Out on the road bike yesterday for the fist time since Febuary which is the longest I’ve gone without riding since 1997… I havent been on a mtb ride since November!
What’s the longest you guys have ever gone without riding, and has there ever come a point where you have considered just selling your bike(s) and stop kidding yourselves?
What about even just a change of discipline? Have you ever considered just becoming a roadie instead?

Since November due to old shoulder injury… taking an age to heal and i’ve got a right beer belly on me, luckily Mrs Almightly likes a bit of ‘real man’ to squeeze.
Got a brand new 29’r sitting at home with laundry hanging off it 🙁

About 2.5 months. Never considered giving up. Have changed disciplines a few times, but I end up doing them all.

Mrs Almightly likes a bit of ‘real man’ to squeeze.

Too right 😉

Since 96… I had 3 months off in 98 (nearly dead). That’s it I think.

I’d love to give up. But I’d have to do something else to stop me getting fat(ter).

I’d rather get very fat than be a roadie.

I didn’t bike at all for about 8 months with an illness. Still struggle to ride regularly now but I love it as much as ever.

9 months with a smashed up leg, but I rode my bike again within an hour of getting the all clear, never once thought about giving up but was very scared i might not ride again during my rehab

3 months after a broken hip and about 8 weeks after a knee injury.

didn’t consider giving up.

I seem to end up spending more on bits when I’m not riding though…

I was in an ankle cast for 28 weeks but I went stir crazy after about 10 weeks and fitted a wooden platform to my pedal and went riding with the cast on.

Currently 7 weeks due to shoulder op and have been told no biking for at least another 3-4 weeks 😡 but allowed on the turbo trainer 😥

I collapsed through exhaustion from racing and looking after a very premature baby. When the fire brigade have to break into a bathroom window to pull your half naked bleeding body out of the house and into a waiting ambulance you know it’s time for a rest…. a few years in my case.

Had five months out a few years back. Injured my back prior to Christmas, and broke my ribs five months later on my first ride back.
Never wanted ever to give up.

Got to about 3 months a few months ago, due to the business and the little one whose now 15 months in conjunction with my wife having surgery and not being able to lift her.
However all is settling down now and have been getting out a bit more regularly fitness is not great but alot better than expected, just great to be outside in the middle of nowhere!
Will never give up until my body does 😀

Been off the bike since February due to an injury. Hope to catch the last weeks of the summer if we have one but that depends on how well the physio goes.

I stopped for the best part of a year, partly due to not having any riding pals, partly due to finding other hobbies which gradually took over. I was lying in bed one night and suddenly thought “my God, what if I never rode Penmachno again”. The thought of missing out on all that mountain biking has to offer really scared me and got me back out pretty soon. I’m riding at lot more often now that I have for years. The problem is I’ve got fat in the meantime, so I’m a bit slower than I was. Still love it though, can’t see myself giving up voluntarily.

I go through phases and have had quite a few 6 month periods off. This winter I didn’t ride from November to April and even the summer of 2010 I was only riding once a month or so.

i have been off the bike since 10th of october last year.
i went out on the bike on saturday for a very very slow scenic 27ish mile pootle.
i will be trying to keep the pootling up until i get mended by a heart doctor.

5 weeks with a broken thumb was the longest off the bike

Consider giving up and selling the bikes approximately 1 in every 4.5 minutes during a ride.

Have seriously considered selling the lot several times, but particularly when I really struggled to get any resemblance of mojo for a long time after the thumb incident. Realised on Sunday that I am finally, finally, back to being able to crash without worrying about how it could have led to something far worse than a few bruises. That was a great feeling.

i had about a year off the bike with tendonitus. It was in 3 limbs so knocked out climbing and even fell walking. 14 years on i’m still not 100% . But i would have hot better way quicker if i’d been more positive. No never thought about giving up. As i get fitter i realise how unfit i’ve hot.

