Podcast appearances and mentions of jude gerace

Jude Gerace, owner of Sugar Wheel Works, joins us in Episode 46. We talk wheel building, running a small business, being one of the few women in the cycling industry, mentors, getting involved in the community, bike riding, sustainability, Safe Routes to Schools, and a bit about puppies. Hear Her Sports Female where athletes share secrets to speak up, live with power & confidence, and do amazing things.

What a pleasure it was to talk with our friend, Jude, owner of Sugar Wheel Works.  She is a master of her craft and makes beautiful handbuilt wheels here in Portland.  A great conversation you don't want to miss!  We love you and what you do, Jude!  

Arleigh Greenwald talks with Jude Gerace from Sugar Wheelworks as they discuss why service should always be the answer in the bike industry, why we need to move away from the "independent bicycle dealer" framework & being a woman in the bike industry.   Make sure to join the conversation using #betterbikeindustry on your favorite social channel. Show notes can be found at: shiftuppodcast.com

Join us for our first episode, a frank and funny conversation between three leading ladies of the bike industry: Beverly Lucas, CEO of Knight Composites; Jude Gerace, owner of Portland's custom wheel building studio, Sugar Wheel Works; and Katie Compton, 12-time National Cyclocross Champion and all-around bicycling badass.

In this edition of Making Oregon, we feature Jude Gerace, founder of Sugar Wheel Works in Portland. She talks with us about her entrepreneurial story, how she came to love cycling, develop her craft, and the elements behind her drive to make high-quality bike wheels. Jude remembers her first bicycle, a pink, second-hand Schwinn Fair Lady and how it represented the gift of independence. By the age of 14 she had 3 jobs—one of them a business she started herself—complete with a jingle she wrote to attract customers. Jude explains some of the difficult turning points in her life, and how she got from Chicago to Eugene to Portland. She’ll talk about what she learned in her travels, how cycling became not only a passion but a career path, and how she “collects brains” to continually build her expertise. Jude explains what it took to boot strap her business and what happened when her original business name was contested by a larger company. She has a lot to teach us about building a team, especially what she has learned from one of her employees, Dan, a young man who is living with autism. Jude also reveals some of her own ongoing struggles, like the difficulty in achieving the elusive work-life balance, dealing with fear, and how she see thinks about the future growth of her business.