Bikebelles website goes live with mission to get women cycling

Well... I just had a look through it and I didn't glean much helpful information, to be honest. I’ll stop short of calling it patronising but I would say it just states the obvious a lot and says it offers hints and tips when it doesn't really.

Sad but probably true enough to say lots of women are put off cycling by the idea of getting all sweaty and looking horrible, but I think the site needs to be far more imaginative in its tips and hints designed to combat the problem.

eg. on the subject of avoiding helmet hair, it says: "Helmet hair can be an issue. If you have long hair, you can simply tie it up into a bun and tuck it into your helmet." (actually this is not true, I've tried it and if your helmet fits correctly to start with, it won't when you tuck your hair into it!).

So what else can I do?

"Take a comb or brush to revive your style when you reach your destination." This is kind of obvious and doesn't really qualify as a "top tip" in my view...again, if you've been on your bike long enough for long-term flattening to occur, it won't really work anyway and you'll still look like an idiot!

It also recommends wearing earmuffs (as the lovely celebrity cyclist Dawn Porter does in the pic on the home page) as they're fashionable and keep your ears warm (wow, really!). You can't wear them with a helmet though - I would recommend a headband with ear-shaped flappy bits to prevent windchill-induced earache - it also helps keep your hair out of the way (there you go - a fashion tip!). And on the subject of helmets - there's precious little mention/advice/comment on them, apart from saying it’s up to you whether you wear one and there’s a staggering range, although few for the fashion conscious. Perhaps it would help if bikebelles could find some for us!! None of the women in the photos are wearing helmets at all, which is a little unrepresentative. Seeing as safety and fashion fears seem to be the main issues stopping women getting on their bikes, I hope BikeBelles will put a bit more effort into providing answers in these areas!

The rest of their top tips are a bit rubbish too. Things like saying, hey, you can still be fashionable on your bike and don't need to buy any special gear or equipment…except a lovely pair of sexy waterproof trousers. Oh no, wait a minute, "Waterproof trousers aren't sexy, but they do keep you dry,” really? “Put them on top of your normal clothes and whip them off on arrival to reveal your clean, dry, stylish self." I would much rather see a link to a fashionable bike gear website or examples of well-fitting waterproof trousers as an antidote to those horrible baggy things which make you look like you've got a family of ferrets stuffed down em. I’ve tried bike shops too and can’t find anything decent. A friend has a pair of “Rainlegs”, which are ok, but I don’t think they protect you from a wet bum if your bike is without the benefit of mudguards in the rain. I think there's a general shortage of women-centric bike gear, and if I knew where to get it, I'd buy it!

Also, they say you can wear high heels on a bike. Not sure that's good advice. I wore my cowboy boots this morning and even they were a little treacherous as the soles have no grip and I had to anchor them onto the pedals with the heels - not a great riding position, spose they're designed for stirrups though. Certainly not sure about cycling in stilettos - those things can do you enough damage walking, actually you're probably safer wearing them on a bike.

As a concept I think it's a good idea to have this site and they've got some interesting stuff on the homepage, which will presumably be updated. I expect they'll improve the content and it will benefit from the views of their bikebelles panel. At the moment though, it's a bit lacking.