You fit in here, we promise.

Text: Silje Strømmen
Photos: Mari Oshaug

Let’s be honest – we all have different body shapes and different preferences when it comes to our bikes. That bike you have been eying for quite some time might look good, but when you finally get to ride it the result can be a massive disappointment. It doesn’t even have to be the bike itself. An uncomfortable, wrong sized or just plain wrong saddle can make or break a ride.

- Every bum is different. Over the two years since we first opened we have had over 500 people using The Saddle Library, Leah Benson, owner of Gladys Bikes, a small but cosy bike shop located at 2905 Alberta Street, Portland, says and looks over to the shelf containing roughly 40 different saddles from brands such as Brooks, WTB, Stella Italia and Terry. With several different models you will be sure to find a saddle to your bums liking.

- I wish I had a good origin story for it, but it seemed kind of intuitive, Leah continues.

- So many people I know complained about their saddles. I think the saddle gets increasingly important as we age. When I was 23 I could ride absolutely any bike and any seat and it would all just feel fine. As I am in my 30s now my body has changed and I think the seat is something that could keep a lot of people from riding because it can really just make riding uncomfortable and torturous. So the idea is that you cannot really figure out what will be comfortable for you unless your try it and ride it with you own bike, she explains.

With The Saddle Gallery you can do just that. For $25 you get a library card and access to The Saddle Gallery. With recommendations from Gladys’ knowledgeable staff you can check out any of the saddles in the library and try it out for a week. If it is a perfect fit and you want to purchase it, your $25 goes into the price of the saddle. It its not right for you, you continue to try out different saddles until you find the one that is right for you.

Women-focused The Saddle Gallery is just one of the services that make Gladys Bikes unique. First of all they aim to make you feel as comfortable as possible. Not just in being friendly, knowledgeable and just straight out nice when you walk in the door with a million questions, but also by understanding that preferences are personal. In addition to offering products that fit women’s bodies (in addition to offering more gender neutral products), they offer semi-custom bicycle builds that fit like a glove and approachable, affordable and reliable bicycle repair in addition to specializing in commuting, touring and recreational bicycle sales. And - they promise to never assume that you like the color pink or floral patterns based on your gender alone.

- We say that we are “women focused” because I think it is important to call people out and to make them feel welcome. That is important to me, Leah explains.

- The cool thing is that we don’t have a typical customer, people from all over the board come in here. We try to find ways to reach out to everyone and we have a lot of different riders come in for our services; we have kids, older folks, men, women and people who don’t identify as neither. I think more than anything our typical customer is people who are looking for a different level of service.

It’s all about the size Leah first got the idea to open Gladys Bicycles (named after a 1890s bicycle that was owned and ridden by suffragist and feminist Frances E. Willard, who taught herself how to ride a bike at the age of 53 as an example of women’s capacity to do anything, at any point in their lifecycle) after finding herself having too many conversations with other women about the way traditional bike shops fails to include women.

- So I thought to myself: “a women-specified bicycle shop, that would be cool”. And then we just jumped in and gave it a try. We have been open for two years now, and it has been great.

When it comes to biking, the main difference with women and men has to do with size.

- When people talk about bikes I love to talk about components – how the bike rides. But ultimately, if the bike doesn’t feel good to ride you are not going to ride it. I think that is one of the things people forget about when they talk about men and women in general

– we tend not to focus on the individual body, Leah explains and continues:

- The big thing is just calling out that biking is not only for men and inviting women in here. Once you walk in the door, regardless of your gender, we are going to treat you exactly the same – and that is as an individual.

Here for the people There is no getting away from the fact that the bicycle industry is, or at least has been, male dominated.

- It has been interesting to see what it is like to be a young woman owning a business in a male dominated industry. As I get into it, I get less and less of the head patting, the “it is so cute that you are doing this” comments and the elderly men coming in all patronising and assuming that just because I look the way I do I must not know what I‘m doing. It’s a struggle. On the other hand it is super satisfying when the people with the “little girl who does not know how to do anything” comments come back a year later and is all “I noticed that you are really good at doing this, and would you be able to tell me how (insert problem) happened?”

It addition to getting over that, the main challenge for Leah has been to figure out how to serve the people she is reaching out to.

- We are constantly learning with our customers. I have an advisory board that I meet with regularly and I think that has been really important. If we are going to serve people we need to ask them what they want.

When we first opened it was difficult to identify who we were and explaining to people what we did here.

Upon being asked where she sees Gladys in five years Leah looks slightly taken by surprise and utters “shit, I should really have a five year plan” before bursting into laughter.

- I could make up an answer, but to be honest: we are here to serve our customers and I think we will go in whatever direction they want to go.

The most important thing for me is that we are responding to that, and that we can contribute to keeping more people in their bikes.