The 10th annual Winter Welcome Jam will be hosted at the park in Winter 2024. At the heart of the jam is BMX, friends and good times. All ages welcome to the jam! Come out for a good time with friends and bikes. Head to this LINK for more details. Please note that there is a $5 spectator fee for this event.
We close the park down for our Ride Like a Girl event until 2pm to give all the participants space to learn! General riding on March 18th & 19th will be from 2-10pm with adjusted pricing.
S&M Bikes is turning 35 and celebrating with a new full length movie “Built Different.” We’ll be premiering this new video at the park this Saturday, December 3rd! Movie starts at 7pm. The premiere is free to watch, but if you want to ride the park normal rates apply.
Join us on Friday, October 27th and get ready for some Halloween fun at The Wheel Mill! From 6:00-9:00pm, we will be throwing a Halloween Session including a best costume contest, riding contests and trick and treat! What? Trick AND Treat? We put our on spin on things and riders will go around to different rooms where guest pros will be hanging out, the rider has to do a trick to get candy or a prize!
The event is free with paid park admission or monthly pass!
SCHEDULE:
– 6:15pm – Trick and Treat (All over the park)
– 7:00pm – Strider Race
– 7:45pm – Skid Contest (By the Pump Track)
– 8:30pm – Footdown and Best Costume Awards (Fundamental Skills Room)
Thanks to our event sponsors: Live Jaunt, Shadow, Kink BMX, Subrosa Brand, Cinema BMX, Fit Bike Co., and S&M Bikes
We’ve teamed up with BikePGH to bring you Fundamentals of City Cycling Class. This class is taught at The Wheel Mill’s indoor practice facility. Veteran bike educators Mike Potoczny, Karen Brooks and Harry Geyer are the instructors.
The Wheel Mill’s indoor venue, and the class’s small-group, allow participants to learn and practice city cycling skills in a controlled, protected environment. Participants will learn some on-bike skills from the League of American Bicyclists’ Traffic Skills 101 curriculum. Each class’s subject will differ depending on attendance, participant-demand and instructor judgement; but if you come with a particular question, you’ll leave with an answer. Classes will deal with subjects such as:
– Proper body, hand, and foot position, and riding while standing up
– Skills for starting & stopping in traffic
– Using proper hand-signals to convey your movement
– Techniques for handling common obstacles such as railroad tracks, potholes and curbs
– How to perform a pre-ride safety check and select the right gearing
– How to adjust your bike for better comfort and control
Riders will have time before and after the class to practice new skills in The Wheel Mill’s Warm Up Room and Fundamental Skills Room.
CLASSES OFFERED: Class are $25+tax per class.
October 15th (SAT) 930am-1130am
October 26th (WED) 630-830pm
To sign up stop by the park or sign up online HERE.
We’ve Partnered up with Babes on Bikes to host a night for all the participants of the Frigid Bitch on September 26th, 2022. Frigid Bitches get free entry to the bike park, free mountain bike skills clinic led by the indomitable Karen Brooks & Carley Young, and free MTB rental from Venture Outdoors*
A women & underrepped gender identifying individuals skills clinic for those of any skill level:
– Never been to the Wheel Mill? This is a great time to come get a tour of the massive, cavernous facilities with a group of rad, supportive humans
– Need to get a basic understanding of the skills involved in mountain biking but afraid Frick Park will eat you alive? The Wheel Mill hosts a load of obstacles, ramps, pump tracks, flow tracks that you can try out at exactly your preferred level of gentle–aggro, without having to worry about collapsing bridges, giant snakes, and off-leash dogs
– Already really good at mountain biking and just want to come hang out and ride? Yeah, absolutely do that, for freee
Schedule for Sept. 26th
6pm – bike rentals start and free entry for 2022 Frigid Bitch racers begins
6:30 – tour of the park
7pm – Skills clinic with Karen Brooks and Carley Young
10pm – Park closes. Tired yet?!
Non Frigid Bitch racers who also would like to participate are welcome! The Wheel Mill hosts weekly women+nonbinary nights on Mondays, featuring $5 off park entry fee (=$20) and free entry to the women’s+ clinic.
HELMETS REQUIRED
*Free rentals are limited and on a first-come first-serve bases. If you have a bike, bring it!
Bring the little ones and their push bikes for an all-skills event on Family Night at the park. The races are open to riders 7 and under and are free with paid admission to the park. All riders will receive a free gift at the conclusion of our races.
