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.
Honestly, the gender stereotypes need to end. My sister isn't super mechanically inclined but likes to know about stuff even if she doesn't do the work herself. An old (female) friend of mine put a supercharged mercedes V8 in an 01 plymouth neon, rebuilt the front end with a space frame to accommodate it, and altered the chassis of the neon to accept rear wheel drive and electronically shifted manual transmission with steering wheel shift buttons. On the outside it looked stock. Unlike a stock 01 neon, it could do 135 and power slides and all that. She also built racing stock cars and motorcycles from scratch. My one brother is not mechanically inclined at all, but me on the other hand.... well lets just say i can repair all most anything from a lawn mower to an iPhone.
Not all guys "are into gear" either. Everyone has their own interests and skill sets. Women have been pushed away from being interested in mechanical & technological stuff by society. If you just want your bicycle to work, that's OK. If you wanna know how to build a frame and cut your own sprockets and whatnot, thats OK too, as is anything in between.
High time we simply appreciated each other instead of trying to figure out which mental shoe box that person over there belongs in.
/rant
- Andy