Originally Posted by
Giant Doofus
Not flaming, but I wouldn't say "women aren't into that." I love learning how to work on my own bike and am intensely curious about how it functions. I'm in a bike overhaul class at my local co-op right now. Of the ten students, six are women. I would say that girls don't usually get as much positive reinforcement to be curious about mechanical stuff as boys do, but that's changing. And there are a fair number of us who ride for a few years and then start getting curious about how the bike works. One challenge is that it's hard to find a place to learn how to wrench on your own bike. Bike shops are often dismissive of women customers (don't get me started on this one) and co-ops can have a really intense "dude culture" unless someone is being very intentional about creating a welcoming environment for everyone.
Back to the topic of the thread: Here in Memphis I would say that about 30% of the riders I see on my commute are women. The city has gotten much, much more bike friendly in the past few years so I expect to see that number improve over the next year or two.
I agree with you and share your opinion about bike shops. It helps when there are women working at bike shops. I spent a summer in college working in the warehouse for a bike store chain, for the sole purpose of saving money to buy a nice bike. I would often help unload boxed bikes from delivery trucks and one day, an older male delivery driver refused to unload the boxed bikes with me because I was a lady.
The bike overhaul class seems cool, I would like to find something like that. It would be great if mechanics would let you watch them while they worked on your bike and then maybe "supervise" you a bit while you wrench on your own bike. I am much more into gear compared to my husband. I want to lighten up my mountain bike with carbon wheels and 1x11 drivetrain instead of 2x10... He has an old steel mtb with 26" wheels that is half rusted and weighs 40lbs or so...
At least 70-80% of the bike commuters I see are male. I see lots of moms shuttling kids around in SUV's and I suspect that is a big reason there are not more female commuters in my area. It is harder to get kids to school/daycare on a bike. I would like to have a kid and I think bike commuting will be tougher if/when that happens.