Repairing Bicycle by Myself, Just Such an Important Skill

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; for saving, you need cheap bicycle tools; these tools are not like the cheap bicycle pump, not everyone can use it for repairing, 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 protect their bike carefully, maybe they just need a cheap bicycle cover and take their bike to a bike shop when bikes are broken, 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 by myself. Just like with the cheap bicycle computer, I have never worry about getting lost when riding. 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.