snow_echo_NY

ok so it sounds like i'm going to have to get another bike specifically for snow if i really want to ride thru snow. thanks @Leebo

i have been doing that, using MEC (Canadian REI but cheaper) and REI merino wool base layers. for right now tho, it seems i truly stand out tho wearing that stuff (technical softgoods i guess) b/c everyone dresses in "street" style or stuff they wear to work, so commuting-wear. i will check out those other brands, i heard good things about showers pass rain jackets.

SpaceGoat

I can't speak for all women, but the hand size/strength thing really applies to me. I will learn how to make a repair but when I go to try it myself, I find I can't turn whatever bolt needs to be loosened! Even things as simple as a seat adjustment can be difficult. I also agree a big hindrance to me is the lack of cargo space on a bike. I have 2 kids that I need to get to daycare and back, with all of their "luggage". One is only 4 months old, so even if I go the cargo bike route, which I'm considering, I wouldn't be able to start that until she's at least a year old. When my husband is able to take the kids to daycare I commute by bike, and am not fearful for myself (though my town is only moderately bike-friendly) but I don't know how comfortable I'd be with my kids on board.

I will say in my smallish office there are 4 regular bike-commuters, 2 of us are women!

noglider 

@SpaceGoat, consider getting one of these. You can improve your strength. Also, there are ways to finesse things as a substitute for raw strength. For instance, if you have a quick release lever for adjusting your seat height, you can put an adjustable wrench on the end of the lever to effectively lengthen the lever. That will make the job extremely easy. There are also ways to position your hand to apply more force or feel less pain.

noglider 

@snow_echo_NY, there is a winter cycling subforum here. This past winter, I asked for help with riding in snow. Some of the suggestions were very helpful.

https://www.bikeforums.net/winter-cyc...ride-snow.html

snow_echo_NY

thanks i will look into it! i've been on icebike.org and a friend of ours in denver who bike commutes was giving me advice on riding in snow. i will have to review

snow_echo_NY

I want to say for me at least, the distance from my brakes to the bar is really quite big for me. i would want my brakes closer to the bar as my hands can easily slip under the brakes but not as easily on top of the brakes. i think that's the design idea, b/c my husband's is similar in proportion for his grip but i can't help feel like this is not great for (at least) my grip, maybe other women feel the same.

and having the kids to deposit at day care and hauling their stuff - yeah this is not easy to just do. esp. since babies have to be at least a year old before you consider hauling them around by bike. i have people buzz by me and lean out of their cars to tell me i'm a bad parent for hauling my kid in a titanium trailer with a bright orange flag. what gets me is they probably wouldn't do that to a dad. it's beyond annoying. it's pretty much my nature as a mom to not want to bike with the kid, but when i face reality about getting around, the bike makes a lot of sense. now that she's big now, she can ride her own bike, but i would only feel comfortable with her biking on the sidewalk. no way to the streets - not even a cycling lane. no no no.

we've been walking tons so that in turn solves our bicycling issues. but it sucks. commuting with kids is something i would like to see but given that commuters by themselves sans kids is hard enough with the issues on the road with motorists - i don't see this environment changing anytime soon to make it a welcoming thing for parents and their cargos with kids. even so i see a bunch of parents on weekends doing this. cargo biking with the kids in Brooklyn. i love it and would like to see this as a part of the everyday.

jdswitters

After seeing some interesting posts to this I thought I might follow up with the diversity of bicycles parked around mine.

The everyday commuter rides a Novarra safari, second most rides an older( 8 years-is) rigid trek mountain bike with fenders and a really nice trailer, a cycletote. The rest are various upright hybrids with one notable exception, a 1960s Hawthorne with the rack and tank, when she isn't riding a vintage schwinn breeze.

tjspiel

A few years ago I started a thread asking what sort of barriers existed that made it difficult for women to commute. Mostly the barriers were the same as they were for men, just in different degrees. There were some exceptions.

I don't remember if the brake reach/hand strength thing came up but it highlights the reason why the questions like "why are there fewer women commuters? " should be asked. Now, I don't know if that's the kind of thing that stops someone from commuting but it very easily could make somebody less comfortable on a bike. Perhaps something like that in combination with enough other things that may be insignificant on their own is enough to make bike commuting not very appealing.

As a lefty I'm a little bit more sensitive to how the design and layout of things can be annoying for people who don't fit the mold. And the people that do fit the mold are often clueless that it could ever be an issue. But once it is recognized that it is a problem, solutions are often not all that hard.


