61 Inspirational Cycling Quotes For Every Rider

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Whether you’re looking for motivation for your own pursuits, inspiration for life, a bit of humor, or need help convincing your friends that bikes can save the world, you’ll find tons of great biking quotes below.

In this post, I’ve rounded up the best cycling quotes from both professional cyclists as well as everyday riders who simply enjoy the freedom and simplicity of bicycles.

Let’s dive in!

1. “You are one ride away from a good mood.” – Sarah Bentley, British Cyclist

2. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist

3. “Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live.” – Mark Twain, American writer & Humorist

4. “Life is like a 10-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.” – Charles M. Schultz, Cartoonist (creator of the comic strip Peanuts)

5. “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” – H .G. Wells, English writer

6. “The bike will transform anyone who is willing to let it happen.” – Ina-Yoko Teuntenberg, German former road bicycle racer

7. “Cycling is meditation in motion.” – Unknown

8. “I don’t ride a bike to add days to my life. I ride a bike to add life to my days.” – Unknown

9. “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 researcher & Author

10. “If you do something right the first time, then it’s not hard enough.” – Danny Macaskill, Scottish trials cyclist

11. Life is like riding a bicycle: you don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling.” – Claude Pepper, Former American politician

12. “A bicycle ride is a flight from sadness.” – James E. Starrs, Professor & Author

13. “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 on the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer & physician (creator of Sherlock Holmes)

14. “Whoever invented the bicycle deserves the thanks of humanity.” – Lord Charles Beresford, 1st Baron of Beresford

15. “Good morale in cycling comes from good legs.” – Sean Yates, English former professional cyclist

16. “Bicycles may change, but cycling is timeless.” – Zapata Espinoza, Journalist

17. “My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.” – Peter Golkin, NASA scientist

18. “It’s the first machine we master as children and the one we abandon when the seductions of the automobile take over.” – Colman Mc Cartly

19. “Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.” – John F. Kennedy, Former US President

20. “When you ride hard on a mountain bike, sometimes you fall, otherwise you’re not riding hard.” – George Bush, Former US President

21. “If I can bicycle, I bicycle.” – David Attenborough, English Broadcaster

22. “The slower you go the more likely it is you’ll crash.” – Julie Furtado, American former professional mountain biker

23. “It never gets easier, you just go faster.” – Greg LeMond, American former professional road racing cyclist

24. “Ride as much or as little or as long or as short as you feel, but ride!” – Eddy Merckx, Belgian former professional road & track bicycle racer

25. “Don’t buy upgrades; ride up grades!” – Eddy Merckx, Belgian former professional road & track bicycle racer

26. “One thing that cycling has taught me is that if you achieve something without a struggle it’s not going to be satisfying.” – Greg Lemond, American former professional road racing cyclist

27. “Crashing is part of cycling as crying is part of love.” – Johan Museeuw, Belgian former professional road racing cyclist

28. “The bicycle has a soul. If you succeed to love it, it will give you emotions that you will never forget.” – Mario Cipollini, Italian former professional road cyclist

29. “The best rides are the ones where you bite off much more than you can chew, and live through it.” – Doug Bradbury, Early adopter of mountain biking

30. “If you brake, you don’t win.” – Mario Cipollini, retired Italian professional road cyclist

31. “I thought of that while riding my bicycle.” – Albert Einstein On the theory of relativity, theoretical physicist

32. “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually, it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong, American former professional road racing cyclist

33. “My fear isn’t crashing this bike at 85 miles per hour and losing my skin. It is sitting in my chair at 90 and thinking, ‘I wish I’d done more.” – Graeme Obree, Scottish former racing cyclist

34. “When I go biking I am mentally far, far away from civilisation. The world is breaking someone else’s heart.” – Diane Ackerman, American Poet

35. “Bicycles are the indicator species of a community, like shellfish in a bay.” – P. Martin Scott

36. “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realise fishing is stupid and boring.” – Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican bishop & theologian

37. “Anyone who rides a bike is a friend of mine.” – Gary Fisher, Considered one of the Inventors of the modern mountain bike

38. 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

39. “I relax by taking my bicycle apart and putting it back together again.” – Michelle Pfeiffer, American Actress

40. “There is beauty in silence and there is silence in beauty and you can find both in a bicycle!” – Mehmet Murat ildan Contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist & thinker

41. “The bicycle has done more for the emancipation of women than anything else in the world.” – Susan B. Anthony, American Women’s Rights activist

42. “She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.” – Susan B. Anthony, American Women’s Rights activist

43. “Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym.” – Bill Nye, The Science Guy!

44. “You have no such accurate remembrance of a country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” – Ernest Hemingway, American novelist

45. “A bicycle ride around the world begins with a single pedal stroke.” – Scott Stoll, Adventurer (and yes, he pedaled around the world)

46. “Cyclists see considerably more of this beautiful world than any other class of citizens. A good bicycle, well applied, will cure most ills this flesh is heir to.” – Dr. K. K. Doty, Adventurer & bicycling evangelist

47. “A bad day on a mountain bike always beats a good day in the office.” – Unknown

48. 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.” – Mark Cavendish

49. “The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created. Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon.” – Bill Strickland

50. “Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling.” – James E. Starrs

51. “The pain of cycling is the joy of cycling.” – Unknown

52. “Cycling can be lonely, but in a good way. It gives you a moment to breathe and think, and get away from what you’re working on.” – David Byrne

53. “The bicycle is a simple solution to some of the world’s most complicated problems.” – Unknown

54. “To bicycle is to be in touch with the world around us.” – Unknown

55. “Cycling is possibly the greatest and most pleasurable form of transport ever invented.” – Daniel Pemberton

56. “There’s a lot more to riding a bike than riding a bike.” – Unknown

57. “The best routes are the ones you haven’t ridden.” – Unknown

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

59. “A mountain bike is like your buddy. A road bike is your lover.” – Sean Coffey

60. “To bike, or not to bike: that is not a question.” – Unknown

61. “Bicycles have no walls.” – Paul Cornish

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