www.bikeschool.com
One of the funnest things I have been lucky enough to do is attend this school! I went for the introduction to bicycle maintenance class. One week of nothing but eat, breath, dream, work all on bikes! I arrived on a Sunday evening to the bicycle hostel; which happened to just be 2 buildings down from the school. There were about 9 of us sharing a two room dorm style apt, all going to the school. We would all wake up at the crack of dawn, some of us would share breakfast and then we would head off to the school. Class started at 7am sharp!
We would start out the day talking about the previous days work....ask questions and then move onto the new days lesson. They would use a model bike in the classroom setting...and then we would work on our own bikes or supplied bikes if we liked. We stripped our bikes down completely and built them back up over the course of the week! It was great to see how things worked and how to fix them. It was also interesting to see the 'what if's'. Each class ended at around 5pm but if we chose...we could stay until 7pm with one of the mechanics to work more on our own bikes. I always opted for this because when else do you have this kind of opportunity
There were 4 teachers and always at least 2 in the class at all times. There was plenty of hands on work along with help if needed. The ratio of teacher to student ranged from 1 to 7...to about 1 to 4. Never was I made to feel like I was suppose to know something or belittled for not knowing. They encouraged questions and would always have or GET the answer for us. All the teachers have worked in the industry from being bike riding professions to being pro team mechanics. ALL OF THEM LOVE BICYCLES!
I hope to return and complete all the courses they offer. The class I took with room and board was about a grand. This class being the cheapest and the most expensive would be the two week titanium frame building class which is over 3 grand plus room and board. They also have small clinic classes for those who are doing the long haul of several of the classes at once.
Anyone thinking about doing this should! Its great fun and there is always lots to learn!
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