Cycletta - Cycling events for women

[David Martin]

At Tuesday's time trial, all bar one of the ladies beat me, and the slowest lady was not the slowest rider.
It is about accepting people as people and not preclassifying them according to some notion of class or priviledge. All are different.

..d

[clarion]

Discussed on Guardian Bike Blog

[simonp]

I wouldn't want to go on a woman-only ride myself, however I do absolutely understand that some women would find a group that was 90% male intimidating. In a group of 10, that's one woman and 9 men. Given the way recent threads on this topic have gone I'm wary of making the observation in case it labels me once more as a man-hating radfem, however there is a perception that in male-dominated groups laddish banter and macho competition could be a problem.

I quite like 'laddish banter' in the right setting. What I got was patronising smugness. Till I ripped their fucking legs off^{TM Tuggo, fotp}.
But- I'm not a 'new cyclist'. I think that makes me atypical as a female in a club context. Macho competition in inappropriate settings is something else, and the club as a whole is rethinking it's attitude and complicit approval of that, not because of gender issues, but because of safety.

The idea of paying £45 for 40k traffic free riding in the company of women is less appealing than dentistry. However, I'm not the target audience, am I?

I’ve noticed the macho thing on some club runs, usually when heading back into Cambridge and everyone is basically making their way home.  You want to get yourself killed?  Fine, you squeeze between that parked car and the oncoming traffic just so you can stay on another rider’s wheel.  I’ll wait if you don’t mind.

[TimO]

... The Friday Night Ride to the Coast deserves honourable mention, I think, as it does a particularly good job of it.  I'm not sure whether that's because it appeals to us weirdos, or because riding at night is a good way to avoid traffic without being limited to closed roads and cycle paths, or because overnight rides make things like childcare a lot easier to organise. ...

Having said all that, the FNRttC doesn't get particularly high numbers of women, when I've looked at the numbers and made an estimate on a ride, it's always been around 10%.

The Lambeth Cyclists Architecture rides, which someone else mentioned, do seem to get more women than that, and I haven't been on one for ages, so this is all based on sketchy memory, but they're probably still predominantly men.

The only rides I've ever been on where women are present in anywhere near the numbers that men are, are ones with only a very few riders on, which just makes it a statistical anomaly.  Even YACF rides of any significant numbers, whilst they probably have more women present than is common in other rider, still tend towards being predominantly male events.

Assuming that you see encouraging more women into cycling to be a good thing, I'd and say it is, then I'm not sure what's the best way to improve this.  Cycling events as described in the OP would seem to be an approach, although clearly one that doesn't appeal to some on here (but as has been said, probably not the target audience), but it does worry me that this could possibly lead towards a more entrenched position on going on such rides.

[Feline]

On the nighttime rides, I think that the first riders to the top of the hill get to fire up their camping stove and make a brew up for the slower riders  

Been there, done that.  I'm not sure that Feline (the only woman out of the group) was the last up the hill though.  And I'd walked it myself.

She wasn't. I could see her in front of me. Until she disappeared from view.

I was 3rd to the top this year, a bit of a change from last October! I was cheating though, I had a 23.5" gear! I'm sure I was moving at less than walking speed!

I didn't particularly notice I was the only woman on that ride. As far as I was concerned I was riding with a great bunch of people, their gender wasn't really very relevant at the time, other than adding to the pleasant scenery

[Kim]

Gears aren't cheating.

Performance enhancing drugs; tactically positioned Scary Dogs; putting other riders off by inducing unpleasant NSFW mental images just before the climb; photonic drive rear lights; radio-controlled badgers; calling a taxi; cycles with more than two wheels; rocket boosters; strategic use of identical twins; studying the OS map before the ride and using a gravitational anomaly to get to the top; stopping to answer your phone halfway up; delivering post around Bristol on a three-speed Pashley for a day job and eating all the motivational ^_CAKE before you get to the hill are cheating.

I may have used one or two of these techniques to good effect myself...  

[Jurek]

As far as I was concerned I was riding with a great bunch of people, their gender wasn't really very relevant at the time, other than adding to the pleasant scenery

Sums it up for me too,  

[Julian]

It depends on the bunch of people.  I like YACF rides.  I have participated in mainly-male rides where the machismo began to grate.  Because I am small and slow, I'm less likely to be accepted as one of the lads, and in real life I'm actually a very well brought up girl who will smile sweetly and not say anything mean if someone is patronising. 

