A waste of £150

[Blue Hills]

try spending your money at The Bike-Inn http://www.bike-inn.co.uk/
u can di a very comprehensive 1 week course there

Yes, they have long had a good reputation I think.

I checked out your link and found this:

http://www.bike-inn.co.uk/masterclasses.asp

Sounds very interesting, but if I read it correctly £4.99 a chapter? It truly must be the holy grail.

 

[lpretro1]

i trained at the Bike-Inn in 2004 obtaining my C&G - I have now been in business in the cycle trade for over 10 years - so that's a good advert. I know of many others who have done the same. I even went back and taught part of their courses for over 3 years too

 

[Graeme_FK]

If you are experienced you won't enjoy the Velotech bronze, the first level, it will be too easy for you.
I went for a bronze/silver combined (it was the only option at the time), 2 full days 9.30 to 4.30. Cost me 100 plus 200 ILA founds.
Managed to pass the bronze, but it was intense for me: as it is not something you can go home and practise from one day to the next, really to pass you should already be proficient.
I did a few free courses too, from bike shops and local, council founded, cycling hubs. Found this easier as I could go home, think about it, have a tinker.
Of course if a paper qualification is important, you need to start from the obvious bits.
Ah, afaik on the Velotech one only works on hybrids/mbikes, never road bikes, somebody who did the Gold told me.

Very old thread, I know - but I've only just seen it.

Velotech courses should leave the candidate comfortable working on any bike, at the level of course undertaken.

Because we use delivery partners as well as having our own, internal training facilities, some trainers may lean more heavily on MTB (Glenmore Lodge, for instance), some more on hybrid or city bikes (Outspoken, in Cambridge, possibly, or Bike Station in Edinburgh) or road bikes (the main workshops in Stoke on Trent) but all centres are required to offer training on all types of bike.

What is good practice on one type of bike is good practice on another, however, it's better that candidates work on a 1x, 2x and 3x system as each have their own quirks in assembly, component selection and set-up - and drop bars require some subtly different skills - they need tape and cables holding down, cable lengths are set differently, etc. to straight bars.

We'd expect all candidates to have had some information about each format of bicycle on the Gold / Intermediate 2 course.

 

[Graeme_FK]

I quite enjoy building bikes so I thought I might get properly into it, get qualified and build a few to sell on. More as a hobby than actually to make any money. So I've just taken Cytech theory level 1. What a pointless waste of money. I don't know any more about bike maintenance than before. The course is badly written and the assessment is laughable. I would say it was a waste of time as well but it only took me my lunch hour to do it. Very disappointing, I should've called it quits after the free trial but I decided to press on. Shame, I could've spent the money on some new hubs or something.

I think rather than continue with the Cytech practical I might come knocking on @Graeme_FK 's door for some Velotech training. It looks a bit more up my street, more actual mechanics rather than H&S or customer relations. And as I am a Campagnolo fanboy...

Sorry, very late reply, only just tripped over this thread when looking for something else!
Re training, if you haven't already been to one of our partners, you'd be very welcome, once we can re-start training post the current COVID restrictions ...

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I'd seriously question the value of having formal training to be a bike mechanic. Anyone who isn't a complete mechanical numpty should be capable of fixing a bike anyway, without bits of paper. All the kids I grew up with were pulling bikes apart in our back yards when we were still at junior school.
It's not even a very well paid job anyway, outside of the tiny pro cycling arena. Most of the people doing it working in shops would earn just as much, if not more, if they were stacking shelves in the supermarket.

 

[alicat]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

 

[Oldhippy]

I would love to see a cycle/cycling/cafe/cooperative/cycle recycle hub in every county.

 

[keithmac]

I've done 2 day Motorcycle technical training courses that could have easily been condensed into a mornings work. You'd hope any workshop with Main Dealer status would know it's arse from it's elbow!.

For me 90% of learning is actually doing and working out how it works, not been spoon fed. I've seen plenty of people who know vaguely what to do but not WHY, big difference.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I would love to see a cycle/cycling/cafe/cooperative/cycle recycle hub in every county.

That's pretty much dependent on the availability of cheap premises and a supply of willing volunteers with the free time to spare. Cannibalising various abandoned/donated beaters and turning them back into usable bikes at minimal cost is not really a commercially viable activity if you have normal business overheads and red tape related costs to deal with.
Charity shops wouldn't be viable either without being able to get the majority of their staffing resources for free.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I'd seriously question the value of having formal training to be a bike mechanic.

But this is the way of the world now, not sure if it's being led by the insurance companies, but I suspect a lot of MP's have fingers in the training business pies. Building sites, warehouses, lorry driving is now filled with regulations & training courses that have to be taken, everything has to be assessed before it's done, it seems like we teach the kids to lose their common sense in school these days.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Wasn't "getting red of all the red tape which strangles enterprise" part of the tory manifesto?

I don't recall them saying they'd abolish insurance, which is all you'd need (And even that isn't compulsory) to set up as a cycle mechanic.

Now, let's see if you can work a reference to Brexit into it too.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I would love to see a cycle/cycling/cafe/cooperative/cycle recycle hub in every county.

Most bikes are too cheap to bother spending money on professional repairs or servicing. Either you do it yourself, get help from a mate who can do it or give the thing away or dump it.

 

[biggs682]

Most bikes are too cheap to bother spending money on professional repairs or servicing. Either you do it yourself, get help from a mate who can do it or give the thing away or dump it.

That is so true , had a few decent bikes given that needed a couple of hours of tinkering to fix

 

[Oldhippy]

It does work well in deprived areas once people know it is there.

 

[Poacher]

I don't recall them saying they'd abolish insurance, which is all you'd need (And even that isn't compulsory) to set up as a cycle mechanic.

Now, let's see if you can work a reference to Brexit into it too.

Did you even bother to check the date this was posted? Nearly five years ago, before the referendum. Try again!