Cycle chic according to the NY Times

[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.

[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

[withm]

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.

Where on the east side? north? south? knuckle?

[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

[Crankin]

The article is kind of stupid, but accurately reflects how some people think /feel/act about cycling. One part of me wants to say, great, they are riding and saving gas, but the other part wants to scream, "get a helmet." But, you can't argue with people like that. I have tried.
I'm not embarrassed to say that I love fashion. But, even when I do errands on my Jamis, I wear cycling clothes. I've acquired a "casual" cycling wardrobe that looks different than my spandex (even though most pieces have some lycra or spandex in them) for this type of riding. I just cannot ride in my regular clothes. Like others said, I sweat, no matter what, even toodling along at 10-12 mph. And, like Zen, I get treated much more nicely by motorists when I am on the flat bar bike, dressed slightly differently. I love some of the "fashion oriented" cycling clothes that TE carries, although I don't have a lot of them, I would wear most of that stuff in "regular" situations. I guess my clothes buying habit has been mostly supplanted by buying athletic type clothing. I haven't tried riding in a skirt recently, though. My skirts are short, which would not work.
I have hazy memories of riding my 10 speed UniVega to summer school classes at ASU, in a sundress, with a Sparky backpack, in 112 degree sunshine. No helmet, of course.

[sarahkonamojo]

There will be an article next summer about an elderly woman killed by a sidewalk riding fashionista. The fashionista will complain about sidewalk rash and take up scootering.
But the woman with the trike! Her skirt length surely draws attention. Her dog was safe and happy in his throne.
Gotta go put my latex shorts on, get aggressive in my fervor and mow down a fashionista.
Sarah

[Trekhawk]

"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."

Snort!

[sfa]

LATEX SHORTS. Yeow.

You know, the kind that look painted on. And they are SOOOO much easier to put on than the oil-based shorts.

Sarah

[inkspot]

You know, the kind that look painted on. And they are SOOOO much easier to put on than the oil-based shorts.

Sarah

Hee Hee Hee

Unfortunately, being water soluble might be a bit of a problem if you sweat at all or like to ride in the rain...

[PamNY]

I don't pay much attention to fashion, but I have thought about getting a Yakkay helmet.

I'm a tightwad at heart so I probably won't.

[warneral]

Pam that is cute! But then it would look really lame with my spandex shorts and road shoes! LOL Nice option though!

[Owlie]

Apparently I have no fashion sense either. Oh well. In a backwater like Ohio, I can't imagine there would be much anyway.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Being fashionable in my opinion is wearing what makes you comfortable and happy...making your own choices independent of what others think is cool or hip. In that regard, I think articles telling us what is 'fashionable' or not are lame.

[PamNY]

In that regard, I think articles telling us what is 'fashionable' or not are lame.

But if the Times stops covering such things, a whole chunk of humor will be gone from my life