Why normal women don't cycle…

Not sure if that’s in reply to my post or not cinnamon_girl! If it is, just saying that I honestly think a lot of women are happier taking up sports / doing stuff if it’s in a group situation with encourangement and proof that other girlies are doing it too.

Not everyone’s like this (myself included!) – but just a general observation 🙂

Simples – we don’t like getting our bloomers caught in the spokes.

emsz – Member

I can do without the nearly naked girls fondling bike bits like sex toys in adverts!!

Hmm. Maybe it’s just me being oblivious but I can’t say I’ve noticed these adverts? There’s one, Muckybums or something, that’s in most of the press and one of the cheapo light companies were doing something like this but just about everything in biking is advertised with a picture of a bike, or a picture of a person on a bike. It’s all very dull tbh.

no idea about statistics, but from my own point of view, we have been selling stack loads of women’s bikes during 2013, lots of women very serious about their cycling? a good number have mentioned the London Olympics (seeing the inspirational women’s road and track races!) and Tour, plus a general upwards movement / interest in womens cycling

even in January we had 10-12 carbon fibre women’s road bikes going out every week.

we sell way more proper road bikes than women’s (or men’s) hybrids / recreational city bikes

the brand we sell (Specialized) has invested big $$$ in their women’s range of bikes and equipment, we get a good number of women using the BG Fitting service (probably 30% of the total customers using that service) and we never patronize women or treat them any differently to any of our customers

we also get a lot of women who have had terrible service from other bike stores (chains and independants) and comment afterward, they are refreshed to get good honest, expert advice; especially for taller women who often need to be properly fitted to a men’s road bike

a properly fitted bike that meets their needs can be the difference between investing time, money and energy into a sport, and giving up 🙁

Scottish Cycling project to get women into the sport

Some stupid blokey comments on here. nice one chaps.

I haven’t had any negative experiences in bike shops. I’ve bought 2 mountain bikes and various bits of kit, and had a few repairs done in the past 5 years, and I’ve only ever encountered friendly and helpful people in shops. I don’t need female role models, a role model for me can be either male or female.
Women are very welcome in our cycling club, although we’re in a minority, in both the road and MTB sections.

I only have one grumble about a bike shop. I had bought a new bike and after a couple of rides awful noises were coming from the bottom bracket. As I was about to set off on a 400 mile ride I was eager to get it sorted. Unfortunately my lbs had a repairs backlog so I was sent to their rotherham branch.

When I went to pick up the bike they had put a super cheap crank set on – when I questioned this he said ‘its the same – they do come in different colours love’ . I did my best to keep a lid on it and led him to the orange bikes display and asked him to show me where in their range they used such shitty components.

He apologised and sorted out the right ones, I did get a decent apology from my lbs too.

Although it annoyed me it got sorted and that is the only time in over 20 odd years of going in bike shops – so I cant grumble.

the brand we sell (Specialized)

where do you stand on 29ers? 😉

The main thing to put women off riding is the male riders who are just a bunch of unappealing miserable geeks who just aren’t attractive to women.

IHNRAT – but I did read the original article. I’m slightly surprised that they think the issues identified only apply to women. Yes most men don’t wear make up, but for a lot of men turning up sweaty, wet, crumpled, is not acceptable either; and whilst the ‘busy lifestyles’ does apply to women, more that half the people doing the drop off / pick up at nursery are dads; and if I get stuck working later than I hoped (too often) then a long ride home is not necessarily how I want to finish the day. Crap service from shops that want to sell me what they think I want is not unique to women either. Now that might be telling me I need a £1000 bike for a 3 mile commute as anything else won’t last / will be too heavy; or flogging me something that needs a load of maintainence when actually something robust would get used more. Why do you assume that I either want to be lycra clad or wearing pyjamas! If I am “pooling” I need neither but could probably find practical / stylish clothing just as women want.

Do you think cycling is accessible to unfit couch potato men? No it appeals to people who are already fit. Men can be hugely competitive and that is off putting for other men who have no desire or realistic prospect of keeping up – not just for women.

SO I would suggest it is why normal PEOPLE don’t ride bikes.

