Mechanic Skills Class

aaargh, as a former instructor of this very class, I have to recommend United Bicycle Institute's women-only basic mechanics class. It is a week long, usually in the summer and covers everything from wheelbuilding, drivetrain adjustments, and suspension fork tuning.

Although no longer guaranteed to be taught by a woman:(, but the owner of UBI (Ron Sutphin) is hugely sensitive to the fact that women are a bit more likely than men to be intimidated by mechanical issues so the class is very gentle, very hands on, and very educational. Plus hanging out in Ashland, OR for a week is a blast. I taught it for 3 years: I loved it and I miss it.

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Originally Posted by lunacycles

aaargh, as a former instructor of this very class, I have to recommend United Bicycle Institute's women-only basic mechanics class. It is a week long, usually in the summer and covers everything from wheelbuilding, drivetrain adjustments, and suspension fork tuning.

Although no longer guaranteed to be taught by a woman:(, but the owner of UBI (Ron Sutphin) is hugely sensitive to the fact that women are a bit more likely than men to be intimidated by mechanical issues so the class is very gentle, very hands on, and very educational. Plus hanging out in Ashland, OR for a week is a blast. I taught it for 3 years: I loved it and I miss it.

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That's a really cool set up they have when I google it. Thx! Hmm, now my wheels are turning... ghee, my kids would even be out of school then. Wonder if I could get DH to take a trip there;)?

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Originally Posted by Jones

This is a bike mechanics program. I guess you have to stay there but I have no other info. http://www.bbinstitute.com/

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Thx for that link:).

It's nice to know that these options exist!

I did UBI's professional mechanic class for 2 weeks last April. Excellent course, but not for novices. Newfsmith did their one-week women's class last year.

I've been taking a mechanic's class at my LBS. The classes are two hours each for six weeks. This week will be the last class.

We have done things to our bikes that I would never have imagined that I would tackle myself. While I don't envision that I will ever have a career as a professional mechanic I have found that it is really cool to have a much better understanding of how everything works on it. It's been very satisfying to take things apart and be able to put it all back together again (and have it still work correctly). There were so many things on the bike that I would have been afraid to touch myself, but not anymore. I really looking forward to doing my own maintenance work. For the things that I can't do myself I'll be able to communicate my issues much better to the mechanics at my shop.

I would highly recommend taking some classes to everyone. Hopefully you'll have instructors as great as the two that have been teaching our classes.

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Originally Posted by SJCzar

For the things that I can't do myself I'll be able to communicate my issues much better to the mechanics at my shop.
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This is something I've found too.

I am not sure I would like a women's specific class. I mean come on, its all about logic which is not gender specific. I attended one women's specific class at my LBS, and was very disappointed by the slow pace. The only thing I will see that is sometimes different about men and women is a difference in mechanical strength. Whereas I can only make or break a chain with a shop quality park chain tool, DH can do it with a cheapie travel version. So, for me I found getting good tools made all the difference in the world.

In the end, I found I learned the most by just doing the work. Each time my bike needed something done to it, I'd develop a consensus protocol by reading what they said in my park tool blue book, zinn's book and bicycling mag book. I even managed to rebuild a shimano sti shifter on my own this way, even though in theory they are not rebuildable.

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I am not sure I would like a women's specific class. I mean come on, its all about logic which is not gender specific.

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The idea of a women specific class is that guys tend to have a lot more mechanical experience coming into a bike maintenance class than women--not always but often--and for some women this can feel intimidating. The UBI women's class covers the same amount of material as their regular basic mechanics class over the same amount of time. Maybe describing it as "slower" is inaccurate. I just mean to infer the pace respects the participants' needs and wants. I hope that makes sense.

It's just a personal thing. It is nice when there are more options for the mechanically intimidated.

I really loved the women's bike maintenance course at UBI. Socially, it was great. The participants brought a variety of bikes; full carbon road bikes to elderly MTB's, well maintained to thouroughly abused. It was a blast to see the variety of bikes and problems. They had enough work stations that you could work alone if you wanted to, or pair up if you preferred. You got to think out the problems yourself, or together. We did not, however, do any wheelbuilding or getting into fitting for women as I had hoped. Basically, the class I attended was a one-week, intensive, Park Tool School. I have no regrets about taking it, because I think the intensive approach works better and UBI had a collection of class bikes, MTB and road, so that you had a chance to work on all systems on both. The Park Tool School I attended, you only worked on your own bike. I felt I got a much broader exposure to bike repair at UBI and came out of it feeling much more confident. Even so, when I started stripping bikes at Bikes-not-Bombs, I had to figure out cottered cranks and Ashtabula cranks. If you can afford the tuition and can make it a vacation I recommend the UBI course for women. If it is too expensive, you can get very similar instruction at a Park Tool School, but you will most likely be working in groups. If that is too expensive, try googling for "earn-a-bike" programs. Most are aimed at youth, but they will often train the instructors for free, as long as you committ to instructing for a time period. You do mostly see X-mart bikes, but a fair number of good bikes get donated also. All experience is good. Good luck.

And by taking the women's only class at UBI, you got to avoid one guy telling the whole class how he got himself caught in his zipper, twice.