Oh, this colour has SO much gender-specific baggage attached to it. I feel like I'm buying into all that crap when I buy it, I feel like I'm supporting the stereotype. But I like it, and I firmly believe in not letting other people decide how I feel about feel about something.

So, I destroyed my Orange Apollo. It was my daily beater, I had it for a year and day, I rode it everywhere everyday. I killed it by going through a roundabout, into a pot hole, and over the curb - I don't know how or why this happened. I didn't even fall off, but as I rode away I noticed the paint was chipped and it was supper wobbly



First call I made was to my bike shop, to tell the owner I need a new bicycle and that I'll be in on the weekend.

They had one bike that fit me, it was the exact brand & size of my destroyed bicycle. A Green Apollo, I call it Apollo 2: Return of Apollo (see, if this happens two more times the bikes will be Apollo 3: son of Apollo and then Apollo 4: IN SPACE. I may have thought a little to much about this). I hemed and hawed over the bar tape, but settled on pink. And got asked "why pink?".

Why would anyone even ask that. They wouldn't ask "why brown" or "why blue", and it's just...a little frustrating, even though I know they didn't mean anything by it. They even crimped my break cables with pink...crimp-thingies, I love those guys.

The Terrible Bike Shop had something to say on the subject as well. When I asked for pink fenders for my black cyclecross, he asked me "are you SURE?"
"Yes."
"really sure?" *looks at me like I'm being stupid*
"uh, I don't know, maybe green would be nice?"

And I have always regretted letting that jerk talk me out of it.

Online the other day, I came across a comment that went something like, "Those ladies riding their cruisers, all dressed in pink. I don't think they're serious about cycling."

Not only is it bothersome because I own more than one bike and I LIKE riding my mixte in a flowery pink dress; buy why is anyone associating a colour with a "not serious cyclist"? I also like going on 80km + rides on my road bike, and I bike-commute every day. I am a serious cyclist, I ride a cruiser sometimes, and I like pink.

Never let anyone make you think pink is stupid.
Never let anyone tell you that you should like pink if you don't.
Never let anyone try and tell you that marketing things toward women by making them is pink isn't stupid, because it's stupid as balls. I like the colour and I'm sick of that.

And now, bask in the radiance of my amazing pink & green Apollo.



So glad I don't have to change my signature.