Upcoming Speaking Gigs!

That’s right! You can come see me live and in person! Kailey and I are taking our show on the road to the East Coast for three speaking engagements in the next few weeks! Here’s where you can catch us. No guarantees we’ll be in crop tops…but we’ll see.

Bicycling for Everybody: A Facilitated Discussion on Size Inclusivity

Washington Area Bicyclist Association, Washington, DC, March 14th, 7:30pm

The workshop will be held at Highline RxR (2010 Crystal Dr. Arlington, VA 22202) from 7:30PM to 9:30PM on Saturday, March 14th. Highline RxR is a short (.03 miles) walk from the Crystal City Metro Station, there is limited bike parking directly in front of Highline RxR and along Crystal Drive, and there is car parking along Crystal Drive and nearby streets. This event is taking place on Piscataway land.  Register here.

Fat Bikers: Creating Space for Body Size Diversity in our Bike Communities

2020 National Bike Summit, Arlington Virginia, March 15, 3:45pm Register Here

The average clothing size of a woman in the US is now between a 16 and 18, and men average close to 200lbs. But do our bike clubs, transportation systems, and cycling communities reflect our size diverse populations? Fat cyclists Marley and Kailey ride bikes for transportation, adventure, and fun. And they're determined to get more fat people riding bikes too.Join Kailey and Marley for this workshop session on body size diversity in cycling and how we can all play a role in making our spaces more size inclusive.Attendees will be challenged to explore their own relationship to their body (regardless of size) and movement, and critically discuss how traditional cultural narratives in the American cycling world are often exclusionary to people in larger bodies. Together we will explore our experiences through guided writing, facilitated discussions, and a conversation about best practices for creating size inclusive bike communities.This session will also include real-world advice about equipment considerations for fat people when biking, gear recommendations, and fun stories about adventure cycling mishaps from the facilitators. Finally, the workshop will close with a discussion about existing size inclusive groups and the creation of an action plan to create size inclusivity in our own communities.*Important note: This session is not just for people in larger bodies. This is about connecting people with their body, and empathizing with people in different bodies as they share a common love of riding a bike. A big part of this work is done by people in thin bodies who create space for body size diversity.

We Bike NYC Workshop - Fat Bikers

We Bike NY, Transportation Alternatives, March 19, 7pm New York , Register Here

Join WE Bike NYC for a FREE all-gender workshop on body size diversity in cycling led by fat cyclists Kailey Kornhauser and Marley Blonsky

p.s. We’ll also be hanging out in NYC and DC for a few days and are always up for cute hangs, good food, and fun bike rides!

p.p.s We’re also partnering up with Rad Power Bikes while we’re in DC who’s giving us Rad City Bikes to ride while we’re in town. Check out our (Marley and Kailey) for all the action!

Let's Talk Bike Etiquette

Riding bikes as a kid was pretty simple in my suburban neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas. We rode whatever bike we had: a loose troop of 2nd-6th graders riding to and from school together,  racing up and down our street most nights and weekends, and keeping each other safe-ish by yelling "CAR!" at the top of our lungs as soon as one came near. Etiquette meant helping each other up when you fell down, sharing your bike pump, and inviting the new kid to join in the fun. 

Somewhere along the way though, things got a bit more complicated. Riding a bike in a city with lots of other folks requires compromises, unwritten behavior contracts, and a certain etiquette. As we head into "fair weather season", as one person put it on Twitter, when the "newbs come out not knowing what they're doing", I think it's a really good time to talk about bike riding etiquette.

I know, as people on bikes, we like to think we're immune to impacting anybody. "I'm not causing a traffic jam, I'm on a bike." "I'm a zero-emission vehicle." "One less car" etc. But in reality, unless you're riding in a really rural place, you do have an impact on other folks. And there's some small actions you can take while on your bike ride to ensure everybody has a safe and pleasant journey.

Look at all those patient folks, sharing a bike lane.

