Winter biking is joy! We loved seeing live feedback from members who shared their favorite things about winter biking.

Our first session was Safety, Routing, and Handling. Amanda (she/her) has been commuting in the winter for a long time, and also has experience with bikepacking events in Alaska in the winter!

Amanda gave some great tips for staying safe in the cold, tips for keeping your bike upright on the ice, and things to keep in mind when choosing a route in the winter. The slides from her presentation are linked here.

Our second session was Winter Bike Maintenance. Lisa (she/they) has been a bike mechanic for over ten years, and she has been riding through the winter since 2011.

Lisa gave us some suggestions for how to maintain your bike weekly, monthly, and seasonally. Their slides (linked here) are a wealth of information!

Our third session was What to Wear. Raven (she/her) and Jenny (she/they) both enjoy winter fat bike racing, and both commute on their bikes.

Raven and Jenny shared a long list of ideas for things to wear, and reminded us to start with what we have. It is also helpful to take notes on weather conditions, what you wore, and how you felt to get a better idea of what works for you. Raven and Jenny’s slides are here.

We loved seeing tips from people attending the event.

The event concluded with a gear swap. As always, first-time winter bikers selected items first, and no one was required to bring anything in order to participate. Thank you to our wonderful community members, as well as Angry Catfish, Free Bikes 4 Kids, and Express Bike Shop for their generous donations! And thank you to Seward Coop for providing snacks.

If you missed the gear swap, remaining items are shared with the WTFNB trading post on Facebook.

A big THANK YOU to all of our volunteers who make this event happen! Grease Rag is an all-volunteer organization, and we could not put on these events without all of the amazing people who share their time, skills, and knowledge.

Happy riding!

Help us make free warm items for our upcoming Winter Skill Share’s gear swap!  You are also welcome to make warm things for yourself. We have sewing patterns, fleece fabric, and some supplies to share. No crafting experience is needed.

When/Where:

Saturday, October 25 from 12:30-4:30pm. You can stay for part or all of the event.

Hosmer Library, Room L02. 347 E 36th St, Minneapolis

Please bring if you can:

A face mask, sewing machine, cutting mats, fabric scissors, rotary cutters, pins, needles, thread, extensions cords, etc.. 

We will provide some snacks. Food and covered beverages are allowed in this room of the library.

If you are on Discord, please send Sarah Francis a Discord message with any questions, or post in the Grease Rag events channel. If you are not on Discord, please send any questions to the Grease Rag email address (greaseragmpls@gmail.com).

HELP NEEDED:

We need 2 people to help set up and 2 people who can stay to help clean up. We need at least 3 people to bring sewing machines. Comment in the Grease Rag events channel if you can bring a sewing machine, or if you have one we could borrow for the day. If you are not on Discord, please send an email to us (greaseragmpls@gmail.com).

Masks are required. Spare N95 masks will be available. Please stay home if you have any flu or cold symptoms.

We’ll learn, connect, and share our collective knowledge on the basics of winter biking, supporting and empowering a community of FTW people to enjoy a safe and fun winter riding season.

• Date: Saturday, November 1st
• Time: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM 
• Location: Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

The afternoon will feature skill shares on the basics of winter biking, in a safer space. This year’s sessions include:

• Bike Maintenance
• What to Wear
• Safety, Handling, and Routing
• Self-Care will be interactive between sessions and we will provide resources on this topic. 

Schedule of sessions:

10:15 am Routing and Safety

11:15 am Winter Bike Maintenance

(Lunch break at noon)

12:30 pm What to Wear

1:30 pm Gear Swap

A community gear swap with essential winter items and bike gear will finish off the event.

Things to know about the Skill Share

This event is open to all FTW (femme, trans nonbinary, two-spirit and women) riders! If you are a cis man who benefits from cis-male privilege, please respect this space and do not attend this event. Read more about WTF is FTW.

This event is NEWBIE and BEGINNER FRIENDLY! Come with questions and leave feeling more confident and ready to take on Minnesota’s most interesting season.

Masks are required in the presentation space. The smaller classroom has snacks; if you are not actively eating or drinking, please keep masks on during the event. The library does not require masks. Please stay home if you have a positive test or feel any symptoms.

