Hello Everyone,
I have a question I’ve been wanting to ask in here for a while. I apologize if anyone doesn’t think this belongs here since this is not a question about a bike repair, but I’m honestly not sure where else I would ask this…. This is kind of a long winded question too so please bear with me:

Part of my day job involves constantly repairing, fixing and rebuilding string instruments, a Lot. It’s pretty constant, and I always have a huge queue of broken instruments that I need to repair, I never seem to catch up, I don’t actually think that’s possible. I’m always fixing the instruments and at the same time the small humans I work with are always breaking or wearing down the instruments, which is to be expected, but it’s like a constant game to keep up with their daily instrument needs.

Anyway, my question is this: I really enjoy tinkering with and fixing things in general, always have, but I’ve noticed when it comes to my free time I just can’t get as excited about fixing string instruments as I get about working on my bikes, even though I’m far far more qualified to work on string instruments than on bikes.

I’ve been curious for a long time: do Bike Mechanics experience the same thing? Or the opposite thing I mean? Do you all have other tinkering hobbies that you do in your free time as an escape from your day job of fixing bikes? Do you ever experience or have you ever experienced bike mechanic fatigue?

Just curious. Looking forward to your thoughts.
-Erin

When you turn a hobby into a job, you ruin a good hobby.
A job is something you need a break from.

I use bike work as a recovery from engineering work, review, organizational administration, meeting planning, household stress, political bombardment, and so on.Typically just me, the bike (or parts), the iPod, the stand and tools, and maybe a kittycat or raccoon (or more). It's destressing (most of the time) and as I complete each item I can see a tangible accomplishment in front of me that will either make my life or the life of someone else better.

When I was working full-time in the bike repair trenches, my personal bike or bike "projects" were the last thing I wanted to work on at home.

Everything worked well on my bike, and I did sneak in a little maintenence at lunch or after we closed. But my bike was nothing to write home about looks-wise.

I remember working in different shops and the fixing wasn't usually too difficult, but the constant onslaught of customers asking questions, along the never-ending phone calls made it incredibly stressful at times.

Cooking was a nice destressor on the weekends, as was socializing with friends.

My personal bikes tend to be very straightforward and simple. So much so that they are almost like working on something different than a modern bike.

In my younger days, I always loved working on stuff. i.e. my bikes, cars, the house, appliances, etc. Then after 30+ years of repairing machinery for my job, I just don't enjoy repairing things, anymore. I've been retired for over 10 years and I still never got the love back. I basically do only what is necessary to keep everthing operating properly.

I also find things take me a lot longer, now. I used to be able to strip and entire bike, clean all the parts and reassemble it in a day. Now, it takes a week (if I'm lucky).

Bike(s) are a (relatively) new hobby for me.

I consider myself 're-treaded' (as opposed to re-tired) 'cause I still work part-time in a hardware store.

The working's a necessity; I need the income despite being well into my '70's. My bike(s) have become a hobby out of a felt need to stay active as I grow on. I've always enjoyed them, while inevitable conflicts of career and family life impinged on my consistency. Never, ever worked on bikes professionally.

Tinkering though is a cornerstone in my life. My job brings me customers' questions, I reference my experience to bring them up to speed on what might be a path to a solution. Even the business itself brings me challenges, now that they're aware of what I'm capable of undertaking.

The balance between all this can be daunting in and of itself. Older can mean slower; I find that keeping my interest focused to be a hidden challenge.

Exactly why I'm glad I kept my MBGR, an early '70's steelie. Compared to my CF Tarmac and a recently acquired alloy Diverge, my MB's an old friend I know well. I had no interest in adding electronics when I brought myself up to speed with 21st Century bikes, other than accessories for safety and metrics.

Each bike I work on tells a story...how the owner cares, or doesn't, for it...if any 'customizations' have been done to it...the condition...how long, or not, parts last and still work often with no/little care and maintenance...etc.
I've been a 'wrench monkey' in several shops and states for over 30 years and still enjoy working on bikes...I'm 70 and still work as a part time wrench...working 15 hours per week.

