mountaindave 

Curious to know which of us have or currently work in a bike shop.

1. Previously worked in an LBS
2. Currently worke in an LBS
3. Never worked in an LBS
4. Had a good friend who worked in an LBS and let you scam shop tool/time.

Velocivixen

I have a friend who is a professional/trained bike mechanic. They are available for me to ask questions. It's tricky because, as a friend, she will let me use her specialized tools. However I like to offer to pay. She bought those tools so I often tell her I want to pay her. Let her decide the price.

gugie 

Orinda Spoke and Pedal, Orinida, CA 1980-81 (wrench and sales)
Diablo Bike and Repair, Walnut Creek, CA 1981-83 (wrench and sales)
The First Tri, Berkeley, CA 1983-85 (Manager)
Garner's Pro Bike Shop, Redwood City and Palo Alto, CA 1988-89 (summers in between getting an engineering degree)

noglider 

Bike shop mechanic/salesman was my first job. Started in senior year in high school. Did it for two summers. Then after two years in college, I decided to drop out of college for a while. I worked 12 months a year as a bike shop employee until I could get a job in my field, computer science.

Many years later (recently), while I was under-employed, I worked a little in local shops. In summer of 2011, I worked two days a week there for two months. In summer of 2014, I worked there full time for six weeks.

I'm back to being fully employed in my field (now called IT), so I don't work in shops any more.

fiatjeepdriver

I voted currently working in a shop but it's sort of a mix between working and borrowing tools from a friend. I help out at the lbs I race for. It's a nice change of pace when I am out of the restaurants and helps them get through repairs quicker.

bikemig 

Worked in the Bikesmith in New Orleans for many years. It was, I thought, a pretty cool shop; it felt as if the 60s had not quite left.

My favorite job wrenching was in a bike shop in Paris, near the gare de l'est. That was fun. I bought a motobecane and rode all over Paris back when there were few cyclists there. That was some serious traffic jamming.

Those were my college jobs.

Cynikal 

Never worked in a shop but I currently ride/race for my LBS so I can use the shop when needed. I did help start our local Bike Kitchen and ran it for two years. It's shop experiance but was volunteer only.

Barrettscv 

Back in 1973, at the age of 15, I graduated from cutting lawns to start my first real job at George Garner Cyclery in Northbrook, IL. George Garner Cyclery was a performance oriented shop with a large volume of racing bikes sold. At the time, George Garner was the largest Schwinn dealer in the world.

Northbrook has a Velodrome. A wide range of competition track bikes, road bikes and touring bikes were always available to demo. I worked with frame builders & racers including Ron Boi. It was demanding but fun, I was very lucky to be there.

I spent 80% of my summer & weekend income on a Road Race Paramount bicycle, Campagnolo Neovo Record group, wood filled tubular rims and silk sew-ups. I kept the bike for almost 40 years.

USAZorro

Guess my Uncle would have counted as a good friend. I paid halfway close attention to my grandfather building up and truing wheels when I was about 5, helped assemble some of the Raleigh kids' models starting when I was about 10, but didn't really learn how to chase, face, repack, or mess around with bottom brackets or headsets until about 10 years ago. I still leave facing and chasing to the guys who've used the tools.

miamijim

12 years for me.

1984-1996

Started in my junior year of high school, I did it all....repairs, assembled new bikes, worked the sales floor and did light mangement. Sometime a long the way I decided to get a real job, I had the opportunity to buy the place and I'm happy I didnt.

Frogbutter 

Europa Cycles - Waterloo IA '83 thru '85 (Sales/Wrench/Team)
Sunshine Cycles - Hudson IA '86 & '87 (Manager/Wrench/Team)

nlerner

Small world! Did we actually overlap at Garner's? I was hired at the Palo Alto shop as service manager in August of 1989. I only stayed about four weeks, however, as I got an opportunity to start teaching (I had just finished my MA and high school teaching credential at SJSU). Previous to that, I worked at Campus Bicycle on California Ave in Palo Alto from 1986 to 1989.