To be honest, I've been writing this post in my head for a while now, mostly on my morning commutes while adding up how many times I get passed way too closely in the Westlake bike lane. I've taken my experience, combined it with some crowd-sourced advice from Twitter and am proud to present to you Basic Bike Etiquette...or How Not to be an Asshole on a Bike. 

• Make yourself known, especially when passing. This can be a bell or a verbally, but silent passing isn't cool. It's downright dangerous.

• Slow down, especially on shared multi-use trails during commuting hours. Commutes are not the time to go for that Strava record or KOM. This might be an unpopular opinion, but do your fast training rides outside of popular commute times. If you're going over 15mph on the Westlake path or the Burke Gilman, you might want to re-evaluate why you're riding so fast on those paths. There are pedestrians, kids, dogs, and people of all speeds and abilities. Slow down.

• Pass at a smart time. Narrow spots on a trail, going around a blind curve, on the Fremont bridge, etc? All stupid places to pass. Slow your roll and wait a minute.

• Don't pass at a light. Queue up just like you would in any other line, and when everybody starts moving, take the opportunity to pass. I don't care if you think you're faster than the person at the front of the line, don't do it. (I learned that there's a term for this, called Shoaling. I'm not going to use that, because we don't need another exclusionary bike word. But here's an article BikeSnob wrote about it. I'm not the only one with strong feelings about it.)

• Get fenders. It rains here and riding behind somebody without fenders is pretty miserable. There are affordable options for fenders at Recycled Cycles, the Bikery and other shops, or get crafty and make your own.

• Turn off the blinking lights. I've written about this before. They're illegal in Washington, they can induce seizures in folks with sensitivities, and they don't make you any easier to see. Turn your lights onto steady and everyone wins.

• Turn down your music. I get it, you love your bluetooth speaker and think we all will too. We don't. (There's an exception here for families on cargo bikes. It might be the cutest thing in the world to see a kiddo on a cargo bike rocking out to Caspar Babypants.)

• Share the rack. Be aware of how and where you're locking to the bike rack. If another person showed up on a bike, could they also lock up to that same rack?

• Look out for each other, including pedestrians. Really, it's ok to chat with other folks to let them know about hazards in the road (glass, gravel, potholes, etc.), to say hi, or just to wave. Being on a bike is a lot more fun - we can act like it too :) On the same note, if you see somebody stopped on the side of the path struggling with a flat or other mechanical, maybe check in with them. Don't assume they need help, but a friendly "Hey, you ok?" can go a long way.

• Follow the rules of the road. I know, an Idaho stop makes way more sense and is probably safer, but at a red light, you should definitely stop.

• Stop with the judgments of other folks. Does it really matter if the person who just rode past you is on a $300 bike or a $4500 bike? Does their choice of footwear, clothing, or other personal choices impact you? Nope. It doesn't. Sure, I get annoyed when I see people riding with backpacks who clearly have a rear rack (why do you do this to yourself??) but there is no need to comment on it.

An early Monday commute in February through downtown Seattle

And with that totally non-exhaustive list, happy riding folks.

Washington DC, Working Out, and a Wedding!

Blogging has a taken a back seat this winter, as JR and I have been settling into cohabitation life. I really can’t complain - it’s quite boring but nice to just be at home most of the time. We grocery shop on Sundays (most of the time by bike), go to work during the week, and hang out with our friends occasionally. Both our jobs take us on overseas travel occasionally (he leaves on Tuesday for Australia) but most of my spring trips have been indefinitely postponed while the corona virus mess happens.

This boring, but stable life home life has been a really great counterweight to the slightly frenetic happenings elsewhere in my life. Everything is good - really good - but there are a lot of spinning plates up in the air right now and I’m honestly waiting for them all to come crashing down in a horrific, beautiful mess. 3 of the biggest updates for now:

1. Washington DC! Kailey Kornhauser and I submitted a proposal to the National Bike Summit for a session that was accepted! We’re heading to DC March 14-20!

