Bina Bilenky, the Philadelphia Bike Expo event director, believes deep down everyone is a cyclist.
Since it launched in 2010, the expo has always taken an expansive view on who belongs in the cycling community. Are you a commuter who cycles a couple miles to work every day? A weekend fitness warrior training for your first 100-mile ride? A competitive cyclist seeking the latest innovations? A parent wishing for a leisurely ride with their children? All are welcome.
With 150 vendors, offering products like rain jackets tailored specifically for bike riding, a bell designed so that you can ring it without taking your hands off the brakes and saddles of all shapes and sizes, anyone attending is bound to find something to make their bike riding more pleasurable, comfortable and safer.
Despite the come-one, come-all ethos underlying the event, Bilenky couldn’t help but notice that the message was not reaching everyone. Their audience, like the biking community in general, was dominated by white men. This is the result of a bike culture that has been catering to this demographic since its inception.
A few years ago, Bilenky was discussing this reality with another woman in the industry when an idea was hatched to do something about the racial and gender disparity in custom frame building. The result, launched in 2019, is the PBE x SRAM Inclusivity Scholarships.
There are four scholarship winners every year, and each is provided with free materials and components — SRAM and Industry Nine provide the majority, with some additional parts from Ritchey, Paragon and Columbus/Metal Guru. Two of the winners are partnered with an established frame builder for mentorship.
Brooklyn Fowler, technical marketing manager at SRAM, a bicycle and component manufacturer that makes parts for road, gravel and mountain bikes, was a driving force in creating the scholarship program. “I was super excited when I first went to PBE in 2018. I remember looking at the attendees and wondering why these weren’t more diverse, and what we could do to help empower a wider cross section of people to show up.”
According to Bilenky, there are several hindrances that women, nonbinary and people of color face that might discourage them from frame building. First and foremost, there are financial barriers. Classes can be expensive, and building a bike requires access to tools, materials and a workspace. Second is the obstacle that’s hard to measure: the absence of role models who look like them, whom they might turn to as mentors.
At this year’s expo, which will be held March 8 and 9 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Gabriel Ortiz and Éliane Trudeau, each a winner of the scholarship, will have a bike on display.
“We want to see the industry evolve,” says Bilenky. “The more perspectives we bring in, the more innovative and welcoming cycling will become.”
Gabriel Ortiz: Forging a New Path
In a small bike shop crammed with decades worth of bike parts, Ortiz is crafting his first bike frame. Located on North Second Street near Roosevelt Boulevard, the shop, Bilenky Cycle Works, is owned by the highly regarded frame builder, Philly Bike Expo founder (and father of Bina, the event director), Stephen Bilenky, who is serving as Ortiz’s mentor.
The location of the shop is a homecoming of sorts for Ortiz, who grew up just a few blocks away in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.
Born to Puerto Rican parents who migrated to Philadelphia in the 1980s, he spent his childhood routinely pedaling long distances — like from Flourtown, where his family moved, to Conshohocken — just to meet up with friends. As a college student in Colorado, cycling became a way of life, providing not just transportation but a means of exploration and self-discovery.
His formal education, however, had little to do with bicycles. Ortiz pursued cultural anthropology with a minor in fashion design at Colorado State University, later earning a master’s degree in textile engineering from Philadelphia University. He spent years weaving fabric, designing apparel and working in outdoor gear manufacturing, but cycling remained a constant. Over time, he realized that the cycling world — especially the elite, performance-driven sector — often excluded many people, particularly those from diverse backgrounds.
In Philly, the culture is different. It’s more inclusive, more diverse, more about the joy of riding than just the gear you own.”
— Gabriel Ortiz
“I don’t fit the mold,” Ortiz says, reflecting on his time working at a bicycling magazine as a test editor. “Cycling is still very much a sport that is marketed toward a specific demographic — mostly white, mostly affluent. But in Philly, the culture is different. It’s more inclusive, more diverse, more about the joy of riding than just the gear you own.”
When Ortiz recognized that people like him were not being served, he began to develop a vision. He would like to establish a frame-building business in Puerto Rico, an island rich in cycling culture but without a single custom frame builder. “There’s no infrastructure for it right now,” he says. “But that means there’s an opportunity to create something new.”
The plan is twofold: first, to create a business that handcrafts bikes for locals and visitors alike, and second, to develop Puerto Rico as a cycling destination. He imagines cycling tours to the island’s coffee farms, mountain trails and coastal roads, blending outdoor adventure with cultural immersion. “Puerto Rico is a cyclist’s dream,” he explains. “The weather, the terrain, the history — it has everything. But it hasn’t been marketed that way yet.”
Before that dream materializes, Ortiz is focused on finishing his first frame. The bike, which will debut at the 2025 Bike Expo, won’t be for personal use — he plans to donate it to a nonprofit. “For me, this whole journey is about access,” he says. “If I can help someone get on a bike, whether through building, repairing or just encouraging them to ride, that’s a success.”
Éliane Trudeau: Redefining Who Belongs
Like Ortiz, Éliane Trudeau never expected cycling to become the center of her life. What began as a practical means of commuting to college became a passion. She spent eight years as a bike messenger before undertaking a three month, 8,500-kilometer “bikepacking” journey across Canada with her friend — and future business partner — Ronny Perez Jaramillo. That experience laid the foundation for Memento Cycles, the Montreal-based bike fabrication business she cofounded.
Trudeau’s interest in frame building stemmed from necessity. As a courier, she relied on cargo bikes but found most models — which were usually European-made — to be too expensive. With an engineering degree under her belt, she and Jaramillo decided to design and fabricate their own. “We just had the idea to make cargo bikes in Montreal,” she recalls. “I called him and mentioned the idea, and it just started rolling.”
Memento Cycles has quickly gained a following, particularly among couriers and adventure cyclists, and they have had a steady stream of orders for their bicycles. However, running a small, independent frame-building business comes with challenges — especially in an industry still dominated by men. “It’s getting better, but it’s still mostly white men in these spaces,” she says. “Representation matters, and that’s why programs like the Philadelphia Bike Expo Inclusivity Scholarship are important.”
After initially applying for the scholarship in 2023 and not being selected, Trudeau still attended the expo, where her pink, trans-themed bike won the People’s Choice Award. Encouraged by event organizers to reapply, she did so in 2024 and was awarded the scholarship.
If people were used to seeing women and trans folks in workshops, this wouldn’t be shocking to them.”
— Éliane Trudeau
Trudeau sees herself not just as a frame builder, but as an advocate. “I wish I had seen people like me when I was younger,” she says. “It took me until I was 27 to realize I was trans, largely because I never saw positive representation.”
Her visibility, however, has come with backlash. After her success at the expo, she began receiving transphobic comments online, an experience that escalated when SRAM featured her in a short film. “It just shows why representation is important,” she says. “If people were used to seeing women and trans folks in workshops, this wouldn’t be shocking to them.”
Despite the challenges, Trudeau is expanding Memento Cycles and recently brought on a new partner, Aube — another trans woman. Their upcoming project, a hardtail mountain bike, will debut at the 2025 Bike Expo, furthering their goal of making cycling more accessible.
