According to the 2011 American Community Survey, women make up only 23 percent of bike commuters in Arizona. But one local bike shop is working to change that and get more women on two wheels.
Lauren Hayes lifts her blue road bike onto a bike stand. She screws in the clamp, then picks up a screwdriver to loosen the pedals.
But Hayes is not a mechanic. In fact, she’s never really worked on a bike before, even though she rides a lot.
Hayes is participating in Women’s Night at Bike Saviours, a DIY bike shop in Tempe.
Anastasia Schneider co-hosted the night with Linda Kuenzi. The goal is to create an inviting space for women like Hayes to work on their bikes.
Hayes said it’s time to learn how to fix bikes herself.
“My fiancée is a mechanic and he’s taught himself over the last year by volunteering and working in the bike station in Edinburgh," she said.
Last week, when Hayes arrived here from Scotland to spend a semester teaching at ASU, she said she quickly realized that “in order to get around it was really a priority that I got a bike.”
The bike she bought through Craigslist is working well so far, it’s just a bit of a fixer-upper. The biggest problem is the stiff toe clips – Hayes keeps getting her shoes stuck.
Women’s Night was originally created by one of Bike Saviour’s founders, Sunny Nestler, who wants to make bike mechanics more accessible to women, since it's a typically male-dominated field.
“It’s not that you particularly should learn bicycle mechanic skills, but that is one area that is very useful because it is related to a basic human need of transportation and it’s also something that women traditionally have less access to," Nestler said.
Hayes was the only participant last week, but Schneider and Kuenzi hope the event will grow.
As for the toe clips that were giving Hayes trouble, it turned out they just needed to be loosened and oiled. But Hayes said she still has more to learn, so she’ll be back.
Women’s Night is held on the first and third Mondays of every month at Bike Saviours in Tempe.