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Discovering marijuana and other substances put paid to my sporting ambitions as a teen and I stopped doing any form of biking apart from riding stoned to friends houses.
After about 14 years I decided to go for a casual ride with a couple of mates a few months ago and on the first decent bit of downhill I was instantly hooked again!
Since then I have caught the mtb'ing virus pretty badly and am building a hardtail and am exploring the south downs on my retro steed.
Anyone else got back into it recently after a long time?
Not recently but I stopped mountain biking some time around 1997, 1998 maybe and just got back into riding (after a bad non-biking injury gave me a reason to need to exercise) about 2 years ago. At some point I'd forgotten I loved it I think! Partly because mountain biking used to be s**t to be fair.
I definitely forgot that I loved it. I don't think I ever thought it was sh*t, just that other stuff came up that was more fun at the time (driving, parties, drugs, girls....girls are still more fun than mountain biking)
It has got a whole lot better since the 90's, I got front suspension for the first time 3 months ago and couldn't believe the difference. 90's bikes seem like road racers with different wheels and bars now.
Was big time into MTB during the late 80's and 90's, used to race MTB and Cross (they were the days of proper racing), due to work commitments just stopped really in 1999, just got back into it a couple of years ago...... and I love it, ****in expensive though!!!
Yep. Just got back into it properly this summer.
Used to be very keen as a teenager, rode hundreds of miles round the Peak every year, went further afield when possible, did a couple of races and even placed ok in one of them, but discovered girls and booze and fags and then went off to university and that completely finished it off as an interest for quite a while.
I kept my old Marin around for the past 15 years but rarely rode it. Living in York (flat and boring), London (alternately scary and boring), and then Leeds (rubbish and rubbish) didn't help much. Moved back to the sticks five years ago but didn't do much in the way of cycling even then, a few miles every few months at most. Other stuff got in the way: job, child, other interests, laziness, all the usual excuses.
Then last year I went on my old riding buddy's stag do, where we did about a third of the Dalby red route. I nearly died - cramped up on the last hill, it was pathetic (in my defence I was on the fully rigid 15-year-old Marin, and everyone else had suspension). But it was brilliant fun and I decided that I needed to get a bit of exercise and then start properly thrashing it up and down the local hills again. After a few months getting some miles in on the old bike I splashed out on something new with a whole 100mm of travel at the front, some fancy newfangled hydraulic disc brakes and 27 (27!) gears and everything. I have been having an absolute blast ever since. Went back to Dalby and zipped round the entire red without any bother at all a few weeks back. I am sneakily pricing up new bikes, considering entering an event or two for fun, the bug has definitely bitten again - hopefully it'll stick this time.
I have just recently "found" cycling. Rode BMX as a kid 25 years ago. Bought a Klein thing that never got much use other than the half a mile to work and back in the late 90's.
Got dragged out by a mate earlier in the year and am loving it. Not 100% sold on the the whole mud thing though!
I 'rediscovered' it on Saturday after a 2 month sabbatical on the road bike. It felt WEIRD!
Not really rediscovered it but starting to commute off road means I've done more miles in the last 2 years than the previous 22. Just this morning I left home early so I could take a longer route to work and I'll do the same tomorrow. When the evenings are light I very often take a longer route home as well but now it's getting darker I usually just stick with the short route. I think if I got some decent lighting I'd continue the longer rides home.
Same here, rode in the 90's on a Marin Muirwoods then a '92 Stumpy, stopped when I went to Uni in '96.
Bought a second hand hard tail about a year ago and went out with some of the same people i did in the 90's. Same routes too! Great fun. Much slower though!
Mountain what now?
I was properly into mountain biking from 1995-2000, then i met my wife, fell out with my riding chum so it all went a bit downhill (pun alert) from there. Bought a Kona in 2004 which is lying in bits in the garage waiting for a wheel to be fixed.
Lurked about on here for ages and cycled a little to work and back but really getting the bug to get back out there now and train the dog as a trail dog (guess who's bought this months Singletrack mag)
Anyone else rediscovered mountain biking recently?
Let me fix that...
Anyone else having a mid life crisis recently?
I have had a couple of years of not going out very much, I moved away from Swinley a couple of years ago and have not ridden much since.
I have found my appetite for riding is coming back, lurking on here, new FS bike on the way and some great new trails on my doorstep mean that I am now getting out loads more and am poised for a winter of muddy fun.
Happy days.
It's been a fairly recent rediscovery for me... It was always about bikes for me til I left school and found sex drugs and rock and roll.. I've always kept a bike of some description but other things have taken priority over the years..
Then 4 years back me and a bunch of my like minded drinking buddies decided that we should spend some of our drinking time more constructively.. I haven't looked back since and although other members of our riding group come and go me and a couple of the other guys are still riding 3 or 4 times per week.. exploring new trails.. setting new goals and upsetting our better halves with our obsession..