WaG Night starts at the London Bike Kitchen (Women and Gender-variant)

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let y'all know that Monday nights we're starting up a Women and Gender-variant (WaG) night at LBK, led by the fantastic Fenn and lovely Lish.

WaG is a dedicated space for women and gender-variant people drop in and fix their own bikes, with mechanics on hand for help and advice. We also run (mixed gender) introductory courses (on other days) for people who are very new to bike mechanics, or want to refresh their skills. WaG includes a taught element every week, including adjusting gears, brakes, puncture repair and bike checkover.

What do we mean by 'women and gender-variant'?
Anybody who identifies as a woman, or anybody who has a non-normative gender identity. This could mean transgender, genderqueer, ftm, mtf, transwomen, transmen, or any of the many other various identities which are not 'male' or 'female' in the traditional sense.

Why 'women and gender-variant' only?
Growing up, women aren't generally encouraged to fix bikes or given access to knowledge about mechanics in general. As a result, women can feel like they can't fix stuff themselves, or think it's a man's domain. All this can also be true for people with gender-variant identities. When most mechanics are men, there is a kind of heirarchy of knowledge, whereby the men fix the bikes and teach the women, and the women watch the men fix the bikes (and learn little), or are taught by the men. We want to do away with all this, and create a space where you are empowered to learn about your bike, share what you know (or just get on with it yourself!), all without the pressure and machismo that sometimes exists in male populated spaces. We offer a stand and tools, and some help and advice when you get stuck. If you're really new to bike mechanics, you might want to take one of our introductory courses to get started.

About us
The London Bike Kitchen is an open DIY workshop where you can work on your own bike instead of giving it to someone else. We have a full tool library, mechanics on hand to answer your questions and courses to build skills. Visit our (very simple!) website at www.LBK.org.uk. We're still in our Beta testing phase, so please, be gentle.

Thanks, and hope to see you soon!
Jenni x

Update: WaG is growing by the week, we have changed what we do a bit, and now have a taught element. It is now £5 for the 3 hour session or free to members. We teach a short topic each week, for around 45 minutes. Topics have included: introduction wheel truing, hub services, how gears work. Every Monday 6-9pm...

ps. Can anyone identify what tasks Posh and co are performing on their bikes? (Look at the tools...)

Posh is leaving the workshop for a bit of the old ultraviolence. The one to her right is telling the cameraman to GTFO before she smashes his camera to smithereens with her spanner, and then she's probably going to go out with Posh for more of the same. The one second from the right is listening to the sounds of the ocean through a track pump, and the one on the far right is apparently using a spanner as a hammer to replace a reflector on her pedal while reading How Spanners Work, upside down.

is posh wearing any knickers in that shot
i'm sure she winked at me