What do Alejandro Valverde, Danilo Di Luca, Ricardo Ricco and yours truly all have in common? Nope… I’m not a scum bag doper… but I’m making a comeback

It’s been a while since my trippy European ramblings have graced the screens of LovingTheBike.com but (hopefully) you’ll be pleased to hear I’m saddling up to the laptop and back  in the wonderful world of LTB. 

Unfortunately for all those women who’ve sent tonnes of fan mail recently I must state early in my comeback that I am now a married man. The preparations for the wedding, the day itself and enjoying the time since has taken a lot of my time but now seems a great time to hit you all right between the goggle-balls and get back online. 

I’ve kept my finger on the pulse whilst I’ve been away and I’d like to say a big congratulations to Darryl and the Mocha Spoke team, and wish them every success.  The reason I continue to be involved in this website is Darryl.  He is true to his principles and lives what he preaches, which is why I know Mocha Spoke is destined for greatness.  Do head over to the cafe site as well as the Facebook page for news and pictures.

Have a great week and I’ll be back soon with something… well hopefully cycling related! If you’re lucky you might even see me over on Twitter!

Stevie

Every so often we like to feature one of our readers and their Loving the Bike story.  This one comes from Darryl Hagen and here’s what he has to say:

“Eight years ago I moved from Vancouver to Toronto.  In Van, I commuted by bike everyday and rode the North Shore 3 times a week … all year long for the 7 years that I lived there.  In Toronto that all stopped! Eight months ago I’d had enough.

I purchased a fixed gear track bike (with a front break as I am closing in on 50 and not a young hipster) and started commuting again. I forgot how much I love being on a bike and just riding!  I’m loving my mornings and evenings, and cannot wait for the next time I get to swing a leg over.  As an added benefit, I lost all 20lbs that I put on since moving here.”

- Darryl Hagen

What is your cycling story?  We’d like to hear about it and share it with our readers.  Send us your Loving the Bike story by filling out this form.

Are you Loving the Bike?  We want to hear all about it.

Ever since we started this cycling lifestyle website (which turns 3 in just a few days), we’ve had a monthly feature called “Look Who’s Loving the Bike“.  It’s been our reader’s chance to tell us a little story about why they love riding bikes, and there’s been some fantastic responses so far.

Please share your memories, and tell us a fantastic story from your childhood or a little bit about why you are now Loving the Bike.  We’ll randomly post the replies over the coming months.

Send us your Loving the Bike story by filling out this form.

Have a look at what our past “Lovers” have to say: Look Who’s Loving the Bike Directory

As we head into our last month of 2012, here’s a few people who are sharing their Loving the Bike stories with us.

At the top of each month we like to feature the amazing stories and memories of people who are loving the bike.  Please take a look at what these lovers have to say.  Hey…..and we’d love to hear from you as well….feel free to submit your “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” story to us at any time.

Stacey Hanna – Houston, TX

“I took my three girls to a skills class recently, thank you Transition Houston.  I have never been so weepy and happy as when my middle child at 8 years old says “Passing!” as she went by me on the left in a perfect pass later that day!  She has been the hazardous biker, weaving and wobbling by on the right.

She got a better bike at our local bike shop, a large dose of confidence from Transition Houston, and the same great joy we all feel when we find the Bike is Joy!”

Mandy Collie – Belfast, UK

“I got into cycling 2 years ago to raise money for charity.  I got hooked.  I now race for Women’s Cycling Ulster and compete all over Ireland in road races.

Love the feeling.  Being a Mum of two amazing little boys and running a couple of businesses (just starting a professional cycling coaching business with two pro riders!) to get out on my bike is that tiny part of my life is just me and my bike.  The speed, power, challenges, races, training, improvements.  All of it…I love.”

Charles Joseph – India

“I used to bike during school days.  Got back to biking after a 7 year gap.  Started as a fitness mantra but now has become a routine.  The best part about biking is the freedom you enjoy.  It’s one of the best ways to see around new places.”

George Ferguson – Kansas City, MO

“When I was a kid I was always on my bike…riding to school, to see friends, to the store, everywhere.  What a sense of freedom!  Got away from it because I could drive.  Started back riding almost 30 years ago when I wanted to get back into shape.

There is nothing like riding country roads in the spring with the crops coming up, and in the fall with the smells and colors.  Again, the sense of freedom, and now also peacefulness and stress relief.”

Here’s a look at who’s loving the bike for October, 2012.  At the top of each month we like to feature the amazing stories and memories of people who are loving the bike.  Please take a look at what these lovers have to say.  Hey…..and we’d love to hear from you as well….feel free to submit your “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” story to us at any time.

Elisabeth Hurckes – Orlando, FL

“I grew up riding a bike.  I remember the days where our community would host  a Memorial Day bike parade or 4^th of July parade and we would decorate our bikes intertwining crepe paper in between the spokes, flags on the handle bars and streamers off the handles.  I rode my bike to school and to my after school and summer jobs.  Fast forward and I purchased a road bike in 2006 when I really picked up cycling and joined Team in Training for my first Century ride, America’s Most Beautiful in Lake Tahoe.

