ChainGuard

I appreciate your comments. We are assuming each other to be quite naive here. By all means enjoy imagery you assume to have been created in an equitable and fair way. If that is true then great. Please read my previous post about how I believe it to be important that we help to normalise bicycle riding as way of ensuring women who are not empowered in the way you describe have better access to bicycles and the choice to ride. Women simply have a very different experience in the city and when riding. Please be open to other experiences, including us lefty claptraps. Here is a honest account that will make for an interesting read. I'll be posting an article shortly on my experiences as a woman shopping in bike stores. Might need to make some popcorn for that one, hahahah #claptrap

Appreciate the efforts all. Interesting how my previous post aggravated so many folks. Not the intention. Having worked in cycling advocacy and exploring the great work being done in other countries, my observation is simply that SA has a way to go. Here's a wonderfully written piece I encourage everyone who has posted on this thread to read. Its an honest account of a woman commuting in Cape Town. http://www.thecultureist.com/2014/07/25/sex-city-girl-bike/

Very disheartened to see 90% of references to ladies and bikes on The Hub being objectification/porn/slut poses with various bikes and components. Sigh.

Interesting array of comments here. Rather than rant, here is a story to highlight the gender discussion. Late last year I entered an event being run for the first time. There were too few ladies to create a separate Cat races for elites and wannabes like me so we all set off together. I waited on the start line with most of the current top ladies in road and track..haha newbie me still wearing my hand-me-down skateboard helmet covered in angry bird stickers! What did the elites say to me while we waited for the race to start? Thank you. Thank you for making the time to try. Gender equality in cycling in my opinion is not about fighting as much for the rights of top competitors, we have plenty of talent! What is important is growing a strong culture of women's cycling at multiple levels that helps to normalise bicycle riding. Girls dropping out of school because of being harassed on school busses is changed by introducing a bicycle. Ladies events, ladies out training, ladies commuting, cycling ladies in the media all work towards making this extraordinary way of moving acceptable to more people. Acceptable and normal to ladies who have no intention to compete but no less important.

So in what way could you add your voice on the day?

The Cape Town Cycle tour is going to be epic. I propose its epic because cyclists take a stand for road safety and awareness. We often ask how we can make a difference, well here is the proposition. The cycling community here on the Hub makes suggestions for a section on the route where we commit to lie down on the road in protest for 5 minutes. Its called a 'die in', and that is how the community in Copenhagen protested roads deaths and changed cycling in their city. Surely decision makers in the city would take notice of thousands of cyclists making their voice heard, and in a visual way such that they could not escape the images of the worlds largest timed cycling event demanding action. Yes, it is a race and for many riders a few minutes makes a big difference. Imagine if the front groups just lay down on the ground for a minute prior to the start. A powerful take on a minute of silence to remember those who have been killed. Lets discuss how the cycling community can use this event to peacefully and powerfully create a change. I cannot bear to go through another training season hearing of cyclists being killed on the roads. It could have been any one of us. We only have a few chances as powerful as this. Thoughts?