Yeah I agree aswell, If you do it properly it takes far longer than 15minutes.  When i worked at my LBS, I found that barbie bikes took alot longer to set up than more expensive bikes.  The brakes can be a right bugger to set up, and putting stablisers on is an arse!

Can't be doing it properly if it's only taking 15 minutes.

At the Halfords i work in, at times its great fun, a real laugh, but like any job i guess, at times, its crap!

This xmas we've been told to reserve 30bikes a day to be built!  What a joke!  There were only 3 of us in on wedsnesday, you try 3people building 10bikes each with customers to serve as well! ha...hahaha.

Rootes

Ok i wasnt including packaging but we got a kid who does all that for us haha. He has nothing else to do

I just quit my job at Halfords recently. It was rediculous, they everyone of my Bikehut colleuges and my boss expected me to have 10 bikes done in a 3 hour shift, thats just over 3 an hour. Then they complained why the bikes weren't safe to ride.

I agree with Barbie, the little pissy barbie bikes take at least 40 minutes, and that's when they're going well. I can knock up an Apollo XC26s in roughly 20minutes, but they are piss easy. It's the smaller bikes that cause the problems cos there's so much s**t on them.

That wasn't the only reason I quit though, I quit because my boss MADE me do overtime, and then put me on diciplinary because I wasn't building enough bikes as the rest of them, and also because I wasn't doing enough over time for him, even though my contract said NOTHING about having to do overtime, it was purely optional.

My boss was a richard though, he kept saying mine and my mate Chris's studied were more important than our jobs, so would keep work to a minimum, yet he expected my mate to take a day off college just to work for him, when we weren't busy. He totally understands when one of the other lads needs time off for Uni work tohugh, for us college lads, we don't get a look in, treated like slaves

Argh, anyway rant over, I hate Halfords basically

Chris

If you want to become a bike mechanic then think carefully about whether it is something you want to do long-term or whether it is just a first career step into the the bike trade or simply your first proper job.

The bike industry has low margins compared to most so pay is never great but if you're well into your bikes the other perks like special staff prices on kit etc can make it worthwhile.

The novelty of working on nice bikes etc does wear off and a lot of the time will be spent selling/builidng/repairing/servicing lower end bikes.

Best bet is to find a good shop to give you a job and get onto the ACT Cytech courses, get as trained and qualified as you possibly can. All the time you're under 25 the govt will fund the ACT trainign i believe.

Once you have some experience and ACT stuff behind you there are plenty of possibilities as long as you're still enjoying wokring with bikes still!

a) Go work for an importer supplier as rep etc
b) Get work with a world cup race team as general lacky and mechanic
c) Get qualified as a coach and go work at a resort as coach/guide/mechanic
d) Get job as wokrshop manager in a busy london shop and earn half decent money
e) Open your own shop
f) Start writing articles for bike mags and try to get some work with them

etc etc etc

Personally i love working in the bike industry, i could earn a lot more in another job but doubt i'd enjoy it as much. I mix things up by running Topshelf, a shop and doing some coaching/guiding as well.

Lots of what I beleive has been said already, but having worked and spannered for 4 years in a quality bike shop, I've noticed how the way that LBS's shine through over halfords is the fact that to tell the customer that you are going to dedicate an hour of your experienced and qualified mechanics time into making sure their bike is safe and perfectly set up is what makes the difference to a halfords stores, we'll knock that up in 15minutes attitude.

Tom