Tell your co-worker about my wife. She rides with me 18.5 miles into work, gives me a kiss in the parking garage, then rides 18.5 miles back home - alone - in rush hour traffic. She started doing this when we were dating, which is one of the many reasons she is now my wife. And if she gets a flat, she knows how to fix it by herself. And no matter how much I lecture her, she doesn't carry her cell phone.

I love the look on my co-workers face when they ask me who the chick was they saw arriving with me at the parking garage, and I tell them that is my wife. This conversation has occurred several times:
"Oh, so... does she work around here?"
"No, she rides back home."
"All the way back to St Pete?"
"Yeah"
And then their brow crinkles up and their eyes go vacant as they are mentally trying to grasp the enormity of it. They finally give up, shake their head, and walk away.

That's why I love spandex. I commute in the hottest and most humid conditions known to man. At least I think they are. So I wear bike shorts.

I had several people in the office who genuinely had a hard time with my spandex... and it was invariably the fat lard-a**es who gave me a hard time. So I believe that you're correct... my rock hard butt in spandex reminds them that they are too lazy or timid to put in the time to earn their spandex.

Then a single event ended all of the derogatory comments:

I used to fight back by offering to sell butt squeezes for 25 cents each. Then one morning I found myself fielding insults from a glorious rotund coworker who decided to tell me how much she disapproved of my indecent shorts. So for the benefit of the folks who had gathered to look on, I told her that I was willing to let the ladies feel my booty for a quarter a squeeze. Just about that time the office hottie (every office has one)... easily 25 years my junior... stepped up and said "I'll take $5 worth of that action" and she laid a 5 dollar bill in my palm. Then she smacked my butt and swished away down the hallway.

I've never had another single rude coworker comment about my spandex. Not one.

This isn't genuine concern, it's passive-aggressive fear mongering. When somebody is reaching so far to find dangers lurking in something tried and true ( not to mention positive ), that's a pretty clear sign. She doesn't legitimately believe she's saving the poor lady from being attacked for riding a bike. If I were the potential commuter, I'd be pretty offended.

:lol:

Maybe it's not the backside that they're concerned about. Maybe you just look like you could be a member (no pun intended) of this team:
http://www.freethinker.co.uk/wp-cont...8/cyclists.jpg

Hahahahaha... No... I'm a lot more modest than that! Or is it more modestly endowed? Oh well...

Clueless drivers on the MUP... :rolleyes:

None of which are bike specific concerns. Any of the suggested problems could be problems in a car, too.

I think a lot of what successfully dealing with these kinds of things is to question "in what way does a car make you safer in this situation." It turns out that the only extra protection from a car is in the case of an actual collision (this is at least partly offset by collisions being less likely on a bike). Pretty much every other case, the car is only providing some false sense of security.

Boy that office lady would be pulling her hair out worrying about me then.

My stepfathers brother was killed on a motorcycle as was a school friend. I still ride motorcycles.

My brother in laws wife was killed in a skiing accident. I still ski.

Another school friend was hit by a car on his bike and killed. I still ride.


There's one like her in every business and/or school. Let her vent.

My boss was kinda like this about the distance that I ride everyday till the time I beat him home. We left the building at the same time. I had a 3 minute head start as that is what it takes to walk to the garage. He was on the roads the fastest way to his house. I rode my normal .75 miles on the sides streets and the rest (12.9 miles) was on the bike path. I rode my normal pace and was sitting at the traffic light waiting to cross the street to my car when he drove by 58 minutes later. He never said anything about the distance again.

Let it go.

http://media.tzaam.com/images/full/zz.jpg

+1 on the let it go. You gain nothing by insulting DD's appearance or intimating that she's jealous...rather, remarks like that reflect poorly on the speaker, not the subject.

The potential commuter is an adult, and can make her own decisions. You could let her know that all commuters face similar criticism at some point. By all means help her, but you are not responsible for her actions, and jumping in and openly antagonizing DD as some have suggested will not gain you respect.

OP, you shouldn't let little stuff like this bother you. Life is too short to sweat the dumb sh#t.

*checks OP's location*

hm... not that far away. convince her to cyclecommute and tell me her route *grabs roofies* :D

i nearly died at the confirmation of "was she fat". that's quality stuff

I've had comments like that at school, even though the school is in an area with many bike commuters. without even thinking about it they just put a smile on my face

i did boot, at benning, in august, so ill attest to the hot and humid conditions.

Hmmm. Worker droids are not supposed to have any individuality. Not surprising that most of the people thriving there are those who toe the line just because it was painted there. Ride on!

That's priceless!

It is priceless, but in our office (and lots of others) offering butt squeezes for 25 cents is a quick way to get your butt hauled to the HR department for creating a hostile work environment. And I guess I wouldn't blame the rotund coworker for being pissed as hell over the whole event. The office hottie got away with some outrageous behavior (for an office) precisely because she's hot. The rotund one's opinion on the matter was rendered unimportant by their relative un-hottness, rather than due to the merit of their concerns. Maybe that's just how the world works.

Edit: To give the office hottie some credit, she probably did what she did to get the other one off your back. It was a nice gesture in that sense. I also wonder if she's gotten a comment or two about her own clothing choices and it was a way to get back at them. It clearly shows though that being attractive gives you some power. Power which I personally try to wield with a sense of benevolence. ;)

Exactly! And he seems to be bragging about it. I bet he wouldn't brag if it was a male co worker wanting to squeeze the cheeks. :lol:

Some of these discussions make me wonder about wearing cycling shorts at my office. I've gotten some good natured ribbing about it but very few comments over all. No one (that I know of) has actually complained. Last thing I want though is my commute clothing choices to create some sort of controversy.

lmfao, yeah, that might be worth a fin and a not so quick rub, just to make dude squirm...add $25 for 4 bottles of purell hand sanitizer.

Sure she's riding home and not stopping some place else. ;) :D

Safety doesn't just revolve around collision. There are areas one would ride through that has a high risk vs. driving through. Disregarding the obvious fact that being in a car, one is secured in a lockable "cage". While on a bike one is exposed. Then there's the speed. No dumbass drunk/junky would try to assault a moving vehicle at speeds. A young girl peddling at no faster than a jogging pace makes for a much easier target. Throw a stick at the spokes and down she goes. You can complete the mental picture of what will ensue by the assailant.
How about if she were to travel down a lonely alleyway or a park MUP which are often home to hobos or gangs? There are many parks where I am that are occupied by homeless tent folks. **** and assaults have know to occur in these areas and not just cyclists, joggers and strollers too.
This is obviously on the extreme. Without knowing what sort of areas of risk she may traverse too, it is not possible to determine what is safe or not. However to say traversing on a bike = as on a car in terms of safety is rather narrow POV.

What I am saying is Debbie Downer may have a genuince concern and before we go into a tirade of of predisposed prejudices on non-cycling folks, lets step back a little.

I agree.

She'll probably die young of heart disease. That and the stress of being bitter and jealous so much of the time.

Because they're fat, they must be bitter and jealous? As far as their opinion goes, it may or may not have merit. I don't know the culture of the office as far as what is acceptable or not in terms of dress.

The point is that it's now a dead issue because the cute one decided spandex was OK in her book. If the cute one had instead said that she was surprised at the lack of visible manhood on display under his shorts, it would have tipped the scales quite strongly the other way.

I don't think dress code should be decided that way whether I agree with the results or not.