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Interested in becoming a Bicycle Mechanic, advice?

Old 09-09-19, 06:32 PM
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Athyy
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Interested in becoming a Bicycle Mechanic, advice?

I've bounced around from one job to another, but finally landed a job at a retail store that has a small section on selling bikes, so they do new builds and also do repairs for customers. I don't get to spend too much time on it right now, but I finally found something I love doing, and I'd like to make a career out of it.

So being able to work on the bikes more at my current job seems like a good first step, I've picked up some bicycle repair books and I've been watching loads of Park Tools videos. But does anyone have any advice for trying to advance myself with this? Some personal experience stories would also be really nice from people who do this for a living.

Much appreciated!
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Old 09-09-19, 08:10 PM
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The advice I usually say is to hook up with a smart and financially solid partner, as in spouse. This way no mater how little your pursuit of the passion brings in you can still afford health insurance. Andy
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Old 09-09-19, 10:06 PM
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Get work at an LBS, even part time. There is no substitute for hands on experience and observation.
It's not just about fixing bikes, it's about a successful business.
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Old 09-10-19, 06:06 AM
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If there's a bike co-op or non-profit shop in your area, volunteer.
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Old 09-10-19, 06:18 AM
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Start with completely disassembling and reassembling cheap bikes with cheap components (mostly general maintenance work). Do this over and over again. Work your way up to more complicated and expensive components. Learn how to true rims properly and do this over and over again. The last thing you will learn will probably be how to build a wheel. If you can do this properly (with good dishing), you can call yourself a proper bike mechanic. It is really not that hard. Bicycle is a very simple machine. But of course if you also take a jab at fixing broken shifters or electronic systems, it is going to be much more complicated. If a bike mechanic can also repair a broken shifter for example, I'd have huge respect for him. Because that is beyond bike mechanics imo. Most shops would just change the broken parts.
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Old 09-10-19, 08:19 AM
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Get practice and experience as much as possible at the store, and be ready and willing to learn as things are changing all the time. The second you think you know it all is right before the moment that you will find you know nothing. Then you are ready to go out on your own.
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Old 09-10-19, 08:55 AM
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Take a class at the United Bicycle Institute or something comparable. There are so many "standards" which include , but are not limited to, everything from 7 speeds to 12, different bottom brackets, spacing (boost or otherwise) etc that IMO it's a lot harder than it used to be.
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Old 09-10-19, 10:19 AM
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"I'd like to make a career out of it."

It may be something you like to do, but the reality is its not a great money making career.

And in most cases its also seasonal.

Best wishes to you for any career path you choose.

-SP
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Old 09-10-19, 10:55 AM
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Get experience fixing anything mechanical.

Washing machines, automobiles, bicycles, lawn mowers... it doesn't matter.

Basic mechanical skills can be transferred from one type of machine to another.


-Tim-
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Old 09-10-19, 11:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart
The advice I usually say is to hook up with a smart and financially solid partner, as in spouse. This way no mater how little your pursuit of the passion brings in you can still afford health insurance. Andy
^^^^This!!!^^^^

Andy, your recommended path is one I was fortunate enough to have open to me in getting advanced degrees and now as I'm a consultant myself. Your health insurance point is critical. I remember a colleague leaving the big engineering firm I worked with. Our boss, Clarence T., told him, "Len, make sure you get health insurance!". "Yes, yes, sure I will". 32 days later (2 days after the company insurance lapsed) Len's wife called Clarence asking frantically if health insurance was still in force. Nope. Brain cancer. Nothing to be done. Len's illness bankrupted his family as it killed him.

I work in the medical field, and here's a hint: despite whatever politicians say, health care and medicines aren't going to get cheaper. You need a solid job paying into a solid insurance plan.

More to the OP's point, if you're really fired up about this get a couple of books and volunteer at a coop on the weekends. Lennard Zinn's books ("Zinn and the art of ____ bike maintenance", where the blank is either road or mountain), and Calvin Jones'* "
Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair" might be starting points. If you can't afford the time at a 2nd job, then identify things on your bike that need doing, read the books, obtain the tools, and do 'em.

