Bikes Blog

Can you fix it? Why cyclists need more bike mechanics.

Posted on by BooksForEveryone

Can you fix it? Once upon a time it was plumbers. Now bike mechanics are in dismally short supply. So is it time to consider a change of career?

Bike Repair Fix It

One has a crank that is making a strange noise; another complains that the chain keeps slipping; and someone else says there’s a problem getting into top gear. Since doing a one-day course on bike mechanics earlier this year, the requests from friends to fix their two-wheelers have kept on coming. But what my day in the workshop taught me above all was that – puncture repairs and tweaking brakes aside – it isn’t as easy as it looks. You need the right tools; you need patience; you need precision; you need to be prepared for the unexpected. And you definitely need more than a four-hour training course.

Tell people to take their bike to a bike shop, however, and they tend to tell you back that it’s more urgent than that, that they can’t manage the wait. In London, popular workshops take bookings months in advance, and a wait of several weeks is commonplace. That’s a long time to be without transport if your machine has a serious problem. It’s an age even if you have a minor problem – who wants to ride around with their brakes catching on the wheel? Demand for bicycle repairs is clearly exceeding supply, and the reason is simple: there just aren’t enough trained bike mechanics.

Not so long ago the country was crying out for plumbers and a spate of stories told of graduates training up to make a living fixing sinks. So is wheel-building the new boiler installation? Is it a growing sector in a recession-hit job market, and can it offer the same rewards to those willing to retrain? I wanted to learn more about bike mechanics because I felt I should be able to keep my machine in good repair myself. Doing so feels like part and parcel of the freedom and independence that cycling provides. But perhaps now is the time to acquire proper expertise, and to apply that expertise to a new career.

Sean Lally certainly thinks so. He runs Cycle Systems Academy in north London, which trains around 40 mechanics a month. “Cycling has boomed. This year has been phenomenal. There are around 500,000 bike journeys being made a day in London,” he says. But until recently “fixing bikes wasn’t seen as a real occupation. It was considered a bit of a Steptoe and Son thing. A secret world that appealed to renegades with little formal training. There was the idea that anyone could do it. That it was something you did before getting a proper job.”

Lally is determined to change that and see it recognised as a proper profession. His academy is one of only three places in the UK to offer a 10-day City & Guilds professional mechanics course at a cost of £1,138. Which means – in theory at least – that in less than a fortnight you could be trained in an industry that is desperate for people. But don’t rush to enrol just yet. Ninon Asuni runs Bicycle Workshop in west London. She has been repairing bikes for 30 years and says she still only breaks even. “The overheads are so high. And I can’t do repairs at an affordable price and pay mechanics a wage that they can’t get doing something else which is easier,” she says.

In contrast to the world of plumbing, wages are a major sticking point in this business. A mechanic can earn as little as £40 a day; a senior mechanic about £20,000-£25,000 a year. The average annual salary is less than £14,000.

And even if you walked in with your City & Guilds certificate, Asuni wouldn’t necessarily offer you a job. “I would rather train people up myself,” she says. “We do a lot of specialised stuff and the problem for me isn’t so much the shortage of mechanics as the shortage of good ones. For example, people aren’t interested in hub gears. No one learns about them any more. There is also the fashion for customising bikes: taking 80s road bike frames, converting them to be fixed gear. All sorts of things that are highly skilled.” Yet these don’t necessarily get covered by the courses.

Theresa Webb, who works with her husband Alf, is more optimistic. Together they wrote the City & Guilds course and trained Lally at their Bike Inn centre in Spalding, Lincolnshire. They have been running their internationally renowned courses there for 20 years. Many of their students launch their own businesses. “There are definitely opportunities to set up on your own. Offering a mobile repair service is very popular, where the mechanic comes to your home or your business. Or starting your own workshop,” she says.

But to those considering entering the profession she cautions that the only way to keep those waiting times down is to “work harder and faster”. “When Alf and I ran a bike shop in Kent, we would have 20-25 repairs a day. And if it came to 5pm and we hadn’t finished them, well then we just kept working until they were done. People need their bikes.”

Top maintenance tips

• Keep all moving parts well lubricated. On modern bikes a lot of these are sealed but the chain should always be well (though not excessively) lubed.

• Make sure the tyre pressure is correct. This reduces wear and tear and makes cycling an awful lot easier.

• Change the chain. There is a lot of debate as to how regularly you should do this but if it is overstretched it will wear down your cassette and then you will have to replace both. The chain is a lot cheaper. You can get a tool that allows you to remove the chain but you need to know what you’re doing – might be time for a mechanic.

• Keep it clean. Dirt eats away at your bike and wears out moving parts. Make sure your wheel rims are clean and grease-free, and your chain and gears lightly oiled. A chain should be a shiny silver colour, not black.

