Why (especially teenaged) girls aren't keen on cycling

It just seems to me so ridiculous that such a good way of getting about is seen to be "uncool". I posted on cyclechat about this and there were some interesting replies.

"They aren't keen on exercise full stop (apart from walking around shops)."

"Add into the mix the current obsession with *celebrity* where female rolemodels are not exactly fit & healthy, but anorexically skinny, so it's much cooler to smoke and not eat as any fule noes that if you're above a size 6, you're a fat slob who doesn't deserve to be acknowleged as a human being. Besides which, once you've starved yourself to a socially suitable size, one doesn't actually have any energy left for exercise... and as any fule noes once more, exercise plays havoc with the carefully applied make-up and ruins the hair..."

"The Kid does have an ancient bike that she gets to school on, but it's only since she's aquired a boyfriend with a bike that she's been interested in getting something decent."

"My kids had little interest in bikes, walking for pleasure, mountains etc but they now do all of these things. The trick is not to force it and they'll grow up to appreciate them and you've just led by example and osmosis."

"As for it not being cool, it could be
(a) not wanting to get all sweaty and put the boys off
(b) it being seen as a male thing to do not a female"

"Don't let them use other forms of transport too readily. Or, perhaps, ban cycling."

"My daughter won't ride because the lid messes her hair and all the other girls think shes uncool. Bizarrely those same girls think her mums cool because she cycles/runs/etc.etc - go figure!"

"The UK just gives way too little prestige to sportspeople (except footballers!) and also money for sport in schools has been removed in favour of... well, I'm not sure where the money's gone, but to other stuff. Hence the 'it's not cool' tag for cycling. When I was doing GCSEs I cycled to school and the girls thought I was mad, but the boys thought I was cool cos I had a Saracen (which I now wouldn't be seen dead on ha ha ha ha ha!!!)"

"Firstly, don't try and market the cycling thing as what's cool. Market the idea of free transport long before they're able to drive angle. Market the idea that instead of begging you for lifts they can just take themselves shopping or to meet friends whenever they want.
Sadly, as they're teenage girls, you could probably also market the weight thing.
Then market this cyclechic site:
http://www.cyclechic.co.uk/index.htm
I have often been asked where I got my 'handbag' from when it's a pannier off this site. Plus if they really hate standard helmets and you want them to wear one there are some great cool ones on there."

"I've seen a marked increase in teenage girls in my area recently and I reckon it's because of the current trend for leggings and long t-shirts/jumpers. Sounds ridiculous but an outfit combining the two is totally practical for cycling without resorting to lycra.
The numbers are still depressingly low though."

"Much is down to how it is portrayed in film. How are adults portrayed in film on bikes?
Only two adult film characters I can think who rode bikes are Pee Wee and the 40 Year old Virgin. Other than that it is just kids.
How could you ever expect them to buy into that club?"

"Cycling being cool !!! I don't think it's cool, it's just a form of transport.
From a very early age, as most people, i've had a bike. Not to be cool, but just to get around, as you don't need a licence and you can ride the thing anywhere, whether you were allowed to or not."

"There's another film as well.. the one with the famous scene where a woman who dances takes her bra off in front of her boss while she's talking. URRGGHHHHHHHH Flashdance! There we go. She cycles everywhere and is portrayed as cool doing it. Pity about the 80s hair do though..."

"The 10 year old loves it, the 13 year old won't cycle, period. I don't think it's a 'cool' thing, I think it's more a pig-idle thing."

"The imprtant thing for teenagers and teenage girls in particular is to give the impression you never try hard for anything."

"We need Hello and OK (or what ever the correct mags are - I don't read them so don't know), to run a regular feature on which celeb was seen on their bike that week with photos to start to influence some of the girls."

The Guardain has also picked up on this issue. Also you can read the entire thread on cyclechat.

Catch up...

Northwest Argentina has been a great ride. Since rolling down off Paso Agua Negra, Russ and I have cycled through some incredible scenery, camped in some strange spots and eaten many hundreds of ice creams. Chocolate con Almendra is my favorite flavour now...



Some of the highlights of the last few weeks were (in no kind of cronological order):
Camping in a field and drinking homebrew mead
Cactus strewn deserts
Sergio teaching us how to make an asado in Las Flores
Camping in the plazas of little villages
Panchos (hotdogs)
Push starting a broken down German motorbiker with horrible moles on her back
Quilmes beer
Christoph - a preposterous Frenchman
Huge wide views with mountains in the distance
Sandstone formations between Cafayate and Salta
Buying knifes
Screeching parakeets
Stars
Mountain pass between Villa Union and Nonogasta
Milenesa (steak, egg and tomato sandwich)
Condors
Meeting a family who gave us heaps of ice cold water in Pituil
Spending the night by the velodrome in Belén and watching a race through the town.
Watching a cycle race for 5 year olds. There was a false start and they all burst into tears...

