Women riding alone- is that THAT unusual??

[Tomp]

I've encountered many solo female riders over the last half dozen years on my daily rides. There
seems to be more single (solo riders) females on the road now than when I started riding in 1986.

I guess it's the cool thing to do here in the SoBay area (Palos Verdes,CA.)

Marlene Blanshay wrote:

> I go on a lot of rides alone, and today another woman cyclist I know (who is a great athlete and
> does triathlons and wins them- she is from another species really) commented on how cool it is
> that I ride alone, although she likes having another girl in the group. ANd a friend of mine who
> works in a bike shop says he sees women coming in all the time, women about my age (in their 30s,
> 40s and even older) who say they don't get to ride much because their husbands aren't around that
> much. WHen it's suggested they consider going alone, they say, "oh, I couldn't do THAT." And
> another woman I know of, married, never goes alone on rides and considers me to be really
> 'independent.'
>
> I see women riding alone, but is it really that unusual? I can't believe women in their adult
> years can't consider going on a ride alone. I go alone because I hardly know any women riders, and
> the ones I do know are great athletes who make me feel, well inadequate to say the least. I like
> going in groups but I'm not going to miss a nice day, that's for sure.
>
> Mind you, there is always the anxieties, like "What's that creak?" or "what's that noise", or
> having an accident and being alone, and I'm not exactly Miss Mechanic. But I go anyways and cross
> my fingers that nothing goes wrong. Is it like that everywhere, that women riding alone is
> considered be some sort of daring feat?

--

Tp

-------- __o ----- -\<. ------ __o --- ( ) / ( ) ---- -\<. ----------------- ( ) / ( )
---------------------------------------------

Freedom is not free; Free men are not equal; Equal men are not free.

 

[Per ElmsäTer]

Marlene Blanshay wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, Bernie <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Marlene Blanshay wrote:
>>
>>> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] wrote:
>>>
>>>> In article <[email protected]>, Per Elmsäter wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Why would you need strong hands to fix a flat?
>>>>
>>>> Well, y'know, "unless you're carrying a wrench..."
>>>>
>>>> Seriously, some tires, especially those with folding beads and high pressure rating can take a
>>>> good deal of wrestling to get seated on the rim. It's much easier if you have large hands and a
>>>> string grip.
>>>
>>> I've gotten better. I've been practicing taking off cyclo cross tires, once you can do those it
>>> seems easier. Actually taking them off is easier than putting them on sometimes.
>>
>> Here's a cheap trick. Armourall (tm) in a small spray bottle sprayed on the wheel rim, insides
>> and sidewalls of the tire will make it much easier to mount your tire on the rim. Also, the tire
>> will slip into the proper position on the rim as you inflate. The process of changing a tube will
>> become easier. It's a slick trick, really. Best regards, Bernie in Beautiful British Columbia
>
> Good idea! I'm always up for handy tips.

The trick that my local LBS taught me works almost all the time so I don't even need tire levers for
gettin most of my tires on or off. Sometimes to get them off but never to get them back on. This of
course takes a little more muscle but the trick doesn't. TIP: Before taking your tire of massage the
empty tire all the way around so that both sides of the tire slips into the very middle of the rim.
the deeper your rim is the easier it will be to get the tire off without much force at all.

When putting the tire back on do the same thing. Ie make sure the tire goes into the very middle of
the rim and the last part kinda just slips on real easy. If you do this right and then use tire
levers you will need absolutely no muscle at all. Also if you massage the whole tire again from both
sides before you start pumping you will find it easier to get the tire seated in the rim ( not that
it's usually a problem). Make sure you push the valve as far up into the tire as possible when
massaging the tire around the valve.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

 

[Claire Petersky]

Ken <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> [email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in news:blanshay-1908032051520001 @192.168.1.3:
> > I go on a lot of rides alone, and today another woman cyclist I know (who is a great athlete and
> > does triathlons and wins them- she is from another species really) commented on how cool it is
> > that I ride alone
>
> Here in California, I see many women riding alone, both on the road and on mountain bikes.
> However, I do know some women who won't ride alone because they cannot fix a flat tire. Some of
> them have a physical limitation: they aren't strong (or heavy) enough to put enough air in a road
> tire to get them home with out pinch flatting.

