Have we had one of these recently?

I find that my main motivator for getting on the bike is to relieve stress. No matter how hard a day I’ve had an hour on the bike seems to sort it all out. I can go from having a face like thunder to grinning like an idiot in the space of 200 metres of singletrack.

So what gets you on the bike fitness, fun, what?

It’s fun.
It gets you out in the hills/woods.
I want to be fast and compete, so I train.

Mostly fitness I’d say. I don’t want to end up like (what seems like) 80% or so of middle aged men. Keeping fit keeps you young and full of energy.

no matter how exhausted i get, no matter how many “big drops” i end up walking (purely due to mental barriers saying “you dont get sick pay, you dont get sick pay”) no matter how short the ride… i’ve just been away from the sofa, in the woods, messing around with friends if it helps burning calories then thats a plus.

To try to avoid middle aged spread, to get to work in a more environmentally friendly manner and to justify the 3rd new bike this year.

Because I like it…

So I can post online.

Started off as a means to get to work….

Now it’s for tons of reasons…

fun, fitness, competition, spending time with mates, spending time on my own, weekends away, fiddling with bike stuff, eating cake……

I love being on a bike road, off road or just nipping to the shop on it, makes me smile.

I enjoy it.
Keeps me sane.
Helps towards fitness.
Helps keep the weight on!

I’m going to ride this morning because i can, i’m self employed, and it’s super sunny in Cannock so i’m having the day off 😉

It doesn’t de-stress me that much actually, in the short term. I find that when I’m out in the countryside my brain considers that normal, and how life should be. Being at work in the office is the bad part.

I don’t know. I just have to.

Gets me away from the missus

because i simply love riding bikes.

Another here for makes me smile: off road ridged 29ner a hoot! full sus DH a hoot, touring fully loaded up on the lanes, just blasting (prob. pootling) about on my ‘bag of bits SS’. Sun and dry trails, like today! Or the rain and mud to come. Nearly always clears my head, gets the blood going round, fresh air in my lungs – niffty bit of single track swooping through the trees, coming down hills going up hills – all makes me smile and feel alive- the best to explain this must be ‘Jo’

This is why..

I’m used to sleeping with the bedroom window wide open.. I’m used to poking fun at drunken chavs on a daily basis.. I’m used to doing exactly what I want.. when I want.. the way that I choose to do it.. I’m used to freeing up inhibitions and laughing spitefully in the face of moderation every waking minute of my life.. I’m used to peace of mind..

cycling through countryside lets me stay in touch with all of these things..

going home to the small tyrannical dragon’s empirical seat reminds me that I will not truly live that way again for a long long time..

I ride alone I prefer it these days, being in the middle of nowhere on your own with just a bike. that’s why I ride its my solace.

The other half dives for the same escapism but for me its to leave the ratrace behind get out into nature and possibly find some good rocks to look at too 😉

I have over the last year or so even developed a taste for climbing up stuff, in 22 odd years of riding I’ve always hated climbing but now I’m finding it’s quite rewarding- I must be getting old.

Escapism, its an utterly pointless passtime so fairly impossible to get stressed over.

Socialising, just striking up conversation with random people and showing them/being shown secret/local trails.

“never so alive as when your close to death” – that section of trail you know you can’t ordineraly ride but you can go into full pelt and just let the bike do its thing, both wheels sliding, a big drop off to one side, and you know one day you’ll end up in hospital, but untill then its heart in mouth, balls out, arse clenched, good old primeval fear 😀

Started again recently becoz I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the hips which meant no more running for me (after about 20 years). So now I’m enjoying biking all those contry tracks instead!

When I broke my collar bone last night year I realised there were loads of reasons
De stressing from work
Sorting out work issues (generally without even realising it)
Time away from everyone / everything
Time with mates
Time with dog (sadly no more as he has a dodgy knee 🙁 )
Fitness
Weight control
Adrenaline rush

Priority varies all the time

The rest of my life is sad and pathetic, but when I get on a bike, any bike, I instantly become something special, a god if you like. People adore me in my lycra, children stop and stare, women go all weak kneed etc, etc.
And I quite enjoy it and it keps me fit.

