Keeping warm in colder weather without looking like a North Face refugee
We all know riding your bike instead of driving is not only eco-friendly, but good for our butts and legs (and hearts!) too! But to really make a dent in how many global warming gases you produce, you have to ride your bike for more than just recreation, and treat it as a vehicle, and integrate it into your life.
I ride my bike all over my seaside Connecticut town, as do plenty of other folks, the difference being that I don’t ever dress like a ‘biker’. I hate the spandex, helmets, and stupid bootie-shoes that Americans seem to think they need to ride a bike around town or on the streets. (Yeah, I know, helmets will save your skull, but you know what? I’m old enough that I don’t have to wear one, so I don’t. They’re ugly and mess up my hair. So sue me.)
A great example of a great warmer weather bike ensemble!
Turns out, I’m not as iconoclastic as I’d like to think I am. European ladies in cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Copenhagen regularly ride their bikes, looking as chic as ever. Women wear whatever they would normally wear (read: really chic outfits and heels, jewelry, and even makeup!) to hop on their bikes to get around town. The site, Copenhagen Cycle Chic, documents this style phenomenon. Love it!
I ride in skirts and tights with knee-high boots in the winter to go to the library, sundresses with bare feet or flip flops in the summer to ride to my local beach, and my cute bags get thrown in the basket in front of me. Just make sure your bike has fenders so you don’t get dust and mud all over your adorable outfits!
Great post — more people should follow suit! In fact, encouraging folks to all band together to bike more would help the earth and our bodies to an even greater extent. Check out PledgeBank.com or similar sites to find ways to rally people together in a coordinated way…
02/08/08 » 1:16 pm »
Hawt.
I don’t normally ascribe or concede to having any hard and fast hang-ups or easily defined preferences for the opposite sex, but cycle chicks have a hot and heavy place in my heart. Major points. All the more so if you can pull off the whole shebang in a skirt w/o having to ride side-saddle.
Mercy.
02/10/08 » 9:43 pm »
um, wearing a helmet *is* a good idea. look at what happened to the woman from stereolab- poor woman died when some mofo hit her while riding her bike.
02/16/08 » 8:11 am »
I’m a graduate student living in cambridge mass and I regularly ride my bike everywhere i need to go, including the grocery store and to work.
I wear a helmet under all circumstances, in all weather, regardless of my outfit (and i do where my little skirts and heels on the bike.)
not wearing a helmet on a bike is like not wearing your seatbelt in the car, but the consequences can be much much worse. Its all good to ride to the beach around your connecticut seaside town,or copenhagen where bikers have their own lanes, but biking is dangerous, and accidents happen all the time. I have been hit, backed into, side swipped, doored, not to mention screamed at and pushed for biking down the street. and my helmet has saved my head from injury in all these occasions.
it is irresponsible and stupid not to wear a helmet, and certainly very unsexy.
02/16/08 » 8:12 am »
I also bike in my cute skirts, but I do wear a helmet. My father, who is a serious cyclist who bikes about 20k (each way) to work most days throughout the non-snow season, has lived through accidents TWICE mostly because of his helmet. (The second accident involved a neck brace and the replacement of two lost teeth — but no actual skull damage — almost certainly thanks to the helmet.) This ain’t Europe, and neither our streets nor our drivers are, in general, cyclist-friendly or even cyclist-aware, most days.
02/16/08 » 11:10 am »
I’m a “biker” ; ride for pleasure and have commuted to work 10 miles each way for some time. I love the idea of dressing fashionably but my goodness “hating spandex and stupid booties” I’m sure all Americans don’t think they need to dress that way. Some find the spandex thing comfortable and their own “fashion statement”…cycling hotties are very cute but I agree, helmets are a safety must at any age.
02/16/08 » 10:17 pm »
I am a cyclist too, but after killing two pairs of my most prized pairs of jeans and a pair of linen trousers with a lot of sentimental value in a week’s time through my thighs rubbing up against the seat (I didn’t even go that fast, only 10-16mph), I regrettably had to go and buy a pair of spandex shorts to do my bike commutes to work and school. I do still bike in the few skirts that won’t get stuck in my gears when it’s warm, but I’m afraid to bike in regular jeans or capris anymore after seeing so much of my wardrobe staples bite the dust.
02/18/08 » 1:42 pm »
Bike helmets are a personal issue. Wear them if you feel safer. Fine. But as there is little scientific evidence that bike helmets have any great effect, it is rather unwise to advocate their use. They are designed to protect you from concussion if you fall off you bike while riding under 20 kph and assuming you do NOT impact with another vehicle. Kind of like kneepads. If you get hit by a car, no helmet will have any effect. For the facts on the issue see here.
With that said, there are many fashionable models of helmet on the market now, which don’t look dorky.
04/17/08 » 11:42 pm »
Eco Chick News Tweets! » Eco-Chick
[...] new Bike Chic page (I keep writing about this subject; check it here and here) and Carectomy has found another one! If full body Spandex isn’t your speed, check out [...]
05/11/08 » 9:23 pm »