There had been some rumblings on the internet about the Thursday Night Ride (TNR) being dominated by men, to the point of excluding the women. I've never felt harassed or excluded on this ride, but it's important not to discount what my sisters are saying. It's tricky when these complaints and comments come over any sort of online forum. Some people express themselves more angrily and awkwardly in these forums than in person, and it seems to escalate an issue instead of resolve it.
I put these thoughts in my pipe and smoked them up and came up with an idea. I put out a shout out:
Hey ladies!!! Gals, chicks, dudettes & sprockettes, young women, old, femmes, all sizes shapes colors and rainbows, let’s party at TNR. (7pm Salmon Street Fountain). Of course our dude pals will be there too! A cool co-ed co-operative taking of the streets (politely but firmly) on our bikes. With loud music.
Minutes later, I received an invitation to lead from T.J., who usually leads and organizes the ride. And so, I had my second opportunity to lead this critical-mass styled party ride, along with the fun of shouting "GIRLS UP FRONT" throughout the evening. To T.J.'s credit, he had purchased firewood and dropped it off at our campfire location, and he was super helpful and positive all night.
I routed us past several lady-centric sculptures and fountains. It was a chilly but dry evening and the 15 mile route felt just right. My odometer often showed a speed of 7 miles per hour, and we regrouped half a dozen times during that short distance. After all, it's supposed to be a group ride and friendly to even the slowest of riders. My hope was that this pace, along with the on-line map I provided in advance, would help prevent anyone from feeling dropped.
There was one crash. A man in our group hit the temporary construction barrier on the Burnside bridge and went down. We waited on the other side of the bridge and I wondered what to do. Rider after rider would come up to me, breathless and panicked, to tell me urgently "SOMEBODY CRASHED!!!". While I stood there, distracted and deliberating, a tall athletic lady on a fixed gear rode up and calmly offered to circle back and check out the scene. I wanted to kiss her, but held back. When she returned, she said there was nobody around and no ambulance either, so we continued ahead.
Many times throughout the evening, a rider (always a man) would come up to me at the front and reprimand me for something. One guy told me I had ditched a bunch of people at Velocult. We'd taken a super short stop there, while I sneakily snuck in to drink a quickie pint. I had announced both indoors and out, at least five times, in a very loud voice, that we were leaving. He continued to whine at me, so I gave him an assignment to go back and round up any laggers.
At our store stop, a man in a delivery truck backed up to unload, and started tossing his dolly and equipment onto the pavement near where I stood, and near our bikes. He had a giant lift gate that he was lowering, with his back turned and earbuds in. I asked that he be extra careful, as I saw an opportunity for injury. He said we were just a drunk bike ride and if anyone got hurt, we deserved it. I expect this sort of treatment from men, but what I didn't expect was for a woman in our group to defend his behavior. Part of being a feminist, at least to me, is to back up other women when they're standing up for themselves.
Grant Park was closed for construction, which threw me off, as that was our rest room rest stop. I entered the park where I could, which took us on the new running track, which we are apparently not supposed to ride bikes on. I managed to talk riders out of doing laps and instead pull off to a grassy area on the side to hang out. While we were there, one poor dude with a flat tire made his repair while many of us watched and critiqued.
We continued on, and I made many loud warnings about curbs and bollards and crappy pavement, which usually ended up with me shouting "NO CRASHING PLEASE!". It seemed to work as no one else crashed all night, although I came close to crashing myself as I clumsily attempted to get on the sidewalk of the Sellwood bridge and smacked my front wheel into a curb. Amazingly I didn't fall and didn't even get a pinch flat.
The best and worst part of the night was on the beginning of the southbound portion of the Springwater trail, where it parallels the Willamette River. It's a 5 mile straightaway with no turn-offs and I'd been itchin to get a little exercise all evening, so I announced that I'd wait at the turn and took off. Some riders kept up with me, others fell off the back.
One man caught me and yelled at me "THIS IS A NO DROP RIDE, SLOW DOWN". I apologized and hit the brakes. I felt my soul shrinking and shrieking. I simply couldn't do it. So I reversed my position and said "No, I take it back, I'm not sorry. I'm going fast, catch me if you can!".
My original intent of leading this ride was to expose that misogyny wasn't happening. Sadly, the constant instruction and criticism I received during and after the ride alerted me that my initial thought was in error. So, instead we have an opportunity to overcome this challenge.
There are definitely lots of great guys and supportive male riders on this ride, but there are also a lot of bossypants riders that I hope can grow into the role needed from the men on this ride. I feel it is absolutely vital for women to show up to this ride, or any ride or event, where there might be misogyny. It might be hard, but it's the only way we can overcome it. It gives me great hope that so many riders came to my defense during and after the ride, and someone even made a meme for me!
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