Sorry that's happened to you. I'm a little biased of course but I think having mom or dad transport the kids is via bike demonstrating the sort of healthy lifestyle that a lot of kids in the US sadly do not get enough exposure to. I mean jeez, do you yell at parents when they bring in their kids into a McDonalds?

We got our own share of judgmental comments when we let our son ride his bike alone a couple of miles to school in 6th grade. We certainly had our fears as well but now he's a Freshman in high school who will hop on his bike to hang out with his friends a few miles away. They're outside and not plopped on the couch playing video games all day. I'm very happy about that.

SpaceGoat

[QUOTE=snow_echo_NY;17782068]I want to say for me at least, the distance from my brakes to the bar is really quite big for me. i would want my brakes closer to the bar as my hands can easily slip under the brakes but not as easily on top of the brakes. i think that's the design idea, b/c my husband's is similar in proportion for his grip but i can't help feel like this is not great for (at least) my grip, maybe other women feel the same.

I agree with the brake-to-bar distance being an issue, particularly on bikes with drops. In traffic situations I like having my fingers on the brake levers while riding, and that is uncomfortable for me on drop bar bikes. So, I tend to gravitate towards bikes with flat bars.

I try to get involved in city-planning public meetings and push for more bike lanes, but ideally more towns would invest in the separated bike lanes. That would make me feel comfortable biking with kids.

SpaceGoat

noglider- I used to do a bit of rock climbing back in the day, and had one of those squeezie things to work on grip strength. I need to find it and put it back to use! Thanks for the tip.

snow_echo_NY

Yes, agree with this - i use drop bars and love them way more than flat bars for comfort reasons while riding - but the brake thing does bother me. i could see it bothering a more timid or newbie cyclist for sure.

that is great you're getting involved in city planning meetings and i agree with you that separated bike lanes are really the most ideal for riding with kids. i would let my kid ride in a lane that is physically protected from motorists. i go back to the Amsterdam example all the time and yeah, this would be ideal.

snow_echo_NY

Haha thanks. in NYC, cycling here is another animal that is different.

https://bicycleaustin.info/justice/harassment.html < read motorist cuts off 8-year-old

and there are so many stories on kid cyclists getting in collisions here - and as a parent i just gravitate toward that - at least what seems normal in proportion to the population to me. far more adults in NYC but i am pretty sure adults are well and capable of being defensive cyclists here, where kids don't have that ability that young. i don't trust motorists around me, i'm certainly not going to trust them with my little one.

please link me to your post on barriers to women cyclists/commuters - i'm definitely interested~

noglider 

I think a bakfiets should work well for carrying very small kids. I see a fair number of them in my neighborhood.

Making brake levers small enough must be hard. Once they make the levers small (small distance between lever and bar) then it may not be able to pull enough cable. They have improved, though, with clever curve designs. You may find that upright bars are better, because the lever problem there is solved. If you like bending over, get a low stem or use North Road bars upside down.

Driving your kids in cars is dangerous. It might be more dangerous than carrying them on a bike. This is counterintuitive, and since people don't use bikes much in North America, they tend to assume the bike is more dangerous. It's just ignorance.

But I do agree that letting them ride in NYC streets alone is not right. Not until they're around 13. When they're 9 or so, they can ride in the street with you, preferable with you in back so you can watch them and offer corrections. You can also "cover" for them.

tjspiel

Well, I found it. Scary, it's 5 years old. I've been here too long. Women of the forum: Were the barriers to commuting different for you than for men?

Gresp15C

This is how I ride -- behind and slightly further into the street, to provide a more visible obstacle to cars, and to give them a wider berth in case they wobble around a bit.

I think that letting kids be out in front, is also a better way to ease them into the responsibility of riding alone.

Gresp15C

I just bought my teenage daughter her first set of Park tools.

trunolimit

I use to take my niece bike riding and it use to scare the living tar out of me. I tried both the riding in front and behind. My fear of having her ride in front is if she didn't stop in time I couldn't do anything. If i'm in front I can at least be a barrier between her and traffic but I couldn't keep a constant eye being in front. I eventually made sure to instill in her that when I say stop I mean STOP!!!. Then I stayed behind. Another technique I tried was me on roller blades and her on a bike but my lower back couldn't take it. I moved out of my sister's place and work 7 days a week so i haven't had a bike ride with her in ages. Makes me sad.

I started reading the thread and I totally agree that commuting to work (while it's better than nothing) is not a good exercise. The constant traffic stops makes it impossible to keep my heart rate up at a decent level. plus my commute is only about 6.5 miles then a train ride and 2.5 miles each way. Hardly a work out.

