In November, we read Back in the Frame by the fantastic Jools Walker, renowned UK bike blogger. It was a great read, and I finally am sitting down to talk about it!
“Something about cycling had become really complicated – and that’s the last thing that it should be,” Jools writes early on in the book. And she spends the rest of the book explaining exactly how to uncomplicate it for those who would love to get into the sport, but find it entirely too intimidating for one reason or another. (She adds that this is much more true for girls, and I agree. It’s actually why I wrote the Shred Girls series! “‘When young girls stop riding, there is a different story for each one who shuffles off the saddle and puts their bike away, possibly for good,” she writes. “I’m sure all three of us had personal reasons – different from each other – when we stopped, but probably influenced each other’s decision at the same time.’… One summer, cycling with your friends is the only thing you want to do. The following summer it’s all about going away for football training camps, or trips away with the local play scheme.”
“The point here is this: there is no right or wrong way to get into cycling, whatever age you are, and there is certainly nothing wrong with asking for a little help. Going at your own pace is totally okay.”
I think this quote actually sums up the entirety of the book—though the rest is worth the read, of course!—but in a nutshell, I love that her approach to getting back into cycling was NOTHING like Emily Chappell’s in last month’s Athletic Bookworm read. Jools’ return to riding was a completely different situation, and one that isn’t as chatted about in the cycling world: Getting into cycling for the joy of it, for casual rides, for stylish rides, for athletic rides… for the sake of riding, not counting up yearly miles. Sure, Jools does eventually do some awesome long/hard rides, but the bulk of this story is about the around-town riding that reminds us why biking can be so damn fun.
(As she later puts it: “The narrative of sports like road cycling is that it’s a serious and hardcore sport, not one where it’s totally fine to just have some fun doing it. There is an obsession with glorifying suffering, training, racing and winning. It’s such an exclusionary message, one that is disconnected from the pure joy of diving into something and giving it a go for the first time, regardless of your level of ability or confidence. Doing those things on your own terms is key. Which in this instance meant that I didn’t have to feel obliged to suddenly only wear Lycra, and didn’t mean I had to be clipless every time I rode.”)
And I love that she talks about her journey as a Black woman in cycling, and what it meant breaking into the space through her ultr-apopular blog, VeloCityGirl (VCG). “Being honest about cycling not feeling like a space for someone like me – a black, twenty-eight-year-old woman who hadn’t been on a bike in ten years and might not be as knowledgeable as others about cycling – in my very first post could have been a red rag to a bull … but I didn’t care. VCG was my space.”
While she’s confident in the online space, I think her discussion of getting her bike seat sorted is one we can all relate to: “The sales assistant helping me wasn’t being rude nor was he frightening, but I felt apprehensive to say anything more, as if admitting ‘this still feels a little bit too low’ would have made me look foolish. Instead I said, ‘Uhhh, yeah, that’s great. Thanks.’ Why did I do that? Why did I allow that to be the end of the conversation on adjusting my bike? I’d allowed myself up? It’s hard to speak up if you feel like you don’t have much of a voice or you’re not hearing voices like your own in certain spaces.”
And in case you needed the reminder:
“Using any kind of power to bring people together and to ride bikes is incredible. No matter how small or large your platform is, if you have one to use, then use it.”
Jools also introduced me to Adeline O’Moreau’s frame design that I am now obsessed with: “One of my favourite examples of this is the metallic-green Sausage Dog Camo CX racing bike she made, which was the winner of the Columbus Choice Award at Bespoked 2017. This is exactly what you think it is – a bike frame covered with dachshunds … eighty-seven of them to be precise. There was a humorous story behind the design that the rider and Adeline wanted to convey: the sausage dog symbolised the power and determination of the rider and their bike – ‘innocent-looking but absolutely unstoppable’. The inspiration may have come from the customer but being able to bring that emotional connection between the human and the machine alive through design is something Adeline does incredibly well.”
Missed reading it? Grab a copy here (and in Canada)
