Bio -

 

I have a family history of engineers and a Dad who loves cars and motorbikes which is definitely a good influence I think and was always playing with spanners and all kinds of tools and mechanical parts when I was young.

I say that if you enjoyed Lego and moved onto Meccano as a kid, there's a chance the next step is tinkering with bicycles.

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My journey with bike