This has led to occasions when I've been gritting my teeth all the way round and my riding companion has probably gone away thinking what a great conversation monologue he's had.  [Disclaimer:  nobody on YACF.]

Women only rides would be great in that regard but it would have to be the right sort of women only.  A ride with women who were worried about their hair and make up, or only capable of conversations about celebrities*, would be WAY worse than a ride with the most patronising men. 

Maybe it's best I ride alone. 


*My former colleagues. 

[Kim]

Women only rides would be great in that regard but it would have to be the right sort of women only.

That, very succinctly, sums up my take on women-only anything.

I went to a workshop for women who despise women-only space once.  That was quite good.

[Butterfly]

Women only rides would be great in that regard but it would have to be the right sort of women only.

That, very succinctly, sums up my take on women-only anything.

I went to a workshop for women who despise women-only space once.  That was quite good.

Well, exactly

[clarion]

Further to the cycling for women theme, British Cycling have now launched - get this - Breeze for women.

[Charlotte]

Blimey.  Sounds like an air freshener.

Or a maxi pad.

[clarion]

Exactly what I thought.

[itsbruce]

I am a man

[snip]

I am a man.

I am concerned that you feel the need to keep telling us this, Clarion - and not just in this thread. Is there something we should know?

[Kim]

Suspenders look a bit slack...


"Breeze" - silly name, but it sounds like it could be the sort of grass-roots stuff that'll get people on bikes, if only for a couple of off-road pootles.  Appealing to the "busy mum" demographic seems a bit more sensible than the ZOMG helmet hair! brigade.  And at least it isn't free advertising for Murdoch.

[Feline]

I'm managing to recruit a few more female cyclists amongst my work colleagues these days. They are watching me lose weight while eat like some pig-gannet chimera monster and they want a piece of that action. I've convinced a few that cycle commuting is the way to beat the Bristol traffic. Word of mouth and leading by example has to be one of the most effective ways of spreading the habit.

What some of my colleagues don't realise is that to burn off the calories I'm burning will require some serious mileage, I don't always tell them what I'm up to on the non-commuting days 

[itsbruce]

They are watching me lose weight while eat like some pig-gannet chimera monster and they want a piece of that action.

When they try your regime, realise they can't hack it but find they have become used to the increased intake, can't shake that habit and are now piling on the pounds, just how much protection are you going to need?

[Panoramix]

They are watching me lose weight while eat like some pig-gannet chimera monster and they want a piece of that action.

I've noticed that Mrs Panoramix willingness to get the tandem out is directly proportional to her weight. 

[Kim]

When they try your regime, realise they can't hack it but find they have become used to the increased intake, can't shake that habit and are now piling on the pounds, just how much protection are you going to need?

None: She'll be able to ride faster than them.   

[Feline]

When they try your regime, realise they can't hack it but find they have become used to the increased intake, can't shake that habit and are now piling on the pounds, just how much protection are you going to need?

None: She'll be able to ride faster than them.   

Yup, I'll leave them for dust up the hills 

[pumpkin]

TWMP has a review of a book by a woman RAAM rider. gets a good review

[Canardly]

These Cycletta events are a touch on the expensive side. £45 for a 40 mile tootle?

[Kim]

Not even that, it's 40km.

I'm sure the cost will put a lot of people off.  Though presumably they're charging that much for good reason.

[Feline]

For £45 in this area they could join the CTC, come riding with a group who are roughly half female and none of whom exhibit any macho behaviour and have enough dosh left to buy a couple of good pub lunches on those rides.

Whatever the faults of the CTC as an organisation, the Bristol group really does offer something for everyone on Wednesday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays as well as the Get Gorgeous challenge where we take 100 non-cyclists every year and lead them on mini rides for 6 months until they are confident and fit enough to ride the 50 miles from Bristol to climb Cheddar Gorge and return. getgorge-ous.co.uk The majority of the Get Gorgeous participants are female, and many of the volunteer ride leaders are too. I am not sure we could reach a greater audience by restricting this program to women only. The good thing is that many of them carry on riding with the CTC after the challenge finishes, and by then they are familiar with enough of the good routes around and out of Bristol that they can ride by themselves too. You can cycle round Bristol almost totally avoiding roads if you want to, but it isn't always easy to find those routes without people initially showing you.

[jogler]

For £45 in this area they could join the CTC, come riding with a group who are roughly half female

is that the top half or bottom half
Seriously it sounds like a very good club

£45 for 40km?
I'm in the wrong business.