As many of you read or heard, Kailey and I had a great feature article written about us in the Washington Post. This stemmed from our upcoming presentation at the League of American Bicyclist National Bike Summit about Creating Inclusive Communities for all who bike, but especially those in larger bodies (fat people!) From that article, we ran a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign and will be able to attend the summit in DC! While we’re on the East Coast, we’ll be giving the presentation for 2 additional audiences - Washington Area Bicyclists Association in DC and We Bike NYC! We’re super excited for both presentations and the opportunity to spread our message to further communities!

Snowballing off of this has also been numerous interviews for podcasts, articles, and possibly even in a documentary! I know you’re all waiting with baited breath to hear about that one :)

Perhaps most exciting of all, Kailey was featured on the cover of BICYCLING MAGAZINE!! Go get a copy if you haven’t yet!

2. Working Out. I started working out with a badass personal trainer again and I’m really excited about it!

I’ve been an athlete almost my entire life - from swim team as a kid to softball and volleyball in highschool to CrossFit in my 20s. Recent years have been focused on biking and I realized that I miss feeling strong.

I’ve been working with Kris, who is a body positive fitness trainer and I love it! I forgot how good it feels to move heavy things, move my body in a functional way, and to get really sweaty. I’m hoping these gym sessions will translate to feeling stronger on the bike too and injury prevention as my miles ramp back up as the weather gets nicer.

3. We’re getting married! I proposed to JR early this year and we’re really excited about our future together! Wedding planning is coming along - I’m sure more details will come soon, but for now we’re relishing in calling each other Fiance and playing with our rings. Love is fun. I highly recommend falling in love.

Fat Biking - Creating an Inclusive Community for People of All Sizes on Bicycles

***Extra Special Guest Blog Post***

This week’s post is co-written by myself (Marley) and Kailey Kornhauser, a super-rad fellow fat biker from Oregon. We met on Instagram and presented a session together at the WTF Bikexplorers Summit on Fat Bikers. Hope you enjoy!

This past weekend was the 2nd annual WTF Bikexplorer Summit in Vernonia, Oregon. We were lucky enough to have our session on Fat Bikers and body size inclusivity in cycling accepted and we presented to a packed house of over 40 people of all shapes and sizes! We covered a lot of ground during our hour long discussion but promised our session attendees that we’d post a list of additional resources on Marley’s blog afterwards.

So for the benefit of those who weren’t able to attend the summit and for those who want to relive the glory that was (including coordinating crop tops), we’ve compiled an overview of our session, including our session outline, handouts, and additional resources. Feel free to scroll down to the Resources section for some great reading lists, Instagrammers to follow, and suggested brands to support.

So much good stuff and so little time- we definitely could’ve talked about this all weekend.

(For real, we will come talk with any bike or outdoor brands who want to discuss this topic more in depth. The average size of a “woman” in the US is now between a 16 and 18, and men average close to 200lbs. Lots of folks who ride bikes also don’t necessarily fall into the rigid gender binary, so how about some non-gender specific gear while we’re at it? Current products and gear don’t work for this HUGE audience and we’d love to help make it better, more functional, safer, and better looking. Get at your girls. Email Marley here, and Kailey here..)

Session Outline

Introductions

Land Acknowledgement

Ground Rules

Written Exercise & Discussion

The Nitty-Gritty: Gear, Equipment & Clothing

Resource List

Introductions

Kailey Kornhauser likes to ride her bike slowly across long distances. When she isn’t riding her bike to the cinnamon roll shop or grinding some local gravel, Kailey is a forestry PhD student at Oregon State University. Kailey used to think that if she biked a lot she would lose weight. Then Kailey rode her bike a lot and didn’t lose any weight. Finally, she realized that she loved her body, and it turns out you don’t have to be thin to ride bikes. 

Marley Blonsky also likes to ride her bike slowly, but across shorter distances than Kailey. She can often be found bike camping, eating ice cream or playing in the garden. Marley is a sustainability manager for a large logistics company where she helps companies manage their carbon footprints from shipping. Marley rides her bike in Seattle for transportation, fun, and because the bus and car are slow and frustrating.  She is an active transportation activist who wants to see safe, equitable access for all people, regardless of gender, income, race, age, or body size.