This event is FREE. We want to keep things as accessible as possible to FTW, so this event, like all of our events, are volunteer-organized and run.

We run on DONATIONS of labor and goods. If you would like to donate your labor (volunteer) or goods (gear swap, snack table), please contact us at greaseragmpls at gmail.

The gear swap will include goods donated by community members like you! You’re invited to bring bike gear you don’t use, a sweater you outgrew, studded tires you want to pass on, or base layers you no longer need, for example. First-time winter bikers are given priority at the swap. We accept gear for all biking seasons. 

The skill shares are meant to share the basics with you. We encourage you to engage with our social media, make real-life connections with people at the skill share, and to attend open shops if you wish to learn more. Because there are so many approaches to biking, like life, it is impossible for us to tell you every detail of everything you might need to know! So be prepared to have some lingering questions – but don’t worry, we have a large community of people who are interested in helping you.

Winter biking is joy! We loved seeing live feedback from members who shared their favorite things about winter biking.

Our first session was “What to Wear”. Mittens (she/her) reminded everyone that you do not need to be a badass to bike in the winter, and to always start with what you have.

If you’re a spreadsheet human (like me), you might find it helpful to make a spreadsheet that lists weather conditions, what you wore, and how you felt. I have found this to be a really helpful way to figure out what clothes to put on before I ride! It’s also a helpful way to figure out if you need different gear. The slides from Mittens’s presentation are here.

After a short break, Max (he/they) and Catherine (she/her) presented about riding, routing, and safety. They showed us some great photos of road conditions in the winter to remind us that the snow and ice creates an entirely different environment. Key takeaways were to slow down around corners, change your route if needed, ride where you feel comfortable (including options to “take the lane” and/or ride safely on the sidewalk), and use public transit when you need or want to! There is never any shame in choosing a different transportation option if you’re not feeling up for biking. Combining transit with biking can also make for a safer and more flexible trip!

We also gathered some great tips from members. Check them out!

For our third session, Cali (she/her) shared some bike maintenance wisdom. If you’ve ever heard of checking your “ABC’s” before riding, Cali modified that to “ABCD” for winter biking. A is for air in your tires. Make sure your tires are firmly inflated. If you can feel the tire move when you squeeze it, you need more air! Tires often need to be inflated more often in the winter, depending on temperature fluctuation. B is for brakes. Make sure they work! Your brakes may accumulate grit and gunk during the winter, clean them as needed. C is for chain. Check that it spins smoothly, and grease it if it looks dry or squeaks. D is for “don’t forget the frame!” This was one of my favorite bike maintenance tips. Accumulated snow and gunk on your frame can hide cracks in your frame. This type of damage is not common, but it is a serious safety concern that you should check for regularly. Cali sent us home with a nice handout of winter bike maintenance tips.

Between our sessions, Megan (she/her) led us in some simple stretching routines to warm up for winter biking, and to recover after finishing your bike ride. She made us a cute little zine to take home! If you’d like to print out and cut the zine for yourself, you can download it here. Instructions for how to cut and fold a zine are here. (Reminder that Hennepin County Library gives you free printing! Yay for libraries!)

We know that winter is joyful, but can also be challenging. Here are some hot tips for keeping your spirits up.

We concluded our 15th annual winter skill share with a successful gear swap. We loved giving away so many items for free! First-time winter bikers were given the opportunity to choose items first, followed by folks who already had some experience. FTWs went home with cozy warm clothes, studded tires, bike repair tools, reflective/hi-vis gear, bike bags, gift cards to local bike shops, and more! We are so grateful for our generous community of members and local bike shops. Special thanks to Perennial Cycle, Angry Catfish Bicycle, Express Bike Shop, Camden Cycles, and the Repair Lair.

Thanks to everyone who filled out our survey after the event! It was really helpful for helping us plan future events. According to our survey results, over half of the participants had never been to a winter skill share before.

We had a pretty even spread of winter biking experience, which made for excellent conversation.

Finally, we loved that almost all participants learned something new, met new people, enjoyed themselves, and left feeling more comfortable trying winter biking.

Join us for Grease Rag’s 16th Annual Winter Skill Share & Gear Swap! 

We’ll learn, connect, and share our collective knowledge on the basics of winter biking, supporting and empowering a community of FTW to enjoy a safe and fun winter riding season.

