The Chainlink

Hey Ladies! What are your biggest pet peeves as a woman cyclist?

Specifically what behaviors do you feel subjected to, especially those of other cyclists, that annoy/irritate/frighten you that you feel you disproportionately experience as a direct result of your gender identity.

I am exploring this as a possible topic for an upcoming video education piece. So hit me.

Feel free to send me your thoughts in an email (jason@activetrans.org) if you don't feel like sharing with the group.

Thanks all!

Jason Jenkins

Education Specialist

Active Trans

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Davo on September 25, 2013 at 9:38am

I should be able to walk into any shop and ask about basic bike maintenance and not get a patronizing "oh just let us do it" kind of answer.

I'd like to think that this has more to do with the mechanic and not you gender as I have received the same type of treatment from time to time. Usually the mechanic is "too cool for school" and has a certain arrogance about them. 

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on September 25, 2013 at 10:00am

Sadly I think that is not the case at times.  

I have seen mechanics treat women very differently than they do men; sometimes in a 'positive' manner (heaping attention on them just because they are women is not necessarily a good thing) and sometimes in a negative manner.

Regardless of gender shops should work hard to make all people, of all skill levels feel welcome and comfortable asking even the most basic questions.  If the shop you go to is not doing that go to another shop.

Davo said:

I should be able to walk into any shop and ask about basic bike maintenance and not get a patronizing "oh just let us do it" kind of answer.

I'd like to think that this has more to do with the mechanic and not you gender as I have received the same type of treatment from time to time. Usually the mechanic is "too cool for school" and has a certain arrogance about them. 

Permalink Reply by Michelle on September 25, 2013 at 10:11am

Thanks Dug, I agree. While I thnik there are some arrogant mechanics in general, I think the issue can be (not always but at least some of the time) compacted by gender.

I truly think that gender had something to  do with it, especially when I was toting a cutesy women's hybrid diamondback, a bad first-commuting-bike choice on my part, but still a bike I was bringing to this shop to discuss how it (or a different bike) could meet my needs. It's too bad really, because had the guy in shop #1 chosen to engage in my conversation about the weight of my bike and how that felt like a problem for me, it is highly likely that I would have purchased a new bike from that shop. Instead... I was kinda put-off and went to a different one a week later.

And as far as shoaling goes: I was definitely shoaled all the way down Milwaukee at every stop light up to chicago by some guy on a green bike with a blue herschel backpack. Every. Single. Light. All the way down Milwaukee. I just kept passing him shouting "ON YOUR LEFT" and ringing my bell. Every. Single. Light. I was way faster than him, but he somehow felt that he needed to continue to pull on ahead of me. Maybe because I was wearing bright pink for visibility? 

Davo said:

I should be able to walk into any shop and ask about basic bike maintenance and not get a patronizing "oh just let us do it" kind of answer.

I'd like to think that this has more to do with the mechanic and not you gender as I have received the same type of treatment from time to time. Usually the mechanic is "too cool for school" and has a certain arrogance about them. 

Permalink Reply by Davo on September 25, 2013 at 12:04pm

Unfortunately I think you are right. There still are people who are sexist to one degree or another and are doing it subconsciously or consciously. I'd like to think that we are further along than we are about things like this, but we are not. Bro on milwaukee was a jerk. I make very loud sighs now when people shoal me  repeatedly.

Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on September 25, 2013 at 12:08pm

IMO the general dude impulse to weigh in with "maybe that has nothing to do with gender" when women are relating their lived experiences is a thing to suppress even if something remotely-comparable has happened to you a nonzero amount of times. 

Davo said:

I'd like to think that this has more to do with the mechanic and not you gender as I have received the same type of treatment from time to time. Usually the mechanic is "too cool for school" and has a certain arrogance about them. 

Permalink Reply by Tom Dworzanski on September 25, 2013 at 12:12pm

+1

(Learned the hard way from a very patient lady who taught me to listen more and assume less.)


Peenworm "8 mile" Grubologist said:

IMO the general dude impulse to weigh in with "maybe that has nothing to do with gender" when women are relating their lived experiences is a thing to suppress even if something remotely-comparable has happened to you a nonzero amount of times. 

