Video: Calvin Jones talks Professional Bicycle Mechanics Association with President James Stanfill

You don’t need to equate them to a dealership – look at the local one or two bay garage in neighborhoods. Overhead is also much higher in the auto industry – this can work. I for one am excited to see this progress.

I’ve always said that bike mechanics need to unionize.

There is no clear reason why PBMA goals are important for the individual or shop. There are many questions to be answered but it’s a good start. How will long time mechanics be certified? Can you take a test? Do you have to attend a “bike college”? Many professions have codes of conduct which need to be included in being a bicycle mechanic. Also can you still be an angry judgemental person and be certified? Eventually customers will want certified mechanics and ask for them but not for years down the road.

Cars don’t require ‘tuning’ like bikes do. Its just part doesn’t work, bolt on new part. There was a ton of stuff in the way to get to said part so it took me a long time, so theres your huge bill. The on board diagnostics and all the electronics in cars are why cars are more complicated than bikes. They require hugely expensive tools that bikes do not require. I have car mechanics who bring their bikes to me because of the ‘tuning’ aspect of a nicer bike that just takes a lot of experience to acquire. However, I know these guys own in excess of $50k of car tools. They have insurance policies on their tools and bring them with them to whatever shop or dealer they work at. The diagnostic tools dealers use are too expensive for most mechanics to own on their own, unless they are going to spend their career dealing with a single brand. Bikes aren’t that way. They are not complicated enough or diverse enough to require tons of specific expensive tools. And if they were, everyone on here would whine about how brand x came up with a different bottom bracket that wasn’t the same as the 8 standards already in existence. People with cheap bikes don’t care about the fine tuning, they just want it to shift and stop. A youtube video could teach most how to make this happen with tools they already have from ikea. Maybe they’ll come and have a shop install a bottom bracket because they don’t have the tool the same way I have auto shops do only the stuff I can’t do on my car.

Are study materials available? What if one has been riding for years (road) doing my own mech but am not fully versed with all bikes and would like to become more versed in order to gain more experience to work at a shop or start my own small mech service?

This test reminds me of when I was in the military taking advancement test. One had to know the full spectrum including ship and shore, but can be difficult if you are not exposed to all facets.

Finding some answers difficult to answer on test 1 (80%). Are the answers subjective or are they always the same no matter who you ask?