Mechanic School?

[newfsmith]

Red Rock, Barnett Bicycle Institute is located in Colorado Springs. They have a 5 day intensive course that sounds like it would be a good start for you.
http://www.bbinstitute.com/baa.htm If you like it, you can always go back for more advanced courses. Not cheap, but no school is. I went to the UBI course Lunacycle mentioned. It was very good, but I suspect that this course would be quite similar and it is a lot closer to you.

[Red Rock]

newfsmith: Thankyou for the website, I checked it out. There is a lot to think about in all of this. All of those courses would be great to have is you were opening your own shop. I liked how comprehensive they seem at least.

I will keep thinking.

Red Rock

[madscot13]

how far was the closest REI? it is at least a one day course.

what kind of brakes do you have?

[Red Rock]

madscot13- I have two choices for REI, roughly 250 miles or 450 miles. Whenever we go to the city 250 miles away, it takes planning. We try to make a weekend out of it or something along those lines. Since I became married, I don't just jump into the car anymore and go someplace (on a whim).

My brakes are the V-brakes/cantilever type-not disk. After I logged off here last night I went to the biketutor.com and re-listened to what they had to say about brake adjustment. In his tutorial he said to use sandpaper to put the surface on the brake pads. If the brakes continue to squeel then I would need a better quality brake pad. So I went and got some fine sandpaper and will put the bike up and get my pads sanded a little bit before I go for another ride.

Red Rock