I met such great friends with Team in Training and many of us continue to cycle together.  During one of these rides, we were talking about all things cycling and one of my friends talked about Loving the Bike.  I have been a subscriber ever since!”

Wendy Davis – O’Fallon, MO

“When I ride I get to be ME. I love being a wife and mom, but I love To have a break. No laundry, no dishes, no cooking. Just pedaling and feeling free. The health benefits are awesome too. Happy Trails/Road! Getyasome! “

Shawn McAfee – Little Elm, TX

“Riding clears the brain. Stress leaves the body with every pedal stroke. Diving through trees, railing berms and leaping off logs is the most relieving and de-stressing thing in the world.”

David Landsperger – Pittsburgh, PA

“My bike let me be the master of time and space. No longer was I constrained by how fast my legs would take me down the road…and especially the down the hills! I was one with my trusty Columbia. Same today, just a different bike.”

Here’s a look at who’s loving the bike for June, 2012.  At the top of each month we like to feature the amazing stories and memories of people who are loving the bike.  Please take a look at what these lovers have to say.  Hey…..and we’d love to hear from you as well….feel free to submit your “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” story to us at any time.

Jackie Dishner - Phoenix, AZ

“I’m loving the bike because it got me through a three-year divorce. When my 10-year marriage began to unravel because of a cheating husband, I turned to the dusty old bike that had been sitting in my garage for support. This was some kind of divine intervention, because, all of a sudden, I noticed that thing. That bike called out to me. So I removed the old clothes that hung across its seat. I dragged it out of the corner. And I took it for that first spin — the first one in eight years. Every day, for next three years — rain or shine — I got on that bike and rode right through the fear, the insecurities, the anxiety, the stress and the numbness. I retrieved a new life back because of that bike. It became my salvation, the place where I could cry out loud, scream into the air, and pray.

It gave me a signature story to motivate others. I now speak about the lessons I learned from the seat of my bike, I still ride, and I collect bike imagery. I’m loving the bike because it’s about moving forward. Who wouldn’t love that?”

Aris Phinicarides - Cyprus

“I used to ride a bike to school.. (about 49-16 = 33 years ago!!!) Since then I “paused” for about 29 yrs and now I m back – not to school .. to Bicycle!. 
It is fast, and if I am in stress it helps to recover. Also it is much mor economic than car.  Cars are good for out of city routes…after all.”

Gabe McKay - Toronto, ON

“I love the money I save (approx $200 per month) I love the freedom, the excitement of riding through downtown traffic and I love what it’s done for my waist line. I’ve been commuting for 3 years now and I am addicted.”

Anil Jethwa - Perth, Australia

“What better way to start and end a day with my bike commute to work; bike path along the river, no traffic, no fuss, nobody to share with except the sun, the wind, the birds, the trees, the fresh air, the humility.  I am blessed to be this fortunate daily…..”

Here’s a look at who’s loving the bike for May 2012.  At the top of each month we like to feature the amazing stories and memories of people who are loving the bike.  Please take a look at what these lovers have to say.  Hey…..and we’d love to hear from you as well….feel free to submit your “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” story to us at any time.

Heather Hughes – Munroe Falls, OH

“My love for cycling started as love for a boy.

In 2009, I fell in love with a cyclist. In order to shift his attention from his bike to me, I had to do something drastic. Even though I had not been on a bike for at least 10 years, I bought a Trek mountain bike during spring break. I spent that week learning how to not look awkward and miserable, on top of learning how to properly shift without dropping my chain (this took a few attempts).

Upon returning to campus, I showed my crush my new set of wheels. He was impressed with my choice and then asked if I wanted to go for a short ride. I agreed, not knowing what I was really getting into. After flying down some massive hills and returning to my single dorm room muddy and sore, I knew I was hooked. Not just to this guy, but to the bike.

I wanted to ride more and learn more, so I kept asking my crush questions. Apparently, my genuine interest for all things cycling showed him that I was a girl he wanted. We began dating and soon after we became a couple, he surprised me and bought me a used road bike. It was a 2002 yellow Trek WSD in the perfect size. That was when I became a true roadie and ditched (for the most part, anyway) those dangerous, muddy trails. 

Three years later, we are happily married and we now live in a small apartment with five (yes, five) beautiful bikes. We live and breathe cycling. Who knew that something so simple (and yet so complex) as a bicycle would bring two people together?”

