Heels on Wheels: A Lady’s Guide to Owning and Riding a Bike

Are you in the mood for a contentious debate? Stroll past the North Pavilion of Union Square in Manhattan before 7 p.m. on the last Friday of each month and ask any of the hundreds of cyclists who gather there for the Critical Mass ride why women’s bikes tend to have a low crossbar (also called a “mixte” or “step-through”), whereas men’s bikes have a high crossbar that juts from below the seat to below the handlebars. Is the feature a quaint leftover from the days when women wore petticoats, and maneuvering themselves over the high bar would have been a challenge? Might it reflect a surprising impulse toward modesty among modern women who don’t mind weaving among taxis and buses, but still prefer not to bestride their steel steeds like a cowboy hopping on a palomino? Or is the step-through an anachronism in these days of unisex denim and leggings? Why do male and female riders require different kinds of bikes? The answers you get will be vociferous. They will not be unanimous. Clare Owen, the British velophile Katie Dailey skirts the controversy by mildly pointing out that, however it came about, the lower bar is easier to clamber over than the higher one. Read on in The New York Times.