The Philly Bike Expo is excited to announce the winners of the 2020 PBE x SRAM Inclusivity Scholarship for Framebuilders.
The program is in its second year of supporting women, trans, and POC framebuilders who have been underrepresented at bike shows and in the industry at large. The four scholarship recipients will receive cooperative booth space at the 2020 Philly Bike Expo with their travel and accommodations covered. They will also receive a complete SRAM build for their show bike, and free shipping courtesy of BikeFlights.
About the Builders
Guy Stone / Relstone Cycles, Cincinnati, OH
Guy began building frames in 2016 after taking courses in TIG brazed frame construction. For the past four years, he has averaged about ten brazed steel frames per year, covering many styles.
Stone is very involved in his local riding community, providing volunteer accounting services to the Cincinnati Off-Road Association (CORA) including filing the organization’s tax returns, consulting and audit support. With his wife, Stone started a charity to make donations to individual trail stewards within the CORA system.
“I have a lifelong passion for cycling,” says Stone “I (also) have the deepest passion for serving veterans and those that have suffered a traumatic injury. Two-wheeled therapy is a positive outlet to promote healing and coping with injuries.” Stone looks to the future in which he can donate a complete custom bike every year for a veteran or other individual who has suffered from a traumatic injury.
His long-term career goal is to acquire a larger frame shop with machine tools. Similar to his mentor Joe Bringheli, Stone would like to offer frame building tools and supplies in addition to bicycles.
“I hope that seeing an African American male participate in the Philly Bike Expo will inspire other people of color.”
Meet Mari Anzicek / Anzicek Fabrication, Detroit Michigan
Mari Anzicek is a bike mechanic who has begun to realize her dream of becoming a frame builder, studying welding at her local community college, and completing the UBI Framebuilding course.
Anzicek teaches WTF-specific service classes at the bike shop where she works, and regularly looks to hire and train women bike mechanics. She is a voice of progressive policies of change both at work and in life- especially related to including more women and POC in the cycling community.
Her goals include getting more practice designing and building bike frames with the long term goal of having a fully sustainable bike framebuilding business. “I am particularly interested in building bikes that serve the needs of the people in my community, including cargo bikes,” she says. “I have a strong passion to get more people on bikes, especially those underrepresented in the cycling community. My hope is to continue to grow my skills to better serve the people around me.”
Caren Hartley / @isenworkshop Surrey, UK
Having built under her own name as well as for Saffron Frameworks and Rusby Cycles, Caren Hartley’s current focus at ISEN Workshop is on building bikes for smaller riders.
“We make sure to only use real womxn and smaller riders in our promotional photos and as our ambassadors, both showing womxn at work in our workshop and also as riders and racers.” says Hartley. She gives presentations at schools and colleges and volunteers at London Bike Kitchen's WaG (womxn and gendervariant) DIY Bike Maintenance Nights.
Caren is committed to showing smaller riders that cycling is for them too, and they can see themselves represented in the sport. “I have a lot of experience designing for smaller riders, so I understand well some of the problems and barriers to cycling they may face,“ she says. “Their experience of cycling is often so much poorer than their counterparts that fit larger-sized bikes. Small bikes are often so poorly designed that the riding experience they give is challenging and sometimes terrifying, but because a smaller rider has often never experienced a bike that fits them, they think the problem is with them.”
Beth Morford / @frontier_bikes, Eudora Kansas
A former Olympic Sports Massage Therapist turned bike shop owner, Morford is now adding frame builder to her resume. Having completed the Yamaguchi Frame Building School in ‘17 and apprenticing under Julie Pedalino, she continues to turn to Julie for mentorship and guidance. Morford leads urban WTF rides in her Eudora KS community, and hosts open shop nights at her bike shop free of charge for anyone who wants to tinker on their bikes.
“We adhere to the @wtfbikexplorers Industry Pledge at my shop and just in life in general,” says Morford. “I have the deepest passion for serving any and all womxn, adults and youth!”
She is excited to receive the PBExSRAM scholarship, saying “It will help take the financial pressure off of me for my PBE build. Framebuilding is not a cheap hobby or career...I already own a brick and mortar bike shop, which is difficult enough to keep open on its own,” continuing, “Long-term, this scholarship will help me develop new and stronger relationships within the industry, which is invaluable in and of itself.”
ABOUT PHILLY BIKE EXPO
The Philly Bike Expo is an annual weekend-long event featuring exhibitors, seminars, presentations and events representing the spectrum of cycling. Founded by Bilenky Cycle Works in 2010 as a way to promote cycling culture, the PBE has grown to one of the largest cycling trade shows in the US. Last year’s sold-out show hosted nearly 200 exhibitors and 5,000 attendees. PBE 2020 takes place November 14 & 15.
