Broken Spoke Bike Coop, a community cycle project in Oxford, has secured funding to provide subsidized mechanic training for women, trans*, and non-binary people. In a first for the UK cycling industry, five funded placements will be available for people to gain qualifications up to Scitech 2 level, with ongoing mentoring and support.

These newly qualified mechanics will form the backbone of Broken Spoke's ongoing work with marginalized gender people and Beryl's Night (free monthly workshop sessions for women, trans* and non-binary people) Support.

"It's a big deal for us and for the cycling industry as a whole," says Broken Spoke Community and Workshop Coordinator Inez Ratz. 'The cycling industry has a huge problem with gender diversity (and diversity in general), and we're fed up.' When most bike store mechanics are cis-male, it creates a sort of hierarchy of knowledge where men fix bikes and teach others... Broken Spoke and Beryl's Night have been working hard to break down the hierarchies and barriers that women and marginalized genders face. We have worked hard to dismantle them. This is an opportunity for us to deepen that work, confront the issues, and home-grow the future of this industry."

Funding for the initiative comes from Active Oxfordshire, a local charity dedicated to tackling inactivity and challenging inequality. The charity also supported Broken Spoke earlier this year by launching a scheme to provide heavily subsidized cycle training sessions for people living in, around, or affected by the Cowley Low Traffic Neighborhood The company is also supporting Broken Spoke by launching a heavily subsidized scheme to provide cycle training sessions to those affected.

"We were fortunate to have the support of our close allies at Active Oxfordshire to begin funding this important work. We hope this will inspire other funders and projects to do the same," says Innes.

Josh Rensall, Senior Strategic Relationship Manager at Active Oxfordshire, said, "The percentage of people working in cycling, active travel, and the cycling industry is significantly lower among women, trans*, and non-binary. Projects like this one fill this gap and get people involved in activities that bring freedom and benefits to participants. Active Oxfordshire is pleased to support this work with funding from Oxfordshire County Council through the Emergency Active Travel Fund.

The Broken Spoke funded training will be led by Lucy Greaves, a Bristol-based cycle mechanic working for the Bristol Bike Project. More information can be found on the Broken Spoke website (opens in new tab).

*Note: Broken Spoke Bike Corp. uses an asterisk when referring to transgender (trans*) to be inclusive of all other marginalized genders.