• This topic has 54 replies, 37 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by Euro.
Viewing 15 posts - 41 through 55 (of 55 total)
  • Ladies deserve better
  • dee2hig
    Free Member

    ….realising that a £500 bike is more than capable of the riding they do

    And that’s exactly the problem. A £500 bike is perfectly fine for riding around in the nice gentle forests, but the rider is at a massive disadvantage if the ride becomes technical or long. If a rider wants to develop their skills and get more into the sport, a £500 bike simply won’t do at a certain stage. And this is where women fall down as they do tend to be too practical to spend the money thinking they’re not good enough to justify the cost or that they should be spending it on something else. A bit of encouragement at this point is all it would take to really get more women riding harder and longer.

    weeksy
    Full Member

    My wife got a ‘cheap’ Specialized Myka 26″… Why… because that’s what she deserved…

    In hindsight I should have borrowed/hired her a bike and saved myself £300.

    When she gets around to using it more than 3 times in a year… she’ll get a better one.

    Duggan
    Full Member

    A £500 bike is perfectly fine for riding around in the nice gentle forests, but the rider is at a massive disadvantage if the ride becomes technical or long. If a rider wants to develop their skills and get more into the sport, a £500 bike simply won’t do at a certain stage

    Have to say I disagree with this. A £500 is good enough for most things. I don’t see how a ride becoming ‘long’ would require a bike that suddenly costs more?

    Also the threshold at which the technical requirements of a ride require a different bike is pretty high? I mean, unless you suddenly deviate from a trail centre or a XC ride to Fort William half way through than it’s unlikely you’re really going to need a bike that costs twice as much.

    It’s nice to have nice things and by all means people should but expensive/superior bikes if they want but this idea that a £500 mountain bike is only good for gentle riding in a forest is misguided.

    cinnamon_girl
    Full Member

    @ dee2hig – you’re implying that wimmin are helpless!!

    dee2hig
    Free Member

    No I’m not – I am not, and many women aren’t. But many do lack confidence or knowledge and it’s a real shame that they aren’t encouraged to get more into something they could really enjoy. I am sick of seeing 9 blokes to every 1 woman when out riding (I am talking about real riding, not bimbling around on the local bike paths). I would love to say that all women are strong and independent, and ready to pursue their own interests but it’s simply not true. That fact that there are a good number of us who are is great, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to encourage those that aren’t.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    A £500 bike is perfectly fine for riding around in the nice gentle forests, but the rider is at a massive disadvantage if the ride becomes technical or long. If a rider wants to develop their skills and get more into the sport, a £500 bike simply won’t do at a certain stage

    Sorry, I agree with Duggan, after years of suffering from upgraditis and spending £thousands on bikes, I bought a 2nd hand bike off ebay for £350, supposedly just as a pub bike and a bit of XC. I barely touched my other bike again and eventualy sold it. The cheap bike did everything I did on the big bike, just without all the bells and whistles.

    And anecdotaly, once off the fire road/centerparks/sustrans and onto ‘trails’ I reckon I see a greater proportion of ladies on nice bikes than men. I always atributed it to (a slightly sexist I’ll admit) view that men were manly and would ride an absolute nail of a bike and not wory about it breaking untill it did, whereas ladies were more sensible. When was the last time you saw a lady on a battered aluminium hardtail with an SS kit and a chainring that looks like something from a tortureporn flick? That and the relative lack of nice ladies bikes meant that they tended to be a custom build on a high end frame with upgrades over many years, rather than newer but lower spec mens bikes.

    That fact that there are a good number of us who are is great, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to encourage those that aren’t.

    Telling anyone they need a £2000+ bike to ride anything other than fireroad doesn’t encourage anyone. Telling people that a sensibly spec’d £500 bike is more than adequate (and that’s still a lot of money to a lot of people) is much more productive IMO.

    Yak
    Full Member

    For any given budget, Mrs Yak is always able to build a far better bike than me for some reason. We both ride about the same mileage and go turn about for races. If there’s a great looking event/race, then we’ll arrange a grandparent day and both ride together. I’d say that’s pretty equal apart from the bit where her bikes are nicer than mine.

    PJM1974
    Free Member

    Hmm…

    Instead of complaining about your slow women why not encourage them to upgrade, either through nice pressies or through sound purchasing advice?

    If I presented my lovely lady with expensive bike bits, she’d probably shrug her shoulders and ask me when we’re planning on going away for a weekend, or if I’d contribute to some new underwear too.

    You might be amazed at what your ladies can do if on proper kit.

    Mrs PJM has excellent skills on a bike, she’s far, far better than she realises. I’d go so far as to say that if she wants to ride more often, she’d benefit more from a skills course than newer shinier stuff.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    ’tis a pet hate of mine when men buy their partners some wholly inappropriate bike just to add another bike to their collection; “She won’t ride it much so I might as well get something I want”. Worse still when they force their riding preferences on unsuspecting partners. We ‘rescued’ a young lady in the Alps who had been sent down a blue on her own while he went for a play. Her bike was set up as a lightweight XC machine. She had no way to drop the saddle as there was a little, lightweight Allen key clamp and really wasn’t enjoying it. I’m sure most women are generally happy to make their own decisions but as newby they will need a little help.

    munrobiker
    Free Member

    My wife’s road bike was about £700, which is less than mine, but has since been upgraded with posher wheels than mine. She chose it herself from a fairly wide selection of decent bikes over a wide price range selected by me. I will admit colour was an important factor for her, but she did balance the benefit of better gears to her versus cost and decided more money than that would be a waste and she’d not feel the difference between Sora shifters and 105 (I would have preferred for her to go for 105 but I suspect she did the right thing and wasn’t blinded by branding like me as the spec was otherwise the same for a lot more money, and it was a revolting gold colour). She doesn’t ride often though, and doesn’t particularly want to go riding week in week out.

