Great Cycling Quotes

Just been emailed this. Should keep you all busy for a while:

Quotes about cycling

 Poets, presidents, prime ministers and prime-time newscasters have
 said great things about cycling. Here’s a sprinkling of
 bicycle-related quotes…

 “Riding bicycles will not only benefit the individual doing it, but
 the world at large.”
 Udo E. Simonis, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Policy at the
 Science Centre, Berlin, 15th January 2010

 “Truly, the bicycle is the most influential piece of product design
 ever.”
 Hugh Pearman, Design Week, 12 June 2008

 “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.”
 Sherlock Holmes author, Arthur Conan Doyle, Scientific American, 1896

 “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.”
 John F. Kennedy

 “Ever see Audrey Hepburn on a bicycle? No, me neither. Catherine
 Deneuve? Nope. The very notion of either of them, surely two of the
 most elegant women the world has ever known, getting into the gear
 and clambering on board a bike is a full-frontal assault on beauty.”
 Roslyn Dee, columnist, Irish Daily Mail, February 2nd 2008

 “Nothing compares to getting your heart rate up to 170-something,
 riding hard for an hour-twenty, getting off and not hurting, as
 opposed to 24 minutes of running, at the end of which I hurt. 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.”
 [Former] President George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 2004

 “When you ride hard on a mountain bike, sometimes you fall, otherwise
 you’re not riding hard.”
 Former US president George ‘Dubya’ Bush, July 2005, following a crash
 into a bike cop at the G8 summit, Gleneagles, Scotland

 “[Commuting by bicycle is] an absolutely essential part of my day.
 It’s mind-clearing, invigorating. I get to go out and pedal through
 the countryside in the early morning hours, and see life come back
 and rejuvenate every day as the sun is coming out.”
 James L. Jones, former US Supreme Allied Commander Europe, now Barack
 Obama’s national security advisor

 “Meet the future; the future mode of transportation for this weary
 Western world. Now I’m not gonna make a lot of extravagant claims for
 this little machine. Sure, it’ll change your whole life for the
 better, but that’s all.”
 Bicycle salesman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969

 “The finest mode of transport known to man.”
 TV boffin and folder enthusiast Adam Hart-Davis on the bicycle.
 Source: numerous.

 Ned Flanders: “You were bicycling two abreast?”
 Homer Simpson: “I wish. We were bicycling to a lake.”
 The Simpsons, ‘Dangerous Curves’ (Episode 2005), first broadcast,
 November 10th 2008

 “An engineer designing from scratch could hardly concoct a better
 device to unclog modern roads - cheap, nonpolluting, small and
 silent…”
 Rick Smith, International Herald Tribune, May 2006

 “I used to work in a bank when I was younger and to 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.”
 Pro racer Mark Cavendish, after the second of his four stage wins in
 the 2008 Tour de France.

 “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, double bronze medal winner in the 1,000m time trial and
 the team pursuit in the 1948 Olympics in London.

 “It’s a risky business being a cyclist in the UK, there are a lot of
 people who really dislike us. It’s the Jeremy Clarkson influence –
 we’re hated on the roads. We just hope people realise we are just
 flesh and bones on two wheels.”
 Victoria Pendleton, gold medal winner in the women’s sprint at the
 Beijing Olympics, 2008.

 “It will be only a step from this for [motorists] to claim in a few
 years the moral ownership of the roads their contributions have
 created.”
 Winston Churchill on his opposition to ‘road tax’, quoted in Plowden,
 William (1971). The Motor Car And Politics 1896–1970. London: The
 Bodley Head. ISBN0370003934. More info atiPayRoadTax.com.

 “At that age, it’s one of the worse things in the world to wake up
 and not see your bike where you left it.”
 Hip-hop star 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, on the theft of his
 childhood bike

 “People love cycling but hate cyclists.”
 Peter Zanzottera, senior consultant at transport consultancy Steer
 Davies Gleave, to Scottish Parliament’s Transport Committee, November
 24th 2009

 “There is something about the miscreant cyclist that seems to get
 people more exercised than they are about the misbehaving
 motorist…When people get into cars, their metal encasement turns them
 into robots in our minds, and we’re grateful to them for any act of
 courtesy. We’re grateful that they don’t deliberately kill children,
 then laugh a rasping, metallic laugh…[Cyclists] are more civic-minded
 than anyone else travelling in any other manner, bar by foot. If they
 do run into someone, they at least (like the bee) do their victim the
 favour of hurting themselves in the process, which is why, if you had
 any sense, you’d save your hatred for the motorist, who (like the
 wasp) injures without care.”
 Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 4th February 2006

