Women's and Trans Bike Clinics

Attention all lady cyclists!

This month we're kicking off the first of a six month series of Women's and Trans only bicycle maintenance classes. The classes will be on select Sundays from 2- 5 PM facilitated by female bike mechanics just for the ladies! The classes will start out by going over simple projects first and will increase in skill level as the classes go on. At the end of the series we will be starting our bi-weekly women's and trans' night at the shop.

Please R.S.V.P. to dianna@sopobikes.org

The series will be:

October 25--How to Change a Tire

November 15-- Brakes 101

December 13-- Derailleurs 101

January 24-- Wheel Truing

February 21-- Hub Maintenance/ Rebuilding

March 21-- Bottom Brackets/ Headsets

Bring your bicycle!

Suggested Donation: $10

Why have bike clinics that are women and transgender specific?

SoPo exists to help the community and a part of supporting a community includes providing a safe space for all members of the community who visit the shop or volunteer. SoPo also recognizes the advantages of providing workshops and shop hours that are only available to women and trans as a way to effectively accomplish a greater sense of confidence and comfort within the shop. This way women volunteers and visitors will be more likely to come back to the shop during regular hours. There will be no male mechanics or visitors on these nights in order to offer an environment that is conducive to learning and sharing knowledge and skills without pressure from any gender preconceptions that make women feel marginalized in the realm of bicycle mechanics. These clinics are a way to help empower the female and female identifying cyclists in the community. There are also monthly bike maintenance 101 that are open to men as well as women, but these are scheduled on the first Monday's of the month. These specific bicycle maintenance classes are open to anyone who identifies as female.

Isn't segregation (seperating people based on race, gender, and class) a bad thing?

The following explanation from another bike collective’s lady organizers made sense to me:
Think of society like a big ladder, with the people who control resources, labor, money, politics (ie. people with power) at the top and the people with no power at the bottom.  People with some power are in the middle.  Men are higher up on this ladder than women (see government and income as examples in first world societies, women’s health in third world societies). When a group that is higher on the ladder tells a group that is lower on the ladder to go away, that is called segregation. When a group that is lower on the ladder tells a group above them to go away, that is called “organizing”. When and ONLY when a group has the initiative to organize can they gain power by helping each other on the same level.
[From the Hub of Detroit's "On Women + Trans Night"]

Ways to help support SoPo's Women's and Trans' Bike Clinics:

• Respect the space. If you are not female or transgender please come to the shop during our other open hours. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 7-10 PM and Saturday 2-6 PM.
  
• Tell all your trans and female friends about the bike clinics and encourage them to attend!

• Educate yourself to become more aware of women's and transgender issues.