In Support of 60-year old Women Everywhere

[Thorn]

Being a woman pushing toward the 60 mark, I take a little umbrage in the concept that bike planners use a 60-year old woman on a shopping trip as their target rider. Hey, I am not a fragile thing! Shouldn't they be thinking, a 40 year old pot-bellied male? Seems he would be more unlikely to be getting on a bike than a60 year old woman.

But, I digress. Justification that the analogy might be flawed hit the Milwaukee bike coordinator. During the wind storm when the die hard bikers were not to be found, but he snapped a shot of cyclist braving the wind and the cyclist was.....a 60 year old woman on a shopping run! Woohoo!

Excellent photo to be seen here (it is too large to bring into TE and, well, while I would be proud to be a role model cyclist, I don't feel right doing more than just pointing to the original)....

http://overthebarsinmilwaukee.wordpr...esign-vehicle/

[maillotpois]

What a great picture! That woman is awesome!

[hebe]

Excellent! My cycling instructor is a 60something woman, and she rocks!

[Susan Otcenas]

I'm on the board of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. It's generally thought (by the BTA, local bike planners, etc.) that women are an indicator of the health and safety of the bike network. The more women you see out there, the better the conditions are thought to be perceived by the riding public in general.

[Bike Writer]

Bravo! Hooray! That woman is my hero

[AllezGirl]

That woman on a shopping run could be a cat 1 racer in her "alter ego"! I find it funny that they don't think we can be both!

The woman who has inspired and encouraged me from the first club ride I did to where I'm at today is 59 years young! She was there the first time I got stuck at an intersection because I wasn't strong enough to turn the gear I was in to get started, to leading me out for my first podium. Multiple time medalist in the Senior Games and current PA State TT Masters Champion, she continues to be my hero.

I'm turning 40 this year. It's the first birthday I've had trouble accepting. But I have several teammates over 40...and I look at their accomplishments and I realize that age is just a number! Heck...Laura Van Gilder is 46, she's #1 in the WORLD on the UCI CX calendar. And Jeannie Longo...well, nuff said!

My personal feeling is that whether commuter, recreational, tourist, racer or whatever type of cyclist we are...women are much more 'core than men!

[marni]

she is my hero as well. Reminds me of a lot of the riding I did while living in the Netherlands, only you would have to add two saddlebags and a child in a bike seat ( no nifty trailers at that point) and the usual amount of Dutch seasonal liquid sunshine.

On the last cross country ( Southern Tier) ride I did, our oldest rider was 72 years old and she probably could have outridden us all distance wise. My favorite photo of her is after one of the longer, hotter, dustier days in Arizona when she put on her swimsuit,clogs, helmet and gloves and rode around in the rain instead of swimming, and to get the dust and grit off her bike. Miss Bee was a pip.

[chicagogal]

I just wish the woman in the photo was wearing a helmet. It just irks me so to see people riding without them. . .

My mentor is in her mid-40s, racing as a cat 2 on the road and the track, and some of my best teammates are 50+ . . . and we all plan to continue racing together for a long time to come :-)

[Bike Chick]

I just wish the woman in the photo was wearing a helmet. It just irks me so to see people riding :-)

I agree. She's old enough to know better!!

I was 46 when I started riding a bike and have been riding for 6 years. I hadn't been on one since I was kid but riding a bike makes me feel like a kid again. Any wonder why 60 year old women enjoy riding???

[Thorn]

Glad others enjoyed the picture as well.....I've made it this week's background bitmap. In the Milwaukee area there are a couple of non-racing riding groups. All have significant numbers of female riders over 50. I really think that we have it easier getting into cycling than guys of the same generation. Sure, we can be just as competitive, but we are also willing to live with ourselves and just enjoy feeling like a kid again.