The real issue is not putting enough air in the tire. The real issue is having sufficient hand
strength to get the tire over the *&^%$#@ rim. I can put 80 lbs of pressure with my little mini-pump
-- not the 110 I'd like, but that's enough to ride home on. But getting the tire over the rim is a
real struggle, even with a set of tire "irons".

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky ([email protected]) Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky

 

[Bob M]

On 26 Aug 2003 12:53:36 -0700, Claire Petersky <[email protected]> wrote:

> Ken <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>> [email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in news:blanshay- 1908032051520001 @192.168.1.3:
>> > I go on a lot of rides alone, and today another woman cyclist I know
>> (who
>> > is a great athlete and does triathlons and wins them-she is from
>> another
>> > species really) commented on how cool it is that I ride alone
>>
>> Here in California, I see many women riding alone, both on the road and on mountain bikes.
>> However, I do know some women who won't ride alone because they cannot fix a flat tire. Some of
>> them have a physical limitation: they aren't strong (or heavy) enough to put enough air in a road
>> tire to get them home with out pinch flatting.
>
> The real issue is not putting enough air in the tire. The real issue is having sufficient hand
> strength to get the tire over the *&^%$#@ rim. I can put 80 lbs of pressure with my little
> mini-pump -- not the 110 I'd like, but that's enough to ride home on. But getting the tire over
> the rim is a real struggle, even with a set of tire "irons".
>
> Warm Regards,
>
> Claire Petersky ([email protected]) Home of the meditative cyclist:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
>
> Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at: http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky
>

Yeah, I have a set of rims that are terrible. I broke some tire levers using these rims. I feel your
pain. However, I found some tire levers that were stronger, and these helped. Also, I use three of
them -- two to pop part of the tire off the rim and another to do any further modifications. Plus,
only pull one side of the tire off the rim. Normally, I take the tire completely off. With these
rims, though, it's too hard. So I only pop half the tire off and put the new tube in there, then pop
the half of the tire back on.

--
Bob M in CT Remove 'x.' to reply

 

[Per ElmsäTer]

Claire Petersky wrote:
> Ken <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>> [email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in news:blanshay-1908032051520001 @192.168.1.3:
>>> I go on a lot of rides alone, and today another woman cyclist I know (who is a great athlete and
>>> does triathlons and wins them- she is from another species really) commented on how cool it is
>>> that I ride alone
>>
>> Here in California, I see many women riding alone, both on the road and on mountain bikes.
>> However, I do know some women who won't ride alone because they cannot fix a flat tire. Some of
>> them have a physical limitation: they aren't strong (or heavy) enough to put enough air in a road
>> tire to get them home with out pinch flatting.
>
> The real issue is not putting enough air in the tire. The real issue is having sufficient hand
> strength to get the tire over the *&^%$#@ rim. I can put 80 lbs of pressure with my little
> mini-pump -- not the 110 I'd like, but that's enough to ride home on. But getting the tire over
> the rim is a real struggle, even with a set of tire "irons".
>
> Warm Regards,

See my post right above yours about how to make it easier to pop the tire off the rim. It
really works.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

 

[Claire Petersky]

[email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

> I don't worry about that- most of the time I'm on a bike, what weirdo can catch me?

Yeah, but...for example, one time I had a meeting after work, and so I was riding home fairly late,
on a less familiar route, and there were few cars on the road. I was going under a freeway
overpass, and it was pretty dark and scary under there. The shoulder I was on suddenly wasn't a
shoulder, it became gravel, and then I had the vision of falling off the bike and injuring myself.
Yeah, you can call on the cell phone for help, but while you're waiting for help to arrive, you
might have an injured bike, an injured self, and I dk about you, but I don't run that fast in a
pair of roadie shoes.

