Paige Stuart turned a hobby into a full-time profession working with elite athletes – and she’s passing on her expertise in the local bike community.
Paige Stuart probably didn’t expect an off-season hobby to turn into a full-time job that would take her around the globe – but that’s exactly what happened.
Stuart moved to Moab in 2011 and was looking for an enriching way to fill her winters off from her job with USGS. She enjoyed welding and tinkering in her free time and decided to take a bike mechanic course through the United Bicycle Institute in 2016. After a two-week comprehensive introduction, she was using her new skills to service her own bikes, but word had spread that there was a savvy new mechanic in town.
The owner of Bike Fiend cold-called Stuart and asked her to shadow for a day. Soon, she had an offer and began her “trial by fire” as a shop mechanic. After a year at Bike Fiend, Stuart briefly moved into other gigs before returning to the world of bikes with a new job at Chile Pepper Bike Shop in early 2018.
Soon, Stuart had made a name for herself as a great mechanic and was turning heads outside of Moab. In early 2021 Sara Jarrell, the women’s program coordinator at the bike component company SRAM, connected Stuart to Liz Walker, a racing team manager at women-focused bike company Liv Cycling who was looking for a mechanic for the women’s team.
In the blink of an eye she had interviewed, received an offer, and was on a plane to Germany to start a new position as a Liv Race Mechanic.
Since that whirlwind hire, Stuart has traveled to numerous events overseas for the World Cup circuit.
“It’s typical to travel with the team and be the only mechanic,” Stuart says. “You help the athletes in the days leading up to the races to get their bikes dialed for race day. On race day you’re there to send them off at the start line, and you’re in the pit zone with tools and supplies in the event that they have a mechanical during the race.”
In what she considers her career highlight so far, she supported two Liv professional women’s teams for Cape Epic, an eight-day mountain bike stage race often considered the toughest in the world.
“That was a little bit more intense than a typical race,” Stuart says. She was moving locations throughout the week to each new stage, and taking care of the bikes and athletes throughout the entire event.
“Seeing the highest level of competition is really exciting,” Stuart says. “You get to be right in the middle of the action of the top-tier athletes in the sport, and it’s a thrilling part of it.”
In a male-dominated industry, Stuart has made space for herself at the top level. According to Zippia.com, only 8.6 percent of bike mechanics in the United States are women. It’s common for Stuart to be one of two, if not the only, female mechanics at events.
Since her work on the World Cup circuits, Stuart has transitioned to Liv’s domestic gravel team, allowing her to travel less overseas and spend more time in Moab, where she is an active part of the local bike scene.
“I love the Moab bike community. It’s just become my friends and my family,” she says. “It’s a huge part of why I love being in Moab. It’s just very inclusive and very proactive in getting people together to enjoy bikes. There’s always a friend to go ride with, and it helps build community.”
She shouts out local organizations and events like Moab Community Cycles, Moab Bike Party, and Moab Bike Association.
Stuart herself is championing several exciting initiatives in town. She’s part of the core group leading the Moab chapter of Radical Adventure Riders, a cycling organization that promotes gender inclusivity and racial equity in cycling and the outdoors. The chapter led its first bikepacking trip in November of 2023 and holds programming open to women, trans, femme, and nonbinary riders.
Stuart also instructs monthly Women’s Maintenance Night at Chile Pepper bike shop, an inclusive event that encourages that same audience to meet new friends, learn bike maintenance skills, and work on their own bikes.
“It’s a really awesome free resource and an excuse to get a bunch of women interested in cycling together,” Stuart says.
She hopes that whether the attendees are interested in becoming mechanics themselves or just want to learn to maintain their own bikes, they’re getting something valuable out of the events.
“I owe a huge debt of gratitude to anyone who has ever taken the time to be a mentor to me or other people,” Stuart says. “I just think building a culture of mentorship is awesome. I try to pay it forward by doing the clinics and always being open and willing to help people learn stuff.”
For any women interested in getting into the bike world, or any trade for that matter, Stuart emphasizes the importance of confidence.
“There’s not always a good way to learn a trade until you’re actually doing it,” she says. “So just go in with confidence in your ability to learn and don’t shy away from selling yourself as a very competent, mechanically skilled person.
“If you start a new trade, you pretty much have to learn on the job. And I do feel like men often get the benefit of the doubt that they can learn whatever trade it is, whereas there’s some kind of default that women lack the ability to learn these technical skills. And it’s just totally false.”
Stuart is a perfect example of learning on the job and rising to the top, as the trajectory of her career clearly shows. In the bike world, companies like Liv and Juliana are working to open more doors for women and shake the “boy’s club” stereotype.
“As more women join the party, it’s going to open the door for other women to want to be there, for one, but also to be able to envision themselves in those roles,” Stuart says. She calls out all the different roles available in the bike industry, whether it’s mechanics, marketers, or designers.
In Moab specifically, there’s no shortage of programs and advocates to get women involved in biking.
“There’s definitely a girl’s club of mountain bikers in Moab – a gigantic, ever-growing one,” Stuart says. “The more diversity and the more women that get brought into the industry, it just adds a lot of comfort and joy to the experience.”
At the end of the day, the joy of bikes is for everyone, and Stuart is excited about the future of the sport, both locally and internationally.
“Everyone’s out here because they love the sport and they love bicycles. And to get to work with people that share that joy is really special.”
Those interested in attending the Women’s Maintenance Nights at Chile Pepper Bike Shop can follow @chilepepperbikes for upcoming event announcements. Information about the RAR Moab chapter can be found at radicaladventureriders.com/chapters/moab.
