Hooked on cycling? The longer you spend even just thinking about time on two wheels, the more you find yourself equipped with specialist knowledge, or very important decision making processes, that show just how far this sport has really taken you.
Here are 25 tell-tale signs you’re a cyclist for life. If you identify with more than 20 of them, your friends and family are probably worried you’re going to turn into a bike one day.
1. You know that a good bike ride is about more than the riding. You plan the day accordingly.
2. You know how to ride there but you’re not sure how to drive there.
3. You sometimes use cars to drive your bike around. You just choose not to use them for every journey.
4. You catch yourself wishing it would all be simpler if you could wear your cycling clothes at work.
5. You know about good cafés in totally obscure places.
6. Technically, you’re grateful for the rain. But secretly you hate it. Unless it’s a rest day.
7. You keep a spare set of tyres in the garage. They’re either new in the box, or completely hammered and 'for just in case'. Either way, you know you’re going to need them.
8. When guests laugh at the number of bikes inside your home, you confess it’s because you ran out of space in the garage.
9. You love your road bike, you love your mountain bike/other road bike/TT bike, and, if you don’t already love your cyclocross/track bike/fixie/BMX/super commuter, you’re thinking seriously about buying one.
10. You look like you’re riding a bike even when you’re not (see above).
11. You pick your holiday destinations around iconic hill climbs or trails.
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12. You’ve been known to take all your holiday essentials as carry-on, because that one other essential took up all your hold luggage.
13. You have a haircut that works well with your helmet.
14. You don’t need help from Google to know what the following acronyms stand for: VMO, ITB, DNF, EPO, SPD, OTB, HTFU and for social media tragics, WYMTM, BAAW, BAAF.
15. Speaking of which, you have a love/hate relationship with an item like the blue object in the image above.
16. You refer to parts of roads by what they’re called on Strava.
17. You go riding because it makes you feel amazing. You go riding because it’s the weekend. You go riding because you’re in a foul mood. It’s always the best therapy.
Related: Five reasons roadies need to try mountain biking
18. You swear that some energy gels are actually delicious.
19. When you trawl through photos you’ve been tagged in on social media, it’s hard to find one without a helmet and sunglasses.
20. You’ve been known to simultaneously watch multiple live streams on multiple devices. All of them cycling, of course.
21. You follow pro cycling coverage and make mental notes about the latest trends in socks.
22. You do the washing because you ran out of bib-knicks.
23. You have certain bib-knicks that go with certain jerseys. And other bib-knicks that go with other jerseys.
24. In fact, you have a lot of similar cycling accessories that are all a little bit different in very important ways.
25. You feel this article would have been stronger if we enlisted you as a co-writer. Add your comments to the Facebook post accompanying this article. We’d love to read them!