Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - not to brag or anything...

...but guess who just got his UCI race mechanic license today!

oh yeah, it's me!

CONGRATS TO YOU OTS! That's awesome! Seriously, congrats!

How long of a process is that?

(and thanks for posting...the ****ing place has been dead all week. I had to go nito the Lounge and harrass people in there)

Congrats. I expect a whole lot of posting by you now, over in the bicycle mechanics forum...!

Cool!:beer:

it's a two-day clinic put on by a rep from USA cycling and a rep from another team support wrench. this time it was a guy from mavic named chris who was seriously really ****ing cool. it was like 9-4 for two days listening to these guys just tell stories about their experiences, not much hands-on stuff, but still, i feel like i learned a lot. they went over how to glue tubulars, how to tune a bike before a race, what to do in different situations, how to deal with athletes and teams, how to do a wheel change during a race (like if a rider has a flat), how to clean a bike after a race. all kinds of really cool stuff. and now, i can go to an event, flash my little card and tell them that i'm there to help and bingo! i get to help out. there was also this guy from shimano, Andy who's been doing this stuff forever and he's like, one of the most respected guys out there now. and the way they were talking to us, they were like "yeah so WHEN you become a team mechanic..." instead of "IF you become a team mechanic...."

it was a relly small group of people doing it too, there were 9 people there, and three of them were instructors. i felt a little out of place 'cause most of the people there worked in shops, but i pretty much had the same skills as most of them had. the coolest thing is that when a big national event comes to town (like the grand prix that's in SF right now) my name and number is on a list, and if they need anyone they just call people from that list. i think the big key for me now is to get involved with the locals here (i live in berkeley now, not boston like my profile says) to keep up the skills that i learned and make connections and stuff.

congrats on the license. i'm in berkeley too, but unfortunately i can't go to the grand prix tomorrow thanks to 1000's of pages i get to read for class and family visiting. if you are going to school here, look into joining the cycling team. very very very nice teams deals.

i'm not going to school here...and i'm not really into competing anyway, more wrenching and riding for fun. i would go to the grand prix, but...i dunno...i think i'd rather get some practice in on some of the local races before i try to go monkey around with some pros bikes...even though i'd most likely just get assigned to washing bikes after the race or something like that...

Get ready to wash bikes and glue tires, from what I have read and heard this is what the new mechanics do a lot of. You get to check the bikes but as a preliminary while washing it for "the man(head mechanic)"
I thought about getting a USCF liscence but the cost was (I think) $270, a bit much to put a sticker in the shop window esp. As it would have been out of my pocket.

yeah. washing bikes...gluing tires. that's what they said. this cost $120 for the clinic, and $50 for the license.

if you ever want to ride, i ride (road only right now) every so often during the week and nothing to crazy since i am also more about riding for fun. when i race, i race men's c. being on the school team has it's perks in the form of sponsors and also being able to meet tons of people and race for cheap. just pm me.

Have you done much gluing? Wear some old clothes, once that stuff is on cloth (or on your skin or in your hair) it is there to stay. The best stuff I have found to get it off your skin is clean streak, hard on your skin, orange peelz, every one will ask you for an orange, and I think goo gone would work but I have never tried it on rim glue, I just used it on some twenty year old car adhesive and it took the stuff right off.

I've used goo gone to clean old glue off tubular rims before-- works fine, but wash the rims off real well after you use it. Use Lava soap to get it off your hands-- the hands will be raw, but it'll be gone.