How to become a bike mechanic?

+1

True bike mechanics are a special breed. It requires decades of dedication, enthusiasm and painstaking attention to detail. With very little reward.

The best bike mechanics are the really old fellas who know the past 80 years of component history in and out.

They can install & fine tune gears in a few minutes, even if they are basic bottom end sis found on £40 mtbs. they wont frown upon you, they will make it work and charge you a friendly price.

They have a back room of projects like home made tandems & recumbents. They know how to solder custom brake cabling and improvise custom fixtures as necessary.

They can effortlessly strip and rehaul hub gears, and have crates full of spare parts.

They also know how to fit pram wheel tyres, like those you find on penny farthings.

Aswell as being able to efficently service & tune hydraulic forks and brakes.

They are indeed a rare & special breed.

+1 I had a problem changing the cassette on my old bike, took it to a LBS whose bike mechanic failed, swore at the bike and cut his hand trying to take it off. so I then took it to some guy a mate new, this 80 year old dude who used a couple of chain whips that were probably older than me and had the cassette off in 2 mins.