Bicycle Mechanics - how do you make a living as a bike mechanic

personally im not worried about the pay as a mechaninc. the other thread got me thinking and curious. so those that do it for a living do you just suck it up or what?

personally im not worried about the pay as a mechaninc. the other thread got me thinking and curious. so those that do it for a living do you just suck it up or what?

A halfway decent mechanic with several years experience will be making between $13-$15/hour here most likely. Assuming you are guaranteed year round employment that works out to be about $750-$900'ish per paycheck, take home. Rent for one person, one bedroom anywhere from $5-$800 depending on where you live. That leaves about a minimum of 1 paycheck a month on stuff like food and other things. If you don't own a car and ride your bike everywhere and don't have a family to take care of that's plenty enough to live on.

The people who do this job like it, or are only doing it temporarily until they can get a "real job".

A halfway decent mechanic with several years experience will be making between $13-$15/hour here most likely. Assuming you are guaranteed year round employment that works out to be about $750-$900'ish per paycheck, take home. Rent for one person, one bedroom anywhere from $5-$800 depending on where you live. That leaves about a minimum of 1 paycheck a month on stuff like food and other things. If you don't own a car and ride your bike everywhere and don't have a family to take care of that's plenty enough to live on.

The people who do this job like it, or are only doing it temporarily until they can get a "real job".

yea that is what i figured. 13-15hr is the going rate around here for a decent mechanic and starting pay is 10/hr or so.

Yeah, gotta watch the expenses, especially in the off-season. And don't get injured, unless you intend to die quickly and economically right afterwards.

Yeah, gotta watch the expenses, especially in the off-season. And don't get injured, unless you intend to die quickly and economically right afterwards.


:roflmao2: Too funny!
It really depends by your living standards definition. If you rent off a basement or still living with your parents or share a place with a bunch of people vs. say a house with a backyard and two-garage kinda deal. Different from everyone.

Rent for one person, one bedroom anywhere from $5-$800 depending on where you live.
I wish.

Reptilez, if you go the low-wage slave route, do yourself a favour and read The Wealthy Barber.

I never could make a go of it...but I wasn't a great mechanic and never intended to do it forever. In the DC metro area you have no chance of making a living at it unless your spouse makes an income or you choose to live with VERY little.

The only way I make it work is 1. cheap rent (I pay $150) 2. Food stamps (I get $200) and 3. I don't buy any **** other than bike stuff and food. Not having health insurance sucks, but the benefits of doing a job I love are amazing. Life is beautiful. -FTU

I forgot to mention the income I bring in from random jobs.

I wrench year round and bring in between 27,000 and 30,000 a year (canukistani pesos) depending on how hard I work. I try not to do more than 35-45 hours a week. My Wife pulls down about the same amount. We make do by maximizing our money. We shop sales, only own 1 vehicle, rent what we can afford, and fill our house with what we need instead of a bunch of crap we can't pay for. I take advantage of pro deals as much as possible. I buy bikes and gear to last a few years instead of keeping up with trends, and I try to stay away from the bright and shiny stuff that gets dangled in front of me daily. ( I work with chris king addicts) We camp on holidays, stay in hostels not hotels, cook our own food and stay away from the bar. It seems like a meager lifestyle but I have time to ride, climb, and ski as much as I want, I take a month off every year, and I get to hang with my family. You can make a living as a mechanic but you have to decide whats important, a big paycheque or quality of life. I'll take life anyday.

There are some wrenches that make pretty good money, but you've got better chances becoming a rock star.

I wish.

Reptilez, if you go the low-wage slave route, do yourself a favour and read The Wealthy Barber.

Really?

Do you live in Vancouver? I'm living in there right now so I think my rent prices are especially accurate for you.

The only way I make it work is 1. cheap rent (I pay $150) 2. Food stamps (I get $200) and 3. I don't buy any **** other than bike stuff and food. Not having health insurance sucks, but the benefits of doing a job I love are amazing. Life is beautiful. -FTU

If I was paying $150 for rent on my current salary I could afford a new bike every month almost, jeeze. Or a new computer every month.

Actually, I think the only way to make a living as a mechanic is to have a retail store and you earn your living selling stuff as the LBS, and fixing bikes is the enjoyable part.

I am convinced you can make a small fortune as a bicycle mechanic. All you need is a large fortune and some time.

Jon Z.

$10-$13 an hour is good money for something as simple as a bicycle. That wouldn't cut it in L.A. The places I would have to live on that much,wouldn't even pay for the ammo needed to defend myself.

