Adventure Stories

You can read even more adventure stories on our Women's Cycling Discussion Forums

• Amy won our drawing for $1000 towards a cycling vacation with LunaTours - read about her trip to Iceland and see some of the great photos she took!
• Susan Otcenas shares her experience as crew chief for Team Bag Balm's 2005 Race Across Oregon
• Susan Otcenas recounts her recent cycling trip to New Zealand, including plenty of photos of the amazing scenery!
• Lynette Chiang offers up an entertaining exerpt from her recently release book, The Handsomest Man in Cuba. In it, she shares stories and impressions from her self-supported tour through Cuba on a Bike Friday.

Online diarist Terri Rafter has had quite a few adventures on her bike recently. She has generously given us permission to reprint several of her entries here.

• Butt-D-Luxe
  The young bike shop technician is horrified. "I am NOT putting THIS SEAT on THAT bike!" he sputters indignantly. In his hands he holds a plump, overstuffed bike saddle roughly the size of a small Sealy Posturepedic.
• Ten Minutes
  "Ten minutes of misery," David reminds me. "Then it's over." I nod -- I know, I know -- and climb aboard the Schwinn, shivering. This is a ride I know by heart ... and by hamstrings.
• Lessons In Bike Riding
  When they tell you that you 'never forget how to ride a bike' ... they're lying.
• Hard Lessons
  The City of Alameda police officer is kind ... if not overly sympathetic. "Why would anyone leave an eleven hundred dollar bicycle parked outside their apartment?"
• Rescued
  By the time I'd pushed my bike to the top of the 43,567,289th *vertical challenge* in a row, I was exhausted, sunburned, sticky with sweat, mad as hell ... and spoiling for a fight.
• Saddle Up
  Eventually my rear end will grow accustomed to riding on something that feels like an $87.50 SHOEHORN.
• The Taste of Victory
  The Moraga Hill has been the bane of my cycling existence for nearly a year now. I cried the first time we rode it, last spring...
• The Big Spill
  I squeezed the handbrakes gently ... brought the bike to a slow, smooth stop ... and attempted to anchor myself to the ground with my left foot, as usual. Except that my foot was LOCKED IN PLACE by the goddamn TOE CLIPS.
• Faking It
  Deep down inside, I knew I should just come right out and tell David the truth: that it wasn't working for me, the way it was supposed to work ... that it wasn't anything HE was doing wrong: the problem was me ... that I'm sure if we worked together on our technique, as a couple, we would eventually be successful.
• The Adventure Begins
  Every muscle in my body is singing right now -- at least, every muscle from the waist down -- and the song I'm hearing is not "Oh What A Beautiful Morning."

There's an entire universe of blogger's out there! Here are more entries for your reading pleasure:

• Once upon a time, Marna swore she would NEVER ride a road bike ... "The funny thing about the word NEVER is that it often comes back to bite you in the butt" ... now Marna spends her life on two wheels.
• Bev Sykes is a brand new (again) cyclist, getting back in the saddle again at age 59. She was there at the Birth of the BOOBs.

• Century Ride in Saudi Arabia
• Mis-adventures with psycho cycling Laura
• RATS Receive Warm Reception on Cold Day
• How To Win at Losing
• 50th Birthday Celebration Ride
• Bikers Blow Into Nations Capitol
• Leopard Ladies Kick Butt!
• Cycling in New Zealand

• Intrepid Heroines: Two women, two bikes, three months, and a whole lotta states. Colleen and Molly spent the summer of 2001 in search of adventure and strong leg muscles. The plan: Bike from Maine to San Francisco, via Burning Man.
• Where in the World is Lynette?: the self-indulgent ramblings of Lynette Chiang, shy, retiring, couldn't-navigate-her-way-out-of-a-paper-bag bike rider from Downunda, who in May 1997 pedalled away from security, prosperity (longevity?) on a small folding bicycle and then ...
• Doggin' the Divide Ride Trail - Judy Colwell's 4-year ride

Are you a female cyclist? Do you have a story to tell about something special, exciting, or horrendous that happened while you were cycling?

Tell us your story.

Please include your (the author's) name, and the city, state, and country you are from.

We reserve the right to select which stories are published, and to edit for both content and length. We'll put a copyright notice on the stories and photographs for you (which means you should have the rights or permissions to tell the story and use the photos before sending them to us).