 “The cyclist is a man half made of flesh and half of steel that only
 our century of science and iron could have spawned.”
 19th-century author Louis Baudry de Saunier

 “The place of cycling in our society is set to grow, and I am
 committed to doing everything possible to encourage that.”
 UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, June 26th 2008

 “Cycling to work is an important issue for business – the more who do
 it, the more our communities will support it. Healthy and green,
 cycling is worthy of the support of every business in the land.”
 Sir Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation for British
 Industry, February 2006

 “[On] Valentine’s Day, I’ll present my beloved with a shiny bauble I
 bought from our favorite store. Next I’ll take my honey out for a
 sunset cruise, maybe to the spot where we first got acquainted.
 Later, back home, I’ll give my baby a bath. Then I’ll gently dry my
 sweetie and turn out the lights…I’m talking, of course, about my
 bike…I humbly submit that my bike and I make a better team than most
 relationships I’ve seen…Your bicycle invigorates you, strengthens
 you, relaxes you, lets you vent your frustrations without
 interrupting, nodding off or making judgments. Your bicycle helps you
 meet other people. Your bicycle always goes where you want to go. And
 if you buy your bicycle a box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day, you
 get to eat them all.”
 Scott Martin, roadbikerider.com

 “Devised almost 200 years ago by a practical German baron, the
 bicycle has evolved into an urban staple. Beloved of children, prized
 by inner-city commuters, it can be a lifesaver when summer smog
 chokes the nation.”
 ‘Globe and Mail’, Canada, 6th June 2006.

 “17 years ago, I arrived at CNN with a suitcase, with my bicycle, and
 with about 100 dollars.”
 Christiane Amanpour, CNN

 “Cycling has encountered more enemies than any other form of
 exercise.”
 19th-century author Louis Baudry de Saunier

 “Five years from now, if I’m in Texas and there is a local mountain
 bike race, will I go down and do it? Probably. That’s just simply as
 a fan and somebody who does cycling for fitness. I’m committed to the
 bike for life!”
 Lance Armstrong, 18th April 2005, the day he announced he was
 retiring.

 “One of the things that I wound up loving about being involved with a
 bike racer was learning how to bike and how that really creates
 solitary time for you to reflect on things and nobody can get a hold
 of you.”
 Sheryl Crow, talking about her [ex]-life with Lance Armstrong,
 cyclingnews.com, July 13th 2005

 “[Jeremy Clarkson] always moans on about drivers being attacked. We
 should be hounding them even more - cars have no place in an urban
 environment.”
 John Grimshaw, founder and chief engineer, Sustrans, ‘The Guardian’,
 June 8th 2005.

 “I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle; I want to ride my
 bicycle; I want to ride my bike; I want to ride my bicycle; I want to
 ride it where I like…; I don’t believe in Peter Pan, Frankenstein or
 Superman; All I wanna do is bicycle, bicycle, bicycle…”
 Freddie Mercury, Queen, 1978

 “Bicycling...is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of
 birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient
 Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own. There are movements on a
 bicycle corresponding to almost all the variations in the flight of
 the larger birds. Plunging free downhill is like a hawk stooping. On
 the level stretches you may pedal with a steady rhythm like a heron
 flapping; or you may, like an accipitrine hawk, alternate rapid
 pedaling with gliding. If you want to test the force and direction of
 the wind, there is no better way than to circle, banked inward, like
 a turkey vulture. When you have the wind against you, headway is best
 made by yawing or wavering, like a crow flying upwind. I have climbed
 a steep hill by circling or spiraling, rising each time on the upturn
 with the momentum of the downturn, like any soaring bird. I have shot
 in and out of stalled traffic like a goshawk through the woods.”
 Birdwatching author Louis J Halle ‘Spring in Washington’, 1947/1957

 “I thought of that while riding my bike.”
 Albert Einstein, on the theory of relativity

 “I’ll tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to
 emancipate women than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every
 time I see a woman ride by on a bike. It gives her a feeling of
 self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and
 away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood.”
 Susan B. Anthony, 1896

