Phil (ascentale)Next from @pete:
Q2. Have you ever had a job in the 'bike industry' (i.e anything cycling-centric)? How did it work out? If not, have you ever considered it?
#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite
@pete @bikenite A2. I have, at a small bike accessory company. I had quit a job, took a break, and then decided to "follow my passion" and took a part time job at that bike accessory company.
At first it was interesting and exciting working for a tiny company. There was a lot to learn re: engineering, manufacturing, and running a business.
There were ups and downs. I worked the bike trade shows and fairs, and worked too much for not a lot of salary. After years, big personality and philosophical differences that had built up eventually resulted in me parting ways.
I view the downsides of that experience as more of a small-company thing than a bike industry thing, except the salary part. One interesting thing was I realized I was more into advocacy than my peers.
A couple years later, I started teaching with my local bike coalition, and eventually transitioned to the office job with them that I have now. It's a nice crew to work with and it feels like we're doing good work.
lopta
Sam Whited@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2. Just as a bicycle mechanic; as much as I love mechanic work, I do get tired of perpetually being unable to make basic payments for things (and I've been lucky, the shops I've been at mostly provided health insurance, but most don't have any benefits at all). It is the best job, but I do wish there were some other job in the industry that made a tiny bit more money that I could do.
Moz@sam @ascentale @pete @bikenite A2: at least in Australia minimum wage is ~$25/hr (~$US15) and we have public health services etc. You can live on it, but raising a family is hard (people do!)
I'm more into the mental challenge side of bike mechanicing, give me the Nihola that's riding funny over yet another cheap MTB that needs a new drivetrain any day. Luckily the shop I worked in was the "that's weird, go to those guys" shop for the city :)
@moz @ascentale @pete @bikenite yah, I'm jealous. In the U.S. minimum wage is $7.25 USD* an hour (and has been since the 2000s) and healthcare costs twice as much as anywhere else (and you have to pay for it personally if your job doesn't provide it). This whole place really is a shit hole (even before you get to the fascist takeover and 1933 Germany vibes) and I'm getting more and more bitter year over year. It's not a good place to be.
* Federal. Some states have their own.
AmgineWay bitd I would work on my bike at a bike co-op in Minneapolis, MN. The best thing about the place was was how the workers were so stoked about what they did.
And they owned the place. That is, it was a co-op, they were all members, they got an extra vote at the AGMs, helped do the day-to-day decision-making. Most of 'em volunteered, so others could earn more wage.
Still a happy-place memory for me.
@Amgine @moz @ascentale @pete I'm even more jealous of that :) My pipe dream has always been to start a worker-owned bike shop (or any co-op really). I'm glad to know there's a shop out there doing it!
@sam @Amgine @ascentale @pete the Ceres Bike Co-op in Melbourne spawned the shop I worked at. It's still going after the shop shut down.
Glowworm and Omafiets both grew out of the Sydney University Bike Coop, although Glowworm has since changed hands.
It's not especially uncommon in my experience. But good bike ships in general are usually part of a community.
It starts out small, a bike stand & some tools, maybe at a park after the weekly ride, a few like-minded friends, Then you're calling local co-op and organizers, collecting catalogs, organizing weekend maintenance demonstrations.
It has to be a side gig, at first. Talking to other bike shops to take jobs they don't have time for, maybe. Riding around with thumbtacks and business cards. Craig's List ads.
It's work & study. But it can happen.
Ryan@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2 Never have I ever worked in the bike industry... but I did consider starting a small business selling my 3D printed bike lights.
If we lived in a world with UBI and I didn't have to keep this hamster wheel turning, I think it would be interesting to do a few seasons as a bike mechanic. But, as it stands, I need my tech sector job to pay off the debt I incurred to get my tech sector job. 🙄
nothingfuture@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2 I worked at a pretty big shop for ~13 years. Started part time and summer and eventually became full time year round. It was fun, but it was retail. It’s hard work and there are a lot of burnouts to navigate. It also contributed to my snobbishness around bicycles (though that might have happened anyway)
@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2: been a bike mechanic, I really enjoyed it but couldn't afford to do it for more than a year (software engineer, the bike shop paid less than half my normal income). But I'd always wanted to and the opportunity was there.