Times: Practice the course at 6:30pm and race at 7:00pm
Fee: Regular riding rates apply. (Races are free with admission)
Equipment: Don’t have a push bike or helmet? No worries! We have some for rent.
Schedule:
June 24th, 2022
July 29th, 2022
August 26th, 2022
September 30th, 2022
October 21st, 2022
November 18th, 2022
What to Expect: Our races are just for fun! There are no points, no places, just FUN! We usually run 3-4 races per age group. It’s a great chance for your little rider have a good time with other kids.
*Courses, age groups and race time are subject to change dependent on turn out.
Let’s hit the trails and have some fun! Join us for a mountain bike ride through Frick Park.
Dates: September 18th is the last group ride for 2022! Look out for 2023 dates soon
Meet: The Wheel Mill
Time: 10am
Price: Free! (Does not include an indoor park pass)
Length: 10 miles+ with features like steep uphill and downhill terrain with roots, rocks, and obstacles. Mountain bike with knobby tires, suspension, and disc brakes is strongly encouraged.
Helmets: Mandatory
The ride is: No drop and for intermediate or higher level riders or that are 16+
If the rider is under 18, a parent or garden must print and fill out a waiver. Find the waiver at this LINK. Note that this wavier is different than the indoor park waiver.
*Must bring own bike and own gear. Rides may be cancelled due to weather.
This year’s Ride Like A Girl Winter weekend was filled with so much joy and progression. The best part about the park being closed is the echoes of cheers going on in almost every room of the park. Each day ended with riders sharing the best parts of their day for us all to embrace. Everyone was filled with emotions, happy tears, goosebumps, laughter or cheering was how we ended each story. The energy we collectively bring to The Wheel Mill is so inspiring for everyone. The amount of high fives and smiles ladies were sharing as they supported each other throughout the event was amazing.
We have not had this event for two years due to Covid and it was great to get the coaches back together for another successful event. Our coaching lineup this year was Carley Young – BMX, Karen Brooks – MTB, Nina Buitrago – BMX, Kathi Krause – MTB, Shealen Reno – BMX, Shanta Harsa – MTB, Cory Coffee – BMX, Angelica Pietranton – MTB, Sally Sherman – MTB & Yoga. We organized 3 MTB and 3 BMX Classes for the riders to choose from. We designed the classes this year to allow you to stay with the same coach throughout the day so you could make the most progression. We lowered the class sizes to 10 riders per class and loved it so much that we want to keep that for the future! After a long day of riding skill classes, we had an amazing yoga class to stretch our bodies. Then Karen taught a bicycle maintenance class to everyone in the lounge. After that, we filled the Woods Room with all the riders from the day and had a Jump Jam! It was amazing to see how many people learned to ride that room for the first time that day and were brave enough to jump into the massive lady train we had. As the general public was let back into The Wheel Mill, they were greeted with the sign of 60 women riding the biggest room in the park and most for the very first time.
The reason these events are so important for women and non-binary riders is that they allow us to be vulnerable around each other. Having the freedom to try things without being judged, not feeling like we are in the way or just being able to walk the park before riding is huge. This one simple change allows riders to truly see what they are going to ride on while having a coach walk them through the entire line. Having coaches who truly care about the progression of the riders in their class is why we picked the team we did. As coaches, we want to share the knowledge we have with others to help the community grow and help build the confidence and skill within the BMX and MTB community. Giving riders the correct terms and fundamentals they can take what they learn back into their community and help new riders get started off on the right foot. We also hope as coaches, we can inspire other riders to become certified coaches to help keep the education going in the cycling community. Filling the confidence bucket of women in our community also allows for so much growth in the sport.
Looking into the stats of the event, it was so incredible to read that almost half of riders registered for the weekend were 40 and over. This proves that age is just a number when it comes to cycling! This weekend, we met so many women with so many different stories about how they got into riding. Ladies told us how they ride road bikes, ride cross country, ride or race downhill, race bmx, ride bmx freestyle and even commute to work. Whatever the discipline they all shared the same disappointment, that they are doing it often alone. Having these events build the cycling community and make it so women and non-binary riders don’t have to ride alone. We are thankful for Harry and Mike at The Wheel Mill for helping us put together this event. Their support shows others what real men look like in the sport who care about the empowerment we build from hosting these events. Excited to see what the event will bring next year!
Words by: Carley Young (Founder of Ride Like A Girl)
The Winter Welcome Jam was an absolute blast! Footdown World Champion was crowned, Mason Ritter went GT Pro and so much more. Big thanks to everyone who came out and our sponsors! If you missed the jam, check out some videos here:
