By Us for Us
Annika Mayne, Mare McLevy and Ducky Joseph teach at the UO Outdoor Program’s Winter 2023 Femme, Trans, and Womyn Identified Folk’s (FTW) Bike School. As the outdoor world has increased its focus on accessibility, many women, gender-nonconforming and transgender students still find themselves intimidated by male-dominated bike shops and communities. FTW seeks to change that. Covering the basics of bike maintenance, from fixing flats to adjusting brakes, the course gets students confident with their abilities to fix their own bikes. FTW aims to create a warm, friendly and fun environment for those who stop by, and to make space for queer, femme and otherwise identifying individuals to build community while also building skills.
1
Updated
1
UO senior Annika Mayne is an avid biker with accessibility on their mind. When Mayne steps into the course to teach, they say they’re not just…
2
Updated
2
Queer, trans and femme specific spaces like FTW need to exist to make the bike world truly accessible, according to Mayne. “I am someone who l…
3
Updated
3
FTW is a six-week course that the UO Outdoor and Bike Program has run every term for the last year. From 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, a varied group of…
4
Updated
4
Many UO students rely on bikes for transportation, yet far fewer are equipped with the skills to fix and maintain them. Combine unfamiliarity …
5
Updated
5
“The essential aspect of biking is that it’s a thing that can get you places,” Mayne says. They say that biking doesn’t have to be high-level …
6
Updated
6
“The amount I’ve learned at the bike program is so exponential compared to my other bike experiences,” Mayne says. “It’s such a community envi…