I've helped a friend who manufactures bikes with design and bouncing ideas off as well as testing things. Just for fun tho.
I've sold bikes that I've built from metal tubes.
hence www.moz.geek.nz/mozbike :)
Mark Connolly 🍻 🚴🏼♀️ (he, him, his)@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2. Right now I’m Executive Director at @CyclingGuide which has, so far, been working out well enough 😀🚴🏼♀️❤️
gene x@ascentale @pete @bikenite A3: closest thing was shooting a cover for a magazine of Gary Fisher. We decided to do it at the top of Texas St in San Francisco with the city in the background and of course he rode himself up to the shoot. I had met him on the trails at China Camp mountain biking before but only in passing so that was the first time i officially met him #BikeNite
April#BikeNite A2. I was the mechanic for a tour & rental shop in Portland, Oregon for a while. Nice mix of fleet maintenance, light retail (no pressure to sell bikes, which I would probably be terrible at), and repair work.
That job was fun, but possibly even better was working as an attendant for the bike valet at the Portland Aerial Tram. The university paid for the valet, so we got to offer people a free service (everyone loves a free service) and I just spent all morning greeting people, admiring their bikes, and trying to find the most efficient way to get each bike parked so I could be up front again as soon as possible. It was a morning shift, so I had another job in the evening and was lucky to be in a situation where I could get by on two part-time incomes for a while. Also, waking up at 5am to commute to a 6am shift kept my sleep schedule from drifting too late. XD
I'd love to work in bicycle design, but as far as I can tell it's pretty hard (understatement) to find jobs designing and building the sorts of weird bikes I'd want to work on.
Lisa@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2: I haven't had such a job, but I have asked around at bike shops for work on occasion. #BikeNite
Demian@ascentale @pete @bikenite a2. I worked in bike shops between 1988 and 1994. Started as a summer job and continued full time a couple years after getting my liberal arts degree and then another summer while getting another degree. #bikenite
@ascentale @pete @bikenite I mostly really liked it. I liked both retail and repair work, and also just hanging out with other enthusiasts. The low pay and skimpy benefits made it untenable to support a family that we planned. The discounts were nice tho.
Frank Bennett 🇯🇵@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2: Yep. In my last year of undergrad at Berkeley (1980–81), I worked part time as a mechanic at the Square Wheel, a small shop out on Walnut Street to the north. They dealt in BMX kit and a line of road bikes from Japan ("Sakai"). The lycra-clad shops nearer Uni looked down their snouts at us. I owned a Peugeot PX10, I'd learned a bit of bike maintenance from books and practice, at interview they asked me to true a wheel, that went fine, and I was in.
DJ Deep House Arrest@fgbjr I think I've been there! I was an undergrad at Berkeley at that time too, did that shop give free maintenance classes in the evenings?
@klaw !! No evening classes when I was there AFAIK. The owner was a young local businessman (in real estate I think?) with family in Taiwan, but the shop was run by two brothers from Wisconsin, if that rings any bells.
@fgbjr I *know* I have been there, but I might be thinking of a different shop for the classes. Was there one called Missing Link? Anyway, very cool!
@klaw Yes there was! Missing Link was a "proper" bike shop further to the south. I think I only went in there once, and I remember feeling a little intimidated at the time. 😬
@ascentale @pete @bikenite
Went to UBI bike school in Oregon, certified as mechanic and wheelbuilder. Worked at bike shops and the Low Speed Wind Tunnel in San Diego, assisting on testing for Lance Armstrong, Dave Zabriskey, Floyd Landis, other elites and local athletes. Met a lot of industry people and team management. Wonderful job!
Went to UBI bike school in Oregon, certified as mechanic and wheelbuilder. Worked at bike shops and the Low Speed Wind Tunnel in San Diego, assisting on testing for Lance Armstrong, Dave Zabriskey, Floyd Landis, other elites and local athletes. Met a lot of industry people and team management. Wonderful job!
