adlai

That's why you offer the class, to get them away from this junk

wheelreason

Salmon gonna salmon. there is not a lot you can do, most around here don't do it cause of ignorance of the law, they do it because they feel it's safer...

Eric F 

Have you recently spent much time around teenagers, and gotten to know about what they actually do? In the real world, teenagers is they aren't all the same, and have a wide variety of interests. For some of them, it includes cycling. High school MTB racing teams are growing, and have been for over 5 years. A couple of years ago, the organizing body that handles HS racing in our area had to split into smaller regions because they had more racers at venues on race day than the venue could handle. I have 3 good friends who are all head coaches of local HS teams. Every year, their teams grow. Every year, the number of new riders wanting to participate gets larger. Participating on those teams includes learning about how to do maintenance on their machines.

Although cycling never became much of an interest, my own teenager has been confident and capable with basic hand tools and power tools for years, and spent last summer working at my friend's custom cabinet/woodworking shop.

Eric F 

IMO, this is largely related to many uninformed folks blurring the line between pedestrian and cyclist.

Koyote

I've spent my career with people in their late teens and very early twenties, and I can categorically state that you do not know what you are talking about.

Pratt

That would be the real advantage of the class. The wrench jocks can and will figure out and/or learn what they need, it is the mechanically averse, inept, and virginal who need the guidance to learn lefty-loosey (except for that pedal) etc.

wolfchild

The guy you know is not a representation of how most people go about making a living...Yes I know that there are some people who manage to take a hobby and turn it into a business but they are few and far in between....There are many thousands of auto mechanics, construction workers, welders, plumbers and other skilled workers compared to a tiny small handful of bike mechanics. There simply isn't enough demand and employment opportunities for bike mechanics to make it a goal which is worthy of pursuing.

veganbikes

They do have this thing called not posting, it is where you keep the bad thoughts in your head instead of posting about them.

Maybe you failed at the job and that is why you think of it as a hobby but it certainly is a job for me and it does pay my bills and I do save a little bit of money here and there. It is not a high paying job in most places but it is still a job, I have worked in the industry for over a decade at this point so if it wasn't working out I would have left along with a lot of the others. Heck one of my Mechanics at my old shop had been there over 30 years and he is now retired living near the beach I believe and there are a few others at local shops who have been there about the same amount of time (or at least in various shops for that time). Heck look at Calvin Jones of Park Tool, he has a good stake in Park Tool company and has worked in the industry for how long now as a mechanic (and more).

Yes I will say that cycling and wrenching are a hobby as well but I have parlayed that into a career and been quite happy and not broke living in a cardboard box or something like that. Sorry you couldn't cut it but hey you are probably one of those that people would complain about and say "bike shops are all terrible" not realizing there are good shops out there and also that we are all freakin' human beings.


Getting back to the topic at hand. I know some of my local area schools are involved in cycling programs (in middle school), they have a teacher and they learn to work on bikes but also ride them a bunch to help them stay focused and get some energy out. It is a super neat program and one I hope will permeate to more schools. Education is great when done right and I think this sort of program is the right way to do it. Keep kids engaged. School tends to look more and more like a prison like environment and teachers are increasingly underpaid, overworked and just not equipped to handle kids sometimes and it shows (I remember having a teacher complain she had to spend the weekend grading work she gave us that we didn't want to do I cannot imagine things have gotten better in however many years its been) having a place to have some fun but also learn useful stuff while having fun is a net good. They may not go into the into industry and that is fine but if they have more skills and knowledge about cycling and mechanics it could actually help prepare them for real life which at least in my experience school never quite did.

I generally hated P.E. but riding bikes that could have been a lot of fun and learning to work on them would have been helpful back in elementary through high school. It would have been cool to have gotten good at cycling young and maybe joined a NICA team or something like that. Though as Joe Walsh said "Life's been good to me so far..."

There are 10117 bike shops in the U.S. as of September 24, 2023 so let's say 2 mechanics per shop which is certainly not true of all of them (my last shop had 8 mechanics bays and at least 10 mechanics plus staff like myself who were focused on other things but were also skilled wrenches and I have known plenty of other shops with more than 2 mechanics not mention of course all of the pro mechanics who work for riders or teams) that is still over 20,000 people which is not a small number and certainly qualifies for the many thousands category. I guess you just don't like reality which is fine, there have been times in my life where reality was bad really really bad so I could have agreed with you then but generally it has been decent.

mstateglfr 

Oh look, Wolf is generalizing and broad brush painting again. And no surprise- the general claims are total crap.

I helped run a teen cycling mentorship program for 7 years and experienced the opposite of your claim.
Some knew how to ride and already loved it while we had others that had to learn to even ride, and they ended the 5 months with over 1600mi and even crossed the state.
Some also really got into the mechanical side and wanted to learn how bikes work and break.


Obviously there are a ton of teens who don't like cycling too.

