Marley Blonsky is a fat cyclist who makes no bones about her size. 

“As a fat woman with nearly 10 years of riding, thousands of miles under my wheels, and the founder of All Bodies on Bikes, a nonprofit advocating for size inclusion in cycling, I’ve come across a lot of misconceptions about bigger riders,” she told Cycling Weekly magazine. “Whether coming from fellow riders, bike shop employees, or friends and family, these misconceptions can be frustrating, annoying, and sometimes even hurtful.”

She listed three of the most common misconceptions about oversized cyclists:

• Big cyclists are all beginners. Body size has absolutely nothing to do with skill level, Blonsky says.
• Fat cyclists are riding to lose weight. Large people, she says, ride for the same joy of cycling as other cyclists.
• Challenging routes are out of reach of big cyclists. “Well, I’m here to tell you that fitness and athleticism come in various shapes and sizes, and weight alone is not a reliable indicator of a person’s physical abilities or endurance,” she told the magazine.

Don’t jump to conclusions, Blonsky warned. Assumptions about the skill level, ambitions and desires of bigger bodied people can lead to discrimination and stigmatization, she says.

Bitten by the cycling bug

Blonsky says on her blog that her love for cycling was born from heartbreaking divorce and frustration with slow bus commutes in Seattle. After using a bike to commute around the city, she soon was running all her errands on a bike. When summer rolled around, she was bike camping nearly every weekend.

Her inability to find technical bike clothing in her size led to Blonsky’s “size inclusion work,” she says on the blog. 

Giving a boost to that work was her appearance in the Shimano film “Bodies on Bikes.”

Blonsky is available for consulting, teaching workshops, public speaking, panels and one-on-one discussions on creating a more diverse and welcoming cycling community and helping brands become more size-inclusive.

Details on how to book Blonsky for a presentation are available at her blog.