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So today I want to talk about the whole, “I would ride a bike but I don’t want to look stupid wearing all that spandex” phenomenon. I had wrote a longer post with funny jokes and links to funny images but this computer crashed and I lost it all. That is good news, it will force me to make this shorter and more concise.
So my questions are: Why do cyclists dress “weird”? Why do people react this way to such clothing? Are other kinds of clothing “less weird”? and finally – Do you really need to dress a certain way to use a bike?
Lets start with the “weird” cycling clothing. Cyclists that wear spandex/lycra are doing so because cycling is a physical activity. Runners often wear spandex and such clothing even in the winter. I look at that image I just linked and think – that guy needs to put a shirt on! However, he is exercising and creating his own heat. Runners are working out so people “give them a pass” for wearing “weird” clothing.
I would argue though that it isn’t weird. Neither is cycling clothing. The clothes are designed for a certain physical activity. Some cyclists do ride for fitness and want to wear clothing that wicks sweat, reduces wind resistance and promotes blood circulation. Often the clothing is bright to inform motorists not to murder them by running them over.
The bright colors unfortunately become appropriate due to the belief in America that you shouldn’t use your own neighborhood or the outdoors to exercise in. Instead, the idea of health is sitting in a poorly lit room running on a treadmill drooling at the tv. The idea is to make your body LOOK different, not FUNCTION different. People want to be “thin” and “fit”. They often don’t want to apply these muscles to anything like using that power to get them around their neighborhood. Muscle is now an accessory to wear rather than a functional aspect of our bodies.
So this partially answers why people react this way to the clothing. But what is respected in our society? Do people say, “I would drive, but I don’t want to look like an idiot supporting global corporations on my body suit?” No, people don’t say that because they can separate car sports form using a car everyday. Why they can’t do this for bikes, I don’t understand. Are the hundreds of folks riding around Detroit and other cities that invisible? Also, the sport clothing that cyclists wear allows them to ride faster and farther. The clothing NASCAR drivers wear helps them not pass out from carbon monoxide exposure and allows them to urinate on themselves so they can continue racing. But bicycles are crazy for getting fresh air.
Outside of sports, what else is valued in fashion? We value rich men in haircuts that allow them to thinly veil their insecurity but bicyclists are the crazy looking ones? Are these forms of clothing/dressing less weird? I would say no.
So do you have to dress this way to ride a bicycle? No, though I think that most cyclists that end up riding long distances come to realize that spandex and bike specific clothing can do for them. I’ve done a few century ride (100 miles in one day) and I couldn’t have done it without a pair of bike shorts on. Well, I could have but things would have happened that we don’t need to talk about here.
Most days I ride in “street” clothes. Jeans, shorts, a t-shirt or a jacket. I’ve ridden in a skirt a few times but made sure to wear tights underneath. I look whatever way I want to when I ride. However, I have also worn bright colored jerseys and tights when I’ve been riding long distances on tour.
People probably thought I “looked weird”, but we live in a world where riding a bicycle for transportation is “weird”. I’ve seen way too many photos in the past few years of “fashion models” on bikes. Here, here, here, here and here. These photos show that bicycles are part of what you wear. Bikes are an accessory. These photos are part of making a bike a fashion statement rather than a form of transportation. I think the fetishization of bicycles like this won’t do much for the bike “movement” because eventually something else will be “cool” like wearing a suit with a dumb had next to a longboard or something.
However, I do think that being on a bicycle is going to make you look different to the people that see you. In a society that thinks bicycles are drunks that lost their licenses or folks that don’t have the economic ability to buy a car, bicycles will always be looked down upon and therefore will “look weird“.
I would like to offer an alternative viewpoint though. If we continue to hold up the automobile as the perfect form of transportation, what will happen to fashion? Lets go back to the NY Times article I linked earlier. The part that talks about drivers almost passing out from carbon monoxide exposure and needing air conditioning in their helmet because their vehicles are too hot says something to me. Sure the cars we see everyday are built differently, but all the roads that surround us have cars constantly driving on them much like NASCAR tracks. This article says to me that in the future, our fashion accessories are going to be chosen for us. We’ll be carrying around asthma inhalers in fashionable colors around our necks, custom designing dust masks for our faces, and increasingly become medical experiments in a toxic world we created.
So what is it that is weird about spandex? What isn’t cool about it? What is so “normal” and “cool” about the world we currently live in? Is using “fashion” to promote cycling a useful tool? ‘Cause I don’t want to look like this
