Bike Shop Girl

Welcome to Bike Shop Girl!  I feel honored that you have made it this far around the site, and are interested enough to want to know the background.

Send your questions, comments or love to Girly@BikeShopGirl.com
You can also follow on Twitter @BikeShopGirlcom

About Bike Shop Girl

Cycling is a form of romance to me.  It can be compared to an early fresh brewed cup of coffee, the fog over mountains, or a deep kiss before a long departure.   The feeling that cycling creates within me rivals the creation of art and influence. I hope over the years to share and teach this feeling to as many people as humanly possible!

Name: Arleigh Jenkins
Location: Charlotte, NC
Cliff Note Resume: Pro Level Mechanic, extensive bike fitting knowledge and experience, successfully managed bike shops within the US industry, but most importantly there are 1,000′s of happy bike owners and cyclists out there thanks to me.

Moving Forward – My Story

During the summer of 2009 I was managing a great shop in the suburbs of Charlotte, NC.   The shop is a higher end shop, proud in its customer service, higher end bike sales and service to especially women.   Every road bike we sold had a fitting included.   A woman called in requesting to get re-fit on her bike as she had been having saddle issues since purchasing the bike.   She also requested a woman if possible to do the fitting.

She came in and explained that she was numb, in area’s of your crotch you don’t want numb.   She had asked her riding buddies and a mechanic when she picked up her bike from servicing a few weeks before, “Is discomfort in that region normal?”   Every guy chalked it up to being a new rider and getting used to the bike.  The lady also didn’t explain to the guys, as she didn’t feel comfortable, what was actually happening.  (I don’t blame her.)

At that moment something clicked.   If this type of issue was happening in my shop, it was happening everywhere.   The knowledge to prevent this was available, but the person that sold you your bike forgot to tell you.

From there BikeShopGirl.com started.   The tag line “empowering women in cycling” started and things were moving quickly.   Thanks to friends with Trek Bikes and my social media marketing ties the word spread quickly.

Since starting this site I have left the shop life, spent a couple years in marketing (while still feeding this blog) and now you can find me the Southeast outside rep for Quality Bicycle Products. You can read all about the job here.

Review Process

All reviews are for no less than 6 weeks, unless noted in review.  Providing an unbiased review platform that may be brutal at times but the consumer is just as brutal, if not worse.   Regardless if the product is one from a sponsor of the website or friend it will be an honest and fair opinion.  My goal of this site is to create educated consumers, not to sell product.

Guest Post

I encourage guest posting. This may be an interview, product review, random story, or race report.   The bike culture is wide and there isn’t anyway in a day I could cover what is going on.  If you have something to share, please let me know!

em:pwr cycling

em:pwr cycling is a group/team focused around motivating and EMPOWERING yourself and others on bikes.   From the beginner to the CAT1 racer, you’ll have a home with us.  Also, we don’t have to be your “race team” but a large group of us are racers and will be all over the circuit in the United States. (From old fat guys, to junior mountain bikers and of course a boat load of chicks kicking ass!)