So sure, it's stuff I think about. It's obviously not enough to discourage me, but there's plenty of
women that it would discourage. You know you'd be blamed for anything that be befell you. ("She
should have known better than to be riding her bike there at night!") And lots of women would just
rather not take the risk.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky ([email protected]) Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky

 

[Tom Keats]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Claire Petersky) writes:

> The real issue is not putting enough air in the tire. The real issue is having sufficient hand
> strength to get the tire over the *&^%$#@ rim.

Give me a lever and a place to stand, and I'll wrap a 26x1.5 Cheng Shin over Planet Earth.

I've got these humungous screwdrivers from my late dad. At least one of 'em was used to screw down
engine heads on Model T's or some other obsolescent fossil-burning **** that had to be shifted into
reverse to cross the Rocky Mountains. I've got the screw-jack c/w tire-iron handle, too.

But you don't need a bunch of fancy junk. Just something that'll slip under tire & inner tube, come
out on the other side of the rim, pull out, and let you air up the tire without hurting the
material. It might be some blunt, unused thing in your cutlery drawer.

The main thing is, it should be thin enough to slip under stuff, it shouldn't bend easily, and it
shouldn't be brittle. If it
is ... try something else.

cheers, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn
[point] bc [point] ca

 

[Marlene Blansha]

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Claire
Petersky) wrote:

> [email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
>
> > I don't worry about that- most of the time I'm on a bike, what weirdo can catch me?
>
> Yeah, but...for example, one time I had a meeting after work, and so I was riding home fairly
> late, on a less familiar route, and there were few cars on the road. I was going under a freeway
> overpass, and it was pretty dark and scary under there. The shoulder I was on suddenly wasn't a
> shoulder, it became gravel, and then I had the vision of falling off the bike and injuring myself.
> Yeah, you can call on the cell phone for help, but while you're waiting for help to arrive, you
> might have an injured bike, an injured self, and I dk about you, but I don't run that fast in a
> pair of roadie shoes.
>
> So sure, it's stuff I think about. It's obviously not enough to discourage me, but there's plenty
> of women that it would discourage. You know you'd be blamed for anything that be befell you. ("She
> should have known better than to be riding her bike there at night!") And lots of women would just
> rather not take the risk.
>
> Warm Regards,
>
> Claire Petersky ([email protected]) Home of the meditative cyclist:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
> http://bookcrossing.com/friend/Cpetersky

For sure riding at night can be risky, and not just because of weirdos. No way would I risk
that unless there was no other way, or like you, got caught out late. Injury is probably the
biggest risk.

There is one bike path that I no longer ride on. In one way it's really great because it's quiet,
free of kids and bladers. On the downside, it passes through a rather grungy area and you can go for
miles without seeing a soul! There are a couple of underpasses in which scabrous characters
congregate, including crack dealers. I've seen broken crack vials and junk all over it. Once I
actually did have an accident there, but I was with someone else. I always worried about having a
flat there or some sort of accident, and I decided never to risk it alone again.

The funny thing is that many women who say 'oh I'd never ride alone,' will drive cars alone. It's
not like no one ever has a car accident!

 

[Golightly F.]

"Marlene Blanshay" <[email protected]>
> The funny thing is that many women who say 'oh I'd never ride alone,' will drive cars alone. It's
> not like no one ever has a car accident!

The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

 

[Luigi De Guzman]

[email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

> The funny thing is that many women who say 'oh I'd never ride alone,' will drive cars alone. It's
> not like no one ever has a car accident!

...or indeed as if no one has ever spent time in a room by themselves.

driving alone is mentally a lot easier for people. they're enclosed in a steel shell, they move
fast, nothing can touch them. And they're not physically tired when they stop.

another thing: confidence on the bike is everything. If these people have never ridden a
bicycle--or have not ridden a bicycle in a long time--they are unsure enough about themselves on
the bike without having that insecurity compounded by being alone and vulnerable. Most of the
regular posters on this NG, male or female, are confident enough on their bicycles that this isn't
an issue at all; all we have to deal with are the standard worries that go with being alone. The
bicycle doesn't add to them.

