Women on Bikes

[zanna_leigh]

On Monday night, WABA held their first Women’s Bicycle Forum. They brought 8 panelists in to address the ever growing discussion on the gender gap in cycling.

I attended the round table discussion to hear what these women had to say from their perspective – they came from bike shops, advocacy groups, bike[share] marketing and a general interest/experience in biking. If you missed out there have already been several write ups about the event (oh, the beauty of social media): TBD On Foot, CommuterPage (moi), goDCgo, and WJLA – News Channel 8. (and yes, at 39 seconds into the WJLA video, that giant face is mine).

But as all of these sources will most likely remind you – we need to continue this conversation. So, I am interested to hear from everyone in the forum about your opinions on why the gender gap exists, and how we can solve it. More butts on bikes is great, but if those butts happen to be female….even better!

All ideas and solutions welcome!

Thanks everyone 😮

Topic

[jrenaut]

@Mark Blacknell 12071 wrote:

How about coordinating a “Family Bike Show & Tell” sort of thing?

I’d definitely be interested in this. I’ve been doing the daycare/school pickup with a Burley trailer for a week now, and I’m loving it so far. It’s still technically borrowed at this point, but I expect we’ll be purchasing it soon, and I’d be happy to show it off if it would help more families bike. Now that I see how easy it is to haul stuff around, I’m dreaming about a cargo bike with a utility trailer, running more and more errands on the bike . . . I guess we need to buy a new place with more room for bikes.

[Mark Blacknell]

I can imagine a number of venues that might be great for a Family Bike Show & Tell. The spread out nature of BTWD might dilute the effort, but I like the idea of doing it earlier in the year than later (Clarendon Day’s problem). The Clarendon Cup (with it approximately 3 million kid registration for the Kid’s Race being very helpful) is a great idea. I also think that hitting some of the first warm spring farmer’s market weekends at Dupont and Eastern Market would be great. I’m sure there’s an analog or two in that far-off place called Maryland, too

This could happen in any number of ways, but I think there are a few things that could help make sure it happens. First – rely on volunteers with their own bikes. I wouldn’t put it on any particular shop to do a demo (tho’ all should be welcome). Even if a shop can come up with some time and inventory to attend, they’re not going to be as enthusiastic as someone who already owns and lives what we’re talking about. Second – just setting up a few well-spaced dates would probably garner the maximum participation from owners. Don’t want to ask too much of people volunteering time. Finally – we would need a lot of help to publicize it outside of the usual channels.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

[jrenaut]

If an event is organized for this spring at the Dupont farmers market, I’ll bring the kids in the trailer.

[DaveK]

There are dozens of moms and kids at Eastern Market on a nice weekend, many of whom ride together to the market. I’ve seen every kid-on-bike solution you could imagine there from Xtracycles to trailers to those dutch baby seats that go behind the handlebars. No bakfiets yet, not there anyway. I think it would go over great. Plus the neighborhood can certainly afford it.

[dasgeh]

@Mark Blacknell 12086 wrote:

I can imagine a number of venues that might be great for a Family Bike Show & Tell.

Maybe we can team up with Kidical Mass DC (does anyone know who organizes it?) — have a FBST at a given farmers market from, e.g. 8am – 11am, then have a kidical mass ride leave from there at 11am. Let the LBSs in the area know, not to put it all on them to demo, but so they’ll see the demand in their area for these types of bikes, and maybe even decide to add some to their normal inventory (or at least order a few special for the spring demoing season — I’m sure if a LBS had a bakfiets to demo for May-June, it’d be sold by the end of June, and they’d probably get a few more orders…).

As far as publicity, there are a number of parents-listservs (urban moms, metro dads, nova moms, etc) that would be good to target, once we get details and close to the date.

[KLizotte]

I think the Arlington summer fair would be a great location/event since there are so many families there plus everyone is milling around with time on their hands (unlike other events when people are rushing to get their errands done). Adding a bike corral so people can try out CaBi’s (and any other bikes that could be scrounged up) would also be a good idea.