Started off as a means to get fit (which is working, I’ve lost almost 30kg since I starteD) and now I just enjoy it too much, as cheesy as it sounds it has become part of my lifestyle.. mostly now it’s just one of the only things I do which is enjoyable and exciting! Also pretty much all the “older” guys I ride with seem a lot more lively and I daresay youthful than people in the same age group who don’t ride, and that is something I don’t want to lose 🙂

it’s fun. Lots of fun.
I no more want to be quick at it than I do at sex :o)
and I want to do alone as much as I want sex alone…

I do it mainly because I enjoy it but partly for the exercise.

Last night I was out on the SS and that was more exercise than enjoyment though!

It just works for me. I can do it, its great fun, it is the only way I would get any exercise, it is above all enjoyable and really sociable.

Riding makes you concentrate on something other than the pap that exists outside riding. So it is great.

I like the escape, the thrill, sociability, kit etc.

It’s a lifestyle: I love riding bikes, any bikes.
I get paid to do it (some of the time. So does my wife, and we can work together so we see more of each other.
When I’m not riding bikes, I’m fixing bikes or teaching other people how to fix or ride theirs. (or wasting my life on internet sites about bikes)
My best friends ride bikes. We can have a beer and talk about riding bikes 🙂

i forgot to mention all the shiney things you can spend hours looking at, then clicking “place order” then the waiting, then the hours trying to put it on the bike just to go out and scratch it on a fun ride. i’ve jsut ordered white pedals in the hope i chip and scratch them to match the rest of the bike

It’s fun, innit.

I like the comraderie you (usually) get too. You can guarantee that if you have a mechanical, or sometimes even just stop, another rider passing will check you’re ok, got everything you need etc. Either everyone’s really friendly and helpful or I get passed by an awful lot of drug dealers.

I started riding to get fit 10 years ago & when I got fit I just carried on riding.

I got into off road riding 5 years ago & I find that it de-stresses me from my stressful job & I get to see so much more out in the wild countryside – the views, the sounds, the birds, the animals, the insects, the fact that there is no noise pollution from cars, buses & people.

After surviving a Cancer scare last year I’m now a hopeless bike riding junkie who turns into a miserable hyper bitchy old git unless I get my riding fix every few days if not daily.

I’m fitter now than I was in my twenty’s & it’s all down to riding my bike, I love it 😆

i forgot to mention all the shiney things you can spend hours looking at

NOT a factor for me 🙂

The freedom, the buzz, ‘cos I can..

Mental and physical fitness.

Keeps the weight down as well. Since giving up smoking 6 months ago I have put on 9lbs. I would hate to think what weight I would be if I did not cycle.

cos it makes me feel like i’m 12yrs old again………………. 8)

Because I know that how crappy the work situation is, no matter how dank and dismal it looks outside, no matter what stress is buzzing in my head, no matter how many reasons there are for not getting out there, i’ll feel absolutely bloody brilliant by the time i’m 2 minutes from home on my bike.

I started riding when i was five (30ish years ago) my first proper bike was the Budgie, then the grifter, then BMX, then mountain bike. I ride to work, i get home, get another bike and go ride single track with friends. I feel more natural on a bike than I do walking I think! I couldn’t imagine life without mud in my face and several stages of healing scabs on my elbows. That man made speed you get from pumping your legs til your lungs can’t take it anymore and making it down a track (all the way pushing it to your limits)(sometimes too much)gets a woop anyday!! Especially with friends! Sharing that stoked feeling at the bottom of a trail centre or good single track with people is a great feeling. Everyone telling each other “ah man I nearly lost it then…” “That last berm was awsome” “Man you nearly came off when….” Makes me wanna go get the steed out!!

Fresh air, fitness, adrenaline, being with friends and you can prat about like you are a kid without need for justification 😛

So I can post on this forum 😉

I’m an oppertunist thrill seeker with a penchant for escapism and riding is better for me than the alternatives