Quote Originally Posted by Penny4 View Post
It didn't really strike a chord with me. Obviously I would support ways to get women into biking, but the article just struck me as women need extra help BECAUSE we are women. I needed extra help because I was a BEGINNER!

I guess I was lucky because as a beginner, I found a great shop on my second try. The first shop was condescending, but I didn't think it was because I was a woman...more because I was not knowledgeable about bikes and they just have overall crappy cust svc. Second shop was great. I was also able to find some great beginner groups to join, that just so happened to be all women's. I would have gone to a co-ed beginner's group, but couldn't find a single one. How do beginner guys learn??

As for telling bike shops to stock more small bikes for women...umm, not all women are small I can't exactly walk into any shop and find bikes in my size to ride. (I prefer WSD which are not usually stocked in my size) Shops aren't going to stock a ton on either side of the norm, so this just goes with the territory of not being an average size (whether you are short or tall).
And while I get that lots of women don't want to wear pink or purple clothes all the time, I would just be happy if they could make cycling clothing for women that matches how street clothing is sized.
I didn't get "women need extra help" out of it at all, at least, for the non-industry side of it (bike shops included). I got "stop being obnoxious." I think the bit where we do need extra help is finding appropriately-sized bikes. Last year we had only a few women's road bikes (and one mountain bike) at work, and small ones only in the lowest-end. We got a glut of WSD road bikes early this year, and we've sold most of them already! We have a hard time keeping them around. But I do understand where you're coming from. I can handle WSD or unisex bikes--it's just a matter of getting the top tube length right. (I'm looking a unisex Fuji or a WSD Cannondale and Specialized for my next road bike.) I'm too tall for what many shops stock in WSD bikes, especially Specialized, but too short for shops to stock unisex bikes in my size.

There's no consistency in street clothes sizing, so I'm not sure that matching cycling clothes sizing to street clothes sizing is going to help anything!

My boss has been really good about hiring women, and I'm sure many customers, especially women just getting into riding (from my experience) appreciate that. They still tend to gravitate to the men for road bikes, and then there are men (and women) of A Certain Age who pretty much assume that we're stupid because we're young, female and working in retail. (Different rant entirely)