Bikes for Babes

One of the requests on Mama Wordbones birthday list was a new pair of bicycle pants. She is new to concept of sportswear designed specifically for cyclists. She’s always been more of a tennis girl.

Anyway, about two weeks ago when we were in the Race Pace store in Columbia, she had a discussion about the “comfort” issue with bicycle seats with one of the Race Pace guys, Jay Mulholland.

“You wear bike pants don’t you?” he asked.

“What are bike pants?” she replied.

That conversation and subsequent tutorial on the importance of having both the right seat and the proper pants ended up with him telling us of a new bike shop exclusively for women.

“It’s the first of its kind in the country.”

Really?

Today we paid a visit to Bella Bikes in the Normandy Shopping Center next to (no surprise) Race Pace Bicycles. The stores are closely affiliated. In fact they are so closely affiliated that you have to walk into Race Pace in order to get into Bella Bikes.

Still, it is very much a separate operation and is run by an affable Colorado native, Diana Smith. In short order she had helped Mama Wordbones pick out some shorts to try on and we ended making a purchase.

I’m not sure about the claim to being the “first bike shop in the country devoted exclusively to women” but if it’s true that’s pretty dam cool.