Back on my own again, I left Salta acompanied by a marching police band and some men dressed in big hats on horseback. You think I could make this stuff up?! Between Salta and Jujuy the scenery is very lush. A world away from the semi-desert of the last few weeks. At one stage I wound my way through some forested hills that seemed almost like rainforest... Checked into a very sparse "Residential" in Jujuy. Cheaper than a hostal and will serve as penance for the debauchery of my last night in Salta (my second visit to a nightclub on the trip).

In other news... I am still not an uncle but my sister is 2 days overdue and enormous (saw her bump on a skype video call).

Making Mead

Just recently, Russ and I drank a litre and a half of homebrew mead. I will have to abandon modesty here because it was delicious! I brewed it in a bottle cage and it has been fizzing away since I left Santiago. We drank it in a field with cows, chickens and dogs pestering us. It didn't seem too strong but we were a bit wobbly by the end of the night...

The history of this drink is extraordinary. It is the first alcoholic drink ever made. It predates agriculture and has been discovered independently across Asia, Europe and Africa. The oldest archaeological evidence dates to about 7000BC. Modern civilisation might well have started with this drink! In Spanish it is called aguamiel which is a good name as it sums up the ingredients.



Here is how I made mine. I've tried to write the recipe in the style of Sir Kenelm Digby.

1. Taketh a bowl of water and, when it be warm, put some honey in it.

2. In a cup, poureth a little hot water. When the mercury doeth drop under 30 degrees, put to it a spoonful of yeast and one of sugar. Then sealeth the cup with clingfilm.

3. In the bowl of water and honey, skim off the scum. Continue to skim until all the scum be skimmed and no skimming of scum can skim any more scum as the scum no longer will rise.

4. After the cup has been left aside for an hour, add it to the bowl of water and honey. When it is worked up, put it into a vessel of fit size (an old 1.5 litre coke bottle perhaps).

5. Leave it in a bottle cage on your bike, cycle over the Andes, and drink it, in a field maybe, in about 10 days time or when the fizzing has stopped.

For more mead advice see the Mead Maker's Page.

Hubb at the Laguna

Sleeping in a goat herder´s hut

La Serena to Las Flores: Paso Agua Negra

Kitted out with a bike called "Scorpion" and some supermarket camping kit, Russ joined me on this fantastic cycling adventure. We shaked a bit in Santiago and then bussed to La Serena and set off to cross the Andes. You can see some of Russ' photos here.

The first stop was Vicuña. We'd cycled up a gentle slope all day and reached this pleasant little town. The campsite we found offered a pool, kitchen and ripe grapes for the princely sum of three pounds fifty. We chilled out.

The high mountains surrounding us grew closer the next day. Soon we found ourselves winding our way up a tight valley, almost a canyon. By the side of the road there were some stone shacks. We suspected these were used by goat hearders as there was a fair amount of goat excrement about. Russ got out his kite and I built a fire. We slept under the brightest set of stars I have ever seen.

The next day we continued on up the valley with dramatic scenery around us. In the afternoon we passed a "campamiento" and I enquired if we could buy bread. We were given a large roll free. Later, at another campamiento where some roadworkers stayed, I asked if we could camp. The man said no. There was a couple of beds we could have in an old shed. The room was plastered with posters of semi-clad women. Then, as I got out my stove on the front porch, the kind gent called us over and invited us for dinner too. Barbequed beef and empanadas. In the courtyard there was a fountain with a plastic barbie doll on the top. The water squirted out of her nipples. Quite a water feature. One suspects that these lads don't see too many girls up this way.

Passing the stunning, if not origionally named, La Laguna, we anticipated reaching the top of the pass. However, the tough gravel road, incline and fatigue got the better of us and we camped at around 4500m. We had just enough energy to wolf down some pasta and flake out. In the night I noted the temerature drop to -3C, not so cold really.

We woke. Both of us feeling well and with no signs of altitude sickness. After scoffing the remainder of our bread and jam and brewing tea with the last tea bags, we put in the last 10km to the summit.

We celebrated reaching the 4780m pass with some photos. Then we enjoyed 100km of free-wheeling downhill.


On our way down we stopped to make some rice for lunch. We were joined by a french cyclist, Christof, who looked as if he were a scubadiver. His cycling outfit consisted of a lot of black lycra. He sat down with us and told us the story of his life, his cycling and rather more about his recent sexual conquests than you would expect from a stranger.

