Merckx EFX-3 I was thrilled when David Cook of Clarence Street Cyclery asked me if I’d like to ride the new Eddy Merckx women’s specific road bike and write a review for my blog. It’s my very first bike review so don’t be expecting any technical talk or voice of experience. For benchmarking purposes my own current road bike is a 2011 Specialized Amira Expert which has a full carbon frame and the gearing is full Ultegra. I really love my bike but I also jumped at the opportunity to ride a different bike for a week and certainly didn’t
Read moreCategory: women’s bikes
Specialized supports women’s cycling
If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you’ll know by now that I’m a fan of the US bike company Specialized. It’s partly because I really love their products which so far for me includes my bike, shoes, socks and gloves but also because they are great supporters of women’s cycling teams. Many of you would have probably heard of the European based Specialized Lululemon team which is a spin-off from the ill-fated HTC Highroad team that disbanded last year (a blog post coming on that one soon) but Specialized is also working with women’s cycling in Australia
Read moreSanta’s on his way – last minute gift ideas
I know a lot of men leave their Christmas shopping to the last minute. I’ve had first hand experience of this for the last 20 years so to help you guys out here’s a few tips for last minute Christmas gift ideas for the female riders in your life. Gloves All road girls like proper road cycling gloves that are made for women’s smaller hands. My favourites are Specialized BG Gel women’s gloves (size small for me in case any of my family or friends are reading this). You can buy them at Specialized dealers like Ashfield Cycles or Northside
Read moreWhat type of bike for me?
I hope you don’t think from reading this blog on a regular basis that I’m an elitist road bike snob because although I’m a very keen road-biker I’m also keen to get women to ride bikes of any type. I ultimately believe if they catch the bug they’ll end up on a road bike, but really any riding is good in my view. Last weekend I did a few laps around the block on my sister’s new comfort style bike. It was sort of fun rolling along with my seven year old nephew in tow and his father right behind
Read moreNot all women cyclists like pink gear!!!
One thing that struck me about female cyclists – I’m talking about the everyday variety rather than the pros here – when I first started riding was the number of women who deck themselves out in the colour pink. I’m not sure if it’s because they want to be seen as feminine, want some special treatment on the road or that they genuinely like the colour. Maybe a bit of all three. Either way everyone is entitled to wear whatever colour they like. I’d just like to voice my opinion to the cycling industry about what I like. Before I
Read moreA guide to getting started in road cycling for women (and men)
So you’ve made the big decision that you want to take up road cycling. You can read about my own personal journey under the My Story tab. I’ll try not to repeat too much of it here. The first and most important thing to remember is that it’s called a ROAD bike, that means you should ride it on the road (or perhaps a bitumen or concrete bike path) but pretty much nowhere else. You can of course ride for short distances on firm gravel surfaces, paved surfaces and even firm grass but never forget the golden rule – it’s
Read moreDo I really need a women’s specific road bike?
There appears to be a little bit of conjecture about this subject so I thought I’d do a bit of research and give you my own opinion about women specific bikes or WSD (women specific design) bikes as many of the manufacturers call them. Firstly I should tell you that I ride a women’s specific bike – a six-month old Specialized Amira Expert road bike which I love. I call it ‘Speedy’ but it’s really a bit of a joke with myself because I’m not exactly a speedy rider (although my average speed continues to increase over time so maybe one
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