I built my first wheel today

I just recently finished the first step in a new career 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 or start making and fixing things using our hands.

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. I probably should have done this 9 years ago (when I bookmarked the site) and that was to sign up for a Cytech 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.