A question for all the bike mechanics on here...

Dear persons of this forum,

Firstly im very sorry for the dull thread, but i believe that some of you guys might be able to help me out.
This question goes out to all the folk on here who work in or own bike shops.

Im in the process of appling for a job as a bike mechanic with my local Halfords store. I passed the first interview and my second interview is on monday. I have been told this second interview is made up of one hours worth of technical proficiency questions and one hours worth of hands on bike mechanics.

I would class my self as a very confident bike mechanic but i have never worked in a shop before, i have alot of experience working on all types of bikes old and new.

But i was wondering if there is any techniques that i may not use as a home mechanic but would be expected to know for use on customer bikes?

As a car mechanic i torque almost every bolt i get to but is this something that is done on bikes? because i never have!

Any help, handy tips or suggestions would be great!! As i would really like to get this job!

Many thanks
Guy

Don't leave greasy finger prints on the saddle / handlebars or anywhere else for that matter.

A little tip from my car sales days - don't take the customer's car for a test drive and write it off ;)

even monkeys can get jobs as bike mechanics for halfords*. you should be fine.

*no offense meant its true

even monkeys can get jobs as bike mechanics for halfords*. you should be fine.

*no offense meant its true

Alas yes it is true. I worked at Evans part time for 3 years during college and then on my gap year i wanted to work full time for 6 months but Evans couldnt offer anything so i went to halfords. I think the interview lasted about 10 mins and they were really happy that i had been at Evans (shock horror!)

The other employees were shockingly bad at sales and mechanics. Replacing a bb had most people scratching their heads and no one would ever grease even the most basic parts like pedal threads or seat posts.

I left after 2 weeks because I was lumbered with too much work and got a lot of grief from ass hole customers that complained when they got punctures after 2 months and realized that they couldn't put a bike together themselves after being told that its not a simple thing to do without experience.

I'm sure each store is different and the store i was at must have been particularly bad. If you're going to a bike hut store then it should be better though.

As for tips with the interview, i would just stress that you're already an engineer and that you know how to apply your knowledge to bikes. definitely bang on about being a very confident home mechanic. Grease everything properly (using the right grease!) dont be afraid to recommend that they add certain tools to the workshop that are necessary.

No bike mechanic knows everything no matter how good they are (apart from maybe sheldon! r.i.p!!) there are countless details involved in bike mechanics that you pick up along the way. It's definitely a learning curve!

You can make a change!

I think the interview lasted about 10 mins and they were really happy that i had been at Evans (shock horror!)

enough said

hahaha the shame!. htere are certainly some completely inexperienced bell ends working at some evans but you can land on the right person who really know their shit. I worked with Hillbilly an he is a great mechanic who worked at evans for ages (although they were assholes to him!) One of the best mechanics ive met was an old polish guy called Andre who even looked like sheldon and he was an evans mechanic

do not work at halfords

if you want the job, try to not only impress them that you know the operations and the tools, but that you can manage your time, a workload, and deal with customers confidently. They want an all rounder as well, someone whos prepared to be helpful and part of the team in the store.
good luck. everything is what you make it anyway so if it suits you good onya.

if you want the job, try to not only impress them that you know the operations and the tools, but that you can manage your time, a workload, and deal with customers confidently. They want an all rounder as well, someone whos prepared to be helpful and part of the team in the store.
good luck. everything is what you make it anyway so if it suits you good onya.

+1. flatmate is a bike mechanic at a popular independent shop in south london. he is a great mechanic and with that he knows what he's doing, what he's talking about and how to make the customer feel confident. if you can do these things, you'll be poifikt!

It's all about speed in shops. Ya gotta work fast while working well.
Also try not to drop spanners on purty frames either.

What hippy said,

I worked in a bike shop for a bit and speed was the biggest nuisance. This is the biggest grief with cheap & nasty bikes and parts which will never run perfectly without days worth of tweaking.

I imagine you will not get this problem so much in london where the majority of cyclists are actual commuters who dont mind spending money on a practical functioning bicycle rather than a £100 full suss mtb with disc brakes, all of which are faulty right out of the box.

But some of halfords most popular bikes suffer from such problems too. The kids appollo bmx's for example are extremely popular. But are fitted with a useless gyro which will give you a million headaches if you try to get the brakes working properly on one. The adjusters are non standard and reverse threaded, so you cannot replace them without physical modification of parts.

