Tiny Fix Bike Gang
September 19, 2012 12:26 PM Subscribe
Tiny Fix Bike Gang
Tiny Fix is a bike gang run by female fixed gear cyclists under five-foot-two who work on making Chicago’s bike scene more inclusive and, more importantly, way more fun. We blog at tinyfixbikegang.com, organize bar nights and group rides, volunteer for bike events, and throw alleycat races that anyone can ride.
Brought to you by MeFi’s own JulietBanana, misskaz, and chickadee, tinyfixbikegang.com has loads of content related to all things bikes, Chicago, women, advocacy, and more. We post about bike infrastructure, feminism in bike/sport culture, product reviews, and we try to hook up our awesome friends with dates. We threw our first alleycat earlier this year, and are in the last throes of planning our second to be held on October 6. (If you're in Chicago, you should come! Or even if you're not, we can hook you up with a place to crash.)
We began as a group of friends, bonding over our love of riding bikes and bitching about how hard it is to find bikes that fit our tiny selves, or cycling clothing that fits us but isn't pink or covered in flowers. What started as a joke -- "Haha, we should start a fixed gear bike gang for short chicks, wouldn't that be funny?" -- has turned into this real thing that I personally am super proud to be a part of.
An alleycat is an informal bike race on regular city streets that involves stopping at required checkpoints and returning to the end point in the fastest time. Mostly run and ridden by bike messengers, alleycats mimic typical bike messenger skills like speed and wayfinding in the city. The route is not fixed; you can hit the checkpoints in any order. To make our alleycats more inclusive, Tiny Fix offers a shorter race option with non-speed-dependent activity checkpoints so just about anyone has a chance to win.
Tiny Fix is a bike gang run by female fixed gear cyclists under five-foot-two who work on making Chicago’s bike scene more inclusive and, more importantly, way more fun. We blog at tinyfixbikegang.com, organize bar nights and group rides, volunteer for bike events, and throw alleycat races that anyone can ride.
Brought to you by MeFi’s own JulietBanana, misskaz, and chickadee, tinyfixbikegang.com has loads of content related to all things bikes, Chicago, women, advocacy, and more. We post about bike infrastructure, feminism in bike/sport culture, product reviews, and we try to hook up our awesome friends with dates. We threw our first alleycat earlier this year, and are in the last throes of planning our second to be held on October 6. (If you're in Chicago, you should come! Or even if you're not, we can hook you up with a place to crash.)
We began as a group of friends, bonding over our love of riding bikes and bitching about how hard it is to find bikes that fit our tiny selves, or cycling clothing that fits us but isn't pink or covered in flowers. What started as a joke -- "Haha, we should start a fixed gear bike gang for short chicks, wouldn't that be funny?" -- has turned into this real thing that I personally am super proud to be a part of.
An alleycat is an informal bike race on regular city streets that involves stopping at required checkpoints and returning to the end point in the fastest time. Mostly run and ridden by bike messengers, alleycats mimic typical bike messenger skills like speed and wayfinding in the city. The route is not fixed; you can hit the checkpoints in any order. To make our alleycats more inclusive, Tiny Fix offers a shorter race option with non-speed-dependent activity checkpoints so just about anyone has a chance to win.
Role: founding member, webmaster
This thing is great.
posted by box at 9:33 AM on September 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 9:33 AM on September 23, 2012 [1 favorite]
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posted by Juliet Banana at 1:30 PM on September 19, 2012 [5 favorites]