location:
Madison, Wisconsin
Commuter of choice:
Specialized Rockhopper
Brooke Carey
Q&A with BrookeWhere do you currently live, and what is it like riding like there?
I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin and let me tell you, riding a bike in Madison is unlike any place I have lived before. Bike paths galore! It has taught me what it means to actually have bicycling infrastructure. The extensive network of multi-use paths throughout the city, and beyond, make biking the best way to get around. (Not to mention the most fun!) Cycling is pretty deeply woven into the fabric of the city. Everyone here bikes! Whether it is students getting to class, parents bringing their kids to school, roadies crushing centuries, mountain bikers on their way to trails, or good old commuters; they all have a place here. There are a plethora of different bike shops, group rides, and bike events that perpetuate a deep cycling culture in the city. Usually I can use my love of biking to differentiate me, but not here!
What is your main commuter bike? Runner up favorite bike to ride?
My main commuter bike is an old steel Specialized Rockhopper that I built up from the frame with a combination of parts from the shop graveyard and new sparkly parts. Some highlights include custom anodized pink rims from Velocity for extra style points, a Supernova dynamo light for lighting the way, Surly terminal bars for comfort, and Billy Bonkers tires for off-road capabilities. My runner up is my single speed Crust Wombat klunker that I built up for the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championship. This one also is a combo of new and old parts built up for ultimate goofing around!
When did you start riding a bike, and how did it become such a large part of your life?
I have always ridden a bike, but it became a big part of my life when I was working at a cycling non-profit where everyone was, to put it simply, obsessed with bikes. Everyone truly loved biking and the adventures they could provide, and it took no time for that to rub off on me. I didn’t have a car at this point of my life, so biking served as my mode of transportation but quickly turned into an amazing new hobby. I started going on longer rides into the mountains by starting small and close to home, but every weekend I would go a little farther. Biking felt like freedom to me that I hadn’t quite experienced before. It effortlessly made me feel empowered in a way that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but I was hooked.
Once I became more interested in adventure biking to remote places, for days on end, I started to become very aware of my lack of knowledge of bike mechanics. I felt that this was necessary knowledge to do all the bike adventures that I dreamed of and to be able to do them alone. This led me to getting a job at a bike shop and working my way into the service department and becoming a mechanic. While my motivation to become a mechanic started as a personal pursuit, I quickly became even more motivated due to the lack of women/non-men in the biking world and that universal experience of feeling uncomfortable and inferior in even the most well-meaning bike shops. Once I started working in a shop, it became my new goal to empower all people, especially people who have not been represented in the bike world thus far, to be cyclists. I want everyone to feel comfortable in bike shops and feel as if they are meant to be there. No matter how fast you go or how much you know. I have started leading workshops for women/femme/trans/non-binary folks through the shop as well as lead weekly rides aimed to change perceptions of what it means to be a cyclist and hopefully allow people to see themselves in the shops that they patronize. That is the long-winded way to say, bikes have become such an important part of my life, both in my personal and professional life. How lucky am I!
What is it like being a female mechanic and what advice would you give to other females who might be interested in becoming mechanics?
Full disclosure, I would consider myself a mechanic in training. I build bikes and work in the service department some days a week, but am not a full on service writer. I don’t want to oversell myself, but also don’t want to downplay. Oh to be a woman!!
If I had to choose one word, being a female mechanic is empowering! But it’s also a lot of other things. It can also feel super isolating and confusing. When I first started learning, it was all from men. It inherently felt like I wasn’t meant to be there, not because of anything they were doing, but because I didn’t see myself in them. It played with my self confidence and made me feel like I was never going to be as good as them at wrenching. Luckily, I had great mentors that were patient with me and, most helpful of all, really believed that I could do it, even when I didn’t. At this moment, while I am so deeply grateful for the people who taught me, I made it my goal that women/non-men after me should be able to learn from people they see themselves in (and hopefully that’s me!). Shortly after I started working in the service department, much to my excitement, a woman started wrenching alongside me. She had much more experience which allowed me to finally learn from a woman. This changed my experience more than I thought it would. Hopefully this experience becomes less and less rare by the day!
My advice to folks who want to become mechanics is: everyone starts somewhere. Even the old guy who knows “all there is to know” about bikes starts off by knowing nothing. There is nothing that you can’t learn. You will feel overwhelmed with the intricacies of bicycles and it may feel like an impossible feat, but just give yourself time. The world deserves more mechanics like YOU! So please do us the service, and keep wrenching.
What has been an epic cycling adventure you’ve been on, or one that stands out in your mind as meaningful and memorable.
One of the most meaningful cycling adventures I have been on was biking from my parents’ house in St. Paul, Minnesota to our cabin on Lake Superior with my dad. My dad has always loved bike touring and obsessively plans his bike trips year round. Once I caught the bike touring bug, it was just obvious that we had to do something together. We loaded up our bikes and biked a couple hundred miles to our cabin over the next four days–just me and him. We talked about our lives, our dreams, our surroundings, the past, the future, all while biking to our favorite place in the world. No crazy stories or epic landscapes. Just simple backroads and hours of uninterrupted times with my dad doing our favorite thing in this world.
It's obvious that you enjoy adventuring with friends. What kind of bicycle rabble rousing do you like to get into the most with them?
Bicycle rabble rousing is my middle name! There is nothing I love more than having fun with friends on a bike. The weekly group ride that I lead with the shop has been the epitome of bike-adventuring with friends. When I moved to Madison, I realized that there was a niche to be filled–I didn’t see a group ride that was truly inclusive. Either it was all men, or they went 20mph, or they were all already friends; usually all three. All of these are TOTALLY FINE and I am in no way bashing how anyone wants to be on a bike, but it doesn’t necessarily invite new folks with open arms. I wanted to create a group ride that was for everyone. This means that if you have a shitty bike, or the nicest bike, if you wore jeans, or a full kit, regardless, I still wanted you to feel like you had a community in these rides. So, I created these weekly rides. We close the shop at 6 and we gather for a casual 10 mile ride. We go slow. I introduce myself to everyone that shows up and try my darndest to remember everyone's name. We wear glitter! We practice aggressive kindness to anyone we may encounter along the way. We prioritize inclusivity and being welcoming over speed and distance. And, obviously, we get tacos and beer afterwards–every single time, and it turned out to be a niche that did need to be filled! Every Wednesday, without fail, there would be around 20-40 people that showed up. And every week there was at least one new person. People loved it! Community was created! This ride brings together people over bikes and acts as a weekly communion of friends that otherwise may never have met each other, yet here they are, biking two-by-two, talking about their days. And I can’t think of something more beautiful!