Inherit a lot of money, or marry into money. Otherwise, best suited to a side line/hobby.

I did it until I was 23. I lived in a studio apartment and didn't have kids or a wife. I did manage to put myself through college on the wages, though.

I 've been riding a suicide hub ( I did it myself )for a few months now. Does that meake me a PRO or what ?

$10-$13 an hour is good money for something as simple as a bicycle.

It's so simple that the thousands of questions in this forum must be completely unnecessary. It's so simple that I have to fix the bikes that were just repaired at other shops. It's so simple that it takes years to make a decent mechanic.

BikeWise1, I agree. It's not simple. Bike mechanics make small wages only because the market won't bear higher wages. That's all there is to it.

I don't make my living fixing bikes, but I think there is one universal rule that applies to doing what you love even if the pay isn't great: A spouse with a high-paying job - priceless. ;)

People who work as a bicycle mechanic do it because they love bicycles and they enjoy the work. If you are good at mechanics, and also good at dealing with customers, it is possible to work up to being a shop manager with higher pay. As a mechanic it is difficult to live on money earned, but at least bicycles, parts and accessories can be had at wholesale prices!

$10-$13 an hour is good money for something as simple as a bicycle.

Simple as a bicycle? Is that why there are so many LBS hating threads because they do shoddy mechanical work? I almost feel offended by that statement.

$10-$13 an hour is good money for something as simple as a bicycle . . . .

This would be very good money for mechanics who find bikes pretty complicated but not enough for those who find them simple.

Bike repair, like auto repair, thoracic surgery and higher math is simple only for those who are either very good at their work or so unskilled as to be ignorant of the complications.

The more I learn about working on bicycles the more I appreciate a good wrench but the more I see of bad ones.

I was forcibly retired by injury so only work part time but with little overhead and the fact I only do repairs and build wheels the extra money can be very good... will be moving my shop in the coming months to relocate it 40 feet from my back door so my commute will be nothing more than a long walk.

:)

One way to maximize yield (i.e. income) is to do something else along with the mechanicing. Taking on the task of the shop manager - or even store manager - is one way. Auxiliary salesman is another.

I wonder who you have to know to become a team mechanic? And how much they make? (But the requirements for that job are somewhat different.)

But then you won't get to commute by bike!

But then you won't get to commute by bike!

I can go for a ride in the morning before I start working and take a ride after I am done... as soon as the weather gets nice the girls and I will be commuting back and forth to school which is nearly 28 km a day.

And then there are always test rides that need to be done.

:)

Wow, 28km round trip. Impressive for kids! Actually, it's impressive for some adults!

I get by on my mechanics wages ( I do have a partner that brings in money, we only have to feed ourselves, two dogs and three cats) , but to be honest the only reason I tried to become one (and succeeded) is so I could learn everything there is to learn and most importantly get parts at cost to fuel my hobby.

The reason there are so many people on here asking questions,is because not everyone is mechanically inclined,not because bicycles are a mechanical wonder.

Try taking a vertical mill apart and rebuilding it or a Sunnen CK 10 automatic hone.They make a bicycle look like a kids tricycle.

As far as mechanical things go,bicycles aren't that hard.

Changed careers and am now a bike mechanic. I'm making about 50% of what I did at the job I left; 40% of what my income was at the peak of a former career. Wife works--no way we could get by on my income alone--and she makes about twice what I do.

I was miserable at former career (manufacturing buyer, educational publishing) and needed to get out for many reasons. I knew I'd be making way less as a mechanic, but health and peace of mind more than make up for it. Wife agreed and is being very supportive.

Can't say I'll stay a mechanic forever. Boss is talking about me managing another shop of his this year, which is about the career trajectory I was hoping for. I'd still be lead mechanic, but also manager and chief salesguy. Not huge money there, either.

Way I think of it is like this: I sold a motorcycle and took the UBI mechanic course, plus some additional training like their wheelbuilding course and suspension seminar. Total of three weeks, not like I'm going to pick up mad knowledge or skillz, but it's a beginning. You go to college for, what?, four years to get trained for some careers, more for others. Even a technical school is a two year program. So now I'm doing a lot of on the job training and figure in a couple years I'll have a pretty good handle on the mechanic thing. Except instead of paying for the opportunity to learn, I'm getting paid for it. Not the best wages, but not money out of pocket.

So I get to play with bikes every day. And get paid to do it. Not a lot, but for peace of mind and health benefits, I got no regrets leaving a 15 yr professional career behind to do what I'd rather be doing. And it's already leading to better opportunities. From there, sky's the limit--could get in with a distributor or manufacturer easily enough with some further experience behind me.