Ric Zapanta – Phillipines

“I will be 48 years old this year.  Five years ago, working in Indonesia, I began to notice how I always stared at people on bikes.  Commuters, hobbyists, riders, weekend warriors, all sorts.  I often find myself inside bike shops just looking at how different bikes are now from what they were years back.  I still have a 20 year old rigid mt bike that is always polished.  I get to ride it 2x in a moth the most. I started looking for old bikes and get them cleaned up, painted and polished.  I am on my 6th bike project now. Why I just love to spend time on / with them I realized later was… 

I grew up in an area with very few kids around, why because there aren’t that many houses too.  I spent summer vacations loafing around from one corner to another inside our house grounds and the open fields outside. What I see limits me to 20-30 min walk.  At age 10 I got my first red bike. Suddenly the world became huge. I take rides to all directions, sometimes spending whole days on my on with my red bike.  With my bike everything moved closer to our house.  I memorized every street in our city.  In my last 2 years of university, I am the only guy on a bike not really to save on time and money but I just love the feel of warm air on my face and the grip on my palms.  20 years later my first love was rekindled.  I thank God for things good and bad.  I thank Him for bikes… which certainly is a good thing.”

Carl Perpich – Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean

“I raced bmx redline bicycles when I was a kid.  A neighbor owned a bike shop and had two kids my age. Then I started racing road biles in 1986  and when I went to college I bought a friends Colnogo with Campy super record.   I did lots of local races in Texas and criteriums in Ft. Worth.  I got hooked up with a bike shop in Arlington , TX called Bike Mart (they used to be a part of the slightly more notable Richardson Bike Mart), but had split off .  Because I had no car starting in 1988 my mode of transport was solely my bicycle.

I was riding about 18 miles one way to work 5 days a week and 2 days a week I rode 35 miles one way to chef school.  So I had a good 350 mile a week workout not including the real rides.  I found the longs rides really cleared my head and thoughts and I could organize things to be done.   This is when I realized ultra marathon cycling suited me.  I soon got sponsorship from the bike shop which was a schwinn dealer and we had 2 custom prologue bike frames made for me out of Waterford, WI.  By now I was cycling 700 to 900 miles a week during the 9 months of good Texas weather.  And the regular commute of 350 the other months.  Some of the UMCA races I competed include the RAAM Open West (Tucson, AZ to Flagstaff and back to Tucson) about 450 miles with over 16,000 vertical feet of climbing, I believe that was ’89.  Then RAAM OPEN Mid-West in Illinois which was flatter, but 600 miles in ’90 and a RAAM failed attempt.  I then tried to re-qualify in Ohio the next year in RAAM Open Ohio, Columbus.  After that my chef career needed lots of attention to grow my portfolio so I was reduced to just fun races that we would ride to, then race and ride home.  Somewhere in there I got a car as well so it changes my cycling dynamic in 1991.”

Carl is a Texan who now owns and runs the coolest beach bar and grill that Bonaire has to offer.  Check out www.paradisebonaire.com and be sure to stop in if you’re ever on this beautiful Dutch island.

Here’s a look at who’s loving the bike for April 2012.  At the top of each month we like to feature the amazing stories and memories of people who are loving the bike.  Please take a look at what these lovers have to say.  Hey…..and we’d love to hear from you as well….feel free to submit your “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” story to us at any time.

Chuck

“I’m an engineer by training and nature.  I read an articlecomparing the efficiency of locomotion of various species. The condor was the most efficient getting from point A topoint B.  The human was somewhere in lower half, maybe about athird of the way up the list.  However, if you give the humana bicycle, he is the most efficient of all species.  If mymemory is correct, we still haven’t ever developed any device thatis more efficient.  That is why I love the bicycle.  Iride everywhere, all year long.”

Pam Renough – Belgium

“I first fell in love with cycling when I was a child.  I am not sure of my age, but I know I was very young.  My parents tell me that I always wanted to be out riding my bike when I was a child, and that is still the case today.  It is often difficult to express this into words, but on my bike is one of the few places where I feel at peace with myself and at peace with life.  It is my escape.  It is my way of coping with the things around me.  I love cycling.”

It’s March, and here’s our “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” stories for this month.  Please take a look at what these lovers have to say, and we’d love to hear from you as well.  Submit your “Look Who’s Loving the Bike” story to us at any time.

Simone Henderson – Brisbane, Australia

“Hard to pinpoint a real ‘reason’ but for me, it’s not like any other type of exercise… it’s a bit like a cult.. You either do, or you don’t. It’s the kits, the bits, the bikes, the addiction to buying bike ‘jewellery’.. the relationships with the bike shops, the wind that cools you down on a hot day, the distances, the comradery and coffee!!, the constant quest to go faster and further.. to get lighter.. the next ride.. the next bike.. the next set of wheels.. it just doesn’t stop.. I have HEAPS of reasons for loving the bike!”

Sally Barker – Leeds, UK

“It’s the freedom that cycling gives me…getting up early, heading to the countryside, viewing the fantastic scenery that Yorkshire has to offer, wrapping up warm to brave the English winters, having some “me” time by riding alone or riding in a group for a bit of cycling banter. I enjoy always having an excuse to shop for the latest bit of kit or the newest cycling gadget. I love the number of calories that a long ride burns and I love having a reason to indulge in the finest lunch after a 4-hour Sunday ride.”