hello!
my name is olivia, i live in nyc, and i’m new to candy cranks. i’m super stoked on joining this kick-ass team of international female cyclists. candy cranks is the absolute embodiment of the trinity of important/awesome things in my life – writing, feminism and cycling!
this writing opportunity came at the perfect time amidst a mid-january riding slump. it’s been crazy cold in new york recently, and i’ve been seriously lacking motivation to ride. getting the good news last night inspired me to get back on the bike, and it couldn’t have come on a better day. today was the warmest day we’ve had recently, with highs at a sweltering 44 degrees. knowing it was going to be beautiful outside, i decided to ride down to the brooklyn bridge – the only borough to borough bridge i never got around to riding.
semi-unfortunately, everyone else ever had the same idea. the bridge was packed, which made it pr-etty unpleasant to ride on. however, all wasn’t lost. since it’s so amazingly picturesque there (caught the sunset, awww!), walking allowed me to soak in the scene more than if i had been zipping by on my bike… which actually brings me to a mini-tangent…
a fair number of people WERE riding their bikes on the bridge. a small percentage of those people were riding cautiously, and ergo, respectfully. however, the larger percentage was going unnecessarily fast, cutting quickly in-between large groups of tourists, and yelling obscenities at couples who didn’t just *feel* them coming (okay, this last one was only one lady who really seemed to be having a tough time, but come on!) obvs i’m completely pro-bikes, pro-riders, pro-cyclist rights, but it’s really frustrating to see fellow riders treating pedestrians so blatantly like the “enemy.” also, as a disclaimer, i know speed can sometimes get the best of us. you’re in the moment, you luckily caught a tail-wind, you’re liberated, the world is yours!! it’s great. and sometimes speed is necessary, crucial to the mission. going to work, rushing home, making a delivery, whatever. i just think that as cyclists, especially in nyc, we’re used to dealing with jerks who feel completely entitled to every inch of the road (i.e, taxis, SUVs from jersey), and it would be a shame to present ourselves as just another species of self-entitled prickitude. ESPECIALLY when we need more recognition in the law! we need more bike lanes! we need drivers to treat us like people, not nuisances! let’s not alienate pedestrians, as well! right!?
but i digress. i’m SO happy to be writing here in a network of rad-ness. i look forward to continue posting and to talking with you all! safe riding,
xo!
10 responses so far ↓
1 Candy C. Freightliner // Jan 16, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Love your enthusiasm, Olivia.
However, if writing is such an important part of your life you should think of your readers more, and make use of the addition of capital letters and better grammer in the formation of your sentences and paragraphs in the future. So far the assortment is as odd as the colour scheme on your bike, and the way you began is about as original and fresh as my first letter to my penpal when I was fourteen.
I assume that it’s part of what you regard as your eclectic dress sense and thus somehow matches the chaos of someone who is as yet discovering who she is in life and why she is where she is.
Your writing needs some work so work on it! The other things are a personal choice and well you seem to like it so it’s not my place or role to interfere.
We all grow, eventually.
Keep spinning chicky-babe!
2 Candy+C.+Freightliner // Jan 16, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Oh!
…and+watch+your+spelling.
P.S.+I+think+you\’re+a+fake+by+the+way.+But+that\’s+just+me+disgressing+with my rad-nessness.
Ha-ha!
3 Olivia - NYC // Jan 16, 2010 at 1:28 pm
hi candy,
i appreciate that you tried to at least place a thin (almost translucent) veil of constructive criticism over your overall back-handed middle-school frenemy comment. i’m sorry you disagree with my *grammar and writing style, but i chose to involve and associate myself with candy cranks due to what i believed was a support of personal style and choices. it’s a shame that you think i’m a “fake.” i’m not even sure what this means. you think i don’t ride my bicycle? you think i do, but i dislike it? you’re mad because i used the word rad? i hope you find what you’re looking for in life. but i can assure you that you probably won’t find it leaving bitchy comments on blogs. ha-ha!
4 Candy+C.+Freightliner // Jan 16, 2010 at 1:39 pm
…Almost translucent…? Seems you’re unsure, Olivia.
I think your choice in joining Candy Cranks is commendable and you deserve a commendation for it.
It’s a shame that I think you’re a fake? Not really. Probably not for the people that will quickly become irritated by your choice to continue to not use capitals in your writing.
Tells them you’re not serious about your craft as a writer and they’ll quickly disgard you and your blog into the waste-paper-basket where it belongs. Which will be a real shame as your enthusiasm is as real as it can be.
So far, even with your number 3 comment you have proven little to me, except that you really are uneducated hack with little promise as an original thinker, writer and person.
The clothes and bike don’t the originality make a person.
How’s that, chicky-babe?
See-ya, wouldn’t want to be ya!
Ha-ha! Indeed.
5 Meg // Jan 16, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Welcome Olivia! Great first post, I felt like I was on the bridge with you.
Really Candy C Freightliner???
This is how you like to spend your time, bagging people out on blogs?
This is a space to encourage females to express themselves and their enjoyment of cycling, not to be judged and called names. Your spiteful comments are not welcome here.
6 Charles // Jan 16, 2010 at 4:39 pm
First things first.
I’m not a bicycle enthusiast in any shape or form. So I will probably never be on this site ever again.
With that out of the way..
Now if she stated that she had an editor’s gig at The New Yorker, this would be one mess of a blurb. But this is candy FUCKING cranks dot com. She was probably writing the article on the damn bridge on her phone. Though we should all pride ourselves on our G-R-A-M-M-A-R, we should also get the fuck off of the high-ass bicycle seat from time to time. She thought of the reader enough to write the damn article on the BUSY Brooklyn Bridge.
C’mon Son. Be more like Meg. She’s cuter.
Chicky-Fuck.
7 Rosy - Sydney // Jan 16, 2010 at 5:17 pm
I’ve been an author for Candy Cranks for sometime and it is my impression that this blog aims to encourage and support all female cyclists. This is why we aim to collect a cross-cultural collaboration of female contributors around the globe. This support and encouragement covers multiple concerns for example dealing with riding in congested traffic or with a male dominate movement such as fixed gear riding. So far Candy Cranks authors have experienced great feedback from their posts. Sure sometimes comments may disagree with the author but so far it has been in a respectful and tasteful manner. In contrary to this I found your comments unsavory Freightliner. Your motives behind these hot-blooded comments have been unclear as well as why you have opted to conceal your name. Nevertheless you have more than sufficiently expressed your point now.
Moving forward I would like to welcome you Olivia. I am excited to read more posts with a new york focus and hope that a negative start will not turn you off the site.
8 Deb Gallo // Jan 17, 2010 at 2:17 am
wow..i totally wasn’t expecting thi thread when i popped overto say hello and welcome Olivia !
Let’s keep Candy Cranks full of bike love !
Deb (from cold cold and snowy Amsterdam)
9 Jjay - Singapore // Jan 18, 2010 at 11:10 pm
hey olivia!
A warm welcome from me in Singapore. Ride safe always and keep the articles coming.
10 Marie - New York City // Jan 20, 2010 at 2:52 am
Welcome, Olivia, from another New Yorker. Ignore the trolls who have nothing more constructive to do with their time. Cheers, M