 “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.”
 Playwright Alan Bennett, Boston Globe, June 2006

 “The more I’ve been mountain biking, the more I see myself as a
 female. In letting your femininity go to become a mountain biker, you
 actually find it more.”
 Niki Gudex, ‘FHM magazine’, February 2005

 “To me the bicycle is in many ways a more satisfactory invention than
 the automobile. It is consonant with the independence of man because
 it works under his own power entirely. There is no combustion of some
 petroleum product..to set the pedals going. Purely mechanical
 instruments like watches and bicycles are to be preferred to engines
 that depend on the purchase of power from foreign sources….The price
 of power is enslavement.”
 Birdwatching author Louis J Halle ‘Spring in Washington’, 1947/1957

 “The bicycle is the perfect transducer to match man’s metabolic
 energy to the impedance of locomotion. Equipped with this tool, man
 outstrips the efficiency of not only all machines but all other
 animals as well. Bicycles let people move with greater speed without
 taking up significant amounts of scarce space, energy, or time. They
 can spend fewer hours on each mile and still travel more miles in a
 year. They can get the benefit of technological breakthroughs without
 putting undue claims on the schedules, energy, or space of others.
 They become masters of their own movements without blocking those of
 their fellows. Their new tool creates only those demands which it can
 also satisfy. Every increase in motorized speed creates new demands
 on space and time. The use of the bicycle is self-limiting. It allows
 people to create a new relationship between their life-space and
 their life-time, between their territory and the pulse of their
 being, without destroying their inherited balance. The advantages of
 modern self-powered traffic are obvious, and ignored. That better
 traffic runs faster is asserted, but never proved. Before they ask
 people to pay for it, those who propose acceleration should try to
 display the evidence for their claim.”
 Ivan Illich, ‘Energy and Equity, Toward a History of Needs’, 1978.

 “Drivers wish for better roads and less congestion, but are
 unprepared to make personal sacrifices by reducing the amount they
 use their car in order to achieve this outcome.”
 ‘Counting the Cost, Cutting Congestion’, RAC Foundation, 2004

 “The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other
 forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle
 remains pure in heart.”
 Iris Murdoch, ‘The Red and the Green’

 “The bicycle was a perfect way of getting a lot of fresh air. We
 noticed that it was an anti-stress sport because it concentrated
 totally on the bicycle. When you ride a bicycle, you don’t think
 about the new album, about how we are going to launch it. We realised
 that during three or four hours on the bicycle, we were discussing
 things like, ‘Oh, you have new brakes’, ‘Oh, where did you get your
 handlebars?’, ‘Is the saddle well adjusted?’, or ‘What about the
 pedals?’, things that were only connected with cycling.”
 Maxime Schmitt, Kraftwerk friend and collaborator, ‘Kraftwerk: Man,
 Machine, Music’ (SAF Publishing, 2001)

 ‘A Zen teacher saw five of his students returning from the market,
 riding their bicycles. When they arrived at the monastery and had
 dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your
 bicycles?”
 The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying this sack of
 potatoes. I am glad that I do not have to carry them on my back!” The
 teacher praised the first student. “You are a smart boy! When you
 grow old, you will not walk hunched over like I do.”
 The second student replied, “I love to watch the trees and fields
 pass by as I roll down the path!” The teacher commended the second
 student, “Your eyes are open, and you see the world.”
 The third student replied, “When I ride my bicycle, I am content to
 chant nam myoho renge kyo.” The teacher gave his praise to the third
 student, “Your mind will roll with the ease of a newly trued wheel.”
 The fourth student replied, “Riding my bicycle, I live in harmony
 with all sentient beings.” The teacher was pleased and said to the
 fourth student, “You are riding on the golden path of non-harming.”
 The fifth student replied, “I ride my bicycle to ride my bicycle.”
 The teacher sat at the feet of the fifth student and said, “I am your
 student.”’
 Zen proverb

 “When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his
 attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the
 convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s
 convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here,
 for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial
 to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others.
 Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.”
 Elizabeth West, ‘Hovel in the Hills’

 “The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine.”
 John Howard

 “When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then
 I realised that the Lord doesn’t work that way so I stole one and
 asked Him to forgive me.”
 Emo Philips

 “A bicycle does get you there and more And there is always the thin
 edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs
 become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become
 personal. And getting there is all the fun.”
 Bill Emerson

