on women and bike maintenance...

I am a girly girl. I love shoe shopping, clothes and beauty magazines, manicures, lattes, hanging out with my girlfriends, etc...
but...
I am an engineer. I pride myself in being really non-geeky for an engineer. I really enjoy it when I meet new people on a bike ride and they are surprised to find out that not only am I an engineer (I don't usually disclose this information up front due to the negative connotation associated with being an engineer), but a professor at that! I like to think that I am slowly helping dispel the myth that all engineers are frumpy, geeky, nerdy, and primarily male (ok, so engineers are still primarily male....but there are a few of us females). However, being a mechanical engineer means that I do enjoy learning about mechanical things...so since I've gotten into road biking, so I like to do my own mechanic work, and enjoy learning about tuning up the bike! One of the problems with knowing too much about mechanical systems...is that you want to fix things that aren't working right. But this can be a benefit, too, as I'm often prepared for weird stuff happening. For example, I was on a ride out in the middle of nowhere about a month ago, and someone needed a wrench to tighten a loosening FSA crank (a common problem....or so Dave Letteiri told me when he installed my FSA ceramic bearing BB last month), I could open my teeny bike bag, and whip out just the necessary 8mm (not common in the bare minimum multi-tools)! And when someone's bike isn't shifting properly, or the chain is rubbing, it seriously bugs me! I can also change a flat in under 5 minutes, which can come in handy on a group ride!

Last night I was talking about fast cornering with a few of my teammates, and I whip out a pen and paper (thank god not a napkin) and start drawing curves to show them the ideal way to take a corner, downhill and on the flat...and started explaining the physics involved...ACK! I really am a geek! But if you ride with me, I guarantee I can pick a good line for a descent, and cheerfully corner with the best of them... and the fact that I'm really looking forward to Sea Otter if for no other reason than to get to ride my bike on the Raceway!

Happy Riding!