oddjob2

Music Man, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, Mary Poppins, South Pacific, Hello Dolly, Tommy, Chicago..... it's all good. I started playing the trumpet in 3rd grade.

auchencrow

Before riding a woman's bike:




After:

The Golden Boy 

David Newton

I've been trying to find a loop-frame Raleigh locally for several years, but none have surfaced in my corner.
It's the only ladies bike I would ride, and it sure wouldn't have a wicker basket.

The Golden Boy 

I'm going to use this picture all the time.

Velocivixen

@gioscinelli - those are some nice looking bikes! I recognize those Stronglight chainrings too.

Actually when I see a guy riding a step through/mixte/"woman's" bike it gets my attention. If the person is near me I might comment on something about the bike, like, "What year is your bike?" or something neutral. I don't want someone to think I'm implying anything one way or another. Depending on how the individual responds, the conversation goes from there. If they were to say, "Yes, the judge suspended my license for 6 months, so I got this bike from a garage sale" I might think one way, but if they proudly proclaim, "I bought this bike because of _ and it really is comfortable" or something like that I might think that the person is open minded, confident enough to ride that style of bike. That would intrigue me more and I would want to know more. Regardless of either response, my final comment would be something positive and hopefully encouraging like, "Well it's a nice day for a bike ride. Enjoy" Either way a man riding a step through would get my attention.

Of of course once I start geeking out on bikes, the recipient of my conversation will either be enthused because, they too, are bike fans, or their eyes will glaze over in boredome or confusion. At that point, if I recognize it, the conversation quickly comes to an end. Those of you from the east coast or huge metropolitan areas might just think a person is a lunatic if they just start up a random conversation, but I'm from a smaller city, where conversations with strangers isn't unusual.

Velocivixen

When I saw "Mac" in the title, I couldn't figure out how a computer was going to enhance this guy!

RaleighSport

Interesting.. when someone says standard women frames and mixte frames are not the same, you take it that way.

Oldpeddaller

A TALL GIRL's bike

obrentharris 

My commuter for a couple years was a Schwinn Hollywood. What a great bike for the potholes of Oakland and the trolley tracks of San Francisco with that soft frame and big cushy tires!

Shall we discuss PINK next?

My race bike.

Brent

Oldpeddaller

Now I'm going to have to get one, no alternative .......
This won't help me achieve "N - 1" - I'll have to refer my good lady wife to your excellent opinions Velocivixen ......

ThermionicScott 

There have been a couple threads about that, too!

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ink-bikes.html
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ink-bikes.html

michael k

I think you;ll like it, Taller cro-mo frame.

Only comments I get are 'Thats a nice Schwinn'!

The Golden Boy 

What does this say?

"I think we should do away with the term "girl's bike"....it is a Mixte...plain and simple...or, if you prefer, a step through frame"


Again your post of:

"Yes and I do, it's called a mixte."

Is easily confused as "Yes I do, it's called a mixte."

Not to be rude, but the taking offense to this and the accusation of sexism is unwarranted.

RaleighSport

Not to be rude in return but the idea of "manlying up a bike" because of a perceived gender type frame is actually misogynist in my mind, obviously not in yours and you are correct I didn't use proper punctuation.. no offense intended, but I save my heavy english skills for writing papers, not for internet forums.

John Hood

So does anyone actually think their manliness is called into question by riding a women's frame? To me it's one of those things like which direction a coat buttons from, mostly irrelevant. I'm guessing that the vast majority of women nowadays ride men's frames. Does that make them less feminine?

On the other hand, I do object to them from two perspectives.
1) I just don't think they look good. The lines of the frame just don't flow right. A mixte is somewhat better in that regard, but a good old diamond or cantilever frame is best.
2) They're weak and flexy. The DF design came about because it is simple and strong. Back in the early days of BMX I had my sisters hand me down Spyder. I used to like it for doing jumps because it was so soft. Eventually though, I broke it and went on to a series of tough BMX frames that held up fine.

If you have a real need to step through the frame however, say you have a child on the back of the bike, you are wearing a dress or you have limited flexibility or balance, then a women's frame makes sense.

The Golden Boy 

Pointing out or emphasising a gender role, or a propensity for a gender to prefer certain items isn't misogynistic or sexist- it's gender roles.

From a very young age males tend to gravitate towards tools and trucks. As do male monkeys.

Why Do Girls Like Dolls and Boys Like Toy Trucks?

Plenty of scientific studies bear that out.


If you write unclear or easily confusing statements on internet forums because you choose not use basic English skills you shouldn't respond with hostility when someone doesn't understand you.

Again, it's not a punctuation error- it's that your statement is unclear.

verktyg 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FczvmLnBTEs



verktyg

Chas.

verktyg 

"You go girl...."

verktyg

Chas.

RaleighSport

Call it what you will, then speak the paragraph out loud, then remember I wasn't speaking to you either. It's too bad you can't read through bad grammar, the coming generation mostly writes in txt speak. I have no need to continue this further other than to state once more traditional gender roles are pathetic, oh and no hard feelings here at all so please don't construe this annoyance, just busy.

boattail71

The women's style frame was borne from Victorian women who wore dresses which necessitated a different design to their bike frames. Most women ride "men's" frames now because "women's" frames are no longer needed and of course, have long fallen out of the new-bike favor. So, no, a woman on a regular frame is not less feminine just as women's suffrage, women running marathons, etc. there's obviously more equality not necessarily less femininity. Like Velocivixen said above, I notice "women's" frames because it's less common and more interesting regardless of whether it's a man or a woman on the bike.

gear64

My first bike I considered a commuter was a spare women's mtb i had laying around. I've since picked up my Terranaut Metro and handed the mtb down to son's girlfriend.

zazenzach

if you like it, why not? i dont like mixtes but I would ride an omafiet, a traditional women's dutch bike.

zazenzach

its funny how things like that tend to change too. my other passion is watches and the wristwatch was initially intended only for women as another form of wrist candy. it was only after ww1 that men started to trade in their pocket watch for them. nowadays the wristwatch is kind of a phallic symbol.

Odds are The Golden Boy is probably form a much older generation where culturally defined/understandings on such topic is more antiquated. I for one never gravitated towards tools or trucks when i was younger. nor most my friends when i was a youth.

and most kids today tend to be into a lot of the same stuff regardless of gender. all my nieces and nephews are into spiderman/superheroes, star wars, nintendo games etc.

John Hood

I think the real factor favoring men's frames in the US is that bikes here are overwhelmingly used for recreation rather than for practical purposes. From a standpoint of recreation the men's frame is hands down superior. It's just much stiffer and stronger.

Where bikes are used primarily for practical purposes women's, or step through, frames seem to be more popular and are ridden by both genders.