[dasgeh]

And back to the original topic… did everyone see this: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/adventure/2011/11/women-and-the-way-of-the-pedal-empowered/? Good post

[zanna_leigh]

THANK YOU to everyone for contributing such great ideas!! This is exactly what I was looking for and you all nailed it! Since I don’t have kids, and have an obscenely short commute to work, I never have to think about these issues (i.e. if I need to get groceries, I just stop by the store, if I want to go out after work I just go out after work…no 2 week advance scheduling necessary) so I really appreciate all of your input and new perspectives.

I think it’s great that we do have Mom’s and families on this forum that can speak with experience and that can act as role models to everyone else!

I have compiled all of the ideas together and will pass it along to necessary parties for discussion about what our next step will be. I can picture at least 2 of these ideas coming to fruition…Please keep the good ideas coming!

[acorn]

In my case, I stopped riding my bike to work for 8 long years because I was bringing first one, then two kids into daycare at my office downtown. There just wasn’t any way I was going to make it up the huge hill going home to Arlington towing a kid- I just don’t have the strength. I didn’t know about electric assisted bikes back then, though- might have tried them if I had known. But then there is also the weather issue- it’s one thing for me to ride 45 minutes each way in cold and/or rain, another thing for a kid (even in a covered trailer.)

[Joe Chapline]

@zanna_leigh 11986 wrote:

… I am interested to hear from everyone in the forum about your opinions on why the gender gap exists, and how we can solve it.

I had a thought about the gender gap. We have lots of posts in other threads about how people maintain, clean, and adjust their bikes, sometimes taking them apart and soaking the parts in a sequence of solvents, oils, and secret recipes. I’m not knocking that at all, but I don’t really enjoy working on my bike, and I never learned much about it. I don’t work on my car, either, and I don’t want to.

Today I picked up my bike at the bike shop. It was the third time I’ve taken it in for the same minor problem — the chain “skips,” or disengages, sometimes. The first two times I took it in, I think all that was done was simple adjustments that many members of this forum would do themselves without a second thought. And I’m starting to think I’ll have to learn to do some of this stuff, as much as I don’t want to, because it’s not practical to keep taking the bike back to the shop.

This raised a couple of questions in my mind:

1) Is present bike technology “geared” (no pun intended) toward people that enjoy working on bikes, as well as riding them?
2) If that’s the case, does that exclude a lot of women from the pool of potential riders?

It seems (my perception, anyway) that people who like to work on cars are mostly guys. Most car “enthusiasts” are guys. But the mechanics and enthusiasts are a small minority of drivers. Most people drive to get where they need to go. They don’t work on their cars and they don’t care much about their cars. I wonder if we’re still at a stage in bike technology where using a bike for everyday transportation requires riders to be more involved with the machines than a lot of people, and particularly women, want to be.

[americancyclo]

As a thought experiment, would you expect to see more women riding single speed or fixed gear bikes?

[eminva]

@Joe Chapline 12715 wrote:

This raised a couple of questions in my mind:

1) Is present bike technology “geared” (no pun intended) toward people that enjoy working on bikes, as well as riding them?
2) If that’s the case, does that exclude a lot of women from the pool of potential riders?

Excellent questions, and for my part, I would answer both with “yes”.

Like Joe, I don’t have a special interest in bicycle mechanics. I have learned as much as I can just to do my own minor trouble shooting and to be more conversant with mechanics at bike shops. My impression is that mechanics enjoy talking with cyclists who are knowledgeable and maintain their bikes carefully and I feel less condescended to than at the beginning, when I knew next to nothing.

It appears to be a slippery slope because as I get more knowledgeable, I get more demanding and I find sometimes work is not done to my satisfaction. However, I’m not good enough to do it myself. Also, as Joe points out, it is inconvenient to have to go to the shop for minor adjustments. For this reason, I’m thinking of attempting to expand my range of novice mechanical skills.

