I've experienced that myself -- I'm certain women give mine a lot more positive attention and refer to it as "cool" far more often than they do for road bikes worth much more.

We need a woman to comment on why this might be the case. My operating theory is that they know that real hombres ride whatever the hell they want.

BTW, twist shifters suck. Most 'bents that use them would be better served with bar ends. Beats me why they don't do Di2 for 9 speed -- this would be an even bigger benefit than it is on road bikes because of the cable lengths and you'd think it would only require a software change.