So this is kind of crazy. This last month CITY GIRL RIDES turned 9 years old! Whoa. Can’t believe I have been blogging for almost a decade now and it’s kind of surreal! My archives tell me that the site started back on DEC 21, 2009. I don’t want to sound sad here but the world was pretty bleak for many after the 2008 financial crash but overall a good start for us young college folk as Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president. We had a lot of hope and fight in us to set things right for the future.
While I have been looking back and talking a lot about what’s happened over the years, I’m feeling pretty darn grateful. I thought it might be fun to take a peek back, so get a coffee and get ready because this post is going to be a lengthy one. Since I have many different perspectives of nine years, I decided to write up a round up of posts of CITY GIRL RIDES to capture the heart and soul of our mission. I also have some thank yous planned and will tell you more about that in the coming weeks.
Let’s take our time machine back to some of CGR’S photos and top 9 post of all time…
Imagine a girl in 2009 on a bike who got asked a lot of questions on how to commute in style, while the questions kept coming she got the brilliant idea of starting a blog on all things commuter related to help women navigate the world of cycling. The more immersed she got into cycling as a lifestyle, the more her experience highlighted the divide between cycling culture, her identity as a woman, and how she could empower other women to navigate it. In her quest to make the cycling life easier and accessible, the more angsty and active she became to inspire other women to ride.
While that short synopsis of how this blog got started really captures the heart of why I started this blog, it also captures the constant mission of why I am still writing. While I was reading the top in posts of CGR, I was puzzling over what my audience gravitated to. Posts on navigating the cycling world as a woman and riding comfortably are often what readers gravitate to and knowing that made me feel good as my mission seemed to be accomplished.
BIKE TALK: BICYCLES AND EMBRACING MY INNER QUIRKY GIRL
BIKE TALK: THE BICYCLE IS A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM
BIKE TALK: 10 MYTHS ABOUT WOMEN & CYCLING
In making the cycling lifestyle a reality for myself, I had to do my own research and share my experience in making cycling easier as a commuter too. In the early years of blogging, I did my first bike tour on my commuter roadie, moved from SF to OAK when I went to UC Berkeley and studied sustainable urban development as my bike lifestyle turned into activism and a future career. During these moments commuting for women slowly rose in cities as more of us where creating products and sharing our experiences to make cycling more safe for our communities and families.
In this time, my lifestyle as a commuter was filled with unique moments and lessons of being a woman on a bike. I knew that women needed other women to navigate cycling and could only gain the confidence to cycle when banded together. In style, Cycle Chic Sundays banded across globe to meet likeminded ladies who meet for picnics, coffee, and camaraderie. Traveling across sea’s to Paris to experience a different city and cycling innovation attracted me for a summer and completely changed my views of policy in planning a people friendly city. I was so inspired I curated my own college education to address it.
CUTE COMMUTER: GUIDE TO RIDING IN A SKIRT
CUTE COMMUTER: BICYCLE BASKETS
CUTE COMMUTER: BICYCLE HELMETS
After graduating college I moved to NYC and hustled two jobs to survive. Luckily I landed a job working as a social media manager at Eleanor’s NYC, a women’s bicycle accessory boutique while also part timing as a data analyst. Being immersed into the NYC cycling community, this gave me the experience I needed to see in the changing cycling culture as women where creating their own cycling organizations to encourage more women to participate and become activist in their own communities to make streets safer. I loved having something I was passionate about as a side hustle and making new connections with the wider community.
In this time, I started a long dream of having a bicoastal lifestyle and buying a house while almost struggling to keep this blog alive. My life was changing radically and cycling became a mere hobby instead of a lifestyle with the challenge of not living in the city anymore.
THINGS ONLY CYCLING BABES KNOW
ARE CYCLING CLUBS REALLY INTIMIDATING?
Once settled upstate, I adopted road cycling and grew into it quickly as new women’s specific cycling products where introduced into the market. As cities where making some progress to make room for commuters, there was something new evolving: women’s cycling groups and rides. A new horizon was opening to women who loved cycling to build and be part of a cycling community to ride with. Social media made it easier to connect with like minded cycling friends while ambassadorships, women’s programs, and skills workshops opened their doors to actively invite women to equip them with skills to reach other community.
For women, by women products where not just selling products but offering more to the women’s cycling community by sponsoring rides, race teams, and showcasing representation of their community where it lacked in mainstream cycling. These last few years on CGR was all about capturing those brands and communities to help you link and become inspired to participate.
As we enter this new year, my focus is to continue to build community, encourage, and share all the new gear and news in women’s cycling. My bigger dream out of this blog is in the works and I cannot wait to share with you all the ideas and dreams I have to make it a reality.
I wanted to say a big thank you to all my supporters, sponsors, and followers who have been here from the beginning and now. Nine years of blogging is crazy but what’s even more crazy too is that none of it would be possible without you. Thank you SO much for reading and following this journey I know so many of you are going through too! I’m hoping that I get to keep going for another 9 years, so stick around, please! And at some point this month I am hosting an awesome giveaway, so check back so you don’t miss your chance to win. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
xo. Christina