 “When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of
 the human race.”
 H.G. Wells

 “The bicycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it
 gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one
 without shocking the entire community.”
 Ann Strong, Minneapolis Tribune, 1895

 “I took care of my wheel as one would look after a Rolls Royce. If it
 needed repairs I always brought it to the same shop on Myrtle Avenue
 run by a negro named Ed Perry. He handled the bike with kid gloves,
 you might say. He would always see to it that neither front nor back
 wheel wobbled. Often he would do a job for me without pay, because,
 as he put it, he never saw a man so in love with his bike as I was.”
 Henry Miller, ‘My Bike and Other Friends’

 “I won’t pretend I’ve read much Heidegger (or any, in fact), but I’d
 like to think Martin had just spent a happy half-hour in Freiburg’s
 bike shop when he was struck by “the thinginess of things”. There it
 is, a cornucopia of exquisitely machined alloys, lustrous
 carbon-fibre frames, and innumerable form-fitting garments in hi-tech
 fabrics. Things don’t much thingier than this.”
 Matt Seaton, ‘The Guardian, ‘September 14th 2005

 “The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride
 bicycles. A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both
 support and freedom. The realization that this is what the child will
 always need can hit hard.”
 Sloan Wilson

 “The bicycle is already a musical instrument on its own. The noise of
 the bicycle chain, the pedal and gear mechanism, for example, the
 breathing of the cyclist, we have incorporated all this in the
 Kraftwerk sound…When your bike functions best, you don’t hear it –
 it’s silent, there’s no cracking, just shhhh – you’re gliding. It’s
 the same when you’re in good shape and your in form and you’re riding
 your bike, you hear nothing – maybe just a little bit of breath.”
 Maxime Schmitt, Kraftwerk friend and collaborator, ‘Kraftwerk: Man,
 Machine, Music’ (SAF Publishing, 2001)

 “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country
 best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus
 you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a
 high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of
 country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”
 Ernest Hemingway

 “When Cameron’s Conservatives come to power it will be a golden age
 for cyclists and an Elysium of cycle lanes, bike racks, and sharia
 law for bike thieves. And I hope that cycling in London will become
 almost Chinese in its ubiquity.”
 Boris Johnson, The Guardian, March 18, 2006

 “Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle
 accident and the collapse of civilisation.”
 George Bernard Shaw

 “If you brake, you don’t win.”
 Former racer Mario Cipollini

 “Our bikes are top and can certainly stand alongside the other
 brands. But in cycling it is not like in the Formula 1, where the car
 makes the difference.”
 Eddy Merckx on the November 2009 dealto equip Quickstep team with his
 bikes

 “How about if we all just try to follow these very simple Rules of
 the Road? Drive like the person ahead on the bike is your
 son/daughter. Ride like the cars are ambulances carrying your loved
 ones to the emergency room. This should cover everything, unless you
 are complete sociopath.”
 Letter to VeloNews from David Desautels, Fort Bragg, California

 “[A bicycle is] an unparalled merger of a toy, a utilitarian vehicle,
 and sporting equipment. The bicycle can be used in so many ways, and
 approaches perfection in each use. For instance, the bicycle is the
 most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a
 bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon. A
 person pedalling a bike uses energy more efficiently than a gazelle
 or an eagle. And a trinagle-framed bicycles can easily carry ten
 times its own weight - a capacity no automobile, airplane or bridge
 can match.”
 Bill Strickland

 “The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind.”
 William Saroyan, ‘The Noiseless Tenor’

 “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
 Irina Dunn, 1970

 “I live and breathe bike transportation. Does that make me a
 granola-crunching, world-saving utopian? Actually, my riding has a
 lot to do with what’s good for me. Riding makes me healthy. It saves
 me time. It makes me feel good and gives me energy to do more in
 life. Of course, getting around by bike is a green thing to do. And
 altruism does have its rewards. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind saving the
 world. Makes one want to crunch some granola.”
 US bike builder Joe Breeze, VeloNews, 2005

 “I’m a cyclist not simply in the sense that I ride a bike, but in the
 sense that some people are socialists or Christian fundamentalists or
 ethical realists - that is, cycling is my ideology, a system of
 thought based on purity and economy of motion, kindness to the
 environment and drop handlebars, and I want to convert others.”
 Journalist Robert Hanks, The Independent, 15th August 2005