I seem to end up spending more on bits when I’m not riding though…

Glad it’s not just me. Time off the bike is expensive. I’ve spent 6 months out of the last 20 months out through injury. I have considered (briefly) jacking in the mtb and sticking to my road bike but life’s too short. 8)

Once you’ve been off the bike a while though I do think it’s harder to motivate yourself to get out, especially if you ride on your own. Once you do make the effort though it’s always worth it.

if your not riding you bikes then get a motorbike .

about 12 years whilst enjoying myself with a dirty rock n roll lifestyle which had to stop or I’d have been found dead in gutter.

got back into biking and it’s much the same as drugs except more expensive 😯

one day I will get my fitness back, unless this is a good as it gets and it’s all downhill from here in which case I’m stuffed.

if your not riding you bikes then get a motorbike .

I’d last about 5 minutes on a motorbike before I wrapped it around a lampost or in a hedge.

What about even just a change of discipline? Have you ever considered just becoming a roadie instead?

Worked for me. It’s been over two years since I slung my leg over a mountain bike. After getting sick of regularly going out on my own more and more I though F*** It, I’ve had enough of this s***. So, sold my mountain bike and bought a road bike (must admit to being more than a bit ‘road-curious’ before this). Can’t say I’ve looked back, I even enjoy going out on my own.

As the saying goes; a change is as good as a rest.

At least it was in my case, and what a long rest it’s been. I’ve thought about hiring a mountain bike and heading off for a ride. Only once, and then quickly thought nah, where’s my road bike.
I look at mountain bikes nowadays and just think, bloody hell that’s ugly. ALTHOUGH, I was in a shop the other day and they had a Pace 104 frame there, I nearly weakened……………………… so got back on my road bike.

Give it a go, but don’t sell your mountain bike, you may find that actually you do enjoy mountain biking more. You’ll never know unless you try.

If only it was as easy to give up visiting this site. If only I could find a road equivilent to STW.

yes due to depression/laziness.have not ridden bike for months,but recently started a thread on here to try and get my motivation back.absolutely love riding my bike (even though i am slower than a very slow thing 😉 have met some great people on the setting a scene forum (wiltshire) and been on a few rides with some of them.am also going to do a team 12 hour erlestoke event on 28th (22nd seeing rush at n.e.c 😀 i never EVER want to give up riding my bike again (i need it for my sanity/would be completely lost without it) it’s just strange that it had to take something pretty extreme to make me realize that though.good luck to all of you who are thinking of quitting (for whatever reason) :-)EDIT i didn’t mean good luck to quit.you know what i mean 😀

Broke my arm at the elbow in a November, full cast from palm to shoulder, but only for a month. It was another 3 months before I could straighten my arm enough to ride a bike. That was the longest break I’ve ever had. Was it awful? Not really, whilst in cast I met the girl…

Did I consider giving up? Hell no, I had just bought a new frame the day I broke it, and spent the time building it up (only to have it stolen after 3 rides)

About 2000 to 2008 I think. Since then, only for a few weeks at a time due to injuries

I’ve been off the bike since December, just too much on at work. I’ve never been off a bike for more than four weeks in 20 years.

Ironically, since December I’ve finally found myself in a place of work that I can commute to on bike, and I thought I’d be absolutely flying by now. 🙁

I’m spending too, to pretend I’m still a cyclist. I bought a new 2010 Ghisallo frame in April (silly cheap) amd I’m about to order either a Salsa Vaya, Fargo or Surly Troll and build it up with mudguards and a Hamax baby seat so I can ride it to work and drop Junior off at nursery on the way.

I have got to start riding again: I’m even more generally grumpy than normal… Booked two hols in the Lakes for July and October so I’d better get some miles in before that, or carrying my son on my back or in a trailer is going to kill me.

Typing this was strangely motivating!

In 4 years I had 7 months off, mtbing, 4 months off and then the odd month here and there due to fatigue syndrome.

‘Hit the North’ spurred me to keep riding.
Will never give up. Can’t imagine life without cycling.

so far since dec last year and been extended now to possibly winter 11 (wtf)

longest time was 14 months in 2002/03 the first time back riding was a cycling holiday to the dordonge with family, 😕

Was hardly ever on the MTB between last September and this March so considered selling it several times. Still commuted daily and the odd road ride kept me cheery.

