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Casey Wytaske

Professional Mechanic & Advocate for Women in the Bicycle Industry

Casey Wytaske is a professional bicycle mechanic and mountain bike coach who dedicates her time to empowering women in cycling. She found her passion for bike mechanics through volunteering at a local non-profit in 2013 and has since gained extensive experience, including training at the United Bicycle Institute and working as a demo technician for Liv Cycling. Casey is proud to represent Liv Cycling and she is committed to encouraging others, especially women, to learn bike maintenance and share that knowledge with their community.

Liv: Tell us a bit about your background and how you became a bike mechanic.

Casey Wytaske: Back in 2013, I started volunteering at a local non-profit called Key City Bike, a place where you can donate your bike, and volunteers fix it up, to be given back to the community. I eventually took over as the Executive Director there, and while in that role, I saw an ad for United Bicycle Institute that was doing a women's bike mechanic scholarship. I thought that it would be incredible if I was actually certified.

I started with Liv in June 2018. During my time with Liv, I actually went to the scholarship, and got certified as a mechanic. I have been working on bikes ever since.

Liv: You’ve hosted a quite few women's mountain bike maintenance clinics. What have been some of your takeaways, and what do you plan to do in future clinics?

Casey Wytaske: My biggest takeaway is women want to wrench on their own bikes.

There are so many times I've gone into shops, and shops say, “Nah, women don't really want to do that.” I can guarantee from experience that women want to wrench on their own bikes. They want to know how to fix their bikes. I love giving women that resource.

Liv: What was the first clinic you taught?

Casey Wytaske: The very first clinic I ever taught was through Liv. I can't remember what it was called, but I remember Steph Allen, who at the time was a fellow demo tech, was training me to do the clinic.

I watched and I learned, and I was in so much awe of her. I liked how she broke everything down and explained everything. I just wanted to be as cool as her, and I feel like I'm there now. I feel like I can finally teach at her level.

Liv: If you could go back in time and talk to yourself when you were just starting out, what guidance would you share?

Casey Wytaske: I would say, there's always time to volunteer. All the things I started out doing, like volunteering as a coach or as an executive director– I made time to volunteer, and that's what brought me to where I am today.

Always find time, even if it's an hour a week. Go to your local bike kitchen and fix flats for that hour, or mentor a kid or take a kid mountain biking. Just put in that time, it will add up.

Liv: For women who want to become a bike mechanic, what would you say to them?

Casey Wytaske: Go get certified first. Go get your United Bicycle Institute certification, and the reason for that is because that lays down the foundation so that you know the very basics of how to wrench on bikes…You learn the very basics to be a good mechanic, so even when you come into something that's difficult, or a new challenge, you have that foundation for figuring that out.

Liv: What energizes you about the cycling space and doing bike maintenance, especially seeing other women coming into it?

Casey Wytaske: It energizes me seeing more women coming into cycling. Girls Gone Gravel and Feisty Media came out with a shirt that says, “it's not a moment, it's a movement”, and that's what's exciting– But it is still so small, there is still so little representation, so just seeing there's starting to get some momentum is really exciting.

Liv: What bike do you find yourself reaching for more often right now?

Casey Wytaske: By far, my Devote, I am loving it! I haven't had a chance to play around with the flip chip yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I wanted to get a real good sense of how it feels in the way that it comes set up in the ‘short’ setting. I’m curious to see how I like the geometry in the ‘long’ setting. I also just added a power meter to that bike. I'm having so much fun!