Dropped crossbars Archives • Average Joe Cyclist https://averagejoecyclist.com/tag/dropped-crossbars/ A Blog for Average People who LOVE to ride bikes! Tue, 04 Apr 2023 14:38:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 15693361 Why do Women’s Bike Frames Have a Dropped Crossbar? https://averagejoecyclist.com/womens-bike-frames-dropped-crossbar/ Tue, 04 Apr 2023 12:08:31 +0000 https://averagejoecyclist.com/?p=23562 A woman’s bike was expected to have a dropped, or diagonal, cross-support, rather than the horizontal one of a man’s bike, in order to mitigate the issue of the raised leg. This came with the secondary, if dubious, benefit of allowing a lady to ride more easily in a full dress. This person was Alice Austen, one of the first female photographers, and a strong advocate for women cyclists (Alice Austen House)Most people assume that crossbars were dropped on women's bikes to make it possible to ride with dresses. However, the primary reason was more scandalous than that! This post traces the design history of bikes with dropped crossbars, and reveals the surprising recent change in the gendered association of the dropped crossbar.

The post Why do Women’s Bike Frames Have a Dropped Crossbar? appeared first on Average Joe Cyclist.

]]> 23562