Working for the man
 

There are 3 LBS's in my area. One of them is crappy and like a used-car lot in terms of ethics. One of them is awesome and knowledgeable, and popular, but a little intimidating. The third is sorta a loner shop. The clientele is less-extreme, but the staff just as informed, and very comfortable. Plus, they have a big bucket of random used parts you can usually buy for .50 when you just NEED a derailleur hanger bolt. It's always secretly been my favorite, though I shop more at the intimidating one since they are literally 100 feet from my classes.

Anyway, I've been joking with my girlfriend (who thinks that I should start charging my friends for all the bike work I do for them :o ) that I was going to get a job at my favorite shop, but I never meant it. Then, this afternoon, I discovered an ad that there was a "Bicycle mechanic and customer service" position open at a store in town. Sure enough, it's my favorite store!

I'm headed in Monday (are all bike shops closed Sunday for riding purposes? They are here.) to demand my interview, and hopefully I'll start working there very soon, and maybe even do some of the easy mech work until they learn to trust me with a wrench :D

Eats donuts...posts thread about working for the man...sounded from the title like you were gonna become a cop...

;)

Hey, awesome. Being a high school kid I've wanted a job at my LBS for a while - it seems fun. I haven't had enough hands-on technical experience on bike repair yet, so my choices are probably limited to the checkout counter or so.

Good luck on getting the job!
But to be a great bike mechanic don't you have to grow a beard, smoke cigarettes and ride a fixie?:D

I respect most cops, but there are very, very, very few of them that I like.

Well I've got a fixie I ride everywhere, I could have a beard in about 8 days, but I've never smoked anything stronger than a virginia ham...2 for 3's gotta be good enough?

One shop tested future wrenches by having them strip down a bike to component parts then reassemble it. If you got it done in a good time and it was rideable you could be hired. Are you ready to do that? Merde.

Road or mountain, and if mountain, am I required to disassemble suspension parts, or just remove them? Otherwise, I see no problem. I've stripped (down to the frame) and rebuilt a bike probably once a week since January.

I think I could do this job, but I expect there are tricks I'll learn, and certainly there's going to be something that a customer brings in that I've never even thought about, and I'll have to learn how to fix it, but I think that's true of starting any job.

How serious were they? For example, did it include removing and replacing headset cups, and dissassembling the wheels down to the spokes/hub/rim, or something less than that?