The use of helmets puts off a lot of women.

Australian women seem to cope just fine

wow, great rant Poly! Cycling is deffo for normal PEOPLE. though.

My sister was a cyclist until we moved to the North East as teenagers. On our first day at our new school, Gosforth High, we cycled the three miles together. Her new classmates were so shocked that she had cycled to work that she never did it again and from the following day for the rest of her time at that school she trudged the six miles every day on foot.

^ That is the most ridiculous thing Ive read in a long time.
who would give a crap if other people were shocked about it.

^ That is the most ridiculous thing Ive read in a long time.
who would give a crap if other people were shocked about it.

really?

Good video going through the debate. It was made as part of cycle towns initiative that the Goverment axed

Yes.
I cant believe people would stop doing what they enjoy because of other peoples views.
Besides the North East has a fantastic cycling culture. with loads of clubs teams and events.

I cant believe people would stop doing what they enjoy because of other peoples views.

Yes but bear in mind the poster is talking about “when we were teenagers” which suggest it was a few years ago when attitudes to cycling were less enlightened than today’s attitude of grudging acceptance tinged with frustration and also as kids you’re incredibly susceptible to peer pressure.

In an old job I used to ride to work – get there quite early and sit in the staff room having a brew (in my lycra). The location of the bike sheds meant it was easy to park the bike, pop in for brew, then go to the changing rooms then go to the laboratory but anyway, I digress…

Initially there were all sorts of comments and question (“you’ve ridden SEVEN miles?!”) but after a month or so everyone got bored and just accepted it.

But that questioning is commonplace and is another reason cycling to work is seen as abnormal (by men and women).
Colleagues simply cannot believe that you RODE all that way.
“but you must have got the car to nearby and then ridden?”
“did you get the train part way?”
“do you ride every day?”
“but you’ve got a car, why come by bike?”

All said in tones varying from mild surprise to total incomprehension with an underlying implication that there’s probably something wrong with you and we’d better humour you.

Would this work ?

I would have thought this was an ideal starter for city folk , both women and men .

I know a lot of people dont get cycling but everyone loves bikes especially kids, maybe I am living in a 50’s utopia.

I’m with buzz lightyear on this, but my comments would have been more cutting. Thank The Lord for his eloquence.

All is not lost. Over the winter I took my son to the British Cycling coached junior track sessions at Calshot Velodrome. I was quite surprised to see just as many girls as boys.

More reading on the theme of “normal”:

http://cyclingauckland.co.nz/general/2012/10/cycling-is-going-nowhere-until-it-loses-its-outlier-status/

emsz – Member

I’m normal

😯

I thought this would have been mentioned by now. 😀

I don’t meet all that many cycle commuters round here.
As far as I can remember, I’ve never met a woman cycle commuting.
I would have guessed that’s because men generally do manufacturing and other manual jobs, where it’s OK to turn up a bit grubby and sweaty, while women do office and shop jobs, where it isn’t.

To missnotax,
I quite agree. More visibility + more role models (and I don’t mean celebrities, I mean ‘normal’ people you know who are getting out and doing it) can only help. To that end, here’s a shameless plug for a new magazine, in the newsstands now etc. My friend’s written for it so I have to say she says it’s good 🙂

http://womenscyclinguk.co.uk/

there’s some good stuff in that list,

“don’t ride near the curbstone”

“don’t ignore a ‘lights out!’ cry”

“don’t ignore the rules of the road”

😆 😆

Mind you, ‘Don’t keep your mouth open on dirty roads’ is a lesson for us all 😉 😆

I used to be normal, and cycled to work in London. Occasionally it would annoy me that my chiffon trousers got caught in my spokes. But it was always the easiest way to get to work! If I didn’t want to get sweaty, I just slowed down. And I found that wearing lycra micro mini skirts were easily the best things for avoiding bloomers in the spokes.

Out of London, cycling between two towns daily needs a lot more attitude. Drivers are 80% great and 20% rubbish. But that’s a big number of rubbish experiences every morning! I completely understand why you wouldn’t be cycling along with small child in trailer round here (as my super-normal brother’s wife does in Germany). I wear proper gear as there seems to be more weather (although it also needs more organisation) and so including my make-up, spare clothes, laptop, extra cycling lunch, my cycle to work bag often weighs more than my bike. I have come to the conclusion that I have stopped being normal.

