Mechanic Skills Class

[Triskeliongirl]

I am not sure I would like a women's specific class. I mean come on, its all about logic which is not gender specific. I attended one women's specific class at my LBS, and was very disappointed by the slow pace. The only thing I will see that is sometimes different about men and women is a difference in mechanical strength. Whereas I can only make or break a chain with a shop quality park chain tool, DH can do it with a cheapie travel version. So, for me I found getting good tools made all the difference in the world.

In the end, I found I learned the most by just doing the work. Each time my bike needed something done to it, I'd develop a consensus protocol by reading what they said in my park tool blue book, zinn's book and bicycling mag book. I even managed to rebuild a shimano sti shifter on my own this way, even though in theory they are not rebuildable.

[lunacycles]

I am not sure I would like a women's specific class. I mean come on, its all about logic which is not gender specific.

The idea of a women specific class is that guys tend to have a lot more mechanical experience coming into a bike maintenance class than women--not always but often--and for some women this can feel intimidating. The UBI women's class covers the same amount of material as their regular basic mechanics class over the same amount of time. Maybe describing it as "slower" is inaccurate. I just mean to infer the pace respects the participants' needs and wants. I hope that makes sense.

It's just a personal thing. It is nice when there are more options for the mechanically intimidated.

[newfsmith]

I really loved the women's bike maintenance course at UBI. Socially, it was great. The participants brought a variety of bikes; full carbon road bikes to elderly MTB's, well maintained to thouroughly abused. It was a blast to see the variety of bikes and problems. They had enough work stations that you could work alone if you wanted to, or pair up if you preferred. You got to think out the problems yourself, or together. We did not, however, do any wheelbuilding or getting into fitting for women as I had hoped. Basically, the class I attended was a one-week, intensive, Park Tool School. I have no regrets about taking it, because I think the intensive approach works better and UBI had a collection of class bikes, MTB and road, so that you had a chance to work on all systems on both. The Park Tool School I attended, you only worked on your own bike. I felt I got a much broader exposure to bike repair at UBI and came out of it feeling much more confident. Even so, when I started stripping bikes at Bikes-not-Bombs, I had to figure out cottered cranks and Ashtabula cranks. If you can afford the tuition and can make it a vacation I recommend the UBI course for women. If it is too expensive, you can get very similar instruction at a Park Tool School, but you will most likely be working in groups. If that is too expensive, try googling for "earn-a-bike" programs. Most are aimed at youth, but they will often train the instructors for free, as long as you committ to instructing for a time period. You do mostly see X-mart bikes, but a fair number of good bikes get donated also. All experience is good. Good luck.

[DebW]

And by taking the women's only class at UBI, you got to avoid one guy telling the whole class how he got himself caught in his zipper, twice.