Bicycle Mechanic

Because it’s simultaneously fun, healthy, and practical — useful for recreation, exercise, and transportation — a bicycle is a rare breed of “wonderful.” But even the best inventions sometimes break. And when this one does, it’s up to a Bicycle Mechanic to fix it.

Employed most often by small bicycle shops or large sporting goods stores, a Bicycle Mechanic nurses ill bikes back to health so that children and adults — both Athletes and amateurs — can ride them up the street, around the block, and off into the sunset.

As a Bicycle Mechanic, you approach broken bikes like Doctors do sick patients. That is, you diagnose problems and then treat them. Potential problems include flat tires, worn-out brakes, and malfunctioning gears. Potential solutions, meanwhile, include adjusting, replacing, and upgrading parts, such as wheels, frames, or pedals.

No matter what the problem, and no matter what the solution, your duties as a Bicycle Mechanic are the same: You examine broken bicycles, provide cost estimates to customers, order replacement parts, and execute necessary repairs. Often, you also provide routine maintenance — things like cleaning, lubricating, and adjusting chains and bearings — to keep working bikes in tip-top shape.

Customers may also ask you to upgrade and enhance their bicycles. Thanks to your intimate knowledge of bicycle construction and engineering, for example, you’re uniquely qualified to customize bikes with special frames, tires, pedals, seats, and accessories, which can help them look better, work harder, and ride faster — making you a master of form, function, and, of course, fun.