i registered right then just to reply to this thread.
you need my womanly opinion!
i ride a p2, i love it. being introduced to mountain biking by my boyfriend is one of the best things thats ever happened to me. i love it how im fit and how riding my bike makes my body look. i love it how its easy yet challenging. i want to be able to do humungous jumps. id like to enter a race one day when i have enough skill so i dont embarrass myself.but im sad i dont get to ride out in the bush as often as i like.
its nice when people approach me and want to talk bike. ive only ever had men come up to me though, no mtbing girls (i really wish i had another girl to ride with). the coolest thing happened the other day when this bloke on a ruckus came up to me and asked me to come riding with him. we rode to the pet shop to buy his cat some flea cream (!) and we had a chat. I was a bit tired because i had riden from freo to mt lawley so i probably wasnt too much fun. he invited me to join him another time for a ride and promised to teach me some skills, but has to talk to his girlfriend about it first.awww.
men who yelp out very forward comments about my breasts, chase me on their bikes and say they wish they were my sdg bel air seat or ask me for a root just plain creep me out. i dont know about you, but i dont know anyone who gets laid after acting like that.
and i ride a bike because its fun, not because im trying to get laid!
im not the best rider basically because I havent had much exposure. alot of us girls are in the same boat i beleive. even though you cant quite call it the 'olden days' when i was a youngen in the 80's it was more girls did the 'girly' things and not much else. i have two older brothers and they had bmxs. i wanted one too, but wasnt allowed to have one.i went to the bmx track a few times with them to ride on their bikes and basically had the shit kicked out of me and rocks thrown at my head. my parents told me not to go there, its for the boys.
kids and their pasttimes seem less gender specific now.
and mtb biking is quite expensive! thats scares alot of girls away, they just cant afford it. as much as people like niki gudex are admirable its obvious they have had a lot of money thrown at them to pursue racign mountain bikes - nikis foes must of cost at least $15000. my bike was 'cheap' but i was broke after buying it. and i dont really own much other stuff, no armour. luckily i have access to tools so i can tinker around on the damn thing when its not running smoothly.
ive got books for uni to buy, bills to pay, food to eat, debt collectors to dodge. . . its quiet cumbersome having to make do until you can affford to buy the next gadget you need.
enough typign now, thats quite a long post.