Having said that, I ride a road bike under a variety of conditions. Another woman with a simpler bike who only rides in good weather might not have these problems.

In response to americancyclo — unless she lives where there aren’t hills, I would expect a novice woman would want gears for ease of riding. That would probably trump ease of maintenance, unless she is already super fit.

Liz

[KLizotte]

@Joe Chapline 12715 wrote:

I wonder if we’re still at a stage in bike technology where using a bike for everyday transportation requires riders to be more involved with the machines than a lot of people, and particularly women, want to be.

Well I’m obviously a statistical sample of one female but I rode a road bike for 15+ years without knowing a single thing about repair and maintenance. Didn’t even know I was supposed to clean and lube the chain every once in a while and the couple of times I got a slow tube leak I brought the bike into the shop for repair (at which point I asked them to do a “tune up” while they were at it). It truly is a wonder the bike functioned at all in retrospect. I thought all bikes were like kiddie tricycles: virtually no maintenance.

Now that I have been exposed to all of you, I have learned a lot and am now much more “hands on” and careful about my equipment. All of that is to say that I doubt most women are turned off from becoming riders by repair/maintenance issues simply because they are ignorant of them (even if we know we’re supposed to get the oil/filter changed in the car every few thousand miles).

What I did find daunting (and still do) is going into a bike shop and figuring out what kind of bike I should buy, asking the right questions, test riding a bike adequately, etc. I suspect most women feel too embarassed to test ride more aggressive road bikes if they aren’t in 100% physical shape since they don’t want to appear as if they are buying “over their head.” As someone who hasn’t yet crossed over to clipless shoes, I’d feel awkward trying out carbon bikes in flat pedals for instance. And I’d feel equally goofy trying out a carbon racing bike given that I seriously lack six pack abs (I have enough blubber to keep a polar bear happy) even though such a bike would probably help me acquire that desired six pack.

Generally speaking, I think the big difference between men and women in terms of buying (and riding) bikes is that a man will buy an expensive “fancy pants” bike because he thinks it will make him look “cool” and is something to aspire to irrespective of his cycling experience or level of fitness whereas a woman feels like she needs to achieve a certain level of cycling knowledge, accomplishment, and fitness before she will ever be taken seriously by the LBS guys when purchasing an upscale, long haul bike. Thus a lot of the appeal of Pashley, Electra, and cruiser bikes to women (which are all fine bikes but limit riders to short, flat distances). So for men, nice bikes are aspirational (i.e., something they will “grow into”) whereas for women, they are to be “earned.” It doesn’t help that the vast majority of folks working in the sales departments of LBSs are men and most are poorly trained as sales people.

I do think CaBi will help women overcome their self-confidence issues regarding biking though and this is a good thing.

[DismalScientist]

Just between you and me, some bikes can be ridden with virtually no maintenance. Once the cables are stretched, you probably don’t have to adjust them. Sure, it would help to know how to change a tube and keep air in the tires. Not relubing the hubs and crank every year won’t hurt performance that much. BTW, you don’t have to change your car’s oil every 3000 miles either.

[Joe Chapline]

@americancyclo 12716 wrote:

As a thought experiment, would you expect to see more women riding single speed or fixed gear bikes?

I don’t know about single speed or fixie, but I have wondered if the common, finicky 24-speed chain drive with derailleurs is the best system for people that don’t want to fool with it. I wonder if there are bikes with some more reliable design and/or technology that could be moved to the front of the bike shop. But if most people who design, ride, and sell bikes enjoy fooling around with the gears and cables, they may not see a problem to solve.

I’ve had long runs of good luck, too, so maybe there actually isn’t a problem. But even when things work, I’m not a fan of the dirty old chain drive. (I know, I should clean it — fat chance.) I haven’t tried a bike with a 7-or-8 speed enclosed hub, but I wonder if that’s more reliable than derailleurs. Trek also has a bike with an enclosed hub and a belt drive; I’d like to try that.

[Author]

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