Dear Bike Companies:

[mimitabby]

Yes, MTB's are macho.
and what about the cruiser with the can opener built in onto the frame?

[IFjane]

Meg - While I do agree that you should be able to get a bike in a color that you like, let your riding speak for you. No matter the color of your steed, if you are the strongest chick the guys have ever seen, they won't notice the bike.

[Deanna]

My husband works in a shop that has a couple of the pink pumps. He thinks their silly, but the company says they are sized differently or something. Neither one of us is sold on that (and neither are the pink pumps in the shop!).

[lizbids]

Sorry, just wrote a huge post to find that it's gone! Stupid computers.

Anyway, this subject is a sore spot for me. I don't feel I fit into what is considered masculine or feminine, and I believe many will agree with me. I wrote to Jamis bikes asking why their women's bikes had such a limited color pattern, especially in baby blue or pinks. I told that some of us may like the lighter colors and of course, others like darker colors (like me). It's like the bike companies are trying to remind us that we should still be cute and "lady-like" while trudging through mud or sweating a lot on an open highway...we live in a binary world that makes it hard for people to really just be themselves. It's a shame that there even has to be definitions of masculine and feminine. Why can't colors just be colors, that anyone can pick? Oh, and I do want to add that if lighter and typically more feminine colors and patterns are your thing, I am by no way wanting to step on that, or judge it. I'm just talkin' from the ol' noggin today.

Jamis told me that they do have more colors available outside of what their web site calls for, but when I bought a Jamis through my LBS, the colors were still limited. Jamis then went on to tell me that the owner of the company is a woman, but to me, that's like saying, "The boss is black; we couldn't possibly be racist!" To me, women often fall into stereotype myths and perpetuate them--and they don't do it maliciously. But Jamis' argument annoyed me, b/c I think we as women are all so unique, and I don't think one voice should speak for us all.
That's my rant of the day.

[HillSlugger]

Why can't colors just be colors, that anyone can pick?

Of course, that's the way it should be, but I'm afraid we have a ways to go with our society. Back when my daughter was around 3 or 4 she came home from daycare and told me "Blue is a boy's color and red is a girl's color". I tried to explain that they are just colors and that both boys and girls were allowed to like and use either one. I'm sure this talk was completely lost on her given her age. What I'm trying to illustrate is that this sort of thinking is drilled into us early as a product of our binary gender view. Those of us who don't want to be defined by others are stuck in the middle fighting a tough fight.

[missymaya]

I like the fact that there are colors out there! Yeah, I HATE pastels and "cutsee bugs" and such, I'm glad that bike companies are trying to change it up a bit. I looked on the Trek website the other night and noticed their paint job options on some of the bikes (both wsd and mens). I like that they provide an option (granted for some $$). For me, right now, I don't care if the bike is pastel purple with a seafoam green seat and pastel yellow bar wrap, if it rides like a charm and fits like a glove, damn I dont care (as I go to my pearl white with aqua marine green and fuscia pink accent bike with pink pedals and handle bar wrap; those crazy 80's colors ).
Anything is better than real rust!

[Meg McKilty]

While, true, my riding should speak for itself, I had a pink Huffy when I was 10. I have moved on to a grander color scheme since then.

I want darker colors, such as the ones I named in my letter, and if you want to decorate them with maroon Hibiscus flowers on a dark gray slate background, fine. I only ask they stop giving us only elementary colors. I have't carried around a Care Bear lunch box in years; don't make me look Sunshine Bear with my bike.

In the catalogs I have looked at with WSD cycles, I have found very few other color options, and in most, none others at all to choose from.

[DarcyInOregon]

Wow, but I love my pink WSD bike. Why would the color be "unserious?" I put in a lot of miles every week on this bike.

I never even thought about colors as being serious or unserious. I can care less what others think of the color of my bike. I like the pink bike because I am VISIBLE to motorists; I don't blend into the background. Where I live it rains a lot, and thus visibility is poor on many of my daily rides. Lots of cyclists in Oregon have been killed or injured by motorists, and I don't want to be one of them.

But this concept of a bike color being serious or not serious totally flabbergasts me. I just can't imagine why it would be important as to what total strangers might think of the color on your bike. It only matters what YOU think and what makes YOU happy - so get a bike in a color that makes you happy! And don't judge others for the color of their bike. That doesn't make sense.

Darcy

[Meg McKilty]

I feel as if that almost perpetuates their cause further- women need super feminine colors that could be seen at night without reflectors.

I enjoy darker colors, usually those considered more masculine. They are rarely represented in catalogs or on the internet sites, if at all. Sorry to say that having something that feels as good as it looks, I am all for it.

It's like wearing a business suit tailored to you in your favorite business color; it says volumes about your tastes and choices to others. You feel better when you are wearing this "power suit". It just so happens I don't want my suit in purple or teal, but it seems people are only making them in uber-femme colors. I am asking for equality in colors, here.

If pink or cosmic yellow makes you feel happy, then great. Pewter and Blue Steel colors happen to thrill me, but few WSD bikes come in those particular colors.

[mary9761]

I understand what Meg is talking about. I absolutely fell in love with Pele (the Lava Red 2006 Trek Pilot 1.2 WSD that I wanted to get). When the 2007 WSD's came out they were Mineral Blue NOT my color. The color has somewhat grown on me and if I was to end up getting one this year, she's told me her name is Lady Ice, but it's just not the same as that Fiery Red! When the new catalog came out and I saw the color, I said to Jimmy, that's a ***** colored bike! (not that there's anything wrong with those who LIKE those pastel colors) I just wanted something BOLD and Pele was ready to burn up the road!

[mimitabby]

I understand what Meg is talking about. I absolutely fell in love with Pele (the Lava Red 2006 Trek Pilot 1.2 WSD that I wanted to get). When the 2007 WSD's came out they were Mineral Blue NOT my color. The color has somewhat grown on me and if I was to end up getting one this year, she's told me her name is Lady Ice, but it's just not the same as that Fiery Red! When the new catalog came out and I saw the color, I said to Jimmy, that's a ***** colored bike! (not that there's anything wrong with those who LIKE those pastel colors) I just wanted something BOLD and Pele was ready to burn up the road!

Perhaps as more of us vocal ladies are buying bikes, they will listen..

[Deanna]

What it comes down to is marketing. A line of WSD bikes (or any new product) is a big investment for a company, market research and surveys of the target market probably led to the color choices. They're not going to invest a lot of money without doing at least some of this research. It's just not feasible to make bikes in every color somebody could possibly want, so they'll go with the color their studies show would be the most popular. My suggestion is to find a good frame painter and customize to your hearts content.

[colby]

My first "gear bike" was this awesome blue metallic color, like a royal blue (very similar to the blue in the base of the flames in that picture). I can still see the color, and remember touching up the paint whenever there was a scratch.

My first (current) road bike is green, which I don't mind, but it's a little pastely for my tastes. It also has the requisite flowers on it, which I could do without. Needless to say, my dad has the mens/unisex version of the same components, and it's not pastel green with flowers -- it's actually ORANGE. This year's model of the same bike is yellow. Still pretty neutral, but still with flowers.

As I said with my snowboard boots (that have pink on them), I'm "man enough" to take it.