I'd be lying if I said money was no issue--I'm thinking about a second job--but things are working out well considering the drastic change I made in my life.

Good story, mconlonx. Where are you?

Bike repair, like auto repair, thoracic surgery and higher math is simple only for those who are either very good at their work or so unskilled as to be ignorant of the complications.



This post makes me :roflmao2:on so many levels.

The reason there are so many people on here asking questions,is because not everyone is mechanically inclined,not because bicycles are a mechanical wonder.

Try taking a vertical mill apart and rebuilding it or a Sunnen CK 10 automatic hone.They make a bicycle look like a kids tricycle.

As far as mechanical things go,bicycles aren't that hard.

I've worked in machine maintenance. The repair parts you use for the things you mentioned are designed and engineered for those particular machines. It takes careful attention and following a certain set of instructions. But getting an index triple front derailleur set up and working right....must be pretty hard because in all my years of free wrenching at charity events where I work on several hundred bikes, I've yet to set one that was optimally set up.

The problem isn't that bikes are complex. The problem is that there are so many variables from bike to bike, and parts are not generally platform specific. That makes it easy to screw up a bike! Leave a RD inner limit screw a half turn loose and you might be buying a customer a new frame when the derailleur gets ripped out and clobbers the carbon seatstay. IOW, when I order parts for a 40K machine head, they bolt in with no adjustments or modifications, like water pumps on cars.

My dad was an A&P mech for 31 years with Delta. Give him a set of instructions and he was good to go, but ask him to overhaul a lawn mower engine without explicit instructions and he was lost. And completely clueless with my bike when I was growing up. Go figure....

Like your job. Be good with money. Don't buy stupid crap. Patronize your local library. Live with 11 other people in a giant house. Ride your bike, or take the train. Learn to cook so well you don't want to pay someone to do it for you. Have fun for free more often than you have fun for money.

Learn to enjoy the suspense inherent in not knowing what you'll be doing in the winter if the shop fails to make enough to keep you there. Deal with people who think your job is "easy" because they do something they think is "hard".

Simple as a bicycle? Is that why there are so many LBS hating threads because they do shoddy mechanical work? I almost feel offended by that statement.

dont feel offended, its the nature of the north american masses to look down upon anyone who gets their hands dirty for a living. they dont understand that half of what you pay for is experience. im an auto tech at an audi dealer and when something requiring repair on my bikes is beyond my experience, i take it to the LBS. they've done it a 1000 times, i havent.
doctors who make you wait 3 hours in emerg want you to 'just quick - fix the car' how dare they have to wait....

dont feel offended, its the nature of the north american masses to look down upon anyone who gets their hands dirty for a living. they dont understand that half of what you pay for is experience. im an auto tech at an audi dealer and when something requiring repair on my bikes is beyond my experience, i take it to the LBS. they've done it a 1000 times, i havent.
doctors who make you wait 3 hours in emerg want you to 'just quick - fix the car' how dare they have to wait....

Realtors drive Audis, Doctors drive Benz. hahaha.... :lol:

The reason there are so many people on here asking questions,is because not everyone is mechanically inclined,not because bicycles are a mechanical wonder.

Try taking a vertical mill apart and rebuilding it or a Sunnen CK 10 automatic hone.They make a bicycle look like a kids tricycle.


As far as mechanical things go,bicycles aren't that hard.

Worked as an apprentice machinist for a few years and quite often found myself helping the millwright who was a 3rd year apprentice... without any experience I was able to tear down lathes and not only find what wasn't working but take care of the repairs.

Ran drill presses that were 40 and 50 years old and when they needed tweaking and service did that too because I have a gift for figuring these things out.

Needless to say my supervisor was pretty astounded and they actually hired another guy to do the drudge work so I could spend more time working on equipment as an operator or to make sure they were running at 100%. Lots of the machinists could run a lathe but had no clue how to tear down the head and service it. and too often we'd get metal chips in there which really mess up all the gear teeth which sometimes had to be repaired by hand.

When they asked me how I knew how to fix these things or how I seemed like I was born to run a lathe I told them it was because I was used to working on precision tools like bicycles and automobiles.

It is the process that is important and the attention to detail that is important as is a familiarity with what you are working on.

And when the millwright needed his 4k mountain bike tuned up for a weekend of hard core riding he brought his bike to me as it frustrated him to the point of tossing the bike when he could not get it to work right.