*Calvin Jones is apparently the guy with the excellent mustache in the Park Tool videos. His book gets good ratings. His videos are also useful, too.
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Old 09-10-19, 05:17 PM
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Athyy,
As a professional in the cycling world, and from the viewpoint of a service manager who managed a shop that did $1M in sales in the early 80's; you will need a good mentor and someone who will help you become a good mechanic. All of that does not mean you can make a decent living by just being a bicycle mechanic. Most mechanics who work at it full time are paid wages that equal poverty level incomes. Andy suggested that you find a reasonably employed spouse who will suffer through this profession with you, and it is not a bad suggestion. Cycling seems to always be one of those jobs that over works the mechanics and underpays them. I hope you can find a happy medium in the process. Smiles, MH
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Old 09-15-19, 12:37 AM
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I'm a professional bicycle mechanic, and while my pay is relatively poor considering my skill set, pay varies as does regional living costs. I won't try to talk you out of it because it can make sense some of the time for some people, particularly if you really commit to it. You gotta remain financially solvent, but enjoying what you do and prioritizing quality of life are extremely important and that equation is going to vary for everyone--for me, it wasn't working when I was in a major metropolitan area, but I'm now optimistic now that I live in a more rural area with much lower cost of living (and I'm actually getting paid more than I used to). Remember that frankly a large proportion of working mechanics are not sticking with it long term, and many are frankly poorly trained, and that can lead to an artificially low sense of average pay.





Working in a shop with genuinely good mechanics who have the resources and desire to help teach you is the best way to learn, ultimately. Ideally you should learn to wrench in a relatively high output shop with multiple mechanics working full time. My current job is at a similar shop to yours: bikes are only one part of our business and we don't have a lot of staff working on bikes. It would be a pretty poor place to learn, honestly, and I'm glad I worked at a high volume, bicycle specific store in a more metropolitan area first. If you go looking for a new job, be clear about your goals and your expectations regarding training.




If you're serious, consider taking courses at UBI or Barnetts. I did pretty much everything you can at UBI and while it's really no replacement for working in a shop, I feel like it was a good value for building a foundation of skills before doing so. Classes like this will get your hands are most common service procedures, set good standards, and help you with more efficient work flow. I thought the UBI suspension and wheelbuilding courses were actually pretty good, specifically.




Some specifics:

-Get a good quality torque wrench (or wrenches) and have at least the experience of doing everything by the book. I honestly don't put a torque wrench on absolutely every bolt with a toque spec, but I have a good sense of what torque should be, what the demands of each bolt are, and what the consequences of under or over torque are. That said, when in doubt, do it by the book: I use my torque wrench a lot.


-Be the mechanic who actually reads/watches the service manual/video. Go through S-Tec and SRAM Technical University, and read some service manuals. If you're working with me, you better know, for example, what the pulley distance should be on 12 speed SRAM Eagle. Or at least know where the Sram B gap tool is and use it.

-Work on doing it right first, but really you need to focus on your efficiency. Try to start measuring your performance, and try to find ways to go faster. The difference in speed between mechanics can be staggering and makes a huge difference to your economic value to a shop, which, you know, you should use to argue for better pay.


-Work on being tidy--this is one of my huge challenges. If your tools are exactly the same place every time, and you never have to go searching for a part, you will be way, way faster, and your bench will look considerably more professional.

-Remember, if you want to get paid a living wage, think about your employer's bottom line. Get better at selling more service/parts -- this should be totally honest and with the customer's best interest in mind. Too many mechanics will lay out the fastest/cheapest option assuming that's what the customer wants. Learn to do a thorough assessment, find out what would make the bike ride its best for the customer, and present that information confidently to the customer with multiple options at multiple price points and let the customer make their own decision about what makes the most sense for them.

-That said, to reemphasize, do/recommend what's best for the customer and be honest. I'll sell a customer less than they're willing to pay if that's really what's right for the bike--this in my experience earns trust and better customers, and ultimately does bring in more service dollars.

-Learn to work on eBikes. This is an important part of the industry now and a surprising number of experienced mechanics have been slow to catch up on this. There are an annoyingly large number of systems out there, but you should at least be knowledgeable about whatever systems your shop sells, and probably also Bosch and Shimano. This stuff isn't actually intrinsically that complicated.

-Learn suspension work--unless you work at a shop that caters to a specific niche that does not include mountain bikes, suspension work is one of the bigger parts of service work--you should at least be able to do fork lowers service and shock aircan service, but really you should have a decent idea of how suspension works and be able to do damper work (for stuff your shop can get/afford tooling for, at least) and ideally offer some meaningful tuning advice/service.


-Get good at sales. Besides selling service, depending on the business being able to sell bikes, accessories, component upgrades, etc is a significant boost to your value.

-Get familiar with as many aspects of the sport/culture as you can. You should be able to talk not only about the maintenance of any bike, but also talk intelligently about its use, preferably from experience. I feel like being a serious recreational rider on both road and mountain (and touring, cyclocross, commuting, ebiking, gravel riding, vintage, etc) really helps me connect with more customers. For those I don't share a passion with (say, cruiser lovers, or casual recreational cyclists, for me) really try to nonjudgementally see things from their perspective.

