Tough & Tender: The Stories That Move Us

Today's guest post was written by Martina Brimmer, owner of Swift Industries, to announce the 2nd annual Tough & Tender: A literary and photographic project celebrating women's experiences with the bicycle.

This year I broke a bicycle frame.

As I stripped the parts off the bike, I nostalgically calculated that I had pedaled well over 15,000 miles on that frame in the past four years. I?ve cycled coastlines and mountain roads, toured islands and farmland, and ridden the same mundane commuter routes day in and day out. I?ve pedaled alone and in company. What I found myself marveling at, as the bicycle was stripped for parts, was not the strength of the lugs that had endured for so long, but my own strength.


I have ridden the rough equivalent of crossing the United States four or five times over the past few years. Those 16,000 miles contained breathtaking scenery and killer climbs. They were marked with more tears than I?d like to admit, and a great deal of ?hanger? (hunger anger). Sometimes it felt like there were more relentless headwinds than encouraging tailwinds.

Just like any other enthusiast, I couldn?t wait for my next long day out, and was stoked that I could lure my riding buddies into bike camping. I stopped at breweries, I repaired my own flats with confidence and dexterity, and afterward, I wiped the grease off my hands and onto my pants. Over the past four years I have dedicated my career to bicycling and touring. It is through my experiences on a bicycle that I have grown into myself.

I am a cyclist. But what?s more, I am a female cyclist. And as many female cyclists know, our stories are not celebrated enough in mainstream culture and are not always told with as much joy and pride as they ought to be.

I don?t find myself reflected in most cycling publications. I don?t walk into a shop and receive the same treatment as my fellow cyclists, nor do my female friends who work as mechanics enjoy the same trust from customers as their male co-workers do. Sometimes I don?t only feel underrepresented, I feel invisible in the very community that I love.

But at the end of the day the joy and accomplishment of cycling is nested just as deeply in my heart, thighs, and calves as anyone else?s and I rejoice when I take to the open road. Because that?s what it?s all about.


I know from years of riding with my closest friends that my experiences as a female rider are not any kind of universal voice for women who ride bicycles. Our styles, and interest, paces, and experiences are many and diverse. Over the years it has been of particular inspiration to me to exchange stories and connect with female bicyclists. I am always inspired by the tenderness that women assume when they?re relaying an adventure, or better yet, a misadventure, from the road.

In 2011, Tough & Tender was born. Now in its second year, Tough & Tender is a literary and photographic project that celebrates women?s relationships with bicycles, touring, and the bike industry. Cycling empowers, inspires and challenges women in ways which are not often portrayed by mainstream bicycle culture. This project aims to fill that role. Please tell us how you experience strength, determination, joy, and satisfaction through bicycling and join this compendium of women?s voices and perspectives in the making. 

We can?t wait to share your stories!

For more information about contributing to Tough & Tender 2012, visit Swift Industries or check out their blog, Cycle Swift

Photos by Russ Roca

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MARTINA BRIMMER is the owner of Swift Industries, a small pannier company is Seattle WA. She rides a lot, sews a lot, camps a lot, and eats a lot. Choose you own adventures.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/07/tough-tender-stories-that-move-us.html

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The Tour de France Opens Dramatically

The Tour de France Opens Dramatically (But the Shack Make a Great Showing) For Team RadioShack supporters the expectation of our favourite team must be immense; the year to date has been a good one for the Team. Latterly Levi Leipheimer took the Tour de Suisse by riding an exceptional final stage time trial, Chris Horner [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/the-tour-de-france-opens-dramatically/

2011 tour de france

Learning to ride my bike?Again

On Friday  Team BikeRadar Madison will be tackling Hot Chillee?s London-Paris 2012 ride and riding 515km in just three days. Madison?s Will Fripp is getting excited? Since my last blog much has changed.  When I started my training the thought of riding 120km on a bike was (weirdly for someone in the bike trade)  something [...]

Source: http://magazine.bikeradar.com/2012/06/18/learning-to-ride-my-bikeagain/

cycling ulster

Rhode Island: A Small State Big on Surprises



The photo above is of a kinetic bicycle sculpture spotted turning in the wind during a terrific-sounding loop ride through northern Rhode Island. The ride, and the photo, were taken by Bryan Lorber, an RN in vascular access who's also an enthusiastic cyclist. But not until this outing was he an overnighter. 

"Although I have cycled quite a bit in Rhode Island, I had never done any multi-day trips here (or anywhere else)," Bryan writes at his Bike Overnights post, Northern Rhode Island: History + Hospitality. "So, the purpose of this overnight tour was twofold: First, to practice fully-loaded touring with a camping component; and, secondly, to see Rhode Island and share with readers the surprising diversity of this smallest of states.

"Rhode Island is densely settled," he adds, "with Providence the primary population center and state capital. Interestingly, though, once you get away from the major highway corridors of Interstates 95 and 195, the state is surprisingly rural, with excellent cycling." 




As he pedaled through the capital city, before he reached that great rural riding, Bryan found himself surrounded by history -- particularly along the venerable Benefit Street, which he calls a "textbook of historic preservation."

In addition to the excellent road and bikeway riding he experienced, Bryan had the opportunity to camp out on the farm of a couple named Paula and Pete, a connection he made through the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen. Their hospitality "made the tour," Bryan writes.


He also had nice things to say about his rig. "My Tout Terrain Silkroad expedition bike with the Rohloff Speed hub was just amazing. I'd put over 3,000 miles on her (Joan) since last May, so I already knew how good she is -- but on this ride I was carrying approximately 30 pounds of equipment over some hilly terrain. The Rohloff drivetrain performed flawlessly. I still own a derailleur bike (Bridgestone RBT), but can't imagine ever buying one again. Any future bicycles in my life will have a Rohloff drivetrain." 

For more Rhode Island road magic, read Bryan's story in its entirety at BikeOvernights.org

Our current Photo of the Week, shown below, might look familiar. That's because it comes from last week's special summer-solstice Bike Overnight, Alaska: Bears and Bikes and the Midnight Sun, by Kate Batten.



BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 06.22.12.

Top 3 photos by Bryan Lorber.

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Previously, from March 2009 through January 2012, Mac posted weekly at Biking Without Borders. He also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to 45,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/06/rhode-island-small-state-big-on.html

padded cycling shorts

TdF Halfway Point ? Havoc, Mayhem, Carnage

When it?s over, it will be very hard for anyone to discuss this 98th edition of the Tour de France, without mentioning the numerous, high profile, and wild crashes that have marred the first half of this year?s contest. Not only has there been an extremely high number of riders hitting the deck, but [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/tdf-halfway-point-havoc-mayhem-carnage/

cycling plus magazine

1984 Bike Tour: Day 55 ? Our cross-country tribe grows

KEAMS CANYON, ARIZ. - We started riding across the wide expanse of the Navajo Reservation this morning and added to our tribe.

Just a few miles outside of Window Rock, we overtook bicyclist Geraldine Onslow, a spunky Brit from south of London.

Her's is a tale of tragedy and determination. She and her sister collected pledges for a cross-USA trip back home to raise money for cancer research after their father died of the disease. Geraldine, her sister Jane, and a cousin, James, who drove the support van, set out from New York City.

In West Virginia, an 80-year-old motorist ran into the back of Jane's bike. Both legs were broken in the collision...

Source: http://www.bikingbis.com/2012/07/06/1984-bike-tour-day-55-our-cross-country-tribe-grows/

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