Bob Jonkman#BikeNite A2: I spent exactly one day working (for pay) in a bike shop, #RecycleCycles in #Kitchener, a project run by #TheWorkingCentre where I'd just started work in the IT department. Bike Shop Day was part of the new job orientation. Lots of fun for a bike weenie: All the tools! All the parts! And professional expertise to help out when things go wrong. I have none of those in my basement.
I've volunteered there a few times since, just a few hours at a time.
AI6YR Ben@ascentale @pete @bikenite #BikeNite A2. Nope. Though, some of my relatives are in the bike industry, and apparently tried to get my parents to sell bikes for them, LOL. (neither of them ever rode a bicycle when I was a kid 🤔 ).
edd@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2. No jobs in the bike industry. I've thought about it, but I don't have the savings to be the breadwinner for my family and work in an industry with such razor thin margins. I'd love to have a side hustle doing something stupid related to bikes iff it didn't eat into family time too much, though.
Pete Prodoehl 🍕@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2. I have not, though I contemplated applying at Trek once, and I had friends that worked there.
Matthew Newell#BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes
No never. Gonna retire from main job soonish - might well volunteer in the cycling charity sector
Megan Lynch (she/her)@ascentale @pete @bikenite A2. No. It always seemed to me as if you needed to be a mechanic to work at a LBS. I think I could be helpful working in marketing and/or customer support or just counterperson, but the industry is so dude-centric that I'm sure it would be hard to break into the parts of it that interest me.
For instance, if I were to do a complete pivot on career, I'd want to get involved in recumbent & cargo cycles, create a sort of "Utah Trikes" for Europe. #BikeNite #Recumbent
Eat This PodcastA2. No, but I'[ve considered volunteering at a repair cafe or community workshop. The problem is that they seem to be very few and far between here, and each time I investigate I come away empty-handed. May be time to try again.
Obscuredavid@ascentale @pete @bikenite
A2
I would have struggled on a bike mechanic's wage. Now that I'm retired, I do a little basic trike maintenance if required at my one-day-a-week volunteer role at our disabled cycling charity. But really, my job is to be nice to people and help them enjoy their cycling.
cpm@ascentale
summer, 1970, just a kid, had afull time summer job in a kitchen, but it didn't start until 3pm
picked up 2hrs/day assembling bikes for a great character with one of those gas-station bike shops
paid $5 per bike
learned *a lot* under his tutelage
on & off similar gigs most of my life, never as career, just xtra side gig
was a courier in dc late 80s
finished post-career days as a wage earning chief mech at a specialty recumbent/adaptive shop.
job ended with covid
ajft [SEC=continvoucly morged]@ascentale @pete @bikenite #BikeNite A2, not at all, I enjoy riding them; I am neither mechnic, salesman nor small business operator and do a poor impersonation of these
Paul EdwinA2. Not a job, but when I was a volunteer ranger for Sustrans¹, I did a day fixing people's bikes for free at some event. The state of some of the Bike Shaped Objects that people brought in… and the complete lack of mechanical understanding… *shudder*
I enjoy fettling my own bikes, but there's no way I could deal with the general public.
Poor 'Possum@ascentale @pete @bikenite I am currently a bike mechanic, I used to manage a pedal-powered hauling company that did last mile delivery for local farms to restaurants and residential kitchens and picked up compost and public-access recycling, and my very first job was pedaling an ice cream trike through residential neighborhoods. Logistics and heavy-hauling have been a deeply ingrained part of my cycling identity damn-near my whole life, and it's been sad to see cycling-logistics wane the past half-decade or so.
I've worked in other industries, but none, not even working as a mechanic, have made me feel so fulfilled as when I knew I represented one less massive, useless truck on the streets.
Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐@ascentale @pete @bikenite #BikeNite A2. In my early 20s, I was a bike shop mechanic at a sporting goods store on the Jersey Shore for awhile. The job itself and my co-workers was great, my boss not so much, and the commute was terrible. Between three adults, we had one car, and because of our schedules, it worked out that I did almost all the driving. I love bicycles, and I hate cars.
I used to love cars, but then I grew up.