Fort William Foxes!

We love hearing about folk finding love for the trails, and how community groups can make that experience more accessible to people from all backgrounds.

For a group of students in Fort William, starting group rides for women on bikes and having fun together has developed into an important part of the local outdoor scene, keeping the fun and social aspect of riding strong.

Here we hear more from, Jodie Standen, one of the Foxes, on how and why they formed, and how they would like to develop into the future.

Fort William Foxes is a community of like-minded women in the Lochaber area who enjoy mountain biking and want to promote diversity within the sport and to empower more women to bike by giving them support.

We run social rides and events for female riders to meet and share their love of biking as well as running open invite rides for anyone, regardless of gender, to meet and ride together.

FWF also wants to encourage women to take up biking and help to organise bikes and equipment for people to come and have a go.

We also aim to promote opportunities for women to learn and develop their riding abilities as well as their knowledge of bike maintenance. We do this by running our own maintenance nights with the help of a local bike shop and its mechanics and using social media to share a wider range of content within our community.

FWF came about from a group of female students who decided to enter the Strathpuffer 24 hour enduro race as an all-girls team.

From this, FWF has extended to a committee of 8 female riders who plan and organise rides, events, social media content and form links with other local philanthropy groups.

We also have many other ‘foxes’ who come to our rides and events to meet other women, share their love for mountain biking, and form new friendships and connections.

Future plans for the Fort William Foxes include expanding our network of women in the Lochaber area to provide more opportunities for women to meet and get outside on their bikes.

We plan on doing this by working together with local businesses and charities to allow for Foxes and mountain biking to be more accessible whilst having a positive impact on our community.

We also hope to have some of our members enter a variety of races and work together as a community to support and encourage each other in our endeavours.

To see what Fort William Foxes are up to follow us on Instagram!

FORT WILLIAM FOXES