bicycle culture

[pooks]

For the past 3 months (since I started riding) my DH and I have been doing ALL our errands into town on bikes. Only drive when it's raining. I can't beleive how little I've been using my car the last 3 months. (we work at home)
The ride into town is only one mile to 2 miles roundtrip depending on where we are headed... but with a BIG hill coming back home.
Every time we have to go to the bank, the PO, the grocery for a couple of items, the drugstore....one of us just takes a bike now. DH has a nice basket on his hybrid, and I have a backpack I like for biking when I need to stash things.

I know you like to wear knickers sometimes when you're running errands -- what about your husband? Is he always in road shorts, or does he wear other stuff? There's a great little greasy spoon cafe where my husband and I love to eat breakfast on the weekends, and it's only 4 pretty easy miles away. I keep saying we should ride our bikes but he says no, he's not going inside wearing his cycling clothes; he'd feel like a dork. (Hmm, could it be because so many folks on Harleys show up there?)

So I was wondering what the guys do when they're running errands around town on bikes. I'm sure many of them don't mind, and my husband doesn't mind wearing them to cycle -- he prefers it. But not going inside stores and such.

[xeney]

We don't wear cycling clothes for any ride under about 15-20 miles. And if you have a way to carry it, you can always put a skort or capris or something on over your bike shorts before you go into the restaurant.

[Geonz]

Four miles - no need for special clothes. If I'm feeling disciplined enough to ride without working up a sweat I'll even just wrap a reflector strap around that right ankle and do my commute. If it's going to be over 40 miles without padding I just make a point to ease off the seat a lot.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I know you like to wear knickers sometimes when you're running errands -- what about your husband? Is he always in road shorts, or does he wear other stuff? There's a great little greasy spoon cafe where my husband and I love to eat breakfast on the weekends, and it's only 4 pretty easy miles away. I keep saying we should ride our bikes but he says no, he's not going inside wearing his cycling clothes; he'd feel like a dork. (Hmm, could it be because so many folks on Harleys show up there?)

So I was wondering what the guys do when they're running errands around town on bikes. I'm sure many of them don't mind, and my husband doesn't mind wearing them to cycle -- he prefers it. But not going inside stores and such.

Pooks, this is a good question.
Here are some thoughts on this subject:

First- I honestly think most people look really nice in their biking shorts. I've seen lots of photos of women on this list in their biking shorts who are very overweight and they all look really NICE to me. Way better than wearing some big silly mumu or white polyester WalMart pants. Black Spandex has a way of smoothing things out and of course black is a slimming color. And our beauty shines out from WITHIN us anyway. It's what we say and do that makes us beautiful.

Second- After wearing my spandex black capris/knickers all summer, whether biking or not, I just sort of got over feeling odd in public wearing that stuff. One of the benefits of passing 50 I guess. Most of this summer I wore some nice Terry Spinnaker capris that had a VERY thin chamois and could be worn when not biking too...so I did.
The truth is, I love my biking knickers and biking tights so much that I have a couple of them with no chamois that I like to just wear any old time now! You must understand that before I biked, I used to like wearing black leggings a lot anyway, with either long tops or short dresses over them. Now I've simply lost the feeling that I "need" to cover everything up around my hip area, big deal. let people sue me! THey all probably wish they were biking too.
....Mind you, I might feel odd if I were clattering around town in cleat shoes and a screaming Lucky Charms jersey! (but I would DO it if I wanted to!) I don't much like wild patterned bike jerseys though, so I wear thin wool base layer tops that just look like nice regular turtlenecks or hoodies, or soft longsleeve crewneck shirts on top, and I wear regular Merrill running shoes to bike in. So I don't look "too" wacky when I walk around in my biking tights or capris. We both work at home so I don't have to dress for office environment, but this would all apply for weekends to other folks, I suppose.

Third- I am lucky to have a husband who is very laid back about appearances and dress. He seems to love most anything I wear. Like me, he likes to wear good PLAIN tops in wicking material or thin wool, and he wears some nice plain black or brown sneakers for biking. He likes understated clothes for himself, and he looks damned good in them. Right now he is biking in longsleeve SmartWool crewneck polos in solid colors. He wears PI black biking shorts in either spandex or Woolistic brand merino wool blend biking shorts.
When it's cold he pulls on a pair of non-baggy fuzzy polarfleece sweatpants over his shorts. When he does that, he looks like he's dressed "normally".

But all summer of course, we were biking in tank tops or t-shirts, sneakers, and our spandex shorts and knickers. That is how we dress when we go for breakfast in town on Sat & Sunday mornings on our bikes. We have breakfast in our favorite little small town cafe before continuing off on our ride, whether short or long. Everyone else is in shorts too, so what's the difference? There are plenty of "normal" people odder looking than us in town. We look good compared to some!
I happen to think my husband looks INCREDIBLEY HANDSOME and ATTRACTIVE in his biking shorts. It's all I can DO to behave myself over breakfast.
But in general, I think both men and women of ALL sizes and shapes look WONDERFUL in their biking clothes! We should ALL wear biking clothes ALL the time!!! I practically do already anyway nowadays.

