Felicia Ojarovsky loves bikes — riding, racing and working on them. She has been working in bike shops since she was 14 years old, and two months ago, moved to Carbondale to work as a mechanic at Cripple Creek Backcountry.
Ojarovsky led the shop’s final women’s mountain bike maintenance clinic of the summer Wednesday, which is part of an ongoing women’s event series for mountain biking and backcountry skiing.
The goal is to create accessible entry points into these historically male-dominated outdoor sports — a familiar theme for Ojarovsky as one of the few female mechanics in the bike industry.
Customers will often walk in and assume she’s not a mechanic — even if she’s the only person working in the bike store.
“You're always having to prove yourself,” she said. “With my male co-workers, it's assumed they know what they're doing. And then for me, I have to explain why I know what I'm doing.”
For Ojarovsky, the clinic was a chance to help other women learn bike maintenance skills such as tuning a bike’s suspension, fixing a broken chain and plugging a tire hole.
Part-time Carbondale resident Laura Stude was one of the participants. “I have been mountain biking for many, many years, she said, “and I honestly don't know as much as I should about how to maintain my bike or how to fix things when I'm out on the trail riding with all my friends.”
Stude said the clinic was a good opportunity to educate herself, and build community. “My wife and I are thinking of moving here in a couple of years and just to meet other women who bike I think is a really important part of these types of events as well.”
Ojarovsky hopes that by creating spaces where women feel comfortable to develop their bike maintenance skills, she’s helping build their confidence to go on bigger rides or to walk into a bike store.