Your over the top claim was just once again too much to not respond to.

Maelochs

yeah ... i try hard not to respond to certain posters .... no point, as the posters aren't likely to improve and the rest of the discussion likely wouldn't anyway.

"My perceived reality is every bit as good as yours ... "

Yeah .... but it isn't as real as mine. Oops.

indyfabz

I also know a specialist in infectious diseases with a sub-specialty in pediatric immunology. What’s your point? That people should only do what most people do for livings?

Maelochs

Well .... the point about bike mechanic not being a strong career choice generally, is totally valid.

Simply, the demand is very low.

Not a lot of people ride bikes, and the more some folks ride them, the more likely they will do their own work.

As far as teaching a course in high school to prepare students for a career in bike repair, it is as valid as offering a course in dirigible repair. There are blimps, and they must need repair and maintenance .... but I would not call "airship repairman" a viable career choice generally ... simply because it is so specialized.

Analogically .... would it make more sense to teach students in the US to speak Spanish 9or Mandarin) or .... ancient Syriac (Aramaic)?

I know there are classes in Aramaic, because I had a friend who took one. I am not sure that, outside of studying the earliest texts from the Mideast, and for the few dozen churches (in the Mideast) which hold mas in Aramaic, that it has any application.

I also know that Spanish and Mandarin are a lot more useful. (https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/m...ages-in-the-us)

Trakhak

When the shop I worked for in the mid-1970's went belly up, the owner offered me his Campy tool kit, wood box and all, as compensation for my unpaid back wages. I said angrily, "I'll wait for my money!" Still waiting . . .

3alarmer 

...so here's a story. It's a true story, but take it FWIW. When I was on the bike co-op board of directors here, we used to fund various community projects. (We had money then.)

A few kids from the local "alternative" high school (students able to somewhat tailor their own curriculum, if they meet certain basic educational goals...so mostly smart kids who know they want something different), came to us with a plan to install a basic bicycle mechanics shop in one of the empty rooms of the school. They had some sort of faculty advisor guy who would supervise, and the plan was for kids to learn bike mechanics in there, were they interested in it. We spent several thousand dollars buying the tools for a very basic, but solid, repair shop.

It worked for about four months, then the administration of the school shut it down over liability and insurance concerns. They just locked it up, and we never did get the tools back, to use at the bike co-op. It was sad, but I understand the concerns. I hope, at least, that some of the students were able to sneak in there and fix their own bikes after that. I don't really know, I kind of lost interest after that.

3alarmer 

...two words: hair metal.

wolfchild

The 80s music was the best, there is nothing today that comes even close. It wasn't only hair metal that was better back then, all music was better way back in the 80s.

Lamont Cobb

I don't know how valuable teaching bicycle mechanics would be because the technology is changing so rapidly.

wheelreason

Yeah, whatever, The Thompson Twins, Flock of Seagulls, Frankie goes to Hollywood...

Koyote

You forgot to add the /s to your post.

veganbikes

What?
It is clear you don't know. Yes technology does change over time but most of it is pretty similar and in the end you don't need to learn every single thing but learning to work on 80% of the bikes out there will not change a huge ton and even still when it does it will be a long time into the future and all of that knowledge will still be relevant. Eventually maybe we will move away from the traditional stuff at some point but it will take quite a long time to get rid of it. A lot of the stuff we do in the shop could be applied to about 8 decades of bikes in some way or another.

3alarmer 

...there is hair metal from a time period other than the 80's ? Really ? I honestly assumed it had lived and died in the 80's, because...well you know.

mstateglfr 

Good lord, the shortsightedness of so many on BF never ceases to amaze.
It's been stated multiple times already, but there are tangible benefits to teaching mechanical maintenance even on bikes from the 70s or 80s, so pre-indexed. 90s and indexed would be good too.

Taking something apart, understanding how it works, and putting it back together is a hugely valuable learning process. Reiterating how simple machines work is huge. Theath that can come from figuring out gear ratios is huge. The physics lessons that can be easily tied to basic bike maintenance is huge.
Teaching practical life skills is vital to the learning process and to help ensure success as students age.
Someone knowing they can use wrenches to tear down and rebuild a bike can help give them confidence to make simple fixes to household appliances like a clothes dryer or a dishwasher.

wheelreason

So true, reading about simple machines and the like does not compare to acttual experience touching stuff with your hands. I got into so much trouble as a kid taking things apart, but well worth it.

PeteHski

It doesn’t get any more narrow-minded than this! True to past form.

There was some great music from the 80s and every other decade I’ve lived through, 60s to present. The 80s only stands out for me as the worst fashion decade in hindsight. At the time I didn’t notice!

Koyote

I haven't read every post, but many folks implicitly treat time as limitless...But adding something to the curriculum would require cutting something else. So, for you folks arguing that bicycle repair should be added, please tell us what should be cut back. Math and science? Writing? Government?