Working in shops you get to see and work on some really beautiful bikes, but then, there are the horror bikes. With a can of WD-40, a Phillips head screwdriver and a set of Allen keys in hand, here are the six most common maintenance and repair mistakes seen from beginners. 

While we may be taking a humorous look at these mistakes, if you’re new to cycling, it’s certainly worth paying attention so you too can avoid these simple maintenance errors we all make when first starting out.

For those well past these beginner mistakes, a few more are covered in common repair errors.

1. Winding in derailleur limit screws

No doubt the most common beginner mistake — turning in those loose derailleur screws David Rome / Immediate Media

Those screws in your derailleurs aren’t loose, but are actually there to set the limits for which the derailleur can move. If a bicycle mechanic has built your bike, then chances are you don’t need to touch those screws again.

If your shifting has suddenly gone out of whack, it’s likely to do with cable tension (or dirty cables) or a bent derailleur hanger. Never reach for the screwdriver first.

2. Using the wrong lube

Ahhh… WD-40, providing bicycle mechanics with something to complain about since 1958 David Rome / Immediate Media

This one comes up in nearly every beginner-focused maintenance article. WD-40 is great for some things (like removing glue residue from stickers or other cleaning), but it’s not up to the task of lubing a bicycle chain.

That said, it’s a little confusing now that WD-40 actually produces a cycling-specific chain lube. Simply put, you’ll only find this ‘WD-40’ branded chain lube in cycle stores. 

When it comes to lubricating the chain, any lube left on the outside of the rollers and links is just collecting dirt and grit. Overtime, this will lead to increased wear and quite the mess.

After you lube your chain, let the lube settle in and then wipe off the excess with a rag. Lubing on top of dirty lube is a surefire way to make your bike angry at you.

It’s good practice to wipe down your chain with a clean rag after every ride — regardless of whether you add more lube. And while you’re doing this, you may as well give the rear derailleur pulley wheels a quick wipe. 

3. Lubing brakes to fix a squeal 

If your brakes are squealing, then don’t think that grease or oil is the answer. Lube and brakes don’t mix.

If you’re using rim brakes, then it’s likely to do with how the brake pads are set up. Look into how to set up brake pads with toe-in to avoid the dreaded squeal. If your pads are old and have dried out, seek advice on new, quieter brake pads.

For disc users, some brakes just squeal — there’s unfortunately no way out of that. However, most of the time it’s a sign of contamination. Cleaning the rotors and replacing the pads should provide some respite to nearby pedestrians.

4. Over tightening the headset

Modern threadless headset systems work by preloading the bearings with the cap on top, and then torqueing the stem in place with its pinch bolts.

Threadless headsets don’t need all that much torque. That bolt up top is purely to set the bearing tension David Rome / Immediate Media

Commonly, it’s thought the top preload bolt needs to be really tight, often resulting in a stripped star nut or jammed headset bearing. Remember, you only need this top bolt tight enough to remove any headset bearing play. If it’s causing resistance in your steering it’s likely too tight.

The exception to this is with older quill stems (distinguishable by a single bolt on top, with no pinch bolts at the stem’s side — still common on department store bikes).

This design uses a bolt attached to a sliding wedge that when tightened locks the stem within the steerer tube. For this type of stem, torque is your friend. And once you think you’ve got it tight enough, put the front wheel between your knees and see if you can twist the bars.

5. Not properly closing quick releases

Quick release skewers are a common item in cycling, but are rarely seen elsewhere. With this, it’s common to see them used incorrectly.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is Trek’s recall of over a million bikes due to the potential danger if the quick release skewer is used incorrectly.

Quick release skewers have an open and closed lever position. Ensure you can read ‘Closed’ or ‘Close’ from the outside before riding David Rome / Immediate Media

Put simply, quick releases have an open and a closed position. Before riding the bike, you need the quick release in the closed position. After tightening the opposing nut, the quick release lever should be locked into position with enough tension that it leaves a slight imprint in the palm of your hand. Ensure that it’s tight enough that you can’t flick it open with your finger tips alone. 

6. Poorly inflated tyres

Riding with under or overly inflated tyres is another common error. Here, a good quality floor pump makes a real difference in simply adding air to your tyres before you leave home.

For minimum and maximum pressures, consult the sidewall of your tyre and find a happy medium (see our article on mountain bike tyre pressure).

Another common mistake is in the use of Presta valves. These can be quite delicate and it’s important to not put too much twisting force on them. Before fitting the pump head, ensure the nut is unwound to the top of its threaded shaft, then slightly depress the valve until you hear air escape.

Connect the pump as square to the valve as possible and once pumped, remove the pump head in an equally straight line. When you re-tighten the little nut, finger tight to the point that it can’t be depressed is all that’s needed — anything more and you may damage its seal.

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