Like everyone I guess I had bikes as a kid, and was hardly off them...... then once I started work and got motorised transport the bikes went. Funny thing is I really don't remember selling them.... they just seemed to go!
Then in 1985-7 I had been skateboarding again ( another thing I stopped when I started work! ) and on the fringes of the skateboard scene I saw my first references to Mountain Bikes. they were far from mainstream in those days, so of course they appealed to me even more because of that. I read articles about the mountain bike pioneers in America and then bought myself one of these newfangled machines!
I remember buying some of the early mountain bike magazines including Mountain Biking UK , and I remember having a Mountain Bike Club sticker for 1987 on my bike! I had Ordnance Survey maps and guides to places like the Lake District where I went off to ride up mountains like an intrepid explorer! Those early mountain bikes were so dated compared to todays highly developed bikes!
I gradually stopped riding so regularly until I was 40 when I bought a new more modern mountain bike - a Specialized Hardrock . This at the time (2003) was like a Rolls Royce compared to my old MBK bike... it had an oversized alloy frame, V brakes, 24 indexed gears! Amazing!
I rode this bike on and off when it was fine and in the summer.... again, like many others just went down as far as the park and rarely went further than a couple of miles.
Fast forward to 2011...... a period of depression and ill health led to me starting to ride my bike again. These days with modern technology and Apps for gps cycling trackers I suddenly found it quite interesting to be able to track my mileage and I found I enjoyed being out on my bike. For health and wellbeing you really can't beat cycling! My business partner is a champion cyclist and encouraged me to ride more.
I remember around July / August time 2011 going out on my bike, and coming back sweating profusely and exhausted - dead proud of myself for riding a whole 5 miles!
In September i rode my bike a whole 35 miles over the month, and then it was in October that i would say I really started riding regularly. I rode to work quite often and was going out on my bike a couple of nights a week riding more regularly and further distances - up to 10 miles at a time!
So..... what were the benefits I was finding?? Well I loved being out in the open air. It was brilliant for my general health and wellbeing and as a tool to fight against depression I can fully recommend it! I felt much healthier, and was starting to lose some weight as well!
It was by the end of October that I would say i was a regular cyclist... getting keener by the day!
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