But, not to start a helmet war....I always wear one and I still cringe when I see someone without one, but I have to accept the argument made by the same blogger as to why he doesn't wear a helmet and why he can accept others who do not. I don't agree, but I make an effort to see his side of the argument:
http://overthebarsinmilwaukee.wordpr...ld-ride-bikes/

[Bike Writer]

But, not to start a helmet war....I always wear one and I still cringe when I see someone without one, but I have to accept the argument made by the same blogger as to why he doesn't wear a helmet and why he can accept others who do not. I don't agree, but I make an effort to see his side of the argument:
http://overthebarsinmilwaukee.wordpr...ld-ride-bikes/

Thorn, thanks for posting another perspective. While I wear a helmet when riding I understand his reasons for choosing not to.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

60 year old women going to the store on bicycles are a really common sight in other parts of the world. Unfortunately, the deliberate restructuring of roads, suburbs, and community/transportation layout after WWII in the U.S. crowned the automobile as supreme king and aggressively discouraged both bicycle and walking as means of transport. This resulted in the current situation where cycling is considered to be either a sport or recreation rather than simply a form of normal transportation.
The average civilian is afraid to ride a bicycle anywhere except on designated recreational 'paths'. Roads are not designed here to make bicycling safer, and aggressive drivers are not punished or educated to 'share the road'. Bicyclists get yelled and cursed at to 'get off the road' and to 'get off the sidewalk'.
Even small town or suburban kids and teens who used to typically ride their bikes to school are now driven to school even when it's 8 blocks away. America is 'car world', and sadly, any ordinary citizen using their bike to go to the store is typically considered an anomaly, whether they're 12 years old or 70.

Hopefully this will slowly change. Like it or not, the recession is creating a situation where roads are deteriorating, gas is more and more expensive, people are losing their health insurance and thus want to walk and bike to stay healthier, people are losing their jobs and looking for alternatives to going everywhere by car. This is both bad and good depending on how you look at it, but it will create a scenario where we are going to be seeing more average citizens riding their bikes to the store, and eventually such a sight won't be a cause of amazement.

[emily_in_nc]

But, not to start a helmet war....I always wear one and I still cringe when I see someone without one, but I have to accept the argument made by the same blogger as to why he doesn't wear a helmet and why he can accept others who do not. I don't agree, but I make an effort to see his side of the argument:
http://overthebarsinmilwaukee.wordpr...ld-ride-bikes/

As an avid helmet-wearer here in the US, I have to say that this article made a surprising amount of sense. In Belize, we ride on the beach and even in town without helmets. While there are many, many people on bikes (beach cruisers) there, you won't find anyone wearing lycra, gloves, using clipless pedals, or wearing a helmet. People ride there not for fitness but for transportation, and dressing up for it is just not a part of the culture. And because most folks there don't have a lot of money, it's not likely to be. It's also only recently that cars were even allowed on the island of Ambergris Caye, so bikes and golf carts were the only form of transportation. Now that there are some cars and small trucks, helmet usage would seem to be smart (when riding off the beach), but it's still not done. I doubt you can even purchase a helmet in the country.

[GLC1968]

I understand his point about not wearing a helmet, but I don't like it. I mean...why can't we just set a style that says a helmet would look GREAT with a suit? At least, that's how I'd do it if my commute wasn't 20+ miles necessitating 'fitness' type clothing. When I lived 1.5 miles from work, I often road my mixte wearing a dress and a helmet. Let's make THAT cool!

Or maybe that's step two...after we get everyone on bikes first?

I do question his statistics though...that biking is safer than driving. I'd like to know how those numbers were derived. If less than 1% of the population bikes to work yet a much higher % drives - how can you accurately compare accident rates? If bikes to cars were closer to 50% each - which would be safer then?

[Melalvai]

The more bicycling that occurs, the accident/injury rates actually go down. When gas prices rose and bicycling doubled or more in Missouri, the total number of accidents stayed the same. In other words, the accident RATE was cut in half.

My dad got a wetsuit for his 62nd birthday today. After the initial mental image of what my 62 yr old and not all that fit dad will look like in his wetsuit, I was jealous! He's retiring next month and maybe he plans to follow in my triathlon footsteps/ bicycle tracks/ wake. Nah, more likely he wants to bike & swim, his knees are no good.

Anyway, go 60 year olds!