Bikes and Crafts

Want a head start to a mentally strong 2026 on bikes? Let’s craft about it!

Hosted by Kaia Jensen, professional mountain bike athlete with a BS in Behavioral Neuroscience and over 10 years of mountain bike coaching experience. The information presented and practiced in these sessions are based off of what she has learned over the years, and in addition to growing together, the aim to bring the people of Bellingham together as the Big Dark transitions into the spring.

Join us every Sunday evening through April 12th to develop mental frameworks for overcoming fear and injury, and grow the neural pathways for mental GRIT through crafting and riding bikes. We will start each session with a small lecture/structured discussion regarding the topic, and then practice the skill while crafting/riding bikes on Galbraith. This way we can practice the hard parts of the mental side of mountain biking (learning new things, failing, trying again, overcoming fear and listening to ourselves) in a safe place, without risk of injury, and with the support of friends.

Each session will build off of the last, and the features we are practicing on will be determined by the interest of the group during the indoor sessions, so the more sessions you come to, the more you will get out of the workshop.

All ages welcome, but the content and pace of these sessions will best suited for older teenagers and adults.

Info: For our first session, we will introduce mental frameworks by working through an example of Kaia's mental framework. We will start with a small lecture joined by discussion and practice, then craft.

Craft theme: Building structure and repeating patterns

Craft suggestions: friendship bracelets, knitting, crocheting, beading, making jewelry

Bring: water bottle, writing utensil, and your current craft project or supplies for the afore mentioned crafts

Info: For our second session, we will build on what we established the prior week. We will work on customizing our mental frameworks and practice mental GRIT and overcoming fear by either learning a new craft or add a layer that builds on what we did last week.

Craft theme: Trying something new, building on the prior week

Craft suggestions: friendship bracelets, knitting, crocheting

Bring: water bottle, writing utensil, and your current craft project or supplies for the afore mentioned crafts

Info: For our third session, we will work on rebuilding. Getting hurt is part of mountain biking, just like failing is part of learning, and what matters most is what you do afterwards. This week we will work on building back confidence after injury, and repairing things that might’ve been broken.

Craft theme: Repair, reuse, repurpose, rebuild

Craft suggestions: Repairing broken things, patching clothes and equipment, repurposing recycled materials, making something new out of something old, making collages.

Bring: water bottle, writing utensil, and your current craft project or supplies for the afore mentioned crafts

Info: The content of this session will be influenced by the progression/interest of the participants of the former sessions

Info: For our fifth session, we are hitting the dirt. This will be a no drop ride focused on practicing using the mental frameworks we have developed over the last month. The features we use to practice this will be influenced by the discussions over the last month.

Craft theme: Biking

Bring: water bottle, mountain bike, helmet, snacks, protective gear, copy of your customized mental framework

*Although this is a no drop ride, and all ages and abilities welcome, this session will be focused on practicing implementing mental frameworks and is not a bike riding lesson. Regardless of your ability level, we will all be working on the same things. There is no obligation or expectation to hit any of the features we talk about or are looking at. This session is not the time to hit that scary feature you have been looking at forever, but is a time to practice the mental side of lining up to hit features you are scared of, or just for doing something for the first time.

Info: For our sixth session be will expanding on the last session. We will practice implementing mental framework techniques, and adapt to different features. The features we use to practice this will be influenced by the discussions over the last month and last session.

Craft theme: Biking

Bring: water bottle, mountain bike, helmet, snacks, protective gear, copy of your customized mental framework

*Although this is a no drop ride, and all ages and abilities welcome, this session will be focused on practicing implementing mental frameworks and is not a bike riding lesson. Regardless of your ability level, we will all be working on the same things. There is no obligation or expectation to hit any of the features we talk about or are looking at. This session is not the time to hit that scary feature you have been looking at forever, but is a time to practice the mental side of lining up to hit features you are scared of, or just for doing something for the first time.

Info: For our seventh session, we are back to the basics. Over the last two riding sessions, we will have identified some thin spots in our riding/repertoire. This week we are focusing on reps to close the gaps, rebuild what might have been lost after an injury or establish new patterns.

Craft theme: Experimenting

Bring: water bottle, mountain bike, helmet, snacks, protective gear, copy of your customized mental framework

*Although this is a no drop ride, and all ages and abilities welcome, this session will be focused on practicing implementing mental frameworks and is not a bike riding lesson. Regardless of your ability level, we will all be working on the same things. There is no obligation or expectation to hit any of the features we talk about or are looking at. This session is not the time to hit that scary feature you have been looking at forever, but is a time to practice the mental side of lining up to hit features you are scared of, or just for doing something for the first time

Info: The content of this session will be influenced by the progression/interest of the participants of the former sessions

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Host or Publisher Kaia Jensen