Women Who Wrench on bikes Deserve Better
For INternational womens’ day stop and consider what assumptions you may have about women in bike sales and service
Rider, Shop owner, mechanic. I’m going to take the microphone today - because it’s international women’s day. Photo By Dmitry Nedugov @ An NSMBA FiVer, Seventh Secret, 2019
Do I know EVERYTHING there is to know about bikes? Absolutely freaking not. No one does.
And yet, I’m challenged to prove my worth as a mechanic frequently: usually by someone who's failed to lubricate their bike chain for about twenty years.
Do i think this is because I am a woman? hell yes it is.
No mechanic knows everything, but i don’t see my male co-workers dealing with a lack of trust and the undermining Of their credibility every time they have a question.
A good service team is made up of a diverse group with diverse skills: someone keen on road and tri bikes, someone brilliant with vintage parts, maybe if you’re lucky, a suspension guru and an all around mountain bike nerd. None of us know EVERYTHING there is to know and we lean on each other to do the best work we can.
In fact, most great mechanics are first and foremost excellent researchers: up there with journalists and librarians, armed with the skill to find information and interpret it.
Guess what? I’m a trained journalist. I excel at research. Give me a question, any question, and I can FIND you an answer. give me the chance, and I will teach you everything i know.
Learning to wrench at Dialed Bike Service, here’s a night we set up for everyone where only women showed up.
I frequently find my credibility questioned and undermined. I can tell you all about the assumptions customers make about me in the role of bike mechanic and service writer. How they side-eye glance at my boss to confirm what’s come out of my mouth is RELIABLE advice, how they correct me wiTh outdated information: but mostly how they make me feel.
If I stumble, stutter or look for advice from my colleagues, I can see, even feel, the shift in someone’s demeanour. I have to work harder to prove myself at every turn, with every task.
I see what it looks like when people make assumptions about what a bike mechanic “looks like.” For years I’ve let it roll of my back, trying to go with he flow and be the bigger person.
“I know what it feels like to be talked down to. I know what it feels like when someone’s eye are saying ‘that’s the stupidest question’…”
But given that this is my second International Women’s Day where I am confidently occupying the space of “female mechanic", I think it’s about time I started calling out the bad behaviour.
What credentials do I hold to do so?
I’ve been riding bikes passionately since I was 5, on trails, dirt jumps and roads. My retail career started when I was 17, at MEC, where I became the team leader for the cycling department by the time I was 20 years old.
I helped the brand launch bike sales, and the first MEC bike shop before I went off to be a journalist (with a loose focus on mountain biking and cycling safety). I’ve raced downhill, enduro and even old-school “Super-D” and I did okay, dammit.
I’ve trained for two weeks on-site at the Bike Room’s Professional Mechanics course. I’ve worked as a bike mechanic for two straight years in two shops.
And FYI - I got the second fastest time at the Red Bull Rampage 2022 Tire Changing Competition. Really. I was under a minute. And yet I still get guys showing me how they install tires and assuming I don’t understand tubeless systems.
All this to say, I know my sh*T as well as anyone who calls themselves a mechanic, but sometimes I know different things than they do.
“ I’m not a glorified bike shop secretary, I’m a qualified mechanic. ”
I know what it feels like to be talked down to. I know what it feels like when someone’s eye are saying “that’s the stupidest question…” I know judgement and I know discomfort in a bike shop: and I know I want to break this down, disrupt the status quo and take up as much space as I can as a woman on a bike stand.
Still, people walk into the shops, actively search for a male staff member to help them, even when I’m the ONLY person standing at the service writing counter.
That hurts and it sucks. trust me i am more excited to be at that counter, helping and educating and giving you the best possible service than most mechanics who would rather have a wall between their workstand and your face. Give me the chance and I’ll blow your mind with my service ethic.
Please understand that when you see me at the service counter, service writing in a bike shop, I’ve WILLINGLY taken on one of the hardest roles one could take on: I’m not a glorified biKe shop secretary, I’m a qualified mechanic.
Comments like: “If you could get the GUYS to fix that for me…” and “Woah, good job lifting that e-bike into the stand!” (as if it’s mind-blowing that a woman can lift 50 pounds) suck to hear in the middle of my work day. This is my literal job, please don’t be surprised when I can do it.
Did I mention I got the second fastest time at the Red Bull Rampage tire change competition?
When I first started in bike shops, it was common practice to relegate women to accessory and clothing sales and the cash register, not even letting us near the bikes and bike sales.
We’ve come a long way from “You’re fast, for a girl,” but let me tell you there are going to be more and more women behind the service writing counter, on the tools and elsewhere on the technical side of this industry.
The imposter syndrome I faced as an up and coming bike mechanic was waaay deeper and more difficult to overcome than the imposter syndrome I felt as a CBC News reporter, and that’s saying something.
Women in the bike industry are passionate, and we do things differently, we really do. Working with a female mechanic can be a truly incredible experience. We often like to slow things down, talk things through and teach you as much as we can.
But at the end of the day, respect goes two ways and if you come in making assumptions about the powerful women who wrench on bikes, it’s going to be hard for me to want to go above and beyond for you.
And we need more women in this field! If you’re someone who wants to learn how to wrench on bikes, who is looking for permission or validation: you don’t need it! You belong here, just as much as I do.
You can Email me or call me about women’s specific maintenance courses, (private or group) or just to chat about what it’s like to be in this industry. I’d love to have more #womenwhowrench in this town.