Same. That's how I use bike work too, to destress, and like you say, at the end you have something that can be made good use of, so not a bad way to spend some free time. You have a pet racoon? Can we see pictures?

Very interesting, so the way you avoid burnout or fatigue is thinking of each bike this way, sort of a holistic approach to each bike ..... I love it, I'm going to try this with the 8-10 Cellos and Basses I have waiting to get glued back together, hopefully that'll help me find the motivation to get it all done!

I started a reply last night and deleted it, would have been one of the first replies but decided these types of questions don't really have right answers, just experiences and opinions. Like the discussions of what is art VS craft these questions are best held with some social lubricant being consumed

My professional life has been in the bike shop (OK there were a couple of off season ski shop jobs) since the 1970s. And I was (mostly still am) an active rider, often with our local club. As such I felt I had an obligation to keep my bikes in tip top condition, no cobbler's kids here. But I will say that about 20 years ago I decided to move on from cup and cone (mostly Campy) bearings to cartridge ones to reduce the amount of bearing servicing I was doing.

My main hobby developed directly from the LBS job and riding, making bike frames. Oh early on I played with being a "pro builder", but each time soon realized that I didn't want to turn sour on building and thus kept it as something special. beside wives there are only a few people riding one of my frames and that's fine. I fabricate for the feel, not the finances. I don't have to justify my tool purchases with off setting sales. I can spend as much time just looking at the project in front of me as I like. The couple of times I was being paid by the hour in some shop to braze, file and sand I never felt the freedom I have now in making stuff.

I agree with the value and "strength" that having some hobby can bring you. Besides bike stuff fabrication I enjoy growing specific types of hot peppers, spending time with our cat and helping out other budding fabricators. Andy

Really thoughtful reply, thanks Andy. I think that was smart of you to keep frame building for yourself like that. Maybe I need to do the same thing with string instruments, maybe I’ll try my hand at making one from scratch, not for work but for me, just for the fun of doing it.

One of my room mates (this would have been 1976) had a day job at a lumberyard. His dream was to make his own guitar. he fumbled about for a while playing with fancy wood and home made gluing jigs but stopped just before the apartment split up. A few years later we had a good talk about our passions, work and how they mix. At that time I was in the first attempt at pro frame making and with a little knowledge thought I knew a lot. It seems that he moved on from the lumber yard but was still playing with fine wood, only he had to pay for it now. Andy

When I was working full time in a shop I would spend some time in the evening, or Sunday after a club ride, working on my bikes, but my hobby was riding bikes, not fixing them. Now that I'm effectively retired I seem to spend more time building project bikes in an attempt to encourage us to get out more. I did work one place that was mostly asembling cheap bikes, but I wasn't a good fit there and I had an offer from a proper bike shop - I don't think I would have lasted much longer at the discount place.

I worked in the retail bike biz as a mechanic, store manager, salesperson for 40 years. During that time my hobby was riding a bicycle. Working on them, selling them and managing a store was my job. I commuted to work year round, rode my bicycle in my spare time, and maintained my personal fleet with pleasure. To this day I love bikes.

It is possible to still enjoy to hobby of riding a bicycle after working on them all day, but to tinker with them as one would a race car after work, it is possible, but difficult to do for fun what you do for work.

To sum it up, if you love to ride bikes, then you can fix and sell them all day and still enjoy riding them, however to fix and sell them after work, unless vintage collectables, that would be difficult to do.

Yeah, whatever you do as a job, is eventually going to feel like a chore. I've told many folks that if you enjoy doing something,, don't do it as a job. I don't know many long time bike mechanics that enjoy doing it. For me, I like woodworking, or home repairs (specially HVAC) but I know I would be hating it in short order, if I did it as a job. Once I step away from the stand, I don't want to think of anything bike. It was years before anyone in one of the bike clubs I ride with knew I was a bike mechanic.

