I built my first wheel today

I just recently finished the first step in my career change path. Those of you that do development or design or spend countless hours staring a computer screen can probably relate. All we will want to do is give it all up to go and live on a farm. Which is what I did 5 years ago, but the trouble with farming is it doesn’t pay that well, and all the hard work is generally done in harvest season. Here on the island this is October and November for olives, and January and February for oranges. Anything in between is maintenance. This is pruning tress, checking the irrigation works and feeding things as when they need it.

So I decided a few months ago to start a bicycle mechanics course. I’ve ridden a bike for as long as I can remember, and fixed my bikes for as long as I’ve been riding them.

Off season on the island is bicycle tour season, and bicycles need maintaining and setting up for customers. So I did something I probably should have done 9 years (when I bookmarked the site) and that was to sign up for a Cyctech training course. In July I did level one. Basic set up of a bike, checking wheels, gears, brakes and making sure it was good and all the bolts were torqued to the manufactures specifications.

In August I did level two. This was more in depth, lasted two weeks and covered wheel building, electronic gears, suspension fork servicing, and much more. At the end we had to complete a full service rebuild from a bare frame. The course was great and I would recommend it to anyone interested in bicycle mechanics. There was a good crowd of other learners, the age split was mainly middle age (like me) and a few young un's. Mike the instructor weirdly grew up in the same town as me, and his mum was a dinner a lady at my old school. Such a small world we live in.

I passed the course with flying colours and I'm currently looking for a job. Although I’m also tempted to invest locally and open a shop in the village. It’s pretty popular with groups and being my own boss in my own little shop, servicing bikes or hiring them out sounds quite appealing. I also like the restoration side too, getting some beaten up old bike, and bringing it back to life ticks a lot of my eco boxes. I guess watch this space and we’ll see what happens.