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There's girl bikes. There's boy bikes. Then, there's Trans-Bike. Looking for a bike that breaks all the rules of gender and may cause the very foundation of society as we know it to come tumbling down? Then take a look inside!
Image, text, and concept copyright 2007 by Heather Rose Brown,
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Comments
Actually...
If you take all bars, instead of getting a "gender-free" bike, what you get is an even girlier bike. When I was a kid, way back then, girl bikes didn't have any kind of reinforcing bar -- they relied on the rigidity of the lower tubes of the frame.
These newfangled lower reinforcing bars (like the one named "a" on the picture) seem kinda "on the fence" to me -- to low to be really "manly", but its mere presence is inconsistent with a "girl bike."
Sir Lee
My bike
My bike has only one bar on the bottom. I learned something from riding it. There certainly is no hot shoeing with it and you have to hold it up with your hands when you stop. Giggle
Gwen
Hate to burst your bubble
I remember seing a bicycle some years ago with a moveable top bar. The end bracket would slide up and down the center seat post and could be clamped in any position the rider preferred.
wimyn's bikes
OK, here's the nerd, Asperger's, technical look at things: Wimyn actually ride road bikes and try to go fast like Cathy and Drew/Gabby. They all ride bikes with a' "boy" bar' which is actually called the "top tube".
Wimyn usually have shorter arms and a shorter torso then men having the same leg lenght as those wimyn. A bike's size is related to the riders leg length. Wimyn's bikes have a relatively shorter top tube and a shorter stem (a piece that connects the bike's fork, which is connected to the bike frame, to the handlebar). That way shorter upper bodied wimyn can buy a bike with a comfortable reach to the handlebar in a size to fit their leg lenght.
Sorry, I'm kind of compulsive about stuff like this. I was also the masters wimyn's AZ 40K time trial champion, 50 to 54 YO age group, in 1999. I was a bit injured the next year and lost by 3 sec. (SRS in '92)
Hugs,
Renee
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
I just ride a women's 15
I just ride a women's 15 speed mountain bike. That way I wouldn't have to worry about what bar to use or not to use. LOL. Nice graphics tho.
With super love & big as the sky hugs
Barbara
"If I have to be this girl in me, Then I have the right to be."
"With confidence and forbearance, we will have the strength to move forward."
Love & hugs,
Barbara
"If I have to be this girl in me, Then I have the right to be."
Bikes and gender
Oh wow ... I was expecting maybe a giggle or two about something silly I posted. I had no idea there were so many things to know about bikes and gender before. :)
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Heather Rose Brown
Author of Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure
Cross-Pedaling
Now that you bring it up, the bike's the key.
I learned to ride a bike at five. I had my choice of my two older brothers' bikes or my older sister's.
To get on my brothers' bikes required 1.) help, which often was unavailable or 2.) a step of some kind which also was often unavailable.
Riding my sister's bike was much easier and seemed right. Besides it was blue. In my Victorian mind, when blue was the color for little girls, it was the perfect color for me.
Also my sister was much quicker to share her things with me than my brothers, which became the root of other activities that followed.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)