Girls

[Wheeledweenie]

You're going about this all wrong.

Firstly, don't try and market the cycling thing as what's cool. Market the idea of free transport long before they're able to drive angle. Market the idea that instead of begging you for lifts they can just take themselves shopping or to meet friends whenever they want.

Sadly, as they're teenage girls, you could probably also market the weight thing.

Then market this cyclechic site:

http://www.cyclechic.co.uk/index.htm

I have often been asked where I got my 'handbag' from when it's a pannier off this site. Plus if they really hate standard helmets and you want them to wear one there are some great cool ones on there.

If that doesn't work resign yourself to the fact that it may not be possible.

 

[patheticshark]

Sadly, as they're teenage girls, you could probably also market the weight thing.

PLEASE do not do this. We have enough teenage girls with ****ed up body images without adding to it like this.

 

[Norm]

hi, my mate says that his daughters (14 and 16) are not interested in cycling because its not "cool". bloody hell!! whats going wrong when I was this age i was loving the freedom and independence only attained by me bike. whats wrong with them. any ideas how the balance can be redressed? I guess sites like this could help. . .www.copenhagencyclechic.com/

Is your mate a Guardian reader, as this appeared on their bike blog only 3 days ago making the same point about teenaged girls not riding.

I don't know what the answer is, my daughter is 9 and loves riding on and off road, and comes out to help me working on the bikes.

Although I do still have the scar from a pinch-blister which she gave me when pumping up the tyres a few weeks back.

I hope that she keeps her interest. Her brother, who will be 12 in a few weeks, is of the whinging and whining variety before a ride but always has a great time once we are out and enjoys telling his friends when we, for instance, make the 8 mile off-road trip to their school.

 

[wafflycat]

PLEASE do not do this. We have enough teenage girls with ****ed up body images without adding to it like this.

+1

 

[Jane Smart]

Or, perhaps, ban cycling.

Reverse pyscology, I like that

 

[ttcycle]

PLEASE do not do this. We have enough teenage girls with ****ed up body images without adding to it like this.

+1

It's a complicated answer to this one- I agree with Wafflycat's blurb about how sport is taught in schools - I hated it myself back then. Ultimately girls are pushed towards sport anyhow and at the age your kids are at, it seems that fitting in and appearance may be more important as that is what girls are taught socially is that they should be moulding themselves towards being attractive, slim pretty etc- sadly, this sticks with some people continuosly into adulthood.

Maybe give it a bit of time, now is not the easiest but WW's idea of it being free transport is a good one but don't be too gutted if they don't take it up straight away.

 

[rich p]

A very good friend of mine criticised his daughter in her mid-teens by saying something along the lines of "You need to do some excercise to keep the weight off" and she ended up (and still is at age 30) an anorexic.
He still carries the burden of his misplaced advice.

 

[Wheeledweenie]

PLEASE do not do this. We have enough teenage girls with ****ed up body images without adding to it like this.

Oops, rereading I do come across a bit Kate Moss, to rephrase I just meant that it's very easy thing to work into your daily routine to stay fit without having to participate in group sport or something like swimming, which I found horrendous as an awkward teenage girl.

Perhaps I should have said fitness rather than weight to more accurately convey my meaning.

 

[brokenbetty]

You don't live in London, do you?

Yes. I don't see any teenage girls cycling in London.

The cyclechic-istas are 20+.

 

[ttcycle]

Betty, maybe not on the roads but there are some girls I've seen through clubs cycling but that would mean that they've gotten into the sport as a child.

 

[Wheeledweenie]

I've seen a marked increase in teenage girls in my area recently and I reckon it's because of the current trend for leggings and long t-shirts/jumpers. Sounds ridiculous but an outfit combining the two is totally practical for cycling without resorting to lycra.

The numbers are still depressingly low though.

 

[patheticshark]

Yes. I don't see any teenage girls cycling in London.

The cyclechic-istas are 20+.

There are plenty of cyclechic-ista students.

 

[brokenbetty]

There are plenty of cyclechic-ista students.

Students are mostly 20+

 

[Over The Hill]

lids! my daughter won't ride because the lid messes her hair and all the other girls think shes uncool. Bizarrely those same girls think her mums cool because she cycles/runs/etc.etc - go figure!

My two teenagers have gone from enjoying cycling to now being quite anti it as they came into their teenage years.

I agree with the Lids point but also I think cycling is just associated with losers and kids. They want to be seen as cool and grown up.

Much is down to how it is portrayed in film. How are adults portrayed in film on bikes?
Only two adult film characters I can think who rode bikes are Pee Wee and the 40 Year old Virgin. Other than that it is just kids.
How could you ever expect them to buy into that club?

My kids will go out on their bikes with me (and enjoy it) on holiday where they are at least 50 miles away from anyone that may see them.

 

[Norm]

Only two adult film characters I can think who rode bikes are Pee Wee and the 40 Year old Virgin. Other than that it is just kids.
How could you ever expect them to buy into that club?

By introducing them to the coolest man on celluloid.