    What bothered me when I worked in bike shops was blokes coming in and buying bikes for their wives and then fitting the child seat to her bike because his own was too posh. The logic of that baffled me- why would the stronger rider make the weaker rider carry an extra 10kg of weight on the bike on the basis of not wanting to spoil their bike?

    kimbers
    Full Member

    My wife rides her bike infrequently, especially since we had Kids

    She had an old heavy GT for ages, but bought her a nice light commencal hardtail, was about 500 and she loved it, got her some s/h floats for her birthday (also got her a present she actually wanted!)

    Her confidence and enjoyment improved loads, Ive swapped out lighter bits here and there but it really wouldn’t be worth spending lots more to make it super light and bling

    philjunior
    Free Member

    My wife has fewer bikes that are not as expensive as mine, but rest assured mine are far cheaper per mile ridden (and mine are not that bling anyway – the last bike I bought was a 2006 Kona from Pinkbike)

    She’s never been that into it, and whilst she enjoys, say, a blue downhill run at a trail centre, having kids does stop us from getting out together and she chooses to use the little free time she has these days to do other things.

    Rest assured, once the kids are old enough, we will all drag her out on her bike. I might even upgrade the forks (a set of c2000 SIDs that I’ve lost the pump adapter for) although this would add weight which I’m not sure she would thank me for. If she gets out more than 3-4 times a year/starts really enjoying it, then of course I’ll keep her right and try and keep her in bikes that will suit her needs.

    Never ever as per other comments heard complaints about female partners being too slow – mine doesn’t like riding up hills and blames every fall on me, but that’s fine as I like spending time with her and I like riding my bike.

    amedias
    Free Member

    I am sick of seeing 9 blokes to every 1 woman when out riding (I am talking about real riding, not bimbling around on the local bike paths).

    Have you looked into why this is?

    For starters, just because you want to go out and ride like that doesn’t mean every woman does*, but for those that do are there any local womens riding groups or genuine mixed groups? Could you start one?

    Round here there are and it’s not uncommon to see women only groups or some properly mixed groups, often with the blingiest bikes belonging to the women!

    I would love to say that all women are strong and independent, and ready to pursue their own interests but it’s simply not true. That fact that there are a good number of us who are is great, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to encourage those that aren’t.

    As above, I agree entirely with encouraging those that do want to, but I don’t necessarily think this is a women only problem. Most people start off on a crappy cheaper bike, and upgrade if and when they find they enjoy it. It can be just as daunting for new male cyclists but the key to overcoming this is good support from local riders, clubs, community groups, and shops regardless of gender.

    * I help to run a local cycling charity project here in Devon and although the number of women riding is actually quite high (and on the increase), most of the time they are interested in general transport riding, cycle paths, road, and occasional gentle offroad. It’s very rare that we find a woman actually expressing and interest in proper MTB riding who isn’t already doing it.

    For those that do we have great facilities and options to help and encourage them into it (male or female), but it genuinely doesn’t seem to be of interest to as many women as men, so you 9-1 ratio could actually be an more an expression of popularity with women vs men rather than evidence of any ‘lack of encouragement’ or other problem.

    FWIW, my GF rides a lot, and her MTBs are just as nice, newer and higher/equal specc’d than mine, and we spend considerable time and effort fitting and specc’ing her bikes for her to make sure it suits her needs, and she’s quite fond of harassing the local shop for demo days too!

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    dee2hig – Member

    …Instead of complaining about your slow women…

    no one, has ever, complained about ‘their slow women’

    but you’re right, women do deserve better – from the industry.

    Dear bike industry, can you make some properly short cranks please?

    (165mm isn’t short)

    Euro
    Free Member

    A £500 bike is perfectly fine for riding around in the nice gentle forests, but the rider is at a massive disadvantage if the ride becomes technical or long. If a rider wants to develop their skills and get more into the sport, a £500 bike simply won’t do at a certain stage.

    I also disagree with this. I rode a cheap mtb for 3-4 years for xc, dh and dirt jumping. Ok, some bits broke over time and were upgraded to stronger parts but the bike was very capable and when i first started i was riding harder than i do now.

    And this is where women fall down as they do tend to be too practical to spend the money thinking they’re not good enough to justify the cost or that they should be spending it on something else.

    I don’t think that’s a gender issue. I now own a couple of mid range bikes and felt a lot of guilt after each purchase. The really fancy bike (not by stw standards mind) was second hand and the other cost only £1k new. I could have spent more but i know what i have now is more than up to the jobs i ask of them and the money not wasted impressing strangers was spent on my kids 😀

    Btw, my lady has a cheap bike compared to my mine but she’s very happy with it.

Viewing 15 posts - 41 through 55 (of 55 total)

The topic ‘Ladies deserve better’ is closed to new replies.