Bicycle Mechanics - How to become a mechanic?

What is the best way to become a bike mechanic other than working on your own bikes. Is there a certification or a journeyman ticket or something like that. What trade schools offer these courses? Do bike shops just hire people who know they're way around bikes and then train them? How much can a bike mechanic make in Canada make, what about in the States?

I am also interested in finding old bikes and fixing them up. Where is the best place to find old bikes? Garage sales? Want ads? Pawn shops?

Check out BikeSchool.com they offer a professinal mechanic cert, along with some framebuilding classes. As far as how much a mechanic can make, i've heard it to be about ten dollars an hour. For old bikes find out when bulk collection day is, usually it is different days in differnt neighborhoods. Look around the streets on these days, it is usually when people are throwing out large items such as bicycles. Now is a good time of year cause people are cleaning out garages etc....

Ray

Usually you get your foot in the door at a shop as a bike builder and you just work your way up from there. I never attended any formal school but I am sure it would be a great help in finding a job as a mech in a shop. Spring is the best time to attempt to find a job in a shop usally a shop is pretty well staffed for summer by May.

Yeah I hung out at the LBS enough gleaning what knowledge I could until they were like "uh... you work more hours here than we do... want a job?" that didn't work out but when I went to school I just developed a repoire with the shop there the same way, and gradually they started letting me work on my own bike, and then they said that they might need some extra help, so they trained me and I got to work on my own bike for free for a few months while I was learning some basics. After that I worked as an indentured servant for about a month starting to work on more complex repairs, and finally they took me on board as a paid technician... I've been a mechanic now for about 8 months and its AMAZING how much I've learned since then.

Starting out as a builder is a good idea... it also helps if you're mechanically inclined to begin with. I had a few years of wrenching on cars so I think that really helped me out a lot. I don't put much stock in "bike school", most of the team mechanics I've met never went and just learned "on the job". Theres a lot of different techniques and methods floating around out there and its good to know all you can and learn from other people if you ask me.

I worked as a bike mech part-time for three years in the late '90s. The shop hired me because I knew how to build wheels. I miss is alot and I think it would be fun to work at a shop again if I'm retired and it would be a nice part-time job, since I eat, sleep, and breathe bikes and cycling anyway!