Our freewheel ride continued on a tar road and we headed across a huge plain surrounded by mountian ranges. Then we arrived in Las Flores.

I asked Sergio if there was a campsite and he said we could camp in his garden for 2 pounds. Then he invited us to drink mate. After a bit of a chat he decided to show us how to make an asado, the classic argentinian barbeque. We bought a mountain of meat and local wine and he showed us the tradditional method to get the fire going. The wood is placed on top of the grill and as the embers fall through they are pushed under the meat and sausages. We ate, drank, chatted and it felt like a wonderful welcome back to Argentina.

This post relates to my bike trip in South America in 2010.

I now offer guided walks and walking holidays in the UK in Northumberland, the Pennines, the Lake District, Scotland and further afield.

I'm always keen for outdoor adventures to help people learn the skills to explore! My particular focus is mountain skills such as navigating with a map and compass and wild camping for expeditions.

Find out more

Terremoto

It would be remiss of me, I think, not to mention something about the earthquake in Chile. I was asleep on the top bunk in a hostal in Santiago. At about 3:30am, so I am told, the earthquake hit. I woke up and the whole building was shaking. This lasted for a few minutes and was not unpleasant. When it stopped I rolled over and went back to sleep. A while later I was woken up by one of the hostal's staff and we were all asked to go outside, like a fire drill. After half an hour or so people went back to bed. It was apparent that the building wasn't falling down and there was little to be achieved by standing around outside. During the remainder of the night there were several aftershocks which felt like being in a gently vibrating bed.

In the morning more of the consequences became apparent. There was a power cut which lasted most of the day and most of the shops and resturants were shut. Russ and I wandered around the town in a search to buy him a bike. Several buildings were quite severely damaged. A few water mains had burst. Generally the damage didn't seem too bad.

On returning to the hostal the power was back on. 20 odd travellers were queueing to use the internet to let thier loved ones know they were ok. The BBC News website had the earthquake as the top news story and the photos were horrific.

The epicentre of the quake was off the coast of Curanipe, about 100km north of Concepción, a city where I had stayed in January. I was offered generous hospitality there by the owner of a bike shop. I am glad that he and his family are ok. Also, as I cycled along the coast from Conception, I met 3 lads from the area out on bikes and we cycled together for a few days. It was great fun, we crossed a river in a fishing boat, we sang songs by a fire and we went to see a chilean band perform in a small beach town, Cobquecura. These guys are also fine. Matias wrote to me and said:

"Nuestra ciudad se encuentra muy dañada y es una pena verla así... sin embargo ya comienza a mejorar todo por aquí... espero que pronto llegue la normalidad...Y todas las playas que recorrimos hoy ya no existen... es una pena pensar que esos lugares tan bonitos desaparecieron..."

"Our city finds itself very damaged and it is a shame to see it like this...however already everything has started to improve around here...I hope that things will be back to normal soon... and all the beaches we visited no longer exist...it is a shame to think that such beautifull places have disappeared"

Many of the small villages I passed along the coast were on gravel roads. These are easily damaged and make them hard to reach. To make matters worse many of the houses are made from adobe bricks that I imagine probably shake to peices fairly easily.

Perhaps worse even than the initial quakes, fires and tsunamis are the human chaos of prison breakouts, looting, riots, arson, vandalism, sexual assults, vigilantism. Intense grief, fear, confusion and panic drive people to extreme actions.

Chile is badly located when it comes to earthquakes. 6 of the 20 strongest recorded have been in Chile including the strongest ever (9.5 in 1960). This quake was 8.8 and the 7th strongest ever. Boffins think it has shortened the length of a day by a microsecond!

So far this year there have been earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Venezuela, Solomon Islands, California, Hawaii, Japan, Argentina, Taiwan, Sumatra and Turkey. 2010 seems to be a year with bite.

Five Extrodianary Adventures

1. Reinhold Messner

Extraordinary Adventure: Considered the best young climbers in Europe, Reinhold and his brother Günther were drafted up to join a 1970 attempt to climb Nanga Parbat. Nanga Parbat is a 8126m peak, the ninth highest in the world, located in Pakistan. The climb was only the third successful ascent of the mountain and also the first ascent of the enormous Rupal Face. This cliff face is 4600m from its base and is the highest in the world. They found themselves unable to descent by the same route and, in an epic fight for their own survival, traversed the mountian and tried to go down the Diamir Face. Günther was killed in an avalanche and Reinhold lost 6 toes to frostbite.
Then what?
Disillusioned by the seige tactics used in climbing high mountains, he pioneered a fast and light alpine style. With this in mind he returned to climb Nanga Parbat again, in 1978, this time alone. This was the first solo of an 8000m peak. In the same year he made the first ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen (saying "by fair means or not at all") and then the first solo ascent in 1980. By 1986 he had climbed all the mountians in the world over 8000m, the first person ever to do so. In later life he has crossed the arctic, greenland and travelled 2000 miles in the Gobi Desert. His latest project is to establish a series of museums about mountains.

