It’s amazing what people can come up with while on two wheels. Here’s a selection of some of the most interesting and insightful quotes on the subjects of bikes and cycling.
“You can say that climbers suffer the same as the other riders, but they suffer in a different way. You feel the pain, but you’re glad to be there” – Richard Virenque, retired French pro racer
“[T]o me it doesn’t matter whether it’s raining or the sun is shining or whatever: as long as I’m riding a bike, I know I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” Mark Cavendish, British pro racer
“Riding a bike is everything to a cyclist. The friendship and camaraderie you have with other cyclists… to a cyclist, it was the be-all and end-all of your life.” — Tommy Godwin, English long-distance cyclist
“Embrace your sweat. It is your essence and your emancipation.” — Kristin Armstrong, American cyclist
“The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.” — John Howard, US cyclist
“It is the unknown around the corner that turns my wheels.” — Heinz Stücke, German long-distance touring cyclist
“Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades.” — Eddy Merckx, Belgian pro racer
“As long as I breathe, I attack.” — Bernard Hinault, French cyclist
“Truly, the bicycle is the most influential piece of product design ever.” — Hugh Pearman, British author
“The cyclist is a man half made of flesh and half of steel that only our century of science and iron could have spawned.” — Louis Baudry de Saunier, 19th-century French author
“You always know when you’re going to arrive. If you go by car, you don’t. Apart from anything else, I prefer cycling. It puts you in a good mood, I find.” — Alan Bennett, British playwright
“When my legs hurt, I say: ‘Shut up legs! Do what I tell you to do!’” — Jens Voigt, German cyclist
“The bicycle is the most civilised conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.” — Iris Murdoch, Irish author
“Learn to ride a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.” — Mark Twain, US author and humourist
“Life is like a 10-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” — Charles M. Schultz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip
“Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls.” — Bob Weir, Grateful Dead singer, songwriter and guitarist
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
“Crashing is part of cycling as crying is part of love.” — Johan Museeuw, Belgian cyclist
“You are one ride away from a good mood.” — Sarah Bentley, British cyclist
“As a kid I had a dream — I wanted to own my own bicycle. When I got the bike I must have been the happiest boy in Liverpool, maybe the world. I lived for that bike. Most kids left their bike in the backyard at night. Not me. I insisted on taking mine indoors and the first night I even kept it in my bed.” — John Lennon, British musician
“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” — Arthur Conan Doyle, British author
“One of the most important days of my life, was when I learned to ride a bicycle.” — Michael Palin, British actor
“The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind.” — William Saroyan, Nobel prize winner
“If you brake, you don’t win.” — Mario Cipollini, retired Italian pro racer
If constellations had been named in the 20th century, I suppose we would see bicycles.
— Professor Carl Sagan, US scientist
“Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” — Albert Einstein, genius
“Those who wish to control their own lives and move beyond existence as mere clients and consumers — those people ride a bike.” — Wolfgang Sachs, German author and academic
“A bicycle is the finest mode of transport known to man.” — Adam Hart-Davis, English inventor
“Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.” — Helen Keller, US political activist
“When you ride a bike and you get your heart rate up and you’re out, after 30 or 40 minutes your mind tends to expand; it tends to relax.” — George W. Bush, former US President
“Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity” — Lord Charles Beresford, British MP
“Bicycles are the indicator species of a community, like shellfish in a bay.” — P. Martin Scott
Have we missed a classic? Make sure you add it to the comments at the bottom of this article.
