justification.. )

First proper mountain bike aged 15 when they were ‘cool’. Messing about in the woods progressed to proper trips to the Peaks by 16-17, never looked back.

But I’ve never owned a 3 grand bike BTW!

Same as Deus, ALWAYS had bikes since my age would have been referred to in monthst rather than years.

I used to ride at DJ trails where the last jump in one set was named after a girl.
I’d always assumed the locals were calling it the “Stellar” jump as it was the biggest in the set and steeper so sent you into orbit! No.. turns out it was just their dodgy westcountry accents and the jump was named the “Stella” jump after the empty lager cans burried under the earth. I loved Stella once a long time ago but now like so many other old loves it just gives me a headache and makes me feel shit for a few days after 😉

I lived in the mountains in Wales as a kid – taking my bmx to the top and razzing back down was the best thing in the world. Even better than breaking windows, building dens or stealing ciggies.

It still is.

Pretty much always had a bike but done the discovering beer and women and left it alone.

Now settled down wanting to get fit. Injured early this year on first real training ride so only had about 6 weeks training. Absolutely loving being back in the saddle. Looking at buying a second bike as get bored easily so wanting a CX bike as do it all kind of machine.

Forunately my partner loves to get rid of me for a few hours and lets me induldge in my new found hobby. It was her suggestion to splash out £4k on a new bike, so I better use it.

I had to sell all my Moto X bikes ,and they (ATBs)were the next best thing (for getting off road)at the time. 🙂

Always had bikes, then had a gap (during the formative MTB years). Had a house with nowhere to keep a bike.
Then I met my mate Matt. One day he turned up for work with his face all scabby and bruised. Looked like he’d been in a scrap.
Nope, he’d been doing this “mountain biking” lark and crashed into a fence… COOL! I have to try this. Borrowed bikes from friends and family and Matt took me to these interesting places out in the lovely countryside. Hooked.
I remember my first off-road excursion, trying to pedal up a muddy hill until my thighs felt like they were going to explode and I had to stop.
It’s still utterly, utterly brilliant innit 😀

It’s still utterly, utterly brilliant innit

Tru dat 😀

It’s now my oldest sport hobby passtime addiction 😉

HAd bikes when i was a nipper etc, up to about 18 i guess… but they were just bikes, not really a daily thing or a ‘sport’ as such.

I then moved just 100m from the Downs and bought a cheapish GT, then a Carrera then…. etc etc. It was one of the best decisions i made.

So much so that my other 2 motorcycling mates rarely ride motorbikes … but are often out with pedals

I’m 50 years old, as a kid all we had were footballs and bikes…..

I used to ride without reason as a kid, happily doing 30+ miles in a day on a shit halfords carerra thing. When I say as a kid I mean about 8 to 12… then at 12 I got into BMX until I was about 16… at which point I kept hurting myself a lot and canoeing was my main sport so biking hit the back burner.

12 year break from riding bikes, with no other real hobby apart from motorbikes… a friend then says come for a bike ride, I reject on the basis I now it will end up expensive as I remember how hooked I used to be.

6 months down the line I bought an £800 cube for me, and a £500 Trek for my girlfriend and we wnet to Llandegla for the weekend.

I was hooked again, and the story unfolds from there… I ended up bending the Cube, then got it replaced under warranty and sold it. Bought an orange five pro for a stupid amount of money, spent a further £1500 making in a very high spec AM for going to the Alps.

I also bought a carbon Cube hardtail a couple of months ago after stupidly agreeing to enter the Isle of Man Manx end2end.

Now my girlfriend is on the edge of dis-owning me on the basis all I am bothered about is bikes again.

I quite fancy a road bike now too.

Always loved bikes as a kid. Myself and a few mates were always saving up pocket money to buy a new tyre or saddle etc. Then a noticed a local bike race when i was 14. I joined the club who organized the event and started weekly rides with them. My mates never got into the club and sat around in parks.

I then started xc racing and hill climbs and got a part time job in a LBS to fund my hobby. Then with uni and work i stopped riding for 6 years but kept all 5 bikes. Sold 3 and stated riding again. The best part is i got my girlfriend into it too! We now go riding with the same club every weekend. Though i do enjoy some road rides on my own from time to time.

Whilst doing A Levels I found out I could ride pretty hard and for looooong periods on the road, mate lent me a bike, I joined my local club (via my local bike shop), did ok at roadie races then got asked to join the LBS’s team, boy done good and moved onto a few other teams after that.. Did lots of MTB’ing during winter and off season, lived in a spectacular place which enabled me to become quite good at getting muddy. Then I fell out of love with it all, went sailing and didn’t touch a bike for 10+years, met up with an old mate who brought along a spare bike, I looked at him like I was going to hit him hard but I jumped on and the love flowed back. Gone are the racing days… it’s just fun, fun, fun now and long may that continue.