Probably blabbered on way long enough now...

[KnottedYet]

Don't let him be intimidated by the Harley riders.

Remember: "Leather or lycra, we both wear black."

[hellosunshine]

several years ago we had a GOLD BIKE SCHEME in town,council sprayed bikes gold,left them in special bike parks,the idea the general public could borrow one,and return it to any of these bike parks.


well,lo n behold they were are nicked!aint rocket science is it!!!!plonkers.

[Bad JuJu]

Occasionally, my neighbor and I ride our bikes to a little local place for breakfast--it's only a few miles, but then we always want to ride home the long way. We both have Terry skorts, so we usually wear those, mostly for the fun of it. But if I didn't have the skort, I'd have no trouble going into the restaurant--well, it's just a little cafe, really--in bike shorts. I'm pretty short, so my tops usually cover my-ahem-rear assets, but even if they didn't, I kinda feel like Lisa--black lycra smooths out a lot of lumps and bumps and the black is slimming. Besides, I'm old enough to feel like if people don't like what they see, they don't have to look.

But I'm thrilled that it's getting cool enough to wear knickers here for cycling--I just love my knickers, and in fact just got a new pair by Shebeest. Might try a pair of the spinnakers from Terry--they look so cute, with the slit in the hem. And I'm thinking they'd be nice for spinning class, when I also want to do a little strength workout before class.

[Mimosa]

That's why most people over here have a town bike for doing simple trips (to the shopping centre, going to school, going to a friend, just getting some fresh air, you name it). You don't have to dressup, just your normal clothing will do. But then we don't have any hills in this country . It's easy to go everywhere when it is flat and there are paved cyclepaths everywhere.

[KnottedYet]

several years ago we had a GOLD BIKE SCHEME in town,council sprayed bikes gold,left them in special bike parks,the idea the general public could borrow one,and return it to any of these bike parks.


well,lo n behold they were are nicked!aint rocket science is it!!!!plonkers.

Gold bike!?!? Flossie, RUN!!

(my bike is gold)

[pooks]

Thanks for all the answers! I don't worry about my road shorts (maybe I should, ahem) but he never wears shorts of any kind so he's more self-conscious about it. I never knew why until recently -- one of his friends in high school was a football player with huge muscled thighs, and my husband had what he considered to be "skinny" legs and so was self-conscious. He actually has beautifully shaped legs - but old baggage is hard to discard, sometimes!

It's so cool this morning I think I'll wear my jeans to Starbucks.

Oh yeah, re: the gold bike scheme. Great idea! Well, except for the "people steal bikes" part!

[cherinyc]

For me, it's not the leg part of the bike shorts that I am selfconscious about, it's the way the chamois part lays in the buttocks area. If my butt in the shorts just looked like, my butt in the shorts - well I would be greatful for the spandex holding everything in a defined shape.
BUT (no pun intended) it's the diaper effect of the chamois in my most comfy shorts that I hate.

[pooks]

I think I'm too dorky to care about the diaper butt. Because first I had to get over the idea of wearing spandex without a big loose t-shirt to cover up my sins, and I started feeling all biker-chick tough. Dudes, this is what we wear; deal with it.

And I thought the diaper butt was just part of the look.

By the time I started reading about people who hated that look and were looking for different styles of chamois, I'd already taken on that "deal with it" mantle and I don't even think about that part. (Of course, I'm also not looking at that part, if ya know what I mean.)

[mimitabby]

several years ago we had a GOLD BIKE SCHEME in town,council sprayed bikes gold,left them in special bike parks,the idea the general public could borrow one,and return it to any of these bike parks.


well,lo n behold they were are nicked!aint rocket science is it!!!!plonkers.

Does nicked mean stolen?

[mimitabby]

We were riding our bikes through a resort town, and we all stopped for lunch, a tandem group. We found some picnic benches and grabbed one. Across from us, resplendent in all their black leather, was a group of motorcycle tourists.
Here we were, in our rainbow bicycle array, and there they were in black. We
approached each other and made bike jokes. My camera was forgotten unfortunately... it would have been a great shot!

I'm like Lisa. People are just going to have to get used to me (and others) in bike duds.
I yam what i yam.

[pooks]

Nicked does mean stolen.

And I read a funny story on bikejournal about cyclists and bikers meeting up at the same convenience store. One of the cyclists referred to himself as a "biker," and the Harley-guy said, "No, we are the bikers. You are the bikees."

Badabing!