Date: Sunday, November 17
Time: 12:30 PM – 4:30 PM (bike rack meet-and-greet starts at 12:00 on Nicollet Mall)
Location: Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

The afternoon will feature skill shares on the basics of winter biking, in a safer space. This year’s sessions include:

• Bike Maintenance
• What to Wear
• Self-Care
• Safety, Handling, and Routing

A community gear swap with essential winter items and bike gear will finish off the event.

Things to know about the Skill Share

This event is open to all FTW (femme, trans nonbinary, two-spirit and women) riders! If you are a cis man who benefits from cis-male privilege, please respect this space and do not attend this event. Read more about WTF is FTW.

This event is NEWBIE and BEGINNER-FRIENDLY! Come with questions and leave feeling more confident and ready to take on Minnesota’s most interesting season.

Masks are required in the presentation space. The smaller classroom has snacks; if you are not actively eating or drinking, please keep masks on during the event. The library does not require masks. Please stay home if you have a positive test or feel any symptoms.

This event is FREE. We want to keep things as accessible as possible to FTW, so this event, like all of our events, are volunteer-organized and run.

We run on DONATIONS of labor and goods. If you would like to donate your labor (volunteer) or goods (gear swap, snack table), please contact us at greaseragmpls at gmail.

The gear swap will include goods donated by community members like you! You’re invited to bring bike gear you don’t use, a sweater you outgrew, studded tires you want to pass on, or base layers you no longer need, for example. First-time winter bikers are given priority at the swap. (Broken or excessively worn items will be refused.)

The skill shares are meant to share the basics with you. We encourage you to engage with our social media, make real-life connections with people at the skill share, and attend our other events if you wish to learn more. Because there are so many approaches to biking, like life, it is impossible for us to tell you every detail of everything you might need to know! So be prepared to have some lingering questions – but don’t worry, we have a large community of people who are interested in supporting you.

Winter Craft Party

At our annual craft party, we make warm things to offer new FTW winter bikers at the gear swap! We also help folks learn how to make their own warm accessories. No experience necessary! If you are able to, bring a sewing machine and other sewing supplies to share with the group. We have fabric and patterns. Together, we will piece together hats and buffs to give away for free. You are also welcome to make your own gear and take it home with you after the event. Contact us at greaseragmpls at gmail if you have any questions or want to get involved!

Join us for another year of learning, connecting, and sharing what we have to usher a community of FTW people on bikes through another Minnesotan winter!

Sunday, November 12

12:30-4:30pm

Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

We will have a series of skill shares to help share the basics of winter biking, in a safer space.

• Bike Maintenance
• What to Wear
• Self Care
• Safety, Handling, and Routing

After the skill share there will be a community gear swap with essential winter items.

Things to know about the Skill Share

This is by and for FTW. If you are a cis man and benefit from cis male privilege, this event is not for you.

Masks are required in the presentation space. The smaller classroom has snacks and will be mask optional. There will be an air purifier in the classroom. The library does not require masks. We will be providing masks to our participants. Please test within 24 hours of the event. Please stay home if you have a positive test or feel any symptoms.

This event is FREE. We want to keep things as accessible as possible to FTW, so this event, like all of our events, are volunteer-organized and run.

We run on DONATIONS of labor and goods. If you would like to donate your labor (volunteer) or goods (gear swap, snack table), please contact us at greaseragmpls at gmail.

The gear swap will contain goods donated by community members like you! Bring a sweater you outgrew, studded tires you want to pass on, or base layers you no longer need, for example. There is a craft party where we get together and sew some basic hats and buffs to give away to our community for free. First-time winter bikers are given priority at the swap.

The skill shares are meant to share the basics with you. We encourage you to engage with our social media, make real life connections with people at the skill share, and to attend open shops if you wish to learn more. Because there are so many approaches to biking, like life, it is impossible for us to tell you every detail of everything you might need to know! So be prepared to have some lingering questions- but don’t worry, we have a large community of people who are interested in helping you.

Winter Craft Party

Saturday, November 4

2-5pm

Walker Library, 2880 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis

Organized by Karla and Christina, this is our annual craft party to make warm things for new FTW winter bikers! Bring a sewing machine and supplies, and we have the fabric and patterns. Together, we piece together hats, buffs, and headbands to give away for free. Contact us at greaseragmpls at gmail if you have any questions or want to get involved!

