Why This Blog?

For the past six years, I have bike commuted to work (which for me, a teacher / graduate student, is also called school) all year round in Boston Massachusetts. The weather has varied from year to year, but never have I skipped more than a sum of two non-consecutive weeks of all-weather biking. There *are* good online resources from year-'round bike commuters, such as this brief, informative mini-summary and, my personal favorite, icebike. But the first is a little tepid, and the second a little hardcore and, well, male. This brings me to my second point. It became clear to me early on in my bike-commuting endeavors that this thing was not going to work if I emerged from the commute looking like I had just stumbled down from an Everest expedition. I wanted to hop off the bike and into the classroom without having to shower, change, or remove a heap of layers from my person. I searched in vain for companies that made bike-commuter friendly clothes, but found only one semi-fashionable site for men. (Note that they also sell reversible smoking jackets, much respect.) So, what is a female bike commuter to do? Well, I had to invent the wheel. And here, after years of trial and error, showing up to work with dirt on my face and puddles in my boots, standing at the blackboard with a wet seat-butt and arriving at a department meeting (late) with black grease all over my hands, I think I've finally figured it out. This blog will be devoted to divulging the secrets of the trade, in the hopes that the women who think they'll have to sacrifice looking like a lady to get places on their own steam will shut up and ride.