Sabrina Fischer, one of the designers of the FLITEDECK handlebar, believes the criticism and abuse that she receives online is because she is a woman in the “male-dominated” cycling industry.
Fischer collaborated on the new invention with her partner, Matthias Huber, and the couple say that they have already received pre-orders from “basically every continent”.
The FLITEDECK contains a built-in computer, as well as other gadgets, removing the need for extra components like a separate bike computer and light. The couple have previously told Cycling Weekly that they have a deal with a major bike brand lined up.
In a lengthy LinkedIn post, Fischer recently explained that she regularly receives criticism and abuse online, especially on her “spicy” Instagram posts, with social media users asking her “why are you ruining the sport?”
Fischer and Huber funded their project via OnlyFans, with their page receiving more than 86,000 likes on the adult content sharing platform.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly this week, the duo explained that they believe the negativity directed towards her is due to a variety of reasons, but mainly due to the cycling industry being “dominated” by men.
“It’s a mix between the fact that I’m a woman, I’m a woman in business, and I’m an engineer,” she said, “also in cycling, all of it is very male-dominated, so I guess this is the main reason for what gets said to me [online]. It’s also because of the OnlyFans stuff too of course.”
“It’s hard enough working as a female engineer in the regular world. But in cycling everything is much worse, I would say,” Huber added as he highlighted the gender divide which he says is a real problem.
As well as the major brand which the couple recently met with, they explained that they have had several other parties interested in collaboration.
“We didn’t expect as much publicity as we got, or that our product would go viral just within the first few weeks of us talking about it,” Fischer added. “It was even before the launch, which is crazy, so I guess we did a great job. We were also surprised to get a lot of B2B requests during that time, sadly we can’t talk about that right now. But it is now really really exciting for us.”
As well as launching their product, the couple hope to continue to make a difference in other ways, including potential investment in the sport too.
Huber said: “Our plan is that at some point we want to sponsor teams or athletes. We have decided that our primary focus will be on female teams and athletes to sponsor, because we know how difficult things can be.
“If we have the chance to supply a team with FLITEDECK’s then we will do it, and it will be a female team first.”
“Sabrina had the idea for this because she didn’t like to ride the bike she had bought as it was,” Huber added. “She said no, this has to be better. I think lots of other women have similar ideas too, hopefully this can help bring different perspectives.”
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