What Even Is A Cyclist?

I decided to make a video about my cycling journey. From someone who just had a hybrid Trek to being a full on bike nerd with way too many bicycles of all kinds.
I also explain a little bit of how I started making weekly bicycle videos here on YouTube.
#cycling #gravelbikes

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[elainewhitmore]

Grew up cycling w my sis. 80s kids. Trauma. Alcoholic. Led to DUI. Bought my first adult bike to get around after lost license. Fast forward to 2019. Trauma returned. Encouraged to move my body. Found Trek Pilot and started cycling and backpacking. Fast forward to last year after hiking 1100 miles on PCT I outfitted bike w bags and hit the KATY trail in MO. Now I’m addicted

[howiehammer]

Watching your videos is the next best thing to actually riding with you and your friends. Always gives me a lift.

[MLRomo]

Growing up on the south side of Chicago where the streets were tough and money was always tight.. I was fortunate to have a grandfather who would buy neglected bikes, repair them and sell them for a profit at a local flea market. I was his help mate back then between the ages of 8-11 ish. I never had a fancy bike but he made sure I always had a bmx type bike to get around in. I also remember building my own bmx bike from the frame up at 10yo. (Chrome redline) as I got older I learned to use public transportation and eventually drive. I regret not sticking to biking but I'm glad that spark has been rekindled the last 20 months or so. Thanks for all the inspiration and motivation you provide in your videos! 🍻

[madisondeans]

68 yr.old life long bicyclist, born riding from a very young kiddo, there were gangs of kids biking everywhere, big beach community so you rode everywhere, my parents gave me alot of freedom we rode &camped on many beach heads crabbed & fished & used our bike to tote al our gear, army pup tents, fryingpans, &our catch was strapped on our western flyers, scwhinn newsboy specials they were tanks & we had such adventures, which inspired me to become a roadie in highschool, touring cyclist all over U.S., evolved into bikepacking in my retirement! Its been a long love affair!!

[mushroomhill]

It all started in my 9th grade school year of 93-94. I was 13 years old and quickly turned 14 in only November. I sat in my basement night after night hobbling together pieces of bicycles into anything operational that would get me to the arcade, friends houses, jobs, the mall. Then that summer to girls houses. Everyday bike riding at that age turned my 14 year old frame into an impressive athletic physique for a young lad. They were throwing them selves at me. The bike has never failed me in my pursuit of a peter pan life. I worked at a deli and saved for a year to buy a carbon fiber Trek MNT bike which I modified into an Urban BEAST. I was a NYC bike messenger while I went to school for a bit. Then would commute from BK to Manhattan when I got a real job for a few years. Later on I bought my cyclocross and moved to upstate NY. Im a lifer.

[kitchencarvings]

My first bike was one of those 1970s bikes with the banana seat, metallic green. Then I went on to a BMX bike. My sister and I got a 10-speed for Christmas when I was 12. One day, my dad took us on a cycle trip around the area for about a 20-mile loop, and that was one of my formative experiences. I didn't realize you could go other places besides over to a friend's house in the neighborhood. That opened up the world, and I've loved cycling ever since.

[LordSandwich]

Grew up in Belgium so cycling was a fact of life. But I only started going on rides after I bought an old Peugeot and just enjoyed it so much more than my not-so-responsive upright city bike

[davidsaxby]

I love that you have no expectations but just go with the flow. No pushy personality driven videos. You deserve more subs, but the feeling of a “best kept secret “ is part of the fun.
I love that your rides have the feel of a bunch of kids out for fun.
Keep it up you bunch of hooligans😂

[zensukai]

Thanks Tim, great chat.

For me, I am the only one in my family that rides. I started out in a CCM Voodoo back in the '80s. From there I got into BMX (Kuwahara and then Mongoose) when dirt jumping was starting. Then in my later teens I moved over to road riding after watching the movie American Flyers. I did that form of riding for about 10years (rode a Steve Bauer Whirlwind and then upgraded to a Eddie Merckx Corsa Extra). I moved out to the West Coast of Canada and my eyes were opened to the Free Ride movement and met Wade Simmons and Ryan Leech and an event - I was hooked (rode a Rocky Mountain RM7 and Rocky Mountain Slayer 90).

But as I got older and my body couldn't take the abuse, I move over to more of the touring the back logging roads before bike packing was a thing - started out with a (Kona Sutra). Now I have two bikes, I have a Kona Unit that I used for the backroads, as it is a beast for gravel and the good old party pace and ride a Rocky Mountain Solo A50 for when I want to wind through my hair (well, the lack there of). =]

[andrewking]

Started riding a second hand Schwinn Stingray at 8 years old, now 60 and haven’t stopped riding yet. Just changed bikes many times over the years.

[tonevers]

Het man nice to hear about your attitude ; here i the Netherlands we are used to cycling from the age of 4.
When you .ook at videos of cycling in the Dutch city of Amsterdam or Utrecht, you notice also a variation of bikes used by commuting to school and work or shopping by people up to 80.
I ride the same bicycle as you, i am 68 now.
Greetings Ton.

[MrTwostring]

Years ago - I would say I was in middle school - my mom brought home a discard book from a school library called The Boys Book of Biking. I decided in that moment that I would become a "serious cyclist" some day. Of course, before and after reading the book, I was already doing the "80's kid movie" thing - using bikes to explore and go see friends, occasionally go shopping, and sometimes going a town or two over to see friends who had moved to a different school. Most of my bikes were beaters. I especially remember one with a bent pedal that oscillated this way and that way as it went around the circle. I got so used to it that when I rode on a bike with 90 degree pedals it felt weird.