Unless your paid very well to work at your hobby.

"I've told many folks that if you enjoy doing something,, don't do it as a job."

I should have taken this advice after I left the bike biz and got into tech. Tech was fun as a hobby, and I was becoming good at it, too. After leaving the bike biz my sister in law suggested I turn to tech to make some bucks. I did that and the pay was significantly better than the bike biz. Way, way better. Enjoyed the money, but after the first year I realized it wasn't fun money. It was chore money. Did it for 10 years to catch up on not making squat in the bike biz, then had enough invested to allow me to go to my retirement job, which I did for 3 years and enjoyed every minute of it, then I bowed out of the workforce a year ago.

Actual pets don't live outside. The outside critters are ones who have settled into the neighborhood (and in some cases, the back porch) by their own choice or consequence. I don't mind too much as they seem to be keeping the roof rat population down.

Gray Kitty has lived under the outdoor furniture on the back porch for a while. She's bullied by just about every other predator in the neighborhood, so she's very feral and skittish, but will allow petting and give rubbies if bribed fed.


The raccoons started coming by to help clean up Gray Kitty's leftovers. I've had up to five of them visit at a time. They are trashpandae non gratae to my neighbor, who had his chickens decimated by the bandits, but I haven't had problems (yet). They are genuine wildlife, so I maintain a friendly yet indirect relationship with them, although one has no problem coming to within a few feet of me while I'm wrenching.




Now with their prehensile forepaws if I could just get them to hold stuff for me like cantilever shoes or front derailleurs while I'm adjusting them...

I've been in the auto industry for a while now and there's a lot of professional mechanics I know who do the bare minimum work/maintenance to their own vehicles because when they clock out, they've run out of the energy to work on their own stuff and want nothing to do with cars until they're getting paid to do it again the next day. It's not the case with every technician, but I would gander a guess that it's over 75% of them, at least in my experience.
Point being, I would imagine bike mechanics experience the same thing. Regardless of trade, it takes someone truly passionate to be able to go to work all day on [insert skilled labor here] and be willing and happy to continue to do it at home (or wherever really) at the end of the day. I know a small few people like that but far fewer than the ones who just want to do anything else at the end of the day.

I've been a music teacher for 30 years and I absolutely hate fixing string instruments! Tuning pegs don't stay put. Fallen bridges. Loose strings. Broken strings (I don't mind steel string guitar strings or truss rods for some reason). Bows. Stuff rattling inside the instruments. I hate it all. The instruments are very easy for kids to screw up.

I don't mess with sound posts or actual repairs.

My most satisfying type of repair is scavenging parts from two busted instruments or cases to make one good one.

Hahaha then you get it lol. It took me many years of learning by doing but I can now reset sound posts (Violins and Violas are easy, Cellos are hardest) and repair small cracks and seams coming apart, fit new bridges, etc. really the only thing I can’t do are bow rehairs and peg fitting but bows are pretty cheap to replace even though it feels wasteful and I can usually find a peg that fits in my parts stash.

This is so real! Any broken beyond repair immediately becomes a parts instrument, like with bikes…. Let’s just say after many years, I’ve got a Lot of parts lol.

My understanding of the typical mechanic's car is that he knows how to keep it running with a minimum of effort, and doesn't care much about its appearance because he's a mechanic, not a body guy. I'm a bike mechanic first, but I used to do a fair bit of car mechanics and welding, my cars were the ones that ran well and were structurally sound but had patches of primer over undisguised welds, and might have occasional issues like a temperamental starter (hit it or bump it).

Is this a problem?

Great question.
And ironically, I enjoyed "tinkering" with my woodwinds - keeping pads fresh and seated and springs perfect.
BUT - I also spent a lot of time helping friends with their bicycle mechanical issues, late into the night over beers and music.
So, I don't recall fatigue.