Permalink Reply by Davo on September 25, 2013 at 1:04pm


I was just saying that sometimes people are jerks....period. I was not there in her specific case but I'll assume that the mechanic who was jerky to me would probably give just as much, if not more tude to someone of the opposite gender. 


Peenworm "8 mile" Grubologist said:

IMO the general dude impulse to weigh in with "maybe that has nothing to do with gender" when women are relating their lived experiences is a thing to suppress even if something remotely-comparable has happened to you a nonzero amount of times. 

Permalink Reply by Liz on September 25, 2013 at 1:32pm

Sometimes jerks are just jerks, its hard to tell unless you have info about the person's interactions in general. 

I don't really notice anything that's disproportionate to my gender,  but I'm probably really desensitized to differential treatment because I work in such a male dominated field.

I'm not attractive enough to get cat called. I have gotten called names for being heavy though, but again not sure if that's just jerks that would also do it to a heavy set man. 



Peenworm "8 mile" Grubologist said:

IMO the general dude impulse to weigh in with "maybe that has nothing to do with gender" when women are relating their lived experiences is a thing to suppress even if something remotely-comparable has happened to you a nonzero amount of times. 

Davo said:

I'd like to think that this has more to do with the mechanic and not you gender as I have received the same type of treatment from time to time. Usually the mechanic is "too cool for school" and has a certain arrogance about them. 

Permalink Reply by Michelle on September 25, 2013 at 1:33pm

Right. And it's that "if not more" part that we're discussing here. When was the last time that a bike mechanic told you not to do any maintenance on your brand new $700 bike except for "bring it in once a year and you're set." 

As a woman, it's pretty easy for us to tell the difference between just a jerk, and a jerk who is being patronizing to a woman. There actually aren't many times that I have felt that I was being treated differently as a woman in my life, truly there aren't, but I really think that this has happened to me at two different shops -  ones that I thoroughly yelp researched and which do not have a reputation for being arrogant.

Davo said:


I was just saying that sometimes people are jerks....period. I was not there in her specific case but I'll assume that the mechanic who was jerky to me would probably give just as much, if not more tude to someone of the opposite gender. 


Peenworm "8 mile" Grubologist said:

IMO the general dude impulse to weigh in with "maybe that has nothing to do with gender" when women are relating their lived experiences is a thing to suppress even if something remotely-comparable has happened to you a nonzero amount of times. 

Permalink Reply by Davo on September 25, 2013 at 2:43pm

And if you would have read my initial post I used the words:

I'd like to think that this has more to do with the mechanic and not you(r) gender...."

And another post saying relating to Michelle's experience:

There still are people who are sexist to one degree or another and are doing it subconsciously or consciously. Unfortunately I think you are right..........I'd like to think that we are further along than we are about things like this, but we are not.

I was not trying to minimize/dismiss an experience. Perhaps I am taking this personally when I should not. 

Permalink Reply by Rachel W on September 25, 2013 at 2:53pm

Last Sunday I was harassed by a couple of teens riding on the LFP in front of me. Every time I would pass them they would immediately speed up to pass me and then slow down directly in front of me while occupying all of one or both lanes. This happened three or four times before I gave up and turned around. I think they decided to fuck with me as much because of my dinging my bell and yelling on the left when I passed them the first time as anything else, but what pissed me off is that I decided to end my ride early rather than saying something and running the risk that it might escalate, specifically because I was a woman on my own and they were some pretty big dudes.

So basically TL:DR I hate getting hassled because I am a woman, but even more I hate not feeling like I can respond, for fear of something worse happening, because I am a woman. Sigh.

Permalink Reply by Alan Lloyd on September 25, 2013 at 3:11pm

And Blue City Cycles

Mark said:

and Uptown Bikes

David P. said:

Including, among others, Boulevard Bikes.

notoriousDUG said:

There are other shops with female mechanics.

peter moormann said:

List of shops with Female Mechanics:

Comrade Cycles

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