Maintenance Basics By Women, For Women

4894 N Van Gordon Street,Wheat Ridge CO 80033

31 January, 2023

Description

In collaboration with the Ride or Die Collective, who work to center, protect, and grow spaces for Women/Trans/Femme/Non-Binary riders in the cycling community, we are hosting a basic bike maintenance clinic for our riders who identify as women. In this basic bike maintenance clinic, all of the instructing will be done by a few of the women of Specialized and the Ride or Die Collective. Our goal is to create a learning environment for womxn of all kinds, where they can ask questions about bike maintenance with no judgement. We strive for this to be the case in all of the instructional clinics we host, but by limiting our instructors and attendees to womxn we hope to eliminate any perceived pressure our riders who identify as women may feel in the presence of men. In a historically male dominated sport and industry, we feel that it is important to carve out designated space for our riders who identify as women. Since the popularization of the bicycle in the 1890's, women have been defining their emancipation on two wheels. In seeking equity within cycling, we understand the importance of creating opportunities that are designed to better serve our riders who identify as women. Subject matter covered in this clinic will include the principles of basic bike care, including drive-train maintenance, best practices for bike cleaning, on-trail maintenance, and how to care for the rubber on your bike. The goal of this clinic is to provide our riders with information that is helpful to them, so we'd love for attendees to come prepared with any questions they might have. No pre-existing knowledge is required to attend! This event is free to attend and food and drink will be provided. This event is part of a collaborative series with the Ride or Die Collective leading up to International Women's Day on March 8th, which will include several other event types and opportunities to win series specific merch. Our doors are always open to any person who is curious about how to better care for their bike. Below are the women who will be sharing their knowledge during this clinic! Grace (she/her) is a Brand Experience Representative at the Specialized Boulder Experience Center! She races for Automatic Abus, and tried her hand at cyclocross racing this year (spoiler alert, she won her first ever cross race). Grace's current most ridden bike is her road bike, and it takes nothing short of biblically bad weather to force her onto her trainer. Sarah (she/her) is a Brand Experience Representative at the Specialized Boulder Experience Center! She dabbles in all kinds of bike riding, but prefers her tires off road. Her current bike getting the most use is her gravel bike, but she can't wait for group mountain bike rides to start up again. Becky (she/her) fell in love with riding mountain bikes in 1996. In 2006 she discovered a welcoming women's race community. Beginning as an entry level racer, she rode through the ranks to the elite level in both road and mountain races. Fast forward now she rides at the speed of fun and enjoys high alpine mountain bike riding with her family and friends as well as any other sport involving velocity and adrenaline. Kit Melton (they, them) Hi, my name is Kit, I’m originally from NYC and have been in Colorado for three years now. I’m a Service Writer at University Bikes and run mechanic clinics for the WTFNB community. This past summer, we had 17 female-identifying service staff which is absolutely spectacularly bonkers AND my proudest achievement (lots of happy tears)!! I love everything bikes, especially when I can share it with others! Arya Elowen (she/her) Arya has been riding a bike since she was 5-years old. At 17 she began racing competitively, and after a mishap with a derailleur going through a wheel, she began fixing bikes herself. She has built, from the ground up, multiple different bikes including her current race bike, Raven. Jordan Johnson (they/them) Powered by cyclocroissants, fruit snacks, and terrible puns, Jordan is a fierce competitor at heart and probably too stubborn for their own good. So they do maintenance and assembly of their own bikes and sometimes even cars. Notably, you can usually find them working on their own bike at inconvenient times, like a few hours before a race start.