It’s not every day that I have a chance to chat with a “professional bike rider,” so I was happy to jump on this opportunity to interview a Provo high school teacher who’s teaching a class in bicycle rebuilding and maintenance. How all this mentioned comes together, I’ll try to explain…
On a recent Tuesday I pedaled out to Independence High School, located adjacent to Paul Ream Wilderness Park, to interview Alice Ficklin who has been an instructor for 22 years at the aforementioned school. Although I arrived on time, just before the final bell for the day, Alice explained that she could give me only thirty minutes because she had a scheduled delivery to do right after our meeting that afternoon— a delivery of finished refurbished bikes destined for Timpanogos Elementary School. I could already see that this was one busy educator!
Alice teaches a “Bike Repair Class” to students who take the class as a P.E. elective, “either requested or assigned.” The program is in its third year running and accommodates “sixteen students max (8-10 now)” per trimester. “I had a girl take it [the class] for three years, 2022 to 2024,” Alice mentions enthusiastically. The class proudly delivers between “thirty to fifty bikes repaired per year; some of them go to the [Provo] Bike Collective, the ones we’re working on now go to Timpanogos Elementary, but mostly we work with the Bike Collective.”
Alice first gave me a tour of the class’s workshop in an ancillary room accessed through the school’s gymnasium. The not too large space appeared neat and adequately supplied with a workbench, repair stand, and assorted bicycle maintenance parts and tools. A glowing green, Roam Electrics electric-assist that looked nearly brand new sat off to one side, it was Alice’s, a bike that she was the recipient of during a BikeWalk Provo “E-Bike Nomination Giveaway” six months prior. Alice goes on to express just how much this gift still means to her.
“Three times a week we ride bikes instead of repair, we get them [the students] out on the trail. One day we ride towards the lake and another day towards Walgreens, for 45 minutes. We have our own fleet of bikes for students to ride.” Alice also commutes to work “most days” on her Roam, a three-minute ride from 5th North, and “my family likes to go on bike rides twice a week.” They enjoy riding along the Provo River Trail to Utah Lake and beyond the airport on “the commuter trail” adjacent to Lakeview Parkway, as well as the unimproved trail/road west of the airport. Alice has put “close to 200 miles, or a little more” on her Roam since receiving it.
“I’ve ridden bikes all my life, but now I'm learning how to repair bikes.” I ask Alice if she has any major concerns in riding Provo’s streets, “oftentimes they’re full of trash and gravel, the right-hand bike lanes, pieces of cars that have fallen off cars.” Other than that, what does it feel like being out there on the road, “I feel like a goofy person that always has a smile on my face.”
And about that professional bike rider claim stated in the first paragraph? Alice smiles as she tells me, “I’m a professional bike rider, they pay me to ride.” Yes, she’s right.
