Get into bed with your bike

You’ll never feel closer to your bike then when you’re stripping it down to its bare components and understanding how it all pieces back together. You know how your bike rides on a good day so it’s important to understand what makes it works so well so that it’ll be easier to diagnose problems when they arise.

Pre-emptive awareness

If you’ve put your bike together or have given it a good service, you’re likely to pick up on problems and issues fairly early on. You’ll notice the slightest change in feel, vibration and even notice the quietest of ticks which are when the bike is telling you it’s not okay. By diagnosing these issues early and seeing to them, you can prevent further damage which could cost you a lot more in time and money.

Confidence is really what you’re getting out from learning about bike mechanics, that, and a strong sense of pride because now, YOU CAN DO IT. With your new found sense of all things bicycle, you’ll not only feel confident to fix a majority of your bike problems, but you’ll truly gain a greater respect for this incredible machine that you love so much.

The proof is in the pudding with Stephanie Mark

Whilst I was on my two-week Cytech Level 2 course, I was stoked to see another girl was joining me. Stephanie Mark works at Nottingham BikeWorks which is an incredible non-profit community project that restores old and broken bikes so that they can be rolled back out into the local community.

Stephanie’s day-to-day job involves working on bikes from all years, disciplines and level of “broken-ness”. So, although she’d learnt a great deal on the job, Stephanie decided to gain her bicycle mechanics qualification to further improve her skills, knowledge, and help to lead workshops in the future.

A few months on, I caught up with Stephanie to see how she was getting on and how her Cytech qualification had helped her…

“Going back to work [after Cytech training] was great as I had a better understanding of how to spot faults in bikes and how to fix them. Since I qualified, I have noticed that when a senior mechanic checks my work, there are much fewer things that I’ve missed which in itself makes me feel a lot more confident – although, over the past few months there have been very few times when I’ve missed something! I’ve found that when talking to customers, it’s always easier when you have the same, or greater knowledge, on the subject they are asking about.”

Cytech level 2 is pretty full-on and comprehensive. A student will learn everything about a bicycle and how to strip and assemble one with the exception of e-bikes and full suspension servicing – they’re additional modules available at level 3. I asked Stephanie what her favourite job is to do on a bicycle nowadays:

“My favourite job to do is wheel building and truing wheels. Although, I would like to learn more about higher end road bikes including the leaver systems, internal cable routeing, and general servicing.”