Hands-on Bike Maintenance

A deeper dive into what kind of maintenance you should do on your bike during the winter.

Wednesday, November 15

6-8pm

Bike MN, 3745 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis

RSVP/Sign up here

Hosted by Ilse and Helena at Bike MN.

The purpose of the winter skill share is to support and encourage FTW winter riders, especially first-timers. We don’t promote brands or try to sell you merchandise. We do try to give away knowledge, share experience, and create a safer space for FTWs. For free. Instead of a “classroom,” where one person talks all about everything they know, we try to structure skill shares as “conversations,” where we can value everyone’s experiences and contributions to our collective knowledge. I have been to all of the Winter Skill Shares, and I am still learning new things!

What was your experience?

A huge THANK YOU to the planners and hosts of Grease Rag’s Annual Winter Skill Share & Gear Swap. I learned so much, met a lot of great folks and have so much gratitude for the safe and welcoming space

Especially for me as someone who is really just getting into bike commuting, it was so nice to be in such a calm, friendly space where it felt safe to ask questions. Winter biking definitely feels a little daunting to jump into, so I was incredibly appreciative of the variety of expertise being shared! I walked out feeling so much more empowered to tackle both cold weather cycling and full on winter cycling!!

-Max H.

Sessions

This year we had three sessions. You can access presentation notes by clicking the links, below. More information from previous years can be found by searching our site for Winter Biking.

Winter Bike Maintenance and Cleaning with Ari and Helena, and Emily and Angela

Handout from 2015 by Tina Cho

Safety, Handling, and Routing with Low

Handout from 2012 by Kat McCarthy, Zine from 2022 by Kat McCarthy and Low

How to Dress in Any Weather with Catherine and Annie

What to Wear notes by Annie and Catherine, Bike Temperature Tracking template

Self Care Tips with Patrick

Collection of tips from over the years by Patrick Schwinn

Gear Swap

In addition to the Skill Share, we also hosted a gear swap. We asked our community to bring things that are useful to winter riding, and then gave first-time riders first pick. There were studded tires, base layers, bike parts, tools, and the hats, buffs, and headbands we created at our Grease Rag Craft Day. Everyone left with something they can use to keep them riding through the colder months.

Thank You

Thank you to the Hub and BikeMN for hosting us, Three Rivers Park and Express Bikes for contributing, Patrick for lead organizing, and all of our many volunteers and participants who made this a really fun and encouraging event for over 40 riders!

Missed the event?

There’s a follow-up “Winter Skill Share Recap” event coming up.

Monday the 14th from 2p-4p at the Walker Library. We will have the gear swap leftovers for you to look through!

More info here: https://facebook.com/events/s/winter-skill-share-recap/870491884320346/

IT’S TIME TO PRE-ORDER!

Click here to place a pre-order.

Pre-order closes 3/31

*Prices are cheapest when you pre-order. You’ll be able to buy them after the pre-order closes, while supplies last.*

22 FTW artists collaborated on “FROZEN SMILES: Finding Joy Through Winter Biking” zine. The idea for this zine was born out of our collective enthusiasm for supporting each other through the darkest months of winter. It was funded by Grease Rag donations and assembled by YOLOW Zines, and made possible by our generous contributors.

“How are we seeing beauty and cultivating joy as our bikes carry us through the winter#8221;

We asked this question of our community and heard back from a diverse spectrum of artists who identify as Queer, Non binary, cis, Woman, South Indian-American, 30-Something, Introvert, white, Neurodivergent, Trans, Bisexual, Hispanic, Rural Leftist, Gay, Femme, Third Culture Kid, Trans Boy, Mixed Race, POC, Jewish, Elder, and more.

We spent Grease Rag’s money to pay contributors for their art and produce zines. Each 32 page color zine costs $8.50 to print. It took approximately 40 hours to coordinate and lay out, and another 10 hours of printing, assembling, and mailing. We offer these at sliding scale prices to keep it more accessible. If you are FTW and would like a free copy, there is a space for you to request one! Consider pitching in a few bucks for shipping, or picking up in Powderhorn. Zines will be available 4/1. This form will close 11:59pm 3/31.