-It is unlikely you will be paid well enough to justify unreasonable levels of stress, or poor quality of life compromises (terrible schedule, no vacations, etc). Obviously things can be fast paced and some stress is unavoidable, but keep this in mind: you should have a pretty enjoyable work life most of the time--otherwise something is wrong.

-On that note, your coworkers and work culture can make or break your enjoyment of the job--try to get a feel for this if you're ever job hunting.



I think that's enough rambling for now?

Last edited by cpach; 09-15-19 at 12:43 AM.
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Old 09-15-19, 05:08 AM
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DS/NDS = drive side / non drive side
(... for the profane, later edit)

building and repairing wheels has so much to do about applied mathematics (simple, really) that most people consider it to be an art. i have yet to find someone following this practice: using the computer in which you introduce radial runout for each spoke and the tension values as well in order to get to the adjustments to be made by turning the nipples at this and that angle, expressed in numbers, degrees (by dividing with 0.45mm and then muliplying with 360).

if you have precise dial gauges to measure radial runout and a tension meter as to be able to measure these values accurately and also in short time (i had to improvise and use acoustics and a laser level tool - projecting the line) then you only need to understand what use you can make of the elastic modulus concept. the strain-stress curve does not vary dramatically through the range of tension(stress) so you can just have a rough 179GPa value for medium tensioned spokes. it certainly is much better than having no computation at all and just relying on guessing.

after the DS adjustment that is done at medium tension you move on to turn only the NDS nipples. if the spokes/nipples have not bedded in a uniform way then one more set of measurements and adjustments could be of use after the stress relieving (increasing in spoke tension by grabbing pairs) is done after the goal spoke tension is achieved.

grabbing parallel pairs of spokes at the final tension can correct bend in the spokes to follow the direction towards the flange hub if overcorrection occurred. grabbing crossing pairs is of better use as long as you don't hurt your hands because if it hurts then you might overbend them and then grabbing parallel spokes is needed later on.

so, there, this is the most important thing about building or repairing wheels: balancing radial true with tension variance on a accurate and measured level, not just by guestimation. using numbers as data input and numbers as data output for adjustment (nipple turn in degrees, angles).
disadvantages: longer work and... the customer is less likely to come back for future repairs to those wheels.

i won't discuss techiques for straightening rims - not here.

this is prolly the last thing most people learn.
Originally Posted by Newspaper_Nick
...The last thing you will learn will probably be how to build a wheel. If you can do this properly (with good dishing), you can call yourself a proper bike mechanic. It is really not that hard.
...
this thing i'm proposing is not a hard thing to do after you understand how to do it and why to do it. wanting to do it will be much harder - the first time that is, until you see the results. and it's hard to start thinking about it if "the books" don't teach you this thing and especially if you have been practicing for years without this understanding/discipline. and it's hard for people to give a complete written explanation for the method together with the steps (either using pen and paper or a spreadsheet) because there is a high risk of:
a. losing their income - their work might be suddenly be easier to do by others with much less training/experience;
b. boring some part of the audience: those who easily understand the reasons but are still skeptics about using numbers and calculated adjustments in angles/degrees as they imagine themselves as experts enough as to guestimate every nipple turn they do;
c. making the other part of the audience annoyed because they can't imagine themselves working in a spreadsheet etc. as it is too complicated for them.
d. there is also the need to put some labels on the spokes as to monitor spoke twist (remember: precise angles, expressed as calculated numbers/degrees in nipple turn) and therefore making the impression that the job would be so much tedious.

the first thing a mechanic needs to learn is that there will always be something to learn and that he should try to question every dogma so that he should seek answers not only from people that have a dog in the fight ... and how to keep his calm whenever educated fools get vocal as to accuse of heresy the one that needs to keep calm.

...
and i'd dare say that if you don't learn what to eat and how to eat/cook... the medical system will get you additional chronic diseases - lack of integrative medicine and conflicts of interests in high places...
medical insurance is alright only if you are suffer some accident and you are unconscious. the doctors are terrible for other things as they don't have a systemic (holistic from "holos" which means whole) approach as to figure out how to heal the gut first and address the causes of bacterial overgrowth and/or lack of probiotics.

having a good health is an easy practice if you do the research. but most people are addicted to an unhealthy way of living and the certified physicians can't be too comfortable if they don't immediately protest against any heretic, conflating everyone to the same boat.

people don't want to change themselves but want to change you or marginalize you if you can't be changed as they get offended if you express an opinion that contradicts their dogma.

don't speak the truth when too many people get offended by it because... mob rule.

Last edited by adipe; 09-15-19 at 05:14 AM.
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