Winterborne Bicycle Institute

Interview with Jason Filer & Alan Medcalf

Jason Filer originally decided to teach weekend mechanics classes to help market his bike frame building business. With the help of Alan Medcalf, a former student turned colleague, the side project grew into Canada’s premiere bicycle training institute. Now entering its second year of operations, the Winterborne Bicycle Institute, administered by Conestoga College in Guelph, Ontario, will offer four two-week training sessions through Fall 2007 and Winter 2008. We caught up with Jason and Alan at this year’s ExpoCycle trade show in Montreal.

Who attended your course last season?
Alan: In the first course, out of ten students, three of them were bike shop owners, three were bike shop mechanics, and the other four were people who had some experience and wanted to become bike mechanics.
The first two courses were full. Two shop owners from the first course each sent two of their mechanics to our second course, and one is sending a third this December. We didn’t know quite how last April’s course was going to turn out because it was close to the busy season and not the best time for a bike shop to send someone to a course for two weeks. We ended up with a smaller class of enthusiastic home mechanics.

Is there a difference between your course and the ones offered in the US?
Jason: The bottom line is that they’ve set the bar. They’ve been doing it for years. We use Barnett’s Manual when we teach because it’s the most well-written and thorough bicycle repair manual available. Alan went to Barnett’s course [Barnett Bicycle Institute in Colorado Springs, CO] and I went to United Bicycle Institute [in Ashland, Oregon]. We’ve pooled our practical and course experience to make sure that what we’re offering compares well with what they’re offering, and I think we’re there.

Is being a bike mechanic considered a trade?
Alan: Unfortunately, not really, not today. One of the problems we have in the whole bike industry is that consumers want a high-end state of the art bike and expect to pay $150 for it, that it will never need any service, and it’ll last forever.
When you talk to bike shops across North America you’ll hear it’s really hard to find and retain good mechanics. Part of that is wrapped up in the fact that mechanics get paid next to nothing.

So the customer needs to be educated and value their bike as a vehicle.
Alan: As a consumer I’d walk up to the bike shop and ask the question, “Are your mechanics trained and are they certified?” Then I know I’m going to get better service. Bike mechanics across the country get paid from minimum wage to about $15 per hour. In Calgary right now if you’re working at Tim Horton’s you can make $17 per hour. Give me a break!

Why are you offering this course now?
Alan: We believe the timing is right to make a difference. There’s a “perfect storm” of complex materials and technology, and a surge in interest in utility cycling for transportation and recreational cycling for health.
In the past all bikes were made of steel. Anybody with a cheap set of tools could reasonably maintain a bike. Over the last dozen years and in the last five years especially, we’ve seen a huge ramp-up in the use of composites and other metals for frames and components. A greater knowledge of materials science, fasteners, lubrication, mechanics, and the use of a torque wrench is absolutely mandatory now. It used to be that you had a huge range of torque that you could put on a steel bolt on a steel fixture on a steel frame and you were going to be okay, you just had to worry about corrosion. Now, if you’re putting a stainless bolt through an aluminum bracket onto a carbon structure, you’ve got to be quite careful. All of the manufacturers of bikes and components provide technical spec sheets and they’re very clear that if you don’t follow torque and other advice, then you as a dealer are putting your customer’s safety at risk.
It’s incumbent upon dealers to: 1 – provide better service for their customers in having safer and more serviceable bikes; and 2 – to protect themselves by having well-trained mechanics.
The other thing that’s happening, with concern for the environment and personal health, is that the cycling industry is enjoying a boom. There are more people who want to get on bikes. As an industry it is incumbent upon us to make sure those bikes are reliable, safe, and serviceable. You put all of that together and the time is right to introduce more rigorous training for bike mechanics.

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