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.
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- 20 signs that you're an old-school cyclist
Fifty inspirational bike quotes
“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
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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.