Land Acknowledgment: The WTF Bike Summit was held in Vernonia, Oregon, which is on the traditional lands of the Chinook and Clatskanie People. As white people, we felt it was important to take a few minutes at the beginning of our session to recognize that the land we were on was stolen from the indigenous people who lived there previously and the history of colonialism. To learn more about land acknowledgments and whose land you are on, please visit https://native-land.ca/

Session ground rules

Our session started with a community agreement to follow a few ground rules

1. Fat is not a bad word.

2. No Diet Talk.

3. No body shaming.

4. Beware of coded language.

5. Celebrate your body for what it can do, not what it can’t.

We took turns going over each of these rules, explaining their importance and getting agreement from the group. We also asked the group if there were any additional agreements they would like to be added before we proceeded, and from there, we were off to the fun part of the talk! 

We also had a quick vocab lesson about the fat spectrum and privilege. Both of us identify as “small fats.” This terminology comes from the Fat Lip podcast where they’ve got a helpful primer on the fat spectrum.

We both range in size from an 18-22 (XL-2X) depending on brand and garment so for the most part, can walk into stores and find clothes that fit. This includes some athletic wear, but not usually cycling specific wear. We did want to call attention to our privilege in this area, as there are SuperFat people and InfiniFat people who cannot walk into any store, let alone REI, Target, or order clothing online and have it fit, even from the plus size department. 

Reflection/Discussion Questions

Kailey then led a reflective writing and discussion session that asked session participants to think critically the following questions: 

• What do you love about your body?

• When do you feel limited by your body?

• How can you be an ally to people of all sizes as a leader in the WTF bike community?

• Riding a bike is a physical activity - there is no getting around that and there are some very real limitations for people in a larger body, or who have disabilities/chronic illnesses, etc. How can we create spaces that are welcoming and accessible to all that allow anyone who wants to to enjoy the fun/freedom/power experience of riding a bicycle?

Talking candidly about these tough topics felt so powerful, healing, and honest. We unfortunately only had an hour for the entire session and had some other topics (like gear and clothing) to get to but discussions definitely continued the rest of the weekend. 

Candid conversations about our bodies on bikes

Gear & Resource List

General gear & Personalize Recommendations

Before preparing for our WTF session, we had not thought extensively about weight limits, partially because we are small fat people, but also because the industry doesn’t talk about these limits. 

It can be challenging to find many of the structural weight limits on bicycle company websites. This article by Peggy Hughes explains how to determine your own weight, gear weight, total weight, and the structural weight limit a bike can support. Hughes also talks about bike wheel weight limits in depth. She explains that while structural weight limit of the bicycle itself is important, wheels often have an even more restrictive weight limit. Bikers in larger bodies may want to consider wheels with strong rims and a higher amount of spokes. Other things to take into consideration are bike frame material (steel vs carbon vs aluminum), component material (including the seat post), and options to switch out the stock components for comfort.

Additionally, Specialized provides an example of what to look for when searching bike manufacturer pages for structural weight limits. Many structural weight limits (rider plus cargo) are somewhere between 240-300 pounds. Take a look here for a good overview of structural weight limits for many brands. 

Another factor to consider is the rate at which a fat cyclist will go through components. For instance, cyclists in larger bodies may wear out brake pads or pedals at a faster rate. Besides costing more, this does not pose much of a problem, but who wants to pay more when it feels like being fat already costs more?! However, fat cyclists may want to consider keeping extra components on hand to save themselves a trip to a bike shop. 