Currently I'm the "Bikes and Exercise" lead in a sporting goods big box (our corporate master doesn't grace us with the title 'Dept Manager', which is indeed the job). I have a four stand shop, a pretty good set of basic tools, two good techs, and an idiot.
Folks come to us rather than the two LBS in town because we fix what comes in and don't condescend. Sure, we're trying to sell new (lousy) bikes, but just as happy to fix old ones.
And none of us make jack.
Top

What gives anyone the right to question how someone makes a living? Mind your own damn business and act like your mama taught you some respect.

What gives anyone the right to question how someone makes a living? Mind your own damn business and act like your mama taught you some respect.

Lol diesel, there's plenty of threads to rage on this one is pretty legit actually.

I think anyone that does this for a living that has any kind of pride in their work gets a little p o'd at the folks who insult those who are doing what they can often not do themselves.

Sure...there are some talented amateurs and hobbyists and they contribute greatly to the body of knowledge here buut there are some really decent profession al mechanics and there used to be this guy that hung out that called himself Sheldon.

He was a great bike mechanic and a brilliant human being.

Here's how you make a living in the bike industry. Spend a few years in good shops under the tutelage of good mechanics so that you can learn the trade. Pay attention to how a successful small business functions and learn from it. Stash away a bit of money, invest in a decent toolkit, and when you think you're ready, find a suitable, affordable location, and open up a shop that deals mainly with service and parts sales, like a good auto repair shop. You`ll never get rich working as a bike mechanic but you can create a half decent paying job for yourself.

Here's how you make a living in the bike industry. Spend a few years in good shops under the tutelage of good mechanics so that you can learn the trade. Pay attention to how a successful small business functions and learn from it. Stash away a bit of money, invest in a decent toolkit, and when you think you're ready, find a suitable, affordable location, and open up a shop that deals mainly with service and parts sales, like a good auto repair shop. You`ll never get rich working as a bike mechanic but you can create a half decent paying job for yourself.

As of noonish tomorrow my commute to work will only require me to step out my back door and walk to my garage which is nicer than many homes... I live on a busy bike route / path and will build myself a little sign board to put out that says "Bike Repairs, Ride Ins Welcome".

My regular customers won't have to travel any farther to get here and many times they are dropping off or picking up from here anyways.

Since I am very close to downtown (under 10 minutes by bike) I will exploit my knowledge of this area and will offer a pick up or on site service for people who are willing to pay a little extra.

And I have a lot of messenger business too since I used to be one of those guys and was often doing field repairs for them... with times being hard I always cut them a way better rate as they have sent me a lot of business in return.

$10-$13 an hour is good money for something as simple as a bicycle. That wouldn't cut it in L.A. The places I would have to live on that much,wouldn't even pay for the ammo needed to defend myself.

Have you ever built a wire spoke wheel?

Have you ever built a wire spoke wheel?

I don't get it.

I don't get it.

Building wheels is part of being a bike mechanic (at least anyone I consider a mechanic builds wheels, I guess there are those that can't) and building a good wheel is not something I would consider simple (well sure in principle its pretty simple but i've never seen someone sit down and build a good set of wheels first go a round) it may be cocky of me to think like this but tearing something like machinery down if your methodical, is simple I've fixed many things that I have never had any training or intruction on, however my first go at building a set of wheels... well lets just say they wern't somthing I showed off.
Then again after tearing down and fixing my first bicycle, I felt I had done a damn good job, looking back not so much.

I wore out my first set of hand built wheels... built them for my mtb commuter which saw double duty as a road machine and extreme off road machine.

Wore out the rims but never had them go out of true or need a lick of work even though I broke a few axles landing jumps.

Did not build a wheel for anyone else until I had probably trued up and tuned up at least 1000 wheels and was my own guinea pig when it came to testing builds figuring that if they survived the abuse I gave them they should stand up to anything.

And then people started asking me how much I charged to build wheels... I probably enjoy doing this more than anything as it's zen like to turn a handful of parts into a beautiful and functional wheel that you know will last.

And like everything, I am still learning new stuff all the time although this usually has more to do with components than the actual process.

I also consoider this to be a pre-requisite to calling yourself qualified and as we are hiring new mechanics for the co-op there are a lot of questions about wheel building theory and questions about experience in this.

We pay extremely well and there is an expectation that our staff are as skilled as any out there and even though we are a non profit and do no fee based repairs the revenue the shop generates is enough to pay for the shop's operational costs.

We are also subject to the same liability as any shop so need to cover ourselves in this area.