Of course, as Coppi said, the only way to be confident is to "ride your bike, ride your bike, ride
your bike..." so I guess there's a vicious cycle (ha!) at work here: insecure potential cyclists are
alone; their insecurities prevent them from riding by themselves; they seldom ride; their
insecurities persist.

Breaking the cycle? I don't know. Take a friend for a spin, but make it easy, mentally and
physically.

-Luigi

 

[Saki]

[email protected] (Luigi de Guzman) wrote in news:[email protected]:

> [email protected] (Marlene Blanshay) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
>
>> The funny thing is that many women who say 'oh I'd never ride alone,' will drive cars alone. It's
>> not like no one ever has a car accident!
>
> ...or indeed as if no one has ever spent time in a room by themselves.
>
> driving alone is mentally a lot easier for people. they're enclosed in a steel shell, they move
> fast, nothing can touch them. And they're not physically tired when they stop.

And you can lock the doors in a car.

I'm female and do ride alone, not too long (about 8 miles a day) and not physically far from my
neighborhood, but it's occurred to me that it's probably not the safest thing to do in the middle of
a big city, even at 6am.

My bike's collectible, I suspect, and it could occur to some thug to step into my path and wrest it
away. I carry a cell phone and usually move reasonably fast; perhaps the odds are in my favor, I
don't know. There are also joggers out and a few early commuters. So far I haven't worried overmuch
about the dark side of riding, but I can see how it might intimidate someone just starting out,
though to me traffic's a lot more of a challenge than anything else.

> another thing: confidence on the bike is everything. If these people have never ridden a
> bicycle--or have not ridden a bicycle in a long time--they are unsure enough about themselves on
> the bike without having that insecurity compounded by being alone and vulnerable. Most of the
> regular posters on this NG, male or female, are confident enough on their bicycles that this isn't
> an issue at all; all we have to deal with are the standard worries that go with being alone. The
> bicycle doesn't add to them.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

----
[email protected]

 

[Emily]

My husband (my usual riding companion, when we're not riding with the bike club) has been waiting
out a cycling injury for the past week, so I have been riding by myself for the first time in a long
time. This is a rural area with houses widely spaced and little traffic, so every now and then when
being passed by a pickup truck I've had a moment of worry ("what if he stops and comes back for
me?!"), but overall, it has been a good experience. I've felt sorta empowered by being able to do it
- since I've pretty much always ridden with others and never on my own.

And it's sorta fun to get looks and waves from the racer boy cyclists I see riding in the other
direction. ;-)

Emily

--
[email protected] A smart someone once told me: "Nobody ever looks back on their life when
they're 90 and says that they've had too much fun."

 

[Risto Varanka]

Marlene Blanshay <[email protected]> wrote:

: Mind you, there is always the anxieties, like "What's that creak?" or "what's that noise", or
: having an accident and being alone, and I'm not exactly Miss Mechanic. But I go anyways and cross
: my fingers that nothing goes wrong. Is it like that everywhere, that women riding alone is
: considered be some sort of daring feat?

One can learn significant mechanic skills in just a few years. Besides women make better mechanics
because their hands are more dextrous

In the Helsinki area there are lots of women who ride for commuting but few take up cycling
as a sport.

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi

 

[Risto Varanka]

Tanya Quinn <[email protected]> wrote:

: However in Ottawa Ontario recently a woman was murdered after going for a 1 hour bike ride near
: her home along a bikeway in parkland. That was a very sad story but there are flukey bad things
: that happen in the world and its not going to stop me from enjoying riding

I don't recall any local stories of bicyclists being raped or killed, though that unfortunately
happens to pedestrians time to time.

Still, people don't think the problem is walking being dangerous, but that things like that can
happen at all.

--
Risto Varanka | http://www.helsinki.fi/~rvaranka/hpv/hpv.html varis at no spam please iki fi