Used to ride BMX a lot in my youth, went ‘everywhere’ on that bike. Indeed, looking back, that was the very beginning of Upgradeitis as new parts were always top of the birthday / Christmas list.
BMX went AWOL for a while and I never rebuilt it when it came back. Ended up swapping the box of bits for a snooker cue….
Tried mountain biking (on a borrowed Raleigh Mustang!)
Liked Mountain Biking.
Purchased my first bike, Orange Clockwork LX, from Leisure Lakes. Onza helmet, Axo ankle boots, proper old style toe clips etc.
Some scrote relieved me of said bike. From the garage. We were not insured, thanks, dad. Not.
Bike not replaced….
Scroll forward many, many years and, like the OP, a fallout with MrsMM, beta version, precipitates the purchase of my mates old trek. It ended up little used – bought in haste = too small, elastomer forks no use for my bulk… I did not enjoy riding it…
Scroll forward again, settled with MrsMM V2.0. Old job used to have an annual bonus, I was allowed to spend a chunk of one bonus on a bike. That was 6 years ago, still ride it now, 2006 Fisher Ziggurat….

Always had bikes since an early age. Grew up in the country, and parents who would rather I was outside than watching TV helped of course.

Only started riding offroad at about 15 though. Got big into it around 16-18 when I got my first summer job and saved for a decent bike. Then passed my driving test, and carried on riding, whilst suddenly all but one or two of my mates sold up to pay for cars/booze/girls/drugs.

Rode less through uni as I discovered girls myself, then motorbikes. Always kept a bike through that time though and did the occasional ride.

Scroll forward another 8 years or so, and I’ve been fully back into it for a while. But my love of riding bikes has just grown and grown, so much so that it’s been infectious as some old mates have started back up again occasionally, and both ex GF’s of mine got into it too when going out with me, and still ride themselves now.

My dad put us all on bikes pretty much as soon as we could walk. Growing up round here, everyone had a BMX or a mountain bike. But eventually I just fell out of love with it, early 90s mountain biking was a bit crap IME… Still rode for transport up til I got my motorbike licence but that was all.

So about 15 years after my last ride, I broke my hip, then 6 months after (almost as soon as I was off the crutches) I tore my ACL in the same leg. After the physio finished I was trying to get it stronger but it was too knackered to do much with- couldn’t walk any distance never mind run or push weights. So I dragged out the pushbike, and started riding- literally a mile was all I could do, then 2 miles, then one day decided to see if I could find some of the old trails from childhood… That went well so I got a cheapo Carrera from the classifieds.

Then I picked up a copy of WMB, and ChrisL of this parish had written in- I went to uni with Chris but we’d lost touch, my fault I think. So I dropped him a text, that led to going riding together at glentress, and that led to, well, addiction.

So that’s a bit of a weird route towards finding a life’s love- crippling injury and freakish coincidence 😆 But I owe this to Chris and Dave and Mr Keenan my surgeon. Some debts I think are too big to repay.

only £3k ??? 😉

Got hooked on riding between 91 to 96, went to Uni and really went to town on the drinking & shagging

Started working and was massivly career minded and smoked too much

Came out of a intense relationship last Easter. Some mates invited me to Glentrees the week later. Rode my old bike for 30 mins then went to the Hub and rented some proper bikes

Travelled home and ordered a Zesty

Got back with Mrs 8 weeks later. It nearly worked, but she hated how much i cycled

Decided that a trip to Exmoor would be better than a trip to Paris with her

Relationship terminated!

Top 100 finish in the IOM E2E

Just built a Liteville 301

3 weeks to go until my first Alps trip

Never been happier

was well into bikes as a teenager (i’m 39 now) and through uni, kind of lost interest for a good few years, until I rediscovered it again 2 years ago… this was due in part to neading a bit of a lifestyle change.
I’d been piling on the weight, and the doctor had been digging me out over my blood presure.

Bought a Boardman hardtail through C2W, wrecked it and ploughed far too much money into building a nice hardtail using the Boardman frame.
Last month I bought a hybrid on C2W as I reckon road riding might improve the fitness a bit.
Two years on, the blood presure is sorted, I’m still too fat, but 2 stone lighter than I was.

I’m loving all things cycle related… next on the shopping list (after a loft conversion) is a nice full susser, and mybe a trip to the Alps..?

I wrote an epic response to this detailing every bike I’ve ever had. Since I was about 8 I’ve always had a bike- though it hasn’t always been a massive part of my life. I’ve probably not spent much more than 3K in total on bikes , not counting repairs an the current stable might total something like 3k to replace old for old, but it’s not like I ever took out crippling finance or dropped a massive wad one one bike… It’s a gradual infection. It sure as hell gets ou to some great places, you meet some good people, and pervereslley I enjoy wrenching even more than riding…

Well, I saw how much fun my kids were having on their bikes and thought ‘I want some of that’. Started late in life really!

I’ve always had bikes, mostly bmxes as I only really got into mtb a few years ago. I would never spend £3k on a bike, such a waste when you can get something good for well under a grand.

it rained too much to climb every weekend (and that was starting to scare me a bit)

mate went travelling and sold me his Orange Evo 2 on instalments. Think I cracked a month after I had finished paying for it.

Never paid for a new full bike before so they are not that expensive…….