Our first Ride & Repair was a HUGE Success!
Ride and Repair North Shore May 7th and 8th 2023
In partnership with Dialed Bike Service and Indigenous Women Outdoors
Our first Ride and Repair event was held in North Vancouver at Dialed Bike Service, a locally owned and operated bike shop located on the ancestral lands of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. We had 5 participants travel to North Vancouver from Squamish to spend two days immersed in an in-depth bike mechanics course with Ash Kelly, mechanic, instructor, and owner/operator of Dialed Bike Service. It was through the partnership with the Indigenous Youth Mountain Bike Program that we connected with Indigenous Women Outdoors, an Indigenous-led cycling and outdoor recreation organization in BC, operating since 2017. IWO has a mission to address the gap in the outdoor industry where Indigenous peoples (especially Indigenous women and youth) and people of colour face more barriers to getting into outdoor recreation sports and cycling. The IWO has recently graduated a cohort of ride leaders through their mountain bike mentorship program and this group would be the first participants in the GoByBikeBC Ride and Repair Program.
We arrived at Dialed Bike Service on the morning of Sunday, May 7h and found Ash at the shop waiting to welcome us all. Ash had coffee and pastries donated from Bean Around the World, a neighborhood coffee shop and as the participants arrived, we settled in to introduce ourselves and talk about our experiences with cycling. Each participant had a unique background and level of experience in both mountain biking and bike repair and maintenance. Upon arrival, each participant received their own starter took kit and bike mechanics manual as this was a hands-on learning environment in the fully functional bike shop. By midafternoon we broke for lunch which was provided by Mr. Bannock, a local Indigenous food truck and catering business in Vancouver. Once we were refueled, we got right back into learning and spent the rest of the day immersed in the world of bike mechanics. Day two was a short wrap-up of what we had worked on the previous day, with a focus on breaks. We looked at calipers and disc brake rotors and practiced performing brake fluid bleeds on our bikes. It was truly incredible how much information was offered during this workshop and the visible confidence that the participants received through the instruction.
At the end of the workshop our participants were thrilled with what they gained through the experience. They left feeling empowered with knowledge and confident that when they are leading groups out on the trails that they can safely handle any issues that might come up. Some participants suggested having subsequent mechanics workshops and follow up events to continue relationship building and community collaboration.
After the event, each participant was encouraged to provide feedback that would be included in the ongoing development of the GBBBC Ride and Repair program. The participants offered enthusiastic encouragement for GoByBikeBC to continue relationshp-building and allyship initiatives like the Ride and Repair Program. ”Keep doing what you’re doing” and “Continue partnering for workshops like the bike mechanic workshops, it was amazing!” were some of the comments we received after the event.
The team at GoByBikeBC is very excited about the success of this first workshop and we are looking forward to partnering with Indigenous Women Outdoors and Dialed Bike Service on ride clinics and mechanics workshops in the future!
