About Vie Cycle
Vie Cycle (pronounced /vee/ like the French word for "life") started out as a mobile bike maintenance workshops for women+ (folks who identify as female, trans, intersex, queer, non-binary).
Our NEW mission: Vie Cycle is an event production organization that is focused on building confidence, competence and community through interactive workshops and events.
Our NEW mission: Vie Cycle is an event production organization that is focused on building confidence, competence and community through interactive workshops and events.
|
Why did we start with bikes? Because bikes make people's lives a little bit better. In the early 20th century, bicycles helped to expand women's access to the world. You can thank bicycles for women's liberation, changing gender norms and pants. On top of all those wonderful things, riding makes people happier, healthier, more self-reliant and contributes to a sustainable life style. So how do we keep this cycle of good stuff going? We learn about bikes! We become empowered to ride more and repair our two-wheeled freedom machines so they can keep rolling.
Vie Cycle's original goal was to connect women+ and bikes by offering education and empowerment. Together we started to build a community that is more sustainable and self-reliant. |
|
From 2018 to 2022 Vie Cycle bike workshops and community bike rides took place in Texas, Massachusetts, New York and California.
In 2020 Vie Cycle partnered with Light Me Up Safety Bikes and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to lead Bike the BLVD, a monthly night bike ride with curated outdoor shows and events along the way. This developed into self-guided history and culture tours by bike. The purpose of these events was to build community, reimagine public spaces and showcase the work of upcoming artists.
In 2023, we expanded the mission of the organization to include community building and art projects that empower people. It was still about putting tools in their hands and teaching life skills, but the vessel was not long strictly bicycles. This started with a bridge painting project where Vie Cycle and Ithaca Murals gathered neighbors together to paint a shabby bridge. Another early community partnership was the monthly full moon bike rides with Bike Walk Tompkins. These events quickly became family-friendly lighted bike parades to practice bicycle safety and city riding while enjoying an opportunity to wear costumes and create bike sculptures. In the summer of 2023 Vie Cycle started The Wedding Show, an immersive and interactive theatre event that is devised by a majority queer and female cast. In the spirit of Vie Cycle, the show was about creating something together, learning from one another and empowering women and LGBTQ+ people. The event that takes place with an audience is an unforgettable experience that encourages people to see humanity in everyone, cultivate compassion for strangers, practice sustainable options and step outside their comfort zone.
In 2024 Vie Cycle became a non-profit organization, devoted to supporting and producing community art projects that enhance communities, uplift new artists and promote sustainability.
In 2020 Vie Cycle partnered with Light Me Up Safety Bikes and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to lead Bike the BLVD, a monthly night bike ride with curated outdoor shows and events along the way. This developed into self-guided history and culture tours by bike. The purpose of these events was to build community, reimagine public spaces and showcase the work of upcoming artists.
In 2023, we expanded the mission of the organization to include community building and art projects that empower people. It was still about putting tools in their hands and teaching life skills, but the vessel was not long strictly bicycles. This started with a bridge painting project where Vie Cycle and Ithaca Murals gathered neighbors together to paint a shabby bridge. Another early community partnership was the monthly full moon bike rides with Bike Walk Tompkins. These events quickly became family-friendly lighted bike parades to practice bicycle safety and city riding while enjoying an opportunity to wear costumes and create bike sculptures. In the summer of 2023 Vie Cycle started The Wedding Show, an immersive and interactive theatre event that is devised by a majority queer and female cast. In the spirit of Vie Cycle, the show was about creating something together, learning from one another and empowering women and LGBTQ+ people. The event that takes place with an audience is an unforgettable experience that encourages people to see humanity in everyone, cultivate compassion for strangers, practice sustainable options and step outside their comfort zone.
In 2024 Vie Cycle became a non-profit organization, devoted to supporting and producing community art projects that enhance communities, uplift new artists and promote sustainability.
If you like what Vie Cycle is up to, making a donation to lower the cost of programming and projects for the creators. Your donation is tax deductible and will go towards paying creators and local artists who participate in Vie Cycle projects.
The Inspiration for Vie Cycle
Caring for the environment
Environmental impact has been a weight on my heart ever since I was twelve and decided it was time to make my school district ban disposable styrofoam lunch trays. Fighting to make school cafeterias more environmentally conscious influenced me to adapt my daily routines also. With sustainability in mind, I started cycling everywhere. It seemed obvious that this was the ideal mode of transportation. Not only was it better for the environment than driving, it was more efficient than walking, it strengthened my body and made me feel capable and empowered. My love for cycling took me in many directions, both literally and figuratively.