2. Oskar Speck

Extraordinary Adventure: Oskar canoed from Germany to Australia from 1932 to 1939. At the beginning of his journey Oskar was off to find work in Cyprus. He paddled down the Danube. Then he changed his mind and decided he wanted to travel and see the world. He arrived seven years later in Australia and, after taking one look at the swastika on his kayak, the Aussies threw him into an internment camp.
And then?Whilst in the internment camp, Oskar developed a way to polish opals which would later make him a wealthy man.

3. Mike Horn

Extraordinary Adventure: Mike crossed the South American continent in 1997. Climbing from the Pacific Ocean to the source of the amazon, high in the Andes. He then decended the full length of the amazon (over 7000km) by hydrospeed. At one point an indian tribe saw him floating by and asumed he was the river devil that had been eating their children. Perhaps it was his sunburnt face? They had him in the pot ready to boil him alive but he was rescued at the last minute by Brazillian Army helicopters. They had been alerted by the emergency beacon that the natives had unwittingly set off.
And then?
He got interested in sailing, breaking all kinds of records, and then set off on a circumnavigation following the equator. He then became interested in polar travel and got to the North Pole in Winter.

4. Heinrich Harrer

Extraordinary Adventure: Already a champion skier Heinrich, aged 26, was a member of the 4 man team that successfully climbed the North Face of the Eiger for the first time. Perhaps even more impressive is his journey in Tibet. Following his escape from an internment camp in India he and his friend Peter Aufschnaiter crossed Tibet to reach Lhasa. In Lhasa he became the tutor of the Dalai Lama when he was 11 years old.
And then?
He wrote many books. The White Spider details the climbing history of the North Face of the Eiger and Seven Years In Tibet details his travels in that country. He also continued to climb mountains all around the world. In his later years he became a champion golfer.

5. Karl Bushby

Extraordinary Adventure: In 1998 Karl set out to walk around the world in one unbroken route. He began in Ushuaia and walked the entire length of the Americas. This included being disguised a tramp and floating down a river to get through the extremely dangerous jungle of the Darien Gap. From Alaska he crossed the frozen Bearing Straights with Dimitri Kieffer. The 90km crossing took them 15 days. They were arrested for not entering Russia at a border control.
Where is he now?
With the economic down turn Karl is short of funding. He is now languishing in Mexico trying to find sponsors to fund his crossing of Siberia and onwards journey across Asia back to the UK. He also hopes to be alowed to walk through the Channel Tunnel and return to the UK by 2014. His website explains more.

I wrote this post during my bike trip in South America in 2010.

I now offer guided walks and walking holidays in the UK in Northumberland, the Pennines, the Lake District, Scotland and further afield.

I'm always keen for outdoor adventures to help people learn the skills to explore! My particular focus is mountain skills such as navigating with a map and compass and wild camping for expeditions.

Find out more

Leonera 5050m

I know what you are thinking:

"I havn't heard Pete Hubbard's dulcet tones in a while."

Well fear not. I have recorded my thoughts as I wandered up Leonera, a 5050m high mountain near Santiago. I headed off alone for 3 nights and had a headache caused by altitude for most of that time. I left the bike with the hostal owner and told him my plans and roughly when to expect me back. I ran out of water and had to melt some muddy snow and drink muddy water for a day and a half too. All the heights I mention in the recordings are wrong (giving a clue to the quality of my map) and I have probably pronounced most of the names wrong too. But hopefully you'll get the general idea. (Fbookers will have to visit the actual post for the recordings I am afraid.)


First message from Laguna Parva (my appologies for the wind noise):


Second message from summit of Cerro Pintor:


Third message from summit of Cerro Leonera (It is actually 5050m and I have forgotten how to say "mountains" somehow. Perhaps because I have been drinking liquid mud for the whole day?):


Fourth message from Camp Piedra Numerada (when I say "run" I mean "cycle"):

Day 100

I have been in South America now for 100 days. I spent the day trying to hunt down a hiking map in Santiago. Then I cyced up to a ski resort 52kms from Santiago but almost 2000m higher. I took in 40 hairpin bends.

Ok to celebrate 100 days here are 100 photos from the trip so far. (fb users might have to visit the blog to see this slideshow!)