I've been wearing a Microsoft health band and according to it the 6.5 mile leg averages me about 500 calories burned. Is that a lot? I think I can get more with a proper gym workout.

Hugh Morris

Since reading this thread, I've started paying attention to gender on the road. Yesterday evening women outnumbered men 7-4 before i forgot about counting... and today the locked up SS i'd been ogling was unlocked by a stylish (read: not wearing bike specific clothing) woman who confidently rode away into the sun. A sinewy, well-into-middle-age woman was spinning a pretty heavily geared fixie with bullhorns this morning. A minute earlier I had passed a more rotund woman pedaling a mountain bike at her own pace.

Women commuters are here, of all shapes, sizes, and speeds (on all types of bikes).

way to make me feel bad about my commute... I often get more tired commuting 5-10 miles than joyriding 30-50... I think a lot has to do with pace. Sometimes traffic patterns encourage sustained semi-sprinting. I can't really commute casually, for whatever reason, need to be moving.

katsrevenge

A few of you guys mentioned the reaching for the brakes thing. Ever try butterfly or trekking bars? They let you get down and all the good drop bar stuff but you can move the brakes around as you like! Had a set on my mixte. I liked them but I really do prefer north road style bars.

As for 'obstacles' in the way of woman commuting.. I'll add 'concern trolling'. This is one my brother is good at. He's convinced that something bad will happen to me while out riding just because I am a woman. And he tells me about it, constantly. But my male other half goes to the card shop and rides home around 2AM... 'oh, he'll be fine'.

Well meant -sure- but seriously. Knock it off already. I know the risks and can judge them for myself. (and see more women riders/walkers during the 'risky' times then men. KILLS me!)

Oh, and my commute may be shortish but it sure does count. I almost always sprint the last mile or so!

jade408

I know this sounds horrible, bu I wouldn't ride a bike if it required wearing bike specific clothing! I get excited when I see people in normal gear and no hi-vis vests!

Although I did order a scarf with a reflective stripe! I get chilly at night!

kickstart

There's nothing horrible about that, I do use a few bike specific items, but there's plenty of non specific clothing that works as good or better under most circumstances.
Its about fitting cycling to your life, rather than fitting your life to cycling.

snow_echo_NY

haha thanks. i stayed up late one evening reading this thread. some of the things i found frivolous while others i just don't know. i think it's safe to say that every person is different and has their own barriers to entry.

hm what are bakfiets?

and i understand you on being able to pull down the brake levers all the way. not really sure what i need to do...i'll have to work on this.

agree cars are dangerous. they are pretty much the number one cause of death in kids under 17 or something crazy like that. it's really upsetting.

snow_echo_NY

i haven't looked at butterfly or trekking bars. i'm not sure what north road style bars are. damn i just know flat bars and drop bars and that's it! okay off to google...

yeah concern trolling sucks. annoying! luckily it doesn't happen to me too often.

don't knock your commute. i have a short commute 4.5-5.2 miles each way so i ride roughly ~10 miles a day? i do it every workday now. i think it's far better than having a long commute and not bike-commuting some of the days. i've become a stronger rider and often look to do rides, but it's hard to grab an hour of leisure everyday. oh well. you only have so much time in the day.

snow_echo_NY

i think it's time to go cycling with your niece again

the one thing that new yorkers have is bridge access, usually separated from pedestrians, and a 100 foot "hill" to climb. this definitely helps, but it's about a 2-2.5-minute effort (when i started, maybe 3.5 minute effort). then we have the descent. also the east and west side paths are pretty continuous, as are the central and prospect park loops. i would think it's great for exercise.

snow_echo_NY

i finally found casual tops and bottoms for cycling women: terry bike clothing for women. it's ridiculously expensive so i will have to peruse the sale section. but just a relaxed fit and relaxed look. some of the women in a local bike forum suggested jersey dresses on top of leggings or capri-leggings. basically nothing to constrict you like pants, waistband, etc. i'm using these women's high waisted cargo pants and they're breathable, but not that comfortable.

otherwise, the other name brands you guys suggested - thanks, but again the style and looks are limited, look semi-technical, and most of them can be found at REI so i will probably go visit the local REI and see if i can find anything. otherwise these are also expensive ($80 for a tank top? i can sew something like that and just buy tech fabric at one of the many fabric stores in NYC and pay much less).

in any case - definitely posting for other women on this forum who might want to look like normal people while riding a bike instead of a racer or whatever. something that translates to dutch-style and getting on and off your bike going to work and back and around town.