The Wheels on the Bike

Ladies and Gents, this LA girl is trading four wheels for two on her daily commute! I could muse about the benefits of bikes vs. cars, but I think this image from my friend Colin, avid cyclist and self proclaimed Canadian nomad, really says it all.

If only I could afford a sweet euro-chic chariot from PUBLIC to take me to and from work in styyyle!

 

Little known fact about moi: I didn't really learn to ride a bike until I was eighteen. When my college compadre found this out, he decided to fill my childhood gap by having me mount a brakeless fixed gear approximately five inches too tall for me in a freezing parking garage next to our dorm. Needless to say, success was minimal. 

Within a year I had rummaged a dilapidated but cute-ish blue bike more my size complete with functioning breaks and semi-functioning gears. After adorning my sweet ride with a wicker basket (for baguettes, flowers, and wine, of course!) I was on the road avoiding whizzing motorists with the grace of pregnant heifer. Perhaps now, many years later, I'll resemble something closer to a tipsy badger.

There's a rich history of social movements and bicycles that often gets boiled down to bloomers. Why? Because it's kind of funny to imagine bloomers as a catalyst for change. In fact they were, as women pulled on flouncy pantaloons so they could mount a bicycle without revealing themselves. Without bikes we might not have seen Katherine Hepburn in those fabulous trousers- a travesty indeed.

Now here's my question- do they make bloomers for pencil skirts?