But having been off all bikes since then I CANNOT WAIT to get back on the lot of them!

Spent 2 or 3 years only riding (other than commuting) once every 3 or 4 months or so, from about 2000 to 2003, then got hit by the bug again.

Another 4 months off from August to December 2008, firstly due to a fractured scaphoid then due to Chronic Fatigue.

These days, I don’t ride anywhere near as much as most people on this forum, but I can’t imagine going any more than a fortnight tops (more like a week normally) without going out for at least a couple of hours on the bike.

Years ago: Around 3 years, coinciding with university…..

Recently: the last 13 weeks and counting. I’ve had (in order): ear infection, chest infection, gastric flu, full on bedridden flu, chest infection. And I’ve just moved house.

Haven’t ridden my MTB since, er, Hit the North last July, but my natural inclination is the road bike.

I’m really, really, really missing it….

For me it would have been… two months… But that was because I was badly injured and couldn’t ride.

You see, for me cycling is not a pleasure, although I do take pleasure from it, it’s a compulsion. I can’t stop myself. I have to do it.

SB

I stopped riding when my commuter bike got nicked in 1976. Then I started again 18 years later in 1994 and haven’t stopped since, except for a 4 month layoff for a broken leg in 97.

10 weeks with a trapped nerve in my back. Really scared I might be forced to give up, but nearly a year on and 2 solo 24hrs later I’m feeling more confident about it.

I went to Coedy Brenin a few weeks ago, something I had hoped would rejuvenate my love for bikes, after riding since 1987 and loving riding from 2000-2008, I just have totally lost the love. Kids have meant I have sought a quicker fix when it comes to keeping fit and that has come from running. I ran up and down Snowdon a couple of days later and loved it. My 2 grand mtb currently gets much more use as an urban hack trailer puller whilst I get my weekend kicks fell running!

Been off the bike with post viral / chronic fatigue since oct – so about 7 months. Longest I’ve been off the bike and I’m seriously missing it (along with a lot of life’s basics). I have days where I struggle to see the light at the end of the tunnel and consider selling the bikes because I start thinking I’ll never ride again. Then things start to come good and I manage a session at the local dirt jumps which boosts my morale and I end up spending money on bits – like the Fox 36’s I’ve just purchased.

I really want to ride some of my old trails but don’t have the energy yet. but the most annoying part is spending the last 12 months building and I’ve not been able to ride it all so far. But as Stephen Murray would say you got to “stay strong”

From about 2001 to about 2005, when I lived in various cycling-unfriendly cities and work got in the way of everything else, I don’t think I rode my bike once. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, it was just further down the list of things I wanted to do than all the other stuff in my life. I never thought of selling the old Marin though – much too attached to it – and I always considered myself to be a cyclist, even when I’d not actually ridden a bike for four years.

I slowly got back into riding after moving back out to the sticks, and (after another break due to the slightly problematic arrival of a small, stroppy person in 2008) have been going out two or three times a week most weeks for the past year. I made a conscious effort to make time for it, and I’m glad I did: I feel better now than I have since I was about 16.

Not ridden since last November due to ongoing back problems. Have discussed selling the bikes with the missus as it usally puts me out of action for several weeks at lest once a year (worse this time) but she’s as addicted as me now and talked sense into me 🙂 I bloody miss it though and feel for anyone else on a forced sabbatical

I had a week of in Feb after highsiding on the road, and my first visit to A&E since childhood. First break from the bike in twenty years, except for a couple of family or climbing holidays. Never again, I love bikes.

Since Feb I have barely missed a day, encouraged by dry fast trails – now gone.

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

In 1979 when I was 33, I broke my leg in a skateboard park. Doc said the cast had to be on for six weeks. After five weeks, I cut it off myself and went for a ride. However, I did give up vertical skating.

A recent trapped nerve in my neck limited my riding for a few weeks, but I still got around on the town bike. If you don’t use it, you lose it, and when you are my age (65) you don’t want to give it up unless it’s for good. I’m a long way from that.