Trek Store Of Anchorage

So working as a mechanic in a shop, as a female, can be fairly difficult at times. You get your good and you get your bad, but sometimes I feel My name is Katie Spalding. I work at the Trek Bicycle Store in Anchorage, Alaska. I am a certified repair technician. I bought my first bike in 2012. I needed transportation to work. That was kind of my j I started doing my own little repairs on my bike. I wanted to build my own bike. And so I searched around and I found the perfect bike frame at the Trek Store in Anchorage. So I started building wheels and putting components on. I built up a brand new snow bike and it was awesome. Trek Store contacted me about setting up an interview. Currently I worked at a bike shop, but I worked on the sales floor. I was hopeful to kind of get into working in the shop, in the service area. Interviewed and I got it. From there I was sent to United Bicycle Institute and then I received a scholarship to go into Trek Certified Service. And it was a women's only scholarship. There were 12 women in my class and it was very, very cool to be a part of a group of women that care as much as I do about women in bikes. I started riding a lot more. It ended up being way more of a social activity than I anticipated. There were a lot of people that I would do that with and not a lot of them were female. And I was just wondering to myself even What's holding women back? What can we do differently to kind of expose more of the population to cycling? Setting up women's group rides is the next step. Trying to create a more comfortable atmosphere. I know that some of the trails are a little rough and can be That's how I started. Went out with a couple of rad ladies and they showed me the trails and top. It changed my view of mountain biking all together. It'something that has changed my life for the better. So it's definitely a community that I want to see grow and I want to see more women.