How to Ride Your Bike in Style

Step 2 Sexy legs

Moving up the body: LEGS.

If you are wearing pants, roll up the leg on the side of the chain. Unless you're a mechanic biking to work at the garage, your grease stains will be considered sloppy and inappropriate. You can also use a clip to taper your pants.

Skirts and dresses require special attention. First off, ladies bikes (with a step-thru frame) are the easiest to get on and off of while in a skirt.

Now let's start small: mini skirts. To get on a bike in this beloved item, follow our model in pink.

1. Perch on your bike like you're about to ride side saddle.
2. Lift your lower leg up and put your foot over the bike bar while keeping your knees together.
3. Step down. Voila!

As you're biking around, keep your knees closer together than you would in say, jeans, and scoot forward on your seat so your legs angle down. You can also pedal without sitting down to be sure no one sees London/France/your underpants.

Other strategies: wear some leggings for the ride. They're hip, they hid your panties, and they're super easy to peel off when you arrive.

Other skirts/dresses that have more fabric than a mini require a different strategy. Any item with body, like a prairie skirt or a tail, can be safe from spokes etc if you tie up the extra fabric in a loose knot (not ideal for wrinkle-prone silks) or tuck into a shoulder/bag strap. If you're a big fan of big skirts, consider getting a skirt-guard for you back wheel like the ones pictured here and here.

If you find yourself in a West African boubou, or say an Indian kourta, you should be just fine. You've got pants on underneath (at least you SHOULD) so you can hike it up as high as you want.

Comments

[Dr Qui]

Flip flops and cycling do not mix, eventually you will need to do an emergency stop and that's when it goes painfully  wrong.

Trust me on this one, I learned the hard way.

Sensible shoes at all times when you cycle.

[Whales]

I would have prefered flipflops to the time when i rode with no shoes.... yeah.. i found bandaids stick better between your toes when there isnt blood flowing.

[ryandean98]

Tell Me About It! OUCH!!!!!!!

[JuJuBe1115]

.I only wear skirts and dresses., and I have no car so I bike.  I take the corners of longer, fuller skirts and tuck them into the waist (a little twisting before helps).  My secret to modesty?  Bloomers!  I wear knee-length bloomers under my skirts.  They're comfortable, and can be as cute or plain as you want them.  I make all of mine.

[jewellertman]

Don't bloomers defeat the effectiveness of keeping cool with a skirt? Don't get me wrong, I'm all about fashion, and frilly boy short bloomers sound oh so lovely, but knee length? Talk about hot.

[JuJuBe1115]

 If made with the right fabric, they are actually quite cool.  It helps that they are loose fitting.  Making a pair with a woven fabric that breathes and you'll have no issues.  Also, if it gets warm here (which in summer, it really does get hot and humid), wearing a pair that are knee length, loose, but not tied at the knee with ribbon or elastic lets air flow through while maintaining modesty.  Think of it like clothes worn in hotter countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.  They are very covered, but it is loose clothing.  Wearing next to nothing on hot summer days is actually counter-productive.

I hate hot muggy summers :( .

[AustralLord]

wear loose sweats if your so afraid of being sexy, take them off after biking.

[toomuch]

agreed, not everywhere can hipsters ride without potential raping. safety first, think!

[bex0r]

excuse me??
wearing a miniskirt is not an invite to be raped. *shakes head*

[crak-a-bottle]

i think he might be talking about blokes with CFATMD. it's a disorder, check out http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CFATMD
:P

[bertus52x11]

When you roll up your pants, make sure that your hairs don't get caught up in the chain as well!

[crimson sausage]

Thats why you shave your legs.

[JennyB]

To ride a cross-bar bike while wearing a skirt Lay the bike on its side (left side for us Brits). Step into the frame with your right foot As you lift the bike upright, bring your left foot to meet your right. As you bring the bike fully upright, step out with your right foot onto the pedal. Reverse to dismount. Practice till you can do it smoothly and quickly, and you'll get a lot of 'what happened there' looks!

[Gorfram]

Wowsa! Makes me wish I still wore mini-skirts,* so I could try to master such a sweet cool move! :)

(*The basic rules of human decency oblige ladies to abandon mini-skirtage once they have achieved a certain age and/or "gravitas," and I qualify on at least one of those two counts.)

[Gorfram]

I've actually found it easier to keep a full skirt modest on a cross-bar bike than on one with a step-through frame: The cross-bar catches the middle of the skirt back, holding it up near the skirt-front and temporarily forming the skirt into a shorts-like sort of "impromptu cullottes." Unless the skirt is really very full, any still-troublesome extra fabric can be draped down between the crossbar and the relevant thigh, where it tends to stay suprising well.