Candy Cranks

I volunteer with a local program called Wenches with Wrenches.  We teach women only bike mechanic workshops at the local Community Bicycle Network space. There’s four weeks worth of classes: 1) Bike fit and parts of the bike 2) Flat fix 3) Brakes 4) Drivetrain.

It’s a super empowering space to be in, with 15+ women all teaching eachother how to fix their own bikes (it’s all run by volunteers). Here’s a pic from the flat fix class last week:

Jane was teaching a class for her first time ever but she did great!

For some participants this is the first time they’ve ever taken their wheel off their bike! This week we did brakes and helped every single girl there adjust their brakes and some even replaced their brake pads! Between the 6 or so volunteers there we managed to figure everything out, even though none of us are professional bike mechanics.

Cycling is fun, and knowing how to make your bike safe and fit right makes it even more enjoyable. I think we’ll end this month’s session with a fun Wenches Bike Tour around town with our newly tuned-up bikes!

…by Kathleen from Toronto Canada.
my tumblr … my twitter … my flickr …