Welcome to the Bicycling Community!

[untonuggan]

This community is intended as a safe space for people to share their experiences, questions, concerns, reflections, etc. on bicycling and related activities. Found a bike that makes you drool? Want to share some bicycling pictures? Had a really great/terrible ride? Can't figure out what kind of chamois butter to get to ease your aching rear end? This is the place for you! Of course, you may also want to check out bicycles.

The main goal of this community, however, is to share experiences with bicycling. What was your ride like? What were your best and worst moments? How did it feel to finally finish a 100 mile ride? Why do you cycle?

Pretty much anything goes here. If I notice a lot of adult content, I may switch this journal's settings to advise people of that. You should know that no discrimination based on ability level, sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, employment status, or any other groups I forgot to list will be tolerated.

Please be tolerant and welcoming of what may seem to be "obvious questions" or comments. We all learned at some point (or maybe have yet to learn!).

How I learned to ride a bike in my 20s

[untonuggan]

I thought I'd break the ice by sharing my first biking experiences. I should mention that I (1) have fibromyalgia, and (2) didn't learn to ride until I was in my 20s. If I can do it, I'm sure a lot of other folks can, too! Also, I only fell once, and I only got a couple of bruises from it.

I never learned as a kid. I had a bicycle for awhile, a pink and white Hello Kitty one with a horn and a sweet basket. I rode it around with training wheels for awhile. I pestered my dad to teach me how to ride, but he kept saying that there weren't good places for me to learn how to ride that were safe...or that he didn't want me to ride on the streets....this compounded my own fear of falling off the bike, so eventually I stopped pestering him and the training wheels rusted onto the bike and then I outgrew the bike.

I carried a lot of shame for quite awhile about not being able to do this thing that apparently everyone else knew how to do.( Read more... )

The crowning glory was when I went on my first bike ride this weekend. In Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC they block off the main roadway to motor vehicles on the weekends. It's a really pretty ride, even if the hordes of bikers on road bikes can be a little intimidating. It was amazing. Perhaps I am overusing that word, I don't know. I just loved the feel of the wind in my face, the lactic acid burn in my muscles, and the bird song echoing through the green canopy of the woods.

(cross-posted to my personal journal)

Intro ice-breaker

[untonuggan]

New to the community? Here's some questions to get you started. Comment with your answers to see if you find any like-minded people, or just introduce yourself to the community.

Copy and paste the questions below into your comment:

I prefer being called:
My favorite place to ride is:
I learned to ride when I was:
Something else you'd like to share about yourself:

NOTE: It's okay if you haven't learned to ride yet but are interested in learning! There's no shame in it!