Tuesday 29 June 2010

Ladies who like to Race...


There is an alleycat race on Friday 9th July in the city centre. Alleycats are all about speed, finding stuff/completeing tasks and being sneaky with your shortcuts to get back first! I quote: "Nobody should end up in the canal, the race has three short canal stages, up and over a bumpy bridge or two to slow the riders down a bit, then back on roads for the fast bit." I've never done one before but it looks like alot of fun (even if I'll be the slowest rider)! If I can get the night off work, I'll definitely be showing my face so I hope some more ladies will too...

For more information check out the thread on the Fixed Gear forum. x

Sunday 20 June 2010

Femme Pedale are famous!

Well not quite, our escapades are just being blogged in Spain by Urban Bixi Magazine! x

Saturday 19 June 2010

A BIG THANKYOU TO ALL THE RECLAIM RIDERS!!

Wow, what a great turnout we had considering the weather was absolutely rubbish! But the rain held off for the most part and we had a lovely ride through town, Edgbaston and down to Selly Park finishing with a rest stop at Midlands Art Centre for some much needed refreshment and flapjacks courtesy of our very own Lauren. Thankyou to everyone who came along, it was great to meet new cyclists and we hope to see you again soon. We're going to plan a longer ride for next time so if you have any ideas for a nice route, please do send them in!

Here are some some photographs courtesy of Igor who skidded and photographed his way through the ride:
 
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Thursday 17 June 2010

Night Ride Route

Sorry, bit of trouble embedding the map earlier!

I rode this route on Tuesday and I hope the weather is as nice on Friday! Starting from town we're taking 'quiet roads', so-called by the Birmingham cycle map. There's a little bit on up-hill, quite bit of down, nothing drastic. There are couple of roads (top of Broad Street, Bristol Road) we'll get off and cross at the lights but generally we'll be on the road and as a big group we'll be able to look out for each other.

I will say that in inviting you to ride with us, Femme Pédalers accept no responsibility for your safety when cycling - please bring helmets and lights and ride with your common sense intact. We will go at a pace that includes everybody - no racing ahead - and are happy to make stops if necessary. If you are not comfortable with riding on the road, we thought we could send a party up the canal route and meet at the Rea route and head to the mac together.

Looking forward to it! See you 7pm for a 7.30 start; our publicity has been a bit confused so we'll have a meeting point at centenary square and one outside the central library too. Look for ladies on bikes with flourecent rosettes (there might even be enough to share).

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Leamington Peace Festival Ride

Hello all!

There will be an informal bike ride to Leamington Peace festival on Sunday 20th June with some Birmingham Bike Foundry members, friends and enthusiasts. We are leaving at 10am from outside the Fighting Cocks public house in Moseley. It should be a lovely ride for those who want to do a middle distance. It will take approx 2.5 hours not including the obligatory rests for snacks and chats. But don't forget to come to Reclaim the Bike on Friday beforehand! x

Thursday 10 June 2010

Think of the Children?

The other day, listening to a radio programme about working in high finance, I heard a female banker speaking about how she feels that it is perfectly understandable that companies are reluctant to take on employees of her own sex. We are, of course, far less reliable than our male counterparts. Apart from prompting me to give the radio a threatening look, this also got me thinking about why women are considered less dependable employees. The answer, of course, is our annoying tendency to reproduce. But apart from maternity leave women also tend to carry out the more mundane child related tasks, say…The SCHOOL RUN! (Dedicated Dads, please don’t take offence! I generalize for the purposes of valid point making, I hope).

So, the school run. I wonder how much more ‘reliable’ female workers would be deemed if they didn’t have to tackle the chaos that dropping kids off at school can be; even if the kids aren’t driven everyday, it could take just a few late mornings due to missed school buses to build up a reputation.

The answer to the school run problem should be get the kids on the bikes, but lets be honest, in how many parts of Birmingham would you feel safe letting a child out the house in the morning to bike the mean streets on the way to school. We go on about how bad drivers and road layouts make cycling more dangerous generally, but imagine if you were half the size, half as fast, and a lot less confident. There are obviously some kids who are self-assured enough to cycle to school, and going on the pavement is an option, but you don’t see many of them, which I think is pretty understandable.

The lack of kids cycling doesn’t just bode ill for mums dropping them off at school. Although some people (myself included) do start riding bikes as an adult when not having done so as a child, you can assume some link between not cycling as a child and not cycling as an adult. Also, the more kids get used to being driven about, the more future drivers we have on our hands who have no idea what its like to bike in traffic and as such drive like a complete jerk. Let’s look at it like insurance for our collective old age; when I’m the wrong side of 70, pootling around on a shopper with a cat in my bike basket, I want to be around nice friendly drivers!

So, to conclude this ramble, a lot of the things we want to do at femme pedale and Birmingham Bike Foundry will benefit both kids and adults – but I’m going to try to ponder the kids aspect a little more than before.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Blogs

I am putting together a great list of bike blogs so that we can take inspiration from them and share the treasures we find of course! I spend far too much time looking at nice bikes whilst at work, I'll start posting some more on Mothergirl. x

Reclaim the Bike

 Courtesy of my questionable brain power and Fin Bike Foundry's clever translation to the computer.

Look at our lovely flyer (it doesn't quite fit)! Now there's no excuse not to have the date in your diaries!! Check out the Facebook group for more information. See you next Friday for a lovely ride around Birmingham. (Disclaimer: Central Library, Chamberlain Square NOT Centenary Square as publicised previously by my awful geography).

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