Actually, my cycling skills are severely lacking, but a Queen reference was in order for the title of this post.
I just had to share this piece from Brain Pickings about how the bicycle advanced the emancipation of women. It explains:
“From allowing young people to socialize without the chaperoning of clergymen and other merchants of morality to finally liberating women from the constraints of corsets and giant skirts (the “rational dress” pioneered by bike-riding women cut the weight of their undergarments to a “mere” 7 pounds), the velocipede made possible previously unthinkable actions and interactions that we now for granted to the point of forgetting the turbulence they once incited.”
{Image (c) Beth Emery Collection via Grist}
Consider this gem from Susan B. Anthony in 1896:
“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.”
It’s all enough to make this girl want to get back to the pedals and practice biking again.
P.S. Brain Pickings also has a roundup of anti-suffragette postcards. They are ridiculous and hilarious. Check it out.
spifftacular. 
I LOVE bikes in women’s history. bicycle infrastructure and culture is also super important to me in where I choose to live. I just love bicycles!