3speedslow

Off and on depending on the season until brought in for full hrs- Cycles De Oro
Transfered to Bicycle Gallery when we moved to the coast.
Love it as. Part time job now
Lost the "Respectable" job when my company canned me one day back from surgery,hospital,therapy,therapy,therapy.

gugie 

Maybe! I went back to school after being a sales rep (85-88) for three years, and needed to earn some money during the summer, spring and winter breaks. So you worked with Mike over at the Alma shop?

No wonder we're into C&V- at least for me - I know how to work on 'em!

gaucho777 

Glad you started this thread. I've often wondered how many among us are "pro" vs. hobbyist. There are many among us that have served some kind of stint in a LBS, but have moved on to other careers. I wonder also how many are in the cycling industry--say, marketing, design, planning, race support, etc.--but not necessarily an LBS wrench.

When I was racing as a junior, a teammate worked in the LBS. We spent a lot of time together overhauling our race bikes on a regular basis. I never stole shop time, but would go over to his home workshop for any major repairs. Learned a lot from him. Now he's a team mechanic for a UCI pro-tour squad.

Personally, I've never earned a paycheck for anything cycling-related.

uncle uncle

I worked in a family oriented bike shop for about a year and half while in college. I was hired as a salesman, mostly, and when the floor was without customers, I helped with repairs and setting up bikes. I always joke that as a salesman, I made a awful mechanic, but in actuality, I was just as good or better than everyone other than the head mechanic. By the time I left, I was doing 3 speed hub overhauls, which were about as tricky as the repairs got for our shop. Before the shop hired me, I had already bought two bikes from them (the first was stolen), and rode more than anyone else at the shop. While there, under the watchful eye of the head mechanic, I built my Oschner from the frame up, which I still have today.

repechage

Started in 7th grade.
Getting a student work permit was not a done deal, interview and approval by the principal.
Fortunately, that prior semester I earned straight A's. So, he concluded he could not deny the permit on those grounds.
Asked why I wanted to work. To pay for bike racing of course. That and I put a deposit down on a track bike.
Explaining bike racing took nearly a half hour.
Had that job till college.
Returned to work at another bike shop when I resumed college much later.
Left that when I got a Job at the University.

Bike shop work was fun but completely underpaid.

Chrome Molly

I worked in a motorcycle shop in college. Actually a fair amount of carryover from that experience.

mountaindave 

Skilled labor typically is. And then the average Joe complains about costs at an LBS. Can't win for losing. I've always felt that a truly good mechanic (bike, auto or what have you) is worth his/her weight in gold.

I myself had a friend in high school who got me into riding (I never raced officially) and he worked for years at one of our local shops. He helped me out when I needed it and was the spark all those years ago that led me to C&V today.

big chainring 

I was head mechanic at a suburban Chicago bike shop. Worked on tons of Huffy, Columbia, Sears junk. Most of the time you would have to align the frame to get them to work properly. You really get good at mechanics when you work on junk. Its all about bending, and adjusting with a BFH. The brake calipers on those bikes are soft steel. Dropouts and fork ends stamped thin steel. Forks and rear triangles are always out of wack.

I remember a guy maybe 17-18 yrs old came into the store with a Trek. His mom had run over his bike with a car. He was in tears. The Trek was his pride and joy. I looked at it, the rear triangle was all distorted. I said - hey no big deal. Dropped the rear wheel, stepped on one rear dropout, pulled up on the other dropout, pushed and pulled and leveraged it back into place. Checked it with a string, good as new. He was so happy. He was like what do I owe you for that. I told him I do this to bikes all day. Told him no charge, come back and buy something in the future. Enjoy your bike.

The Golden Boy 

If I had worked in a bike shop- they'd probably still be paying out the damages for all the stuff that I'd have messed up.

oddjob2

Just keep indulging her with craft beer or wine!

The LBS in the NJ town I grew up was a one man Schwinn and Raleigh dealer. I would not have wanted to work there and had too many other H.S. interests, like playing varsity football, ski team, fencing team, and tennis. Work included mowing lawns, ad circular delivery, caddying, and busboy.

The Golden Boy 

That is inspirational.

Thanks for that.

Velocivixen

@oddjob2 - She prefers cocoa/hot chocolate. Sometimes I take her lunch.

Zoku620

Age 15-18 Bucks County, 27-33 back and forth Philly/Central PA. Motorcycle industry between and after.