The intersection of women and bikesThe beginning of my bicycle education happened at Pitzer College, where I started wrenching at a student-run bicycle workshop. A few years later I did an internship at the LA Bicycle Kitchen/Bici Cocina and discovered that many bike cooperatives run a monthly workshop exclusively for women and gender minorities. The atmosphere in a space full of female identifying people is markedly different from the normal feel of a bike shop. It's as if you're a part of a welcoming and supportive community. I became intrigued by this need for women and LGBT+ only shop time and decided to learn more. My curiosity culminated in a thesis about women in bicycle cooperatives.
|
Members of the Green Bike Program, 2008
|
To sum up my research in a a few sentences: Women have a long history with bicycles and cycling needs women almost as much as we need cycling. Women are considered a "species indicator" for bike-friendly cities. That means that the prevalence of women on bikes is directly related to the quality of bike resources and infrastructure in a city. If you don't see a significant number of women biking in your hometown, then it's not doing enough to make cycling accessible. The other side of this is that women are movers and shakers when it comes to influencing changes. If more women are excited about cycling and feel empowered to bike more, we can start to transform the places we bike. But at the same time, biking can transform us by making us stronger, happier, more capable, and independent.
Empowering women+ through bike maintenance
Instructors Calais, Nikita and Sylvie on a snack break. The Art of Bike Touring Workshop, August 2018.
Six bike cooperatives, three bike shops and two bike share programs later I was working at Switched On Bikes in Wellington, New Zealand as a mechanic and an electric bicycle tour guide. At the shop I was often approached by women who wanted to know how I learned to repair bikes. More than that, they wanted to know how they could learn more about their own bicycle. I decided to teach a four-day maintenance course exclusively for women and gender minorities. It was a bigger success than I imagined and we had to double the class size and get three instructors in order to provide the level of facilitation that we envisioned. From my own experience, I knew that learning to repair bikes was empowering, but the reaction from the students showed me that it could be life changing. They hadn't just learned about bicycles; by working together for four weeks they had cultivated competence, self-confidence, and a community with a genuinely encouraging learning culture.
Sylvie Froncek- Founder & Instructor
Sylvie realized her love of cycling when she was 13 years old, training for her first century (100 mile ride) with the AIDS Ride for Life. She learned about bike repair and culture at Pitzer College, where she received a BA in American Studies in 2010. Over the past 10 years she has worked as a mechanic at bike shops and collectives all over the USA and New Zealand. She co-founded the Ontario Wheelhouse (Ontario, CA, USA), The Big Red Bicycle Collective (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA), Big Red Bike Share (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA) and Wellington Wünderbike (Wellington, New Zealand). Sylvie has been a teambuilding facilitator with Cornell University's Team and Leadership Center since 2005 and worked as an Outward Bound Instructor in North Carolina in 2013.
In 2017, Sylvie developed a women's bike maintenance course in Wellington, New Zealand. A year later, during a two-month long bike tour in Patagonia she decided to start Vie Cycle.
Sylvie's current projects include community building events and experiences that uplift the LGBTQI community and youth. Check out our monthly Full Moon Bikes rides in Ithaca NY and The Wedding Show!
Pronouns: She/they
Identity: Queer
Qualifications: League Cycling Instructor (LCI) with the League of American Bicyclists (since 2019)
Bike-Related Credentials Experience:
- Swan Cycles, Ithaca NY
- The Green Bike Program, Claremont CA
- The Ithaca Outdoor Store, Ithaca NY
- LA Bike Kitchen/Bici Cocina, Los Angeles CA
- Co-Founder of the Ontario Wheelhouse, Ontario CA
- Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles, Ithaca NY
- Bike Program Instructor, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
- Bicycles Junction, Wellington New Zealand
- Co-founder of Wellington Wünderbike Bike Share, Wellington New Zealand
- The Mechanical Tempest, Wellington New Zealand
- Switched On Bikes, Wellington New Zealand
- Cycleast, Austin TX
- Tsunami Cycles, Austin TX
- Bikes del Pueblo, San Diego CA
- Summer Cycles, Del Mar CA
- San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, San Diego CA
- Bike Walk Tompkins, Ithaca NY
Vie Cycle supports and partners with...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|