 “Bicycles are almost as good as guitars for meeting girls.”
 Bob Weir, Grateful Dead

 “A bicycle is a bit like a guitar in that they are both inert objects
 that only come alive and flourish when put in contact with a human
 being. Both have the ability to concentrate the mind. Just as when
 you are performing, you tend to lose yourself when you are on the
 bike. For those precious hours that you are in the saddle, nothing
 else matters except the bike and the road ahead.”
 Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, The Ride Journal, issue 3, November 2009

 “It’s something I find enjoyable. Whether it is a road bike or
 mountain bike or tandem bike. I enjoy riding a bike.”
 Lance Armstrong

 “I relax by taking my bicycle apart and putting it back together
 again.”
 Michelle Pfeiffer

 “People like to travel: that is why the grass is greener over the
 fence. We are walkers - our natural means of travel is to put one
 foot in front of the other. The bicycle seduces our basic nature by
 making walking exciting. It lets us take 10-foot strides at 160 paces
 a minute. That’s 20 miles an hour, instead of 4 or 5… It is not only
 how fast you go - cars are faster and jet planes faster still. But
 jet-plane travel is frustrating boredom - at least the car gives the
 pictorial illusion of travel. Cycling does it all - you have the
 complete satisfaction of arriving because your mind has chosen the
 path and steered you over it; your eyes have seen it; your muscles
 have felt it; your breathing, circulatory and digestive systems have
 all done their natural functions better than ever, and every part of
 your being knows you have traveled and arrived.”
 John Forester,’Effective Cycling’

 “In the past two decades, thousands of miles of trails have been
 paved in the United States, but many of them look as if they were
 designed by someone who’d never ridden a bike. By consulting more
 with the people who do a lot of travelling under their own power,
 transportation planners ought to be able to come up with imaginative
 schemes for making roads, paths and sidewalks more usable to them,
 and maybe help cut down a bit on our reliance on the automobile.”
 Trouble on the Trail, Washington Post op-ed, May 18th, 1993
 “In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to
 have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn’t enough
 of those things.”
 Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, 2004

 “Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity.”
 Lord Charles Beresford

 “Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle
 repair kit.”
 Billy Connolly

 “My wife…thinks cycling is great way to spend time as a family while
 burning a few calories. For her, the family ride is quality time.
 Then again, she does not have the trailer with 50 or so stuffed
 animals and the 2-year-old singing “Old McDonald” attached to her
 bike as we climb what must be Mont Ventoux. Hmm … now that I think
 about it, cycling is the best way to burn a bazillion calories and
 hang with the family.”
 US bike shop owner John Kibodeaux, VeloNews, 2005

 “I live on a bicycle…I live in central London, probably 90 percent of
 my travel is done on a bicycle. I love bicycles.”
 Film director Guy Ritchie, former hubby of Madonna, telling Jeremy
 Clarkson about his fleet of expensive vehicles but admitting he
 prefers to cycle.

 “[Cycling] is easily the quickest way around central London, faster
 than bus, Tube or taxi. You can predict precisely how long every
 journey will take, regardless of traffic jams, Tube strikes or leaves
 on the line. It provides excellent exercise. It does not pollute the
 atmosphere. It does not clog up the streets.”
 Newscaster Jeremy Paxman

 “My whole day is built around meetings that can be achieved around
 bike rides. My contract actually offers me a free car from my home to
 my office and back, but I suppose I am addicted to cycling.”
 Newscaster Jon Snow

 “In the context of the great debates about identity politics - are
 you gay or straight, nationalist or republican, British or English
 and so on - I would ask, “Do you ride a bike?” I love everything
 about the machine - the sensation of the tyres on the road, the
 mobility - and I love the fact that you have this intimate
 relationship with the elements, and the landscape.”
 Beatrix Campbell

 “Cyclists...are the gods of the road.”
 Actor, Nigel Havers, ‘The Daily Mail’, 13th June 2006

 “Bicyclists...are heroes of the highways.”
 Petrol A Wyatt

 “Highway engineers are responsible for the nation’s obesity. They’re
 obsessed with roads that just encourage a sedentary lifestyle…The
 police want us in cars because they say there is less chance of being
 mugged, but if you encourage more people on to the streets, either
 walking or cycling, they will be safer.”
 John Grimshaw, founder and chief engineer, Sustrans, ‘The Guardian’,
 June 8th 2005.