Same as crazy legs comments above. I was considered quite out of my tiny mind to cycle the 3.5 miles to work every morning and more so the 3.5 miles home again. Luckily being self employed it wasn’t the end of the world if I didn’t turn up looking like miss world.

On a serious note, ime it’s just due to the safety aspect that most women won’t/don’t cycle and even if it were made safer, most women prefer the comfort of cars for getting around, as do the chaps.

I do think a lot of the problem is down to our attitudes to physical exercise/wellbeing in the UK. Men who carry out a physical hobby much beyond their twenties are generally seen as a bit odd (unless its a kickabout followed by 10 pints) and people find it odd when you choose to ride into work in winter rather than take the car as they don’t seem to be able to square the idea that someone would choose to put up with the discomfort in return for other benefits.

I suspect its considerably worse for women as a significant proportion of society seem to think that once you reach a certain age/have kids/settle down you should slump into an inactive middle age – most of the mums I know have essentially jacked in all activity since having kids and actively bitch/moan about the few who still run or cycle.When my OH did a mtb skills course last year loads of our friends commented to the effect of ‘you should slow down’ and ‘you’ll only hurt yourself’, fortunately she didn’t and she hasn’t 🙂

Must be a southern thing, women ride around this neck of the woods.

I used to rock up at the school gate sometimes in my running kit, sometimes with a filthy mtb or even with a filthy dog.

Oh yes, I was the weirdo. 😆

they don’t seem to be able to square the idea that someone would choose to put up with the discomfort in return for other benefits

There does seem to be a commonly-held attitude in this country that doing physical exercise makes you weaker.

There does seem to be a commonly-held attitude in this country that doing physical exercise makes you weaker.

Yet people seem to enjoy the success of our elite athletes whenever they do well, without reflecting on the inherent contradiction of holding both beliefs.

I get the feeling that elite athletes are seen as special people, rather than just faster versions of people like us…

The thing Chris Hoy and I have in common is we love to ride our bikes. The fundamental difference is he’s an awful lot faster, but that really is the only difference…

**** off solo 😆

I cycle ‘cos my dad does, it’s what we do together. I am a wuss when it comes to the cold though.

I think there is a cultural thing rather than just women, although sometimes women seem disproportionately affected by it.

I do wonder how much influence celebrities doing race for life or london marathon (and talking about it in gossip mags etc) has on persuading women that they can run too. There’s nowhere near the profile for celebrities doing cycling events – not least because other than maybe London to Brighton and the new London event there is little on that scale. Whether you think huge events are something that you want to take part in personally or not, the profile raising side does have some benefits.

Also, the sort of culture where protecting your kids means a 4×4 arms race, and parent and child parking spaces because it’s too dangerous/difficult to walk across a supermarket car park doesn’t help. If you can’t get across a car park and if there is no need to do that because the facilities are available to park outside the door, then are you really going to attach a tagalong or a bike seat, put the kid in it and get to the shops by bike unless you can’t afford to run a car – and then you’re fighting the “utility cycling is for poor people” mindset again?

I think I must live in a different world to a lot of the folks on this discussion. I grew up using my bike, along with all the other local kids, riding to school, riding to friends’ houses and the local shops, I took my bike to university and rode to lectures every day, then I cycled to work every day in Manchester. I certainly wasn’t doing anything unusual or out of the ordinary for a woman.

Mrs Tenfoot prefers to run rather than ride.

Obviously I have tried to tempt her away from the dark side (she has a decent bike), but her reasons are 1) she gets a better work out running, in her alloted time and 2)she doesn’t want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a puncture. The logic behind that, is that to get a decent ride in, you’re going to end up further from home, than you would be going for a run.

To help with 2) I offered to fit her bike with slime tubes and show her how to mend a puncture, but the last time she punctured, she had to push the bike home 2 miles. She will now come out on the bikes with the kids and me, but alas will not ride alone 🙁