All proceeds go to Grease Rag to fund free copies of the zine, and additional programming.

Thank you to contributors JJ Kahle, Xena Goldman, Karla Hovde, L. Kling, Lily Sevilla, Scout, Blue, Sol, Ilse, Adelaide, Lee Penn, Liberty Kirkeide, The Knight Ridder, Ash Hall, Annie Deutsch, Anouk V, Molly, Patrick Schwinn, olive nofzinger, Umi Hagitani, and Shruthi

After the pre-order closes, any extra copies will be available for online purchase here.

For 13 years now, Grease Rag has been hosting a Winter Skill Share & Gear Swap to share our collective knowledge on how to commute safely during the coldest, more challenging road conditions time of year. We offer a free gear swap at the event to allow people to have access to cycling gear that tend to not be financially accessible to everyone. Grease Rag’s WSS 2021 will be hosted at the wonderful Solcana Fitness in South Minneapolis. We will be requiring everyone to wear masks during the event. There will be sessions on route handling, and bike maintenance outside the gym; and then a session on what to wear, self care, and route planning inside the gym with the gym’s garage door open to allow max air ventilation. We will have warm food and drinks available, and will provide a sneak peek of “what to wear” before the event so people can layer properly. Come with questions and leave feeling confident and ready to take on Minnesota’s most interesting season.

This FREE event is NEWBIE and BEGINNER FRIENDLY open to all FTW (femme, trans non-binary, two-spirit and women) riders! If you are a cis man who benefits from cis-male privilege, please respect this space and do not attend this event. Read more about WTF is FTW.

The event itself will be on Sunday November 7th from 2:30pm to 6:30pm. Our breakout sessions will be as follows:

Session 1: 3:00pm-3:45pm Handling and maintenance outside workshops; Indoor session (Route Planning, Safety, What to wear) *Handling will be at Matthew’s Park and be an obstacle course/hands on event

Session 2: 4:15pm – 5:00pm Handling and maintenance outside workshops; Indoor session (Route Planning, Safety, What to wear) *Handling will be at Matthew’s Park and be an obstacle course/hands on event

Gear Swap will follow/end the event. A raffle will be held during lunch between sessions. Since the event will be outdoors during a colder time of year, check out this past blog post from a previous WSS on how to dress for the weather.

Email weberp0317@gmail.com…
– If you are a FTW person and are interested in volunteering for the event (leading a session, collecting donations, set up day of, and more!)
– If you are a FTW person OR ally, and want to donate items to the gear swap.
– If you are a business/organization that has items we can collect for a raffle we do during the event. We are currently looking for food/warm beverages donations as well if you are part of a food establishment.

Thank you for reading, and we hope to see you at the WSS!

At the Winter Skill Share, our goal is to tap into the deep wisdom of our Twin Cities FTW biking community so that we can all have a safe, fun winter riding season. We will learn together by sharing our experiences of winter biking from our own unique perspectives.

This event is NEWBIE and BEGINNER FRIENDLY! Come with questions and leave feeling confident and ready to take on Minnesota’s most interesting season.

This event is FREE and open to all FTW (femme, trans nonbinary, two-spirit and women) riders! If you are a cis man who benefits from cis-male privilege, please respect this space and do not attend this event. Read more about WTF is FTW.

Online Skill Share – Saturday, November 7, 11am to 2pm

Co-hosted by BikeMN

Register for the event on EventBrite: tinyurl.com/y2duyaoo
We will share the Zoom link with registered participants. Capacity is limited to 100 people so register ASAP!

Workshops will be on self-care, bike maintenance, what to wear, and bike routing/handling. There will be ongoing raffle prizes during chats too!

Outdoor Skill Share & Gear Swap – Saturday, November 8, 11am to 2pm

Meet up for the in-person (but socially distanced) skill share and gear swap at the tennis courts on the southwest corner of Powderhorn Park. Masks are required!

We will do a stretch and go-around, then let people begin biking (or diving!) to the workshop stops. Each session will be 15 minutes long. The Gear Swap will happen at one of these stops so be prepared to bring home goodies! The skill share and gear swap ends at the Powderhorn Park near the picnic tables where we will have another raffle!