Are you the cycling type?

This is an article one of our employees, Karen H, wrote for the Carolina Tarwheels, a local cycling club in North Carolina.

Are you the cycling type?

Although I own 3 types of bikes and spend plenty of time on them—sometimes 100+ miles per week—I’ve never called myself a cyclist. I may have, a few times, described myself as a wannabe cyclist, but never a straight up, full stop cyclist.

For a word made up of 7 little letters, it sure packs a lot of cultural expectations (or baggage, depending on your perspective). Cyclists are speedy, tall, and lean. Cyclists know what their bike components are called, how frames and cranks are measured, and speak about the merits of carbon fiber, custom-built bikes. Cyclists can grind up any hill and fearlessly fly down at top speed. They wear sleek, well-fitted jerseys that seem to shout, “Hey, I did the Leadville 100, and you didn’t!” They confidently clip-clop into a coffee shop by 8 a.m. after 50 miles, only to turn around and do 50 more.

I am none of these things. I’m 5’2” and built like a gymnast. I often bike in a yoga tank or a t-shirt. I don’t understand bike geometry, get intimidated by the jargon, and I brake downhill. Mysteriously, I end every ride with chain marks on my calf, something an experienced cyclist once told me—rather condescendingly—was the sign a “newbie” rider.

I was reminded of this exchange last month when I read an article about Marley Blonskey, a woman who self identifies as a fat cyclist and is the focus of Shimano’s short film All Bodies on Bikes. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend that you do. It’s only 14 minutes and serves as a lovely reminder that cycling, like most group sports, is an incredible tool for community building and belonging. In this context, Blonskey and her friend Kailey Kornhauser dismantle long-held beliefs about which bodies belong on a bike.

If you’ve ever been told you don’t look like a cyclist or sometimes don’t feel like one, Kornhauser has some news for you. About three minutes into All Bodies on Bikes, she eloquently says, “To be a cyclist, you just have to be a person who rides a bike.”

Hi, I’m Karen and I’m a cyclist. How about you?