How I Became Addicted to Biking

Like most people I know, as a child I could hardly wait until I had my first bicycle which for me was on my 5th birthday. I loved to bike as a child and I rode everywhere by bike whether for fun with friends or to just get where I needed to such as trips to the store or to school. As for most of us the love I had for biking faded in my teenage years when lure cars stole my interest in biking. I would never have known that something like biking would become an addiction for me when for most people it's no more than a hobby.

At about the age of 20 I toyed with biking again when I purchased my first 10 speed. It was fun to ride on a warm summer day through the country side smelling in the fresh air and enjoying the beauty. I soon lost complete interest again when I became married and had a family. Even though I knew that I was out of shape I did try going on one short ride a couple years later. With my two year old daughter in tow we went on about a 20 mile ride to see some friends. I told myself afterwards I would never do this again it is way too much work.

Life went on with no interest in biking for 15 years until my wife came home from work one day in May stating that she was part of the Bike to Work Week Committee and would not feel right about being on the committee unless we rode our bikes. So I pulled my old 10 speed bike out of the shed, I put air in the tires, oiled the chain and made sure everything seemed too be work properly. We took turns riding with me driving in and biking home while my wife biked in and driving home. It was hard work I could hardly go half of the 8 miles without stopping to take a break. In that short week we caught the bug of biking we continued riding through the summer and within a Month it soon became easy to ride 8 miles and next thing you knew we were riding both ways and actually enjoying it.

That Christmas My wife bought me some winter biking clothes so that I could ride year round, my thought at the time was right like that is going to happen. Next summer it hurt to ride it had became work again since I was so out of shape but by the end of summer it felt so good to ride. Who would have known my wife was right again, I ended up buying more winter gear so I could ride year round and stay in shape. Sometime over the last 16 years and 100,000 plus miles I had became known as the bike guy at work if you had questions about bikes people would say ask Gary. Well as addictions go just commuting was not enough so I soon started doing 100 mile tour rides and progressed up to 200 mile rides. In addition we started doing bike vacations one of our most memorial was a bike, train, boat vacation so we could bike around the San Juan Islands. Then the next big step for couples is a Tandem which made it possible for us to do 400-500 mile cross state tour rides in a week. Riding across the state of Oregon from the Snake River in Nyssa to the ocean in Florence with 2000 bicyclist is an experience that I will never forget. The thrill of riding with 200 to 2000 other cyclist is an experience that I feel everyone should try at least once be it a one day 10 mile to 100 mile ride or for the daring a week long ride.

I believe today that I have become addicted to biking, which is hard with time and distance school takes away from the enjoyment of getting out on a ride so I make the best of it watching football and riding my trainer when I can find time. I will also go on short rides to the store or to church if it is not raining to hard or it not totally freezing outside. I can hardly wait until the next summer like day when I can get out and revel in the pure joy of a good ride long ride.

If you have any questions or problems with this web page e-mail me at gpyoder@peak.org

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