Originally Posted by Banzai

My best cycling friend is a gal.

My wife refers to her as my "bicycle girlfriend."

Some of the arguments on here for why it can't/shouldn't be done are not too philosophically removed from segregating sexes, dressing women in burkas, and only interacting with chaperones for fear that one thing might lead to another, or a man might not be able to control his lascivious thinking, or there may be the appearance of impropriety, or trust issues will go into meltdown.

If you know yourself well enough to know that you can't interact with the opposite sex on a peer - nonsexual basis, then keep yourself out of those situations. Should probably take a good hard look at your workplace too since you may end up working one-on-one with a person of the opposite sex.

However, I like to live with the happy illusion that men and women can be cycling partners and friends, and that as rational human beings everyone can be okay with that.