Quest fulfilled.

[gurdymonkey]

I am not one of the neonlimespandexroadbikingmutantquadriceps people.  I'm not racing the Tour De Anything. I'm an Old, Slow, Fat Woman riding around a smallish island in San Francisco Bay. I don't need special clothes and shoes for this activity.  Even Grant says so.

I need to be comfortable. I need to be safe.  I do not need to look like an Old, Slow, Fat Lightning Bug.

Taiko finishes up at 7:30 PM. By the time I rode home from class the other night, it was starting to get dark. (The Weather Channel says local sunset tonight is 7:53 PM PDT and it's only going to get earlier. Hence the immediate purchase and installation of LED head- and tail-lights and a bell when I acquired Two-Tone Mimi. I chose a white bike helmet (both times), but I realized that like a lot of Old, Slow, Fat Women that I appear to own an awful lot of dark colored sweat shirts, sweaters, fleeces and jackets.

A lot of modern "activewear" tends to be made of synthetics that feel like they're designed to cling to your body like Saran Wrap, make you sweat like the entire cast of Rashomon and Cool Hand Luke combined, and retain your stink no matter how often you launder it. OK, this may not be entirely true and I freely admit the prejudices of a historical costumer with a love for natural fibers when I reach for a garment on a hanger and find myself shuddering and letting go of that nasty, icky, we-hates-it nylon sleeve. If it feels icky, I'm not going to want to wear it.  If it makes me look like a fluorescent tennis ball, it's not going to make me feel good about wearing it.

To make a long story short, I've recently felt up an awful lot of eww-factor zip front jackets, or walked in and walked right out again when I couldn't find a single jacket-like garment in white or a light color on the racks at the outlet center near where I work or the mall on Alameda's South Shore. Add to that the Gurdymonkey Don't Do Hoodies Factor, which rules out 90% of the cotton-poly sweat shirts out there, and the one windbreaker I saw at the Eddie Bauer outlet on payday. They're putting hoods on perfectly nice cardigans anymore. And ruffles. Jaysus Mary And Joseph, hoods on Aran fishermen's sweaters. Someone somewhere is probably sticking ruffles on  British commando sweaters in the name of fashion.

I seemed to recall that there was a Columbia outlet up in Vacaville, checked its existence via the internet, and headed up there this afternoon. Behold, they had women's jackets in lots of styles -  and the color range included plenty of options in white or near-white shades. Zip fronts. Pullovers. Vests. Windbreakers with hoods and without. Fleece. Waterproof shells ranging from unlined to survival-on-Everest-in-a-white-out. Synthetic fabrics of all sorts, but they didn't feel quite so cheesy. I ended up with a boxy fleece zip-front and a jacket in a waterproof fabric with some nice vertical seam details, both cream colored. Neither of which were required for this afternoon's ride when I got home, because it was actually warm and summery today.

Now, the question remains: do I need a set of these? Nah. Maybe just a couple of wooden clothespins and some playing cards. That'll do.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I don't know--those bike lights are pretty awesome.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I've seen them in action. They ARE pretty slick.

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the linky - now I'm getting bike light lust...

[baronalejandro.livejournal.com]

Bicycle companies are starting to (only now) cotton to the distinction between 'cyclists' and 'i own a bicycle'. I am a cyclist, and i really want that slick synthetic stuff because it does wick sweat, it doesn't hold stink like your grandmother's polyestah, and it actually does help with aerodynamics.

You happen to own a bicycle, and you need nearly none of those things. Cycle companies are only now going "oh crap gurdymonkey has money she's willing to spend on us, we better make some stuff she'll like."

There's an emerging trend right now called 'cycle chic', and a lot of it is Danish. The reason it's danish is because copenhagen is a huge cycle-commuter city, and apparently they are pretty snappy dressers there. That place is currently driving a lot of stuff for the casual bicycle owner. If you do a little googling on some of those terms I bet you'll find a lot of stuff.

I vote yes on the monkey lights.

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

moriven swears by the real slinky bike shorts, but he wears them under knee-length cargo shorts because he doesn't want to share that much with the world, either.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Says the man who road races in Chucks, bless your deviant and pointy little heart. ;-D

The monkey lights are awfully cool, but they're kinda pricy. About $60 just to kit out one wheel with one unit. I may look for some more basic spoke lights in the meantime.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

As a driver who would hate to run into you, I vote for lights on the wheels. It will make you more visible, and that is a good thing.
Happy Biking!