Hope Tech Women’s Ride Series and New Website
Hope Tech have just launched their new Hope Tech Women website and have been running a series of women’s rides up and down the country, welcoming women of all abilities to ride together, find new trails and check out some beautiful bikes at the same time. We had the chance to check out what the session was all about when our home trails made it onto the schedule.
The Hope Tech team want to give a little back and get more people riding. They also want to see more women riding so they’ve launched the Hope Tech Womens ride series – it’s not girlie, it’s not patronising – it’s just the most welcoming relaxed way to spend an evening with like minded new pals.
So what are the Hope Women’s ride sessions aiming to achieve? There’s no hard sell of Hope gear, in fact, Hope aren’t trying to sell you anything at all on their sessions. The main point of the evening sessions is to get us ladies out riding together, meeting new people and hopefully creating a few new riding crews along the way.
ENDURO joined the ride out at Glentress on 31st May on a beautiful summer evening – 30 lady riders grouped together in the car park, all chatting, checking out each others bikes and marvelling at the Scottish sunshine.
Some lucky riders had registered to take out some tricked out Hope components, attached to some incredible frames – shiny new Santa Cruz Bronsons, Juliana Roubions and Orange 4s were the envy of the rest of us.
Hope Tech have made their rides as inclusive as possible with climbing pace set by the riders, not the leaders and the descents chosen are fun and achievable by all. It’s not about racing or training, it’s about getting inspired, boosting confidence and meeting people. Oh, and there is cake and tea at the end – could there be a better end to a ride?
As women, we are welcome to ride with the lads but, it is undeniably nice to ride with other women. The confidence we gain from the camaraderie and encouragement makes us better riders because we’re happier riders.
Hope’s Brand Manager Rachael Walker can hold her own with the best of the boys but she loves the banter of riding with other ladies – she admits that the idea for the Hope Rides came from her wanting to meet more women riders where she lives and that idea has just spread up and down the country.
We all had a lovely evening, riding with people we wouldn’t normally bump into on the trails, I had a good chat with friends new and old and got to do a bit of a pedal so it was a top notch event all told. To keep it inclusive the Hope Team decided to keep on some nice easy trail centre which got the girls on the test bikes raring for something more testing. I joined a bunch that decided to take a more technical descent to get the suspension working and joined a whooping and hollering train of ladies over some roots and rocks down to the valley floor before returning to base in perfect time for tea. Much facebook befriending commenced and I was left astounded that there are so many women out there that I am one degree of separation and just haven’t met yet.
If there is a Hopetech Women’s ride in your area, please go along. If you think it’ll be too easy then go for a friendly cruise, if you think it’ll be too hard, you’ll be amongst the most supportive friendly people imaginable and you’ll leave a more confident rider for it.
To check out if there is a Hope session in your area – take a look at their new Hope Tech Women Website or their new facebook channel. You’ll end the evening with a few new facebook buddies and people to call on when you fancy an evening spin without the testosterone.
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Words: Photos: Cat Smith and Mattyy Simpson Photography
