Bear with me, still new here

[flecc]

It reminds me of a guy I work with who always takes the mick out of me for my motorbike. Because I don't ride insanely fast or take stupid risks, he reckons I am not a true biker. He rides his on a few sunny days every year; I ride to work every day, rain or shine*. Who's the true biker?

This is an exact parallel with this cycling history. My brother was always a club "sport" cyclist and mainly went out riding on fine weather Sundays. At most I reckon he covered around 1000 miles a year, often much less. His car mileage was very much greater.

I've always been a utility cyclist, using a bike for everything from shopping to leisure rides in the countryside, and could at times cover over 5000 miles a year cycling and never less than 2000. My car mileage could be only in the hundreds each year, it often sitting in the garage unused for up to three months at a time.

Now in our much older years just either side of eighty, he stopped cycling in his mid 70s, only driving for everything then. I'm still on my bike, though with much reduced mileage, but my car still only covers less than 800 miles a year currently.
.

 

[mike killay]

Or as George Bernard Shaw wrote:

"Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you. You may not have the same tastes."

But then you may be younger than some of us and/or live in a less hilly area perhaps?

Not too sure what you mean.
I am 71, arthritic, gave up cycling 10 years ago, now own 2 ebikes and use them virtually every day.
Don't want to do anything to others.

 

[JohnCade]

Not too sure what you mean.
I am 71, arthritic, gave up cycling 10 years ago, now own 2 ebikes and use them virtually every day.
Don't want to do anything to others.

I know full well that I am riding an electric bike, so does everybody else, so why pretend?. why try to fool yourself?
Why do people want an electric bike to have a 'workout'? it does not make sense to me at all, just get an ordinary
bike if that is what you want.

If you remember I was replying to this above:

A lot of people here write similar things but what I can't understand is why they can't understand that other people might want different things to them. Or rather I do understand.....

A little imagination and empathy goes a long way in this as in other things. If imagination fails you try a TS bike in steep hilly country and you may be surprised at how much of a workout you get.

Whereas an unpowered bike in the same country might be too much like masochism or even impossible when you get to be old farts like us.

 

[Black Dog]

Presumably, everyone who rides a bike when they have an alternative (as I bet most of us do) is doing so because they want to a) get fit or fitter, or b) remain fit. No-one rides a bicycle because it's comfier and easier than a car. I might get only half the workout riding an ebike, but if I am at the same time doing twice the mileage, doesn't that cancel out? In my case, I am doing a zillion percent more mileage, because with two decent push bikes in the shed I was doing zero.

 

[jackhandy]

No-one rides a bicycle because it's comfier and easier than a car..

I suspect it depends considerably on where you live & ride.

Driving down here is largely a matter of sticking to B & A roads if you want to get anywhere in sensible time by car, whereas the vast majority of byways are far nicer to navigate on a bike:
I've lived in this area 50 of my 65 years & I'm just discovering places that have been Rural myths to me

 

[superDove]

Presumably... No-one rides a bicycle because it's comfier and easier than a car

In some areas of London at certain times I'd happily be on two wheels

 

[Black Dog]

To clarify - apart from certain very specific situations (black ice and thick fog, mainly), I would always prefer to be on two wheels rather than four, although recent years have seen me on the powered variety. Bicycles (push or electric) can be a lot quicker than a car in some circumstances, and there are many times and places where being cocooned by glass and metal is a crime against humanity.

My point was that the physical effort involved is an integral part of cycling. If I wanted to get from A to B in the comfiest way possible, and with the least effort, I would use my car. That's not to say that 99% of time I wouldn't prefer to be on a two-wheeler of some kind, for all kinds of reasons.