It was probably the early 90's when I finally had enough money to buy a "hybrid" (with fairly narrow tires). I spent $300 on the thing new (on clearance - I think it's a Bridgestone) and I still use it today. I never felt like I reached my goal of being a "serious cyclist" till I had a mechanical issue while commuting to work and I flagged down some cyclists who ended up not having the tools I needed - but one of them asked if I was a serious cyclist. After a very brief chat he said "Oh you're a commuter!" and I felt like I'd indeed made my childhood goal.

I've never gotten into group rides. Most groups I've heard about are way too fast for me. I remember one time my wife and I went on our tandem with some people we knew from our inline skate club. They talked on and on about how we would be too fast for them and they left us in the dust. It turned into a real problem which would be a good story for another day.

I did one two day ride with a youth club from Ithaca. That's probably the only one. We did a lot of family rides over the years. Watching this video I found myself thinking that you're lucky to find people who want to go at your pace.

Two years ago, I helped my son and a number of his troop-mates get the cycling merit badge. This culminated in a 50 mile ride - which turned into a 60 mile ride for me because I had to repeat part of the loop to make sure all the kids got to where there parents would meet them. Two years later I am totally out of shape. I recently set a goal of riding to a point not even a mile and a half from my house as the crow flies. I can feel my condition improving. Hopefully soon I'll be able to start commuting again - but my current job takes me to post offices all over multiple counties, so I'll have to pick my battles, as it were.

[forest_biker]

Saw a mtn bike at a yard sale in 1997, Diamondback Ascent rigid 26er, knew enough about bikes to buy it. It was a few years after a MFA in Providence and I was feeling pretty lost. My father passed then and I just dealt with it by mtbiking and spending all my time in the woods. Now I'm 57 and still mtb three times a week with a good group of old guys. Got the gravel bug somehow and stumbled onto your channel. Great stuff! I'm here in the Hudson Valley rolling through all the rocky tech that you got a taste of. Seriously it grows on you and you speed through it with some time here. Cheers Tim!

[MatlinWorldwide]

Great chat. Good to know there are folks out there that didn’t come from any particular “scene”, but are just lovers of the ride. Personally grew up riding a huffy daily around my neighborhood as a kid from age 7-11 in the 90’s until I started skateboarding, which totally engulfed my life for well over a decade from that moment on. Bought a hybrid Diamondback in 2008 and rode it sporadically in the burbs, city, and everywhere in between til I stepped up to a Bianchi Iseo in 2013. Used it as a daily commuter/bar hopper while living in the city. Moved out of Atlanta and back to the burbs in 2015 to settle down/raise a family and put the bike to the wayside. Moved multiple times with it and kept it idle in the garage for years until I taught my boys to ride last winter, then would occasionally ride here and there. Life events lead me to picking it back up religiously back in May and I’m absolutely hooked. Just hit my first 40 mile ride in 11 years last Saturday. All old country backroads far outside the burbs with beautiful scenery of forgotten old farmlands and structures. Then another 16 miles the following day on my Sunday Ritual ride. Wasn’t sore in the least bit. It’s amazing. Prepping up to hit the Silver Comet trail from Georgia to Alabama for my first bike packing trip here in October. Super stoked. In the meantime, I just got a ‘93 Specialized Hardrock that I’m tuning up to turn into a total gravel/atb. Can’t wait to start hitting some off road trails! I appreciate your videos, Tim! Definitely solid motivation to keep getting out and exploring your backyard.

[jonmarshall]

I wasn’t really a biker, still don’t consider myself a hardcore biker but it’s my favourite hobby when time allows. One day my work supervisor asked me if I wanted to go ride my bike in the forest. Hated it, all scratched up and banged up. Vowed never to do it again. But over the following week we talked about the experience and realised we had cheap fun. Rode again the next weekend somewhere else and haven’t really looked back. There’s been lulls in the saddle time due to life back it’s still there to enjoy.

[DIY-DaddyO]

Great video, As I turn 60 I look back on my life and realised the best times of my life have been when I'm riding a bike, and the worst times have been car related. This has inspired me to tell my story.

[snodgerbill]

Got back into cycling in my 30's, thought I was a tour we France rider for a while. Now I am nearly 60 I'm more into endurance and randonneur riding. Love the channel, peace.

[kathryngarcia]

Grew up with my 4 sisters sharing a bike. Started getting totally obsessed with cycling in my 30's. I'm 68 now & I never want to stop! I go about 10-15 miles a day, more miles when its not summer (Florida, ugh).

[Cycling_Brian]

My daughter had a Giant Sedona stolen while at college. She used that bike as her sole transportation, so we quickly replaced it with a Target Schwinn, which was never stolen.

[TurnipGreen]

I grew up here in Akron. Started building and modifying bikes in like 4th grade and bought my first real bmx in the summer of '86. We'd sneak across the canal and ride the Towpath before it was park property. It was just the remnants of the original mule path back then, I think. Then the movie "Rad" came out and my friends and I wore out a dubbed vhs copy watching it over and over and trying to learn every trick in the movie. Bought my first Mountain bike, a Specialized Stumpjumper, after I graduated in the summer of '92, which I still have. Been riding and building my own bikes ever since. I recognize just about every place you guys ride in your videos ❤