I see why the question could annoy people... But here's a different way to look at it.
Nobody ever asks David Beckham why he started playing football, but I bet Birgit Prinz (FIFA Women's World Player of the Year 2003, 2004 and 2005) gets it just about every interview. David Beckham probably wouldn't even know, it was just a given that he'd play football being a boy. Even I played football, and I hated it
Boys just fall into football without trying, girls need to want to play.
Turn it around. Why did Andrian Fadeyev take up ballet? I bet most people assume he's gay. It's a very unusual choice for a man. It takes that much more determination and passion to get through that prejudice.
Extremes there, maybe, but the same applies to biking I reckon. A lot of folks start out on scooters, and that's definately a teenage boy thing. Most existing bikers are male which puts an obstacle out there- when i decided to get a bike I had a dozen riders to speak to, and all were encouraging and enthusiastic. I'd expect if a new female rider was to speak to a dozen male riders they'd get a lot of patronising answers and unhelpful comments. If they did it in a shop, what are the chances they get pointed towards a Virago instead of an R1, even now? And when I got it, all my friends were "Nice bike"- A lot of women would respond "Why did you get a bike"
The huge majority of the biking heroes are men... Most bike journalists are men. Most bike designers, too, and shop assistants, and instructors. And an awful lot of all of those are going to be chauvinistic knob-ends.
I reckon the question's not so much "Why would a
girl want to ride a motorbike" it's "What made you, specifically, decide to get through all that crap that I never had to deal with?" You don't ask David Beckham why he got into football, because the answer'll be boring. But Birgit Prinz probably has more interesting reasons. Ask 20 guys "Why did you get into biking" and chances are you'll get a load of uninteresting answers.
I reckon it's the same reason that so few female riders are rubbish. Guys often seem to just wander into biking, girls tend to- probably need to- want it more, and take it much more seriously. It's a cliche, but almost every female rider I've ever watched properly has been better than me. Literally every female rider I've ever seen at a trackday makes me look like a snail, where I'm probably midfield with the guys in intermediates.
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Originally Posted by CoolGirl
Blimey, I must have made a good impression, given that Fizz has only ever seen me ride once! (and under 'interesting' circumstances)
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On a stolen bike, no less- no wonder you were picking up the pace
New avatar I see
