I have worked in a couple of bike shops over the past few years having relocated from N Wales to Sussex and needing a stopgap job to pay the bills until i could shift my furniture making equipment. My experience is as sickpup describes. Low pay, almost zero investment in training, inadequate tools, poor working conditions, terrible imbalance in the customer relationship (with some truly awful bullying customers and little management support from the shop side) etc. I had no formal mechanical training beyond building and repairing my own bikes for 35 years. Alarmingly, my skills were better than those of almost all of my colleagues despite some of them being cytech trained.
During the COVID-19 surge in demand i was PDI-ing up go 15 bikes a day. Wages were poor, queues of 30 people outside the shop during opening hours, sometimes it was just me in the shop as colleagues were ill or isolating etc. I carried on working because i am quite loyal/a mug. By the end of the first lockdown we had sold about £200k of bikes. Come Christmas the shop owner thanks me with derisory bonus and i said thank you and good bye.
I have since worked in other places where the conditions have been better but the pay worse and some places where the pay and conditions are good - but the latter i think is rare. In all instances my more talented colleagues have wanted to get out of the bike trade - they don't need the hassle of dealing with customers face to face and accepting a pay packet that limits their life opportunities. There is a generally accepted mantra (only one letter away from mantrap) that the "bike industry is fun but you have accept that it pays badly". Well, that should be ancient bollocks. It's work that carries big responsibilities. I wouldn't let any of my colleagues fix my bike for me. When i'm touching 40mph on a long rocky descent on 3 peaks cx i want to know that my front brake cable was tightened properly and not be wondering whether someone got halfway through it before being distracted by the ebay app's cash register jingle (and that's another whole issue - ever wondered what happens to your used parts that you don't take from your local shop?).
Something that applies to most retail environments is the corrosive effect of that staff/customer power imbalance i mentioned. When you have to suck up bad vibes from some horrible people most days it gets to you eventually. If it's not your business it's hard to tell people what you really think and vent the anger and injury that being the victim of a series of micro-agressions can bring on. A number of colleagues who had worked long term in the trade were clinically depressed and embittered. Don't get me wrong, there were also some lovely customers who have become friends since i left the bike shop job.
Lastly (for now), i was in a lucky position. I'm at a stage in life where my financial outgoings are very small and i don't have to work fulltime, so i had a certain detachment from it all. A few times i would remind customers that they shouldn't forget their manners - which shocked them and brought me pleasure.
Ho hum, sorry for the stream of consciousness. It's just my experience - but having got to know lots of bike mechanics over the past few years i think it is, unfortunately, quite typical.
Rich
