As a younger man, I loved nothing more than canabalising one bike to fix another, but that stemmed from necessity, rather than doing it for fun. We didn't have a lot when I was growing up, and I would find bikes on skips, or when the council would have a general junk collection. I would then take 'em apart and use the bits to Frankenstein a good bike together.
The first bike I remember having was similar to the Triumph 20
It was a similar colour at first, it then got painted with whatever gloss paint was hanging around my Mam and Dads house, It even inded up Zebra like at one stage.
All my mates had Raleigh burners, but this was my BMX (had stunt pegs too :) )
I then went through various second hand racers and mountain bikes, but only used them for commuting, never for excercise.
My first ever brand new bike was about 6 years ago, when a colleague of mine talked me into doing a 100km cycle for a charity, I probably made a bad choice as it was quite heavy and didn't have the range of gears needed for both climbing and racing.
I then bought a second hand Canyon Ultimate AL for a great price from a guy who, unfortunately, had just lost his job, and had to make his collection a little smaller. This bike was (still is, if anyone wants to buy it lol) the dogs in comparison. This one has seen me through a lot of miles(kilometres to those of us outside the UK )
I then qualified for the bike to work scheme again, and I have gone for my latest baby - A Cube Attain GTC SL Disc - This is a full carbon, with Shimano 105 drive set and brakes. Full specs
HERE. Here is a Photo the bike shop took of it after I changed the tyres.
Now, On to the cycling I am currently doing, I obviously have a road bike so I go and do distances up to about 80KM, I generally cycle by myself as I don't like the formality of organised cycling (being stuck to a timetable, routing not my choice, hills or flat - not my choice, etc.)
I live not far from the dublin mountains, so I can do a lot of hill work if I feel the urge (which I mostly do), even if I am not built as a climber in the true cycling sense. In fact, I am a slightly (14 kilos or so) overweight 49 year old man at 6 foot even in height.
If I head out a slightly more westerly route from my house, I can get a relatively flat course, should I feel the need for speed. If I go out this way, I tend to average about 27.5 kph.
Now that I came back and bored you all to death, here is my latest cycle from Saturday - A respectable 66 km at an average of 26.1kph.
Lunch Ride - Colin Whelan's 66.2 km bike ride Does anyone else use Strava to record their cycles?
@pantsoff - It is time to dust off the auld bicycle and put down the bottle of Vino LMAO