Topsy Turvy World

Survey says that 73% of women who have a safety concern related to bicycling named "distracted driving" as the concern.

In conversations (that are generally one-sided) with "well-meaning" (re: busybody) coworkers and acquaintances, not a one has asked if I was afraid that a distracted driver would slam into me. No. The fear that they try to transfer from themselves to me is that of being attacked by a stranger. According to the same survey of female cyclists, only 13.1% named stranger attacks as one of their concerns.

In the February issue of Bazaar, Liza Minnelli is quoted as saying, "Keep moving. Always be a moving target. [...] Marilyn Monroe taught me that." Those who have concerns of being ambushed might calm themselves by keeping those words (completely out of their context) in mind. Read more!

Stank Locker

In case you're asked to check your bags at the front desk of the oldest art museum in Hartford, you can use this photo as proof that your junk'll probably fit just nicely in one of their complimentary lockers. One locker holds: massive cargo bike pannier, two helmets, and a medium-sized purse. Sure, we could have taken two lockers and not gotten everything wrinkled, but I think the point needed to be made.

Before we reached the museum, we had to do some rush hour traffic riding. Before that, I practically got marriage offers from some dudes in my neighborhood. It went something like this:
DUDE ONE: We need us a simple girl like that.
DUDE TWO: Yeah, all these girls 'round here all they want's for us to get expensive cars and drive them around.

DUDE ONE: (to me) Hey, can I ride wit you? I'll behave.

This was one of the better random street pickup attempts I've been victim to, mostly because I agreed with them. Too many females see males as chauffeurs and ATMs. Relying on a man to supply one with these things is just setting oneself up for disappointment. Thus, I quote Destiny's Child: "I depend on me if I want it."




At the museum, we saw that someone thought himself too good for both wheels.

This is not the first time I spotted a unicycle downtown. Last year, someone sped around Main Street on one, doing tricks and hopping off the curb.

Before hitting the after party, we wanted to ride home to make some wardrobe adjustments. Interstatement picked up a passenger for the back of his bike -- a friend in the neighborhood who was too lazy to walk his self home -- and I once again dazzled onlookers by being able to pedal in heels. Here's a secret: it's really not that hard. In fact, it's way easier to ride a bike in heels than it is to stand still in them. What sucked about the ride had nothing to do with my footwear. The seat on Starry Starry Bike was still at this high, strange angle, and I've been spoiled riding the Jenny, which allows me to sit upright. I have a cranky back and any hunched over posture, if not immediately uncomfortable, at least promises to cause me discomfort the next day.

We rode home and then back downtown, locked the bikes on a random railing because there are no visible bike racks outside on Columbus Boulevard, and proceeded to check out the after party before running into a friend stumbling down from a mere few blocks away. Sure, he left later than we did, but I think this makes a sound case for why he needs a bicycle yesterday.

Also, if you need more information to pull out if the subject ever comes up, bike helmets and panniers were allowed into a swank restaurant in the Convention Center/Science Center vicinity.

Read more!

Bikes and the ladies

It's a shortcoming of our blog that none of the writers are women. I don't think this is so much because we've actively tried to exclude anyone, but more because our blog isn't very good so no women have any interest. Maybe I'm wrong. Who knows? If you're a bike riding woman and want to write about it, sent us an email. It would definitely make things better.

Anyway, that's not what is actively vexing me. It's women trying to buy bikes. I'm going to relate some anecdotes and keep things strictly anonymous.

Some women I know have tried to buy bikes in bike shops. Instead of wandering around the the bike shop in peace and staring at bikes, the bike salesmen walk with them and ask them vague and strange misleading questions about what kind of riding they want to do and talk about the length of their arms and legs and torsos and hair and other unrelated things. This seems to invariably lead the salesmen to think that these women I know need to purchase nerdy hybrids.

When I go into a bike shop, none of these questions are asked and nobody comments about the length of my body parts. I wander around and sometimes take a bike of my choosing out into the parking lot. Nothing about me suggests that I'm a guy that knows anything about bicycles.

These weird disparities and general weirdness lead the women I know to be fearful bicycles and think that there are all these weird restrictions. They're also uncomfortable in bike shops. This doesn't have to be.

I am all for bikes fitting people correctly, but that should be something that happens towards the end of a sale- not first. Let everyone browse and let people gravitate towards whatever they want. Just because some says they might ride on the road and might ride off of it in no way means they want to ride a hybrid. Riding a hybrid is no fun anywhere. That's why the world's garages are filled with hybrids that no one rides. Further, if you posed the question of where I want to ride to me, I'd answer that I want to ride on the road sometimes and not other times. I certainly don't want to buy a hybrid. Why oh why do the world's salespeople think it's a great idea to sell women weird things that they don't want? Read more!

We're not as manly as we think we are

From http://www.genderanalyzer.com/:

We guess http://beatbikeblog.blogspot.com is written by a man (50%), however it's quite gender neutral. Read more!