Meg Whitney childhood
Name a childhood memory involving bikes. “As a kid growing up in New Hampshire my posse and I rode everyday. Like most children I was involved in lots of extracurricular activities from soccer to learning how to be a flutist. The latter, like many things in our house, was to be taken seriously….. I remember one day watching from the music room window as the neighborhood kids careened down the hill next to our house.
Green with envy I took that flute and bent it almost in half over my knee. My father was furious and I didn’t get to join the ride.”
Meg Whitney was born in Darien, Connecticut to native New Yorker parents who wanted to “unplug” so they moved to New Hampshire. Her parents lost their first daughter to a drowning accident so they were cautious (with Meg) due to the trauma they experienced as first time parents transferring their caution to (Meg’s) upbringing. Meg explained, “It’s taken a lot for me to say, don’t be scared, go for this, go for this, because I’ve probably heard the words “be careful” more than anybody.” She lost her mother to a fatal car accident in 2007, was raised as an only child, has a half brother fifteen years her senior who is a nationally recognized Masters category stair climber – racer, age 49, and “getting faster every year,” Meg exclaims.
“There were always bikes in our house, we were always cycling, it was something we did as a family,” Meg explained. A grad of Bay State and Emerson Colleges in Boston, MA with an Associates and B.S. degrees, making the Deans list at both schools, she graduated in 2007. Four years ago she moved to Los Angeles, had several bikes stolen. She purchased a Wabi fixed gear because it was easy to put together and take apart for travel and the size 49 frame fit her well. She dubbed her fixie, “Pumpkin Spicy” for it’s “pallor and speed.”
Meg rode from Venice to Echo Park to ride socially with “Hot Babes In Charge.” “HBC is a female-identified ride for women of all skill levels. What I really love about HBC is their focus is not as much about athleticism but about providing a safe space for women to enjoy each others company on a bicycle,” Meg explained. The club is run by younger women that have grown up in East LA. So how did you get involved with S.W.A.T? (She Wolf Attack Team). Meg replied, “I kept reading about the “C U Next Tuesday” ride on the same board I discovered HBC and Midnight Ridazz –
www.midnightridazz.com. One day I worked up the nerve to show up, convinced I’d get dropped right away. That didn’t happen; in fact I could keep up just fine.”
(c) Meg Whitney (L) Metric Century Plus ride w/a CAT Siri – a messenger friend and artist. Pictured (R)
What got you into racing? “The first race I ever participated in was an alley cat hosted by Give a Beat. I had no idea I was going to race that day, I thought I was just going on a group ride around town….. The objective of the race was to deliver as many sweatshirts in as little time as possible to residents of Skid Row.
Racers picked up something like three sweatshirts at a time and went on runs until a set time. I practically got creamed going the wrong way up Main St., but I won first womxns.”
Explain why you always express the word “women” exchanging the letter “e” for ‘x”? Meg responded, “I want to make thing’s equal in cycling, to do away with gender bias. There are a few ways of spelling “women”. One is in the dictionary and includes “men” which I don’t identify with. The second spelling with a “y” now used by sis women – who are women at birth and are pro feminist, …….and women with an “x” is kinda like taking gender out of the equation and it’s accepting to most groups of people. ….. if writing is an expression of your thoughts and beliefs, I think you should express yourself truly…. I don’t feel the traditional spelling of women is something I can even identify with.”
When Meg is not working at specialty store, “Sunset Cycles” L.A. in sales, she is learning all she can about repairing bikes, bike “surgery” as she calls it. She also runs a record label called “Magnetic Moon” –
magneticmoon.co with partner Rob Garza who has a band -“Thievery Corporation” which features electronic music. She considers this collaborative work a “passion project.” Her passion doesn’t stop there, having always had a fierce passion for cycling. To break up her days at the bike shop and her work on the record label, Meg began working for a bike messenger service first with “Chicken Hawk Courier, followed by “P.D.Q” (Pretty Darn Quick) in L.A. “Even though this type of cycling can make you very strong, it’s not a structured ride and doesn’t count towards any training if you’re cycling with a team,” Meg explained. Currently on hiatus from cycling with a messenger service, she rides approximately 100 miles per week which includes group rides and grocery runs. While not “car-less” she has driven her car less than 30,000 miles in almost four years, some of those miles driving to San Francisco to ride bikes.
Image (c) Meg Whitney (R)
Last summer she stumbled across “CATS, Stockholm” on Instagram, researched a house swap arrangement on Craig’s List, packed “Pumpkin Spicy,” and flew to Stockholm to participate in bike messenger ride a longs where they still deliver mail and packages via bicycle.” Meg explained that 90% of bike messenger deliveries in the U.S. with the exception of New York are food deliveries.
(c) Meg Whitney (2nd from R) CATS – Stockholm, SE
Meg carried all she needed for her trip in her messenger bag. In 2016 Trek University launched a scholarship-based program to sponsor women technicians to attend the School of Certified Service at the company’s Waterloo, Wis. H.Q. According to Trek, “With women making up less than 10 percent of technicians in the bicycle industry today, it is our goal to grow this number substantially.
Meg Whitney won one of the mechanic training scholarships at Trek U. and believes that she has so much more to learn.
Meg Whitney Mechanic (L)
Meg explained what prompted her cycling activism stance by saying, “Part of the reason I am such an activist for cycling, especially in Southern California (L.A.), is my having been hit several times, watching other peoples legal battles as well as my own, seeing how much drivers get away with driving with no license plates….having no accountability.”
Meg, aka “Megatron” is an All-star teammate racing with S.W.A.T. (She Wolf Attack Team) whose goal it is, “To inspire more women to ride, race and be part of the cycling community.” Meg Whitney races track bikes with her teammates at the Velodrome in Encino, the StubHub in Carson as well as racing Cyclocross. (SoCal Cross events are put on by Dorothy Wong –
www.socalcross.org.