Kailey leads discussion at the Summit

Our Specific Gear

Kailey 5’2 Size 1XL-3XL tops, XXL or 18-20 bottoms

Bibs:

• Pearl iZumi Women’s Pursuit Attack Bib up to size XXL (I like it because the straps clip in between your boobs, the length of the leg is nice and doesn’t run up, the chamois is thick)

• De Marchi Women’s Leggero Bib Short up to XXL (They are shorter than the Pearl iZumi and I do get a thigh muffin-top from them but it isn’t uncomfortable, they have a thinner chamois and have continued to be a go to for longer tours)

• Terry Breakaway Shorts up to XXL (I stayed away from shorts for my first few years of riding because I thought they would cut into my stomach or always be falling down but they actually are the comfiest bike bottoms I have, medium thickness chamois, pretty short compared to my bibs but again it feels comfortable)

 Jerseys:

I mostly wear T-shirts when I ride, simply because it is a preference. I have found some XXL jerseys (Pearl iZumi), they usually ride up for me and I don’t use the pockets anyways 

 Sports Bra: 

Everyone is different but for me the Lane Bryant Wicking High Impact Molded Underwire Sports Bra was a game changer. 

Bikes: 

• Specialized Diverge (structural weight limit is 240, I may well be over that limit but have not had issues after about 2,000 miles of riding) 

• Surly Troll (no weight limit) says f f f fatties fit fine on the fork, indicating that the bike can fit fat tires but I like to think it’s talking about me

Saddle:

I am very fortunate in that I have liked the saddles that have come on both of these bikes. I especially like the Women’s Myth Expert by Specialized

Bikepacking gear:

I’m unable to fit my underwire sports bra in any of my revelate bags so I strap it to the outside of the handlebar roll bag and it works great! 

Marley  5’2 Size 1XL-3XL tops, XXL or 18-20 bottoms (we’re basically the same person)

Bottoms: This totally depends on the season and purpose for biking for me. When commuting or going shorter distances in the winter, I’ll wear cotton leggings or fleece tights(because they don’t make plus size wool leggings), or jeggings. In the summer, I’ll wear a dress most days. 

When I’m bike touring, I have a pair of Novara XXL leggings I love that are sadly no longer being made, but I will wear them until they are threadbare. I also have a pair of Terry 2X shorts that are alright. The pickings are slim and I’ve basically decided I won’t be cute on bike tour.

Tops: I don’t wear bike jerseys. They weren’t made for people with large breasts and curves. Instead I wear normal tops or dresses. I’ve recently been wearing a lot of Columbia base layers on tour because they layer well and protect from the sun. 

Bikes: I ride a 42cm 650b Surly Straggler with a Brooks B17 saddle. It’s strong and has been my go-to bike for nearly every adventure for almost five years. I recently bought a Marin Pine Mountain 1 for mountain biking which is a fun bike, but it’s a bit too large for me. 

Bikepacking/camping gear: I’ve found that as a fat woman, my clothes take up more space than my smaller friends. I’ve tried using the Ortlieb frame bags/butt rocket system but found that I like using the old school pannier system better. For a sleep system, I use the REI Joule bag, which is a tight fit around my hips, but it works for now. If I was a size or two bigger, this sleeping bag would not work for me. 

Brands we Love & Support*

SheBeest - up to 3xl

SuperFit Hero - up to 5XL

RSport (triathalon specific, but has padded chamois for cycling)- Up to 6X

Eddie Bauer - Up to 3X

REI - Up to 3X (not necessarily in cycling/performance gear)

SportivePlus - up to 5X (Canadian brand)

Prana - Up to 3x (we’re both wearing their stuff in the first photo!)

*We’re not making any money off of these brands…no affiliate links. But if any brands (ESPECIALLY BIKE brands want some fat people to test gear, we’re here for it!)

Fat Outdoor Resources

• Jenny Bruso, Unlikely Hikers

• AMAZING clothing list that isn’t bike specific

• A really great article by Bruso 

• Introduction article by NYT explaining the group 

• Summer & Ginamarie, Fat Girls Hiking 

• Born to Reign Athletics 

Fat Activism Resources

• YrFatFriend (anonymous essayist) 

• Some fat history: 1967 first “fat-in” in Central Park, over 500 in attendance, protesting and burning diet books, 1969 National ASsociation to Advace Fat Acecptance was founded and still exists today, 1972 The Fat Underground formed by radical fat lesibians 

• She's all Fat Podcast

• The Fat Lip Podcast

• Facebook Groups: Fat Girls Traveling, Fat Girls Hiking, Big Girls Climb Too

Coordinating Crop tops!