RT

I searched this forum and could not find a satisfactory answer. Since getting back into cycling last year, I have become increasingly immersed in maintaining/rebuilding bicycles, however I have no formal training. I do not work on my own for safelty reasons, but have an old clunker I take apart and rebuild with the aid of Todd Downs' Bicycling manual. Looking into getting Barnett's Manual, but wanted to know if there are any 'pros' in this forum who might be able to advise/guide me in achieving a certification (or whatever one is issued after successfully completing an accredited course). Barnett happens to be right here in town, but I don't have that kind of money. Any alternatives? I'd like to get a part time gig at a LBS for starters.

Thanks for your help.

Sheldon Brown

Few of us in the biz have "formal training" and most of us learned by tinkering and/or informal apprenticeship.

Picking up used bikes at yard/tag sales for cheap, fixing them up and selling them is a good way to start out. That's how I did it, when I was in junior high school. (Actually, most of my raw materials came from the town dump.)

A part time LBS gig is the next step. They'll start you out on assembling kids' bikes, and if you show aptitude you'll graduate to adult bikes, and eventually to repairs and high end bike building.

Sheldon "One Step At A Time" Brown

boots

that's how i'm doing it. still in the kid's bike faze

MattP.

Sadly enough, the only shop in town, the guys are not the nicest, so to speak. The only way to work at that shop is to start out at their main shop down about 30 miles away, and I dont have a car, and my parents would have to drive me there.

But, in 3 weeks i'm headed up to the United Bicycle Institute in Oregon to learn something

-Matt

rigid4life

It seems to me that nowadays if you actually don't want to lose money selling used bikes, this is the only way to go.

As for bike repair classes, check around town. In my city, they're offered by the university and the Olympic center, and they're pretty affordable (I think most of the clientele are teens). Also, there's at least one bike shop that offers safety check-up classes for free, and I think offers more advanced classes for a price. You should also just hang around the local bike shops and get to know the staff. Not only will you have an easier time getting a job if they know you, but you'll know pretty quickly if you want to work for a particular shop or not.

Right now (at least in the northern hemisphere) is a good time to do this. Many of the larger bike shops in my city are advertising job openings, and they certainly seem to be busy on the weekends. Actually I'm half-thinking of working weekends for an LBS, mostly for the employee discounts (I'm sure the salary won't cover my spending even with the discounts ), but I don't know if I want to give up my weekends.

Another thing you might want to think about is working as a salesman instead of a mechanic. If you actually know about bikes and are enthusiastic about cycling in general you're already more qualified than most of the teens that work as summer staff in some of the local bike shops. Don't worry too much about slick sales pitches or selling ice to Eskimos or whatever - you don't have to convince people to buy a bike if they're already in the bike shop. A little manners and courtesy will go a long way, but I think it's not only me that appreciates when an LBS salesman really knows bikes. Plus you might work for commissions so you can make a little more money than if you would have wrenching. Another plus is you get to talk shop and learn about bikes without getting grease under the fingernails.

neil0502

Park Tool School (the "longer clinic")??

https://www.parktool.com/park_tool_school/index.shtml

Taught at . . .

https://www.parktool.com/park_tool_school/retailer.shtml

kxpedder7

apprentice here. Learned everything i know by working in a bike shop, btw it is the best job I have had yet.