HELP NEEDED PLEASE! Opinions and comments wanted :)

[GLC1968]

When I was 20-25, I was athletic, but I was still in college and participating in a lot of team sports. It wasn't until I got out on my own and found I didn't have time for team schedules that individual sports like running or cycling became a draw for me.

Cycling just never even occurred to me at that age.

Actually, let me correct that....road cycling never occurred to me. I did own a mountain bike and I did enjoy mountain biking when I could get the time. My roommate in college had a bright yellow Trek mountain bike and we all drooled over it. If our dorm room door was open, people would stop in and ask what kind of bike it was...mountain bikes were so rare back then!

I have a theory though. I don't think that most young women think about cycling as a sport because they don't have a lot of role models and a lot of exposure to it like guys might. I mean, my husband grew up riding BMX bikes, so transitioning to mountain biking and then road biking was a natural transition, even if he didn't race or get involved with teams. Most women do not have those kind of early influences. It's the same reason that women in fields like electrical engineering are so rare. MOST women are just not exposed to things like electronics at an early age...where as boys often are...it's a societal influence (wrong or right).

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Here is my personal thought on this subject.

Aside from the obvious hair messing type stuff that can prevent women from riding bikes....

I myself don't really do 'sports'. "Participating in a sport" sounds like way too much fuss and trouble to me.
I'm 55, and I bicycle, I snowshoe, I do vegetable gardening, I dance, and I fitness walk...all to stay active. I do all these things for fun and as a normal part of my lifestyle.
When it snows, I put on my snowshoes. When it's a beautiful day, I get on my bike and go for a bike ride. Or I go to the store on my bike and climb back up the killer hill to my house. I meet my friend for breakfast once a week and we typically go for a 4 mile brisk walk afterwards. I go to the local dance here in town once a month and I dance my head off for 3 1/2 hours. I hoe and weed in the garden.

I don't compete, and I do these fitness activities just as a part of my every day life. I don't think of them as sports, and therefore they don't require much special preparation and planning set aside. It's just my own mind set, but to me bicycling is just a part of my normal lifestyle, whereas I think of a 'sport' more as something special and separate from your normal day that you plan and set out to do.

Decades ago, average people and kids just rode their bikes and had fun doing it. People didn't think much about it. Nowadays I think the general non-biking public in America gets the idea that 'cycling' is something you have to have very specific skills and equipment in order to do. And you have to have Tour de France type outfits and do lots of Training too, preferably with a look of intense suffering on your face. LOL! The gear required is bewildering. That's what the average person sees when they see cyclists whizzing by. Looks too expensive, too complicated and looks like a lot of WORK.
Now I'm not saying there isn't an exacting real sport of cycling where serious athletes are competing in cool ways. There is!
But I am secretly convinced this whole concept of riding bicycles as being an exacting sport and no longer just a part of every day life is responsible for a lot of average women thinking that riding a bike is something too involved, competitive, expensive, and difficult. Men are slightly different, as in general men tend to be less afraid to take on a competitive activity, which is what they see in 'the sport of cycling'. And men also tend to not be scared off by having to buy expensive equipment. Sad but true.

My two cents as to why more women don't ride bikes.

[NbyNW]

In your study it might be helpful to distinguish between whether a woman is active or not and how that relates to her attitude towards cycling. I would argue that women who are less active might have very different attitudes than women who are active but might be focusing their energies on other activities.

I remember at that age wanting a bike but not being able to afford one, not to mention that it was very difficult at the time to find a road bike my size. That was when I first heard about Terry, which I definitely could not afford. I was 26 before I finally felt comfortable spending money on a low-end mountain bike. Up to that time I borrowed bikes from friends in the bike industry when I had the opportunity.

I was also hanging out with a very athletic crowd at the time. I think that for active women that age, if they are busy with school/establishing careers, there are other sports you can get involved in that don't cost as much. You can run and enter 5ks and marathons. You can join a community soccer league.

I wouldn't make too much of the helmet head thing. It's more of a humorous aside for active women, who at some point accept that they're not going to look fresh as a daisy, but that's fine because you can always clean up afterwards. The rewards of feeling strong and confident far outweigh the price of helmet hair. It is probably more of a barrier for people who haven't yet found a sport that they love.

[Zen]

As a graphic design student myself, I'm wondering why you have to ask this question. What exactly is your assignment?

[OakLeaf]

Community barriers to non-motorized transport are a huge issue keeping people of every age and sex off bicycles. As a side question, I'd be curious to know what fraction of women who do ride, do it only as a sport.

(That said, I live four blocks from a middle-aged man who insists on driving his road bike to the start of the club ride... three miles from his house, all of which has either a bike path, a wide shoulder, or low traffic. )

[cassie]

The final assignment has not been given to us in full yet - we've been set the research part first, before the actual design side kicks in (which I think is a bit silly; as our research may end up not being particularly relevant!)

But the assignment is "something to do with" encouraging participation in a sport. We will have to produce a digital outcome - so, for example, something online, for the iphone, etc. Hence my research into reasons why females of that age don't cycle; so I can then attempt to tackle these areas in order to encourage participation.

Personally, I only cycle on an occasional basis - this is because I'm at university and a bike won't fit in the student house/would most likely get stolen if i left it outside! When I'm home though I try to cycle during the summer, but only on a very casual basis. I must admit - helmet hair is an issue! - as well as lack of free time for me.

[ivorygorgon]

This is a really interesting thread. I have enjoyed reading it.

I have to say I agree with most of the comments on why younger folks, and I do think it also extrapolates to folks not in their 20s, don't ride.

I want to add modeling though. I think there are probably just not enough good models for women and riding. I know I didn't have ANY women in my life who rode a bike. I still don't personally know any other women who ride. I also think it isn't high profile enough. On the "Family Feud" thread, I had to really think to come up with a name of a famous woman cyclist, and even when I thought of someone, I wasn't sure I wasn't making it up.

One of the reasons I think biking is so much fun, is that I feel so free on a bike. My mountain bike, and my road bike, just infuse me with an emotion or sense of flying and being free. The WEEEEEEEEEEE factor keeps me coming back. It just plain feels good to ride. The fitness is certainly a bonus, but mostly I feel like I need to be fit to enjoy riding my bike. Not the other way around. I don't give a fig about helmet hair - well maybe I give a raisin, but certainly not a fig!