Do you want to work in Halfords because you want to be a mechanic or because you want to work your way up the ladder in retail?
If it's because you want to be a mechanic you're in the wrong place.
If you want to work your way up the retail ladder, your in the wrong place too.

If you know one end of a bike from the other you'll likely be the only one in the store.
You'll end up doing all the work because you know about bikes and you'll never get a raise because most store managers in the company are car guys that look at the bike dept. as an 'add on' that they have to give floor space to rather than the valuable part of the business it could be.

Thanks for all the replies.

I really do want this job for a few reasons, firstly there are no other bike shops in my area so i dont have the choice of where i would like to work and im fed up of working in warehouses. I spend most of my time riding bmx and have done for the 8/9 years now and my town has just had a new skate park built which has lead to a massive increase in the number of bmxers. I would like to maybe influence the managment into stocking better bmx parts which might help the scene out a little.
But more than anything i just enjoy working on bikes, maybe one day i will start my own bike shop who knows?

Thanks for all the replies.

I really do want this job for a few reasons, firstly there are no other bike shops in my area so i dont have the choice of where i would like to work and im fed up of working in warehouses. I spend most of my time riding bmx and have done for the 8/9 years now and my town has just had a new skate park built which has lead to a massive increase in the number of bmxers. I would like to maybe influence the managment into stocking better bmx parts which might help the scene out a little.
But more than anything i just enjoy working on bikes, maybe one day i will start my own bike shop who knows?

I don't wanna put you off man but as far as your idea of getting them to stock decent bmx parts goes, i'd forget it. Discretionary stock went out the window when the company changed computer systems a couple years ago. You will be able to order parts from the limited range of suppliers halfords holds accounts with but it can only be done for a customer request and items must be paid in full before anything is ordered.
I mean, it's not all bad, if the store you are applying to has the bike dept upstairs as many of them do then you'll pretty much be left to it, stairs seemed a bit much for the management team in the store i worked in. It is working with bikes so you'll learn stuff, you'll have constantly oily hands, better than sitting at a computer all day. And the security/stock checking tends to be a bit lack lustre so if you are that way inclined the job can have a few extra perks.

where do you live guy?

i have a friend who stole 60,000 pounds worth of bikes over a period of 6 months but he got caught in the end he sold one of the best boardmans for 30 quid

Good luck getting that job!

I tried to work as a mechanic a few years ago, applied to Evans, Cycle Surgery etc - got no answers.
Applied to Mosquito - they invited me in for a few hours to see how good I am. So I got there early, before my actual work - put together a couple of bikes out of the box, fixed a puncture and a brake and other bits and pieces. When I had to leave they didn't even say thank you nor contact me later to say if I was successful or not. After that, my dream to work in a bike shop disappeared. Never tried halfords though. :]

I got rejected by Halfords for being too good

and knowing it too perhaps..........

where do you live guy?

I live in Tamworth, Staffs.

Its quite a fair sized store with the bike-hut up stairs. Im still really looking forward to working there if i pass the interview that is.

i have a friend who stole 60,000 pounds worth of bikes over a period of 6 months but he got caught in the end he sold one of the best boardmans for 30 quid

and you call him a 'friend'?

scum.

I used to be a bike mech at Halfords. I only had experience of working on my own bikes, and I wasn't particularly into bikes at the time either. They might have toughened up since then though, it was a few years ago.

I got along fine though. Within a month I was the best bike mechanic in the store. All I did was read the Haynes Bike Book and Sheldon Brown cover-to-cover. Not hard to stand out there.

and you call him a 'friend'?

scum.

Are you that confident in your moral superiority to call a simple bent-employee type thief, scum?

Sure. stealing is wrong, he is a dishonest person. But it is hardly the same as stealing personal belongings is it?

I know many people who solely get holiday insurance to claim stolen items but I would never consider them scum. They run their own risk doing it, and the insurance company runs their risk providing the service.

I would rate these crimes equally to obtaining & using music, images, film & software without paying the required fees.

How many of us do that?

Do you have legit version of potatochop & plugins?

Even if you do now, did you when you started to learn it? If you have ever used any media illegally, then you have done exactly the same thing as mr bike thief there.

But i was wondering if there is any techniques that i may not use as a home mechanic but would be expected to know for use on customer bikes?

Lying, spitting and concealed masturbation.

I got rejected by Halfords for being too good

Many people have been caught out by halford's 'shit is shit so just jam it in' standard.

They normally catch the 'clever bastards' when they put the forks on the right way.