Bike Maintenance Classes are Back, Starting Thursday!
By Jake Schorr
Did you ride hard all summer?
Is it time to give your bike some love? Give you and your bike a treat by learning to do repairs on it yourself! The rainy season is here, and with it returns our Bike Maintenance classes taught by our team of skilled mechanics.
The first class in our series is our Women/Trans/Femme Basic Bike Maintenance Course and we have more classes coming in the winter and spring (Fill out the interest form to hear about future classes). Over four sessions the class covers the nuts and bolts of flat fixing, brake adjustments, derailleur adjustments, and wheel truing. A fifth session gives students open stand time to work on bike projects of their choosing with the support of mechanics. Here’s some of what previous participants had to say about the W/T/F class:
Favorite Parts:
“Meeting the other participants!”
“The hands-on fooling around part with the breaks and fixing flats was my favorite part”
“Learning how to adjust breaks. It seemed really foreign and now it’s been demystified and now it’s something I can handle on my own”
“Talking about the bike comprehensively was great”
About Safer Space:
“I learned valuable bike mechanic skills in a comfortable environment. Especially in a bike culture dominated by cis males, it’s been nice to learn in an inclusive space. The reason I’m here is because of this space.”
“We had the freedom to ask questions because the space was less intimidating”
What Do The Instructors Think?
One of our instructors Jackie, said she’s excited about people’s eagerness to learn, and transforming that motivation into a (foundational) skillset with which people may continue to build upon and share with others. She hopes students walk away with a sense of empowerment from having more tools (literal and metaphorical!) in their toolbox, and a sense of community with other W/T/F mechanics.
Whether it’s in this class or the next one, we hope that you’ll come add to your toolbox with us.