Cycle chic according to the NY Times

[PamNY]

The NY Times has done it again. First, I enjoy chuckling over bogus trend stories, though there is probably some truth to this one (if you look at only cyclists in certain neighborhoods and ignore, oh, 90 percent of New York City like the Times usually does).

I am fascinated by Mr. Bliss, who claims that cyclists in athletic attire and helmets have "alienated every pedestrian" and seems to imply that fashionable women riders don't. Yet Ms. Page-Green, one of the fashionable women quoted, "likes to speed around on the sidewalk."

Here's more breaking news: "Some of these women seem to view their bikes, equipped with high-end saddle bags and bells, as a stand-in for a car..." I don't know what to make of that -- my bike isn't standing in for a car since I use a backpack I got at the Goodwill for $3.99?

And finally, I love the photo of Dr. Margaret Goni in flip flops and no helmet. She's a psychiatrist; I Googled her.

Clearly it's raining and windy, I can't ride today, and I need to find something to do.

[warneral]

I'd like to know why it is more important to look good than protect your life with a helmet. KWIM? Even if I had outlandishly skinny body and long legs, I'd never look so chic with my nerdy helmet on!!!

[ny biker]

"And most are turning their backs on the once-customary aerodynamic helmets and latex shorts in favor of a look as fetching as it is genteel."

LATEX SHORTS. Yeow.

As expected, bikesnob has his own take (scroll down past the discussion of Contador's miniaturization ray):

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2010...-clenency.html

“I get sweaty a little, but it doesn’t bother me,” she said. Her bike, after all, is a stylish appendage, “a kind of rustic enhancement,” she said.

I always thought that "rustic enhancement" meant holing yourself up in a log cabin with an artisanal axe and a whole bunch of Enzyte, but evidently it's just another term for "bicycle."

[bikerHen]

I feel a little insulted by the tone of those women and Mr. Bliss. But then being raised on the west coast, I guess my style ideas, or lack there of, are a bit different than the east coast. Why does riding a bike have to be a fashion statement. I just don't get it!

I should send them a photo of my helmet, with it's four big crack, after a recent fall. A sobering reminder of why I always wear a helmet. bikerHen

[zoom-zoom]

I feel a little insulted by the tone of those women and Mr. Bliss. But then being raised on the west coast, I guess my style ideas, or lack there of, are a bit different than the east coast. Why does riding a bike have to be a fashion statement. I just don't get it!

I should send them a photo of my helmet, with it's four big crack, after a recent fall. A sobering reminder of why I always wear a helmet. bikerHen

Yeah, I don't get why anyone would ever think that I wear spandex and a helmet as a fashion statement. Why does clothing always have to make a statement--most of what I wear is for comfort and/or safety.

It's like the running skirt thing. I rarely wear skirts. Generally they aren't flattering on me. But I like running in them, because skin-on-skin with a bit of Sport Shield chafes my inner thighs less than skin on fabric on skin. Ever since that piece of running attire emerged there has been someone trying to qualify it as "fashion." Fashion be damned, I just want to comfortably enjoy my running and biking, not obsess over or be distracted by my clothes.

[shootingstar]

I guess for some folks, cycling is a fashion statement.

This type of slight division in the article between cycling streetwear chic vs. cycling clothing clad folks ..is a waste of energy to contemplate.

I do have a more longer response..in a blog article that I will release about my cycling experience in Copenhagen when I was there for a few days. (I'm just debating when to release it.. )

Yes, there are pics..including the chic and not so chic. (I fall in the latter...)

Hey, bikerHelen, the guy who runs the Copenhaganize blog/website often rants about stupid helmet laws, blah, blah, blah, etc. So tiring.

Meanwhile my dearie was knocked unconscious off his bike when another cyclist ran into him this past winter. Yes, his helmet was cracked.

[warneral]

BTW Pam, I'm glad you shared this. It is definitely interesting to look into a slightly-warped, not very accurate representative depiction of NY biking life

[Eden]

That's all terrific if you want to run around and do some errands within a mile or two, somewhere relatively flat flat place with good weather and little traffic.... It might work fine in Copenhagen, NYC - flat places of exceptional density, but isn't necessarily particularly feasible if you need to travel further, live somewhere hilly, have to deal with serious traffic (and I don't mean traffic jams, but rather fast moving heavy traffic that you need to share lanes with) or want to use a bicycle full time - no matter the weather.....

In any case some of us don't wear Prada anything or 3 inch heels even when we're not on the bike...

[sempronialou]

I feel a little insulted by the tone of those women and Mr. Bliss. But then being raised on the west coast, I guess my style ideas, or lack there of, are a bit different than the east coast. Why does riding a bike have to be a fashion statement. I just don't get it!

I should send them a photo of my helmet, with it's four big crack, after a recent fall. A sobering reminder of why I always wear a helmet. bikerHen

I live in the Midwest where apparently we have no fashion sense according to the media. I like the idea of sending the helmet photo.

When I cycle, I mean business. I sweat, and I like to keep my head intact. Even if I take a quick jaunt to the post office, I'm not there to make a fashion statement, but again I'm not in New York so maybe it's different there.

[zoom-zoom]

I live in the Midwest where apparently we have no fashion sense according to the media. I like the idea of sending the helmet photo.

When I cycle, I mean business. I sweat, and I like to keep my head intact. Even if I take a quick jaunt to the post office, I'm not there to make a fashion statement, but again I'm not in New York so maybe it's different there.

Hello, from a fellow Michigander with no fashion sense and no urge to find any.

[sempronialou]

Hello, from a fellow Michigander with no fashion sense and no urge to find any.

Hello to you too from the east side of the state. I grew up on the west side of the state and still visit there often.

[channlluv]

Oh my stars. How obnoxious. I wonder what they'll do with all those accessory bikes when the trend moves on to something else. Like, remember when Paris had that little yap-yap in a shoulder bag and everyone (present company excluded) had to have one? I wonder how many of those little dogs have been abandoned. Is there a Human Society equivalent for bikes that just aren't stylish enough anymore?

What the heck are kitten heels?

Roxy

[PamNY]

Even if I take a quick jaunt to the post office, I'm not there to make a fashion statement, but again I'm not in New York so maybe it's different there.

No, no, it's the opposite, I think. I see bikers in regular clothes most of the time. I was really surprised at some of the stuff TE sells -- not that it's bad, just not part of the world as I know it.

The joke about "trend" stories is that they aren't trends at all. The Times, as it often does, has just gotten all breathless about a very few people in a very few neighborhoods.

[shootingstar]

Well, the journalists have to find a way to draw readers...

Copenhagen chic by the way, in my opinion, is just daily wear most of the time. Really that's what the website covers. It just somehow has spun into something bigger than what it is when..one visits there.

It will be interesting over time, what, if any cycling-intensive European country, can learn from North America in terms of cycling infrastructure, culture.. that they might want to borrow.

[jelee1311]

Wow I'm so tragically unhip and unfashionable that I can honestly say I've never entertained the idea of actually wearing a dress or heels(kitten or otherwise) when I go ride. Its all I could do to get into bike shorts, and if road shoes and a helmet are a faux pas count me in