Cycling in the Bygrave skirt

Some of the wonderful photos taken by Charlotte Barnes of the Bygrave skirt in action. It works very well on and off the bike. The front and rear pulley systems effectively keep the material of the skirt out of the chain ring and wheels. The gathered fabric is comfortable to sit on, or as Bygrave wrote: ‘This raising of the skirt before and behind leaves the sides of it festooned, as it were, over the knickers’.  Festooning fabric is win.

The only issue I had was in regard to the length of the cords. Once they have been activated and draw the weights up towards to waist, they become of course much longer. If not tied off properly, they can be dangerous. I think we left them a bit long on the dress in the first place. And we also never actually worked out an effective clipping system. We just used knots and tucked the ends into the waistband.

Bygrave was much more considered in her approach. She had thought through this. In her patent she writes about ‘a clip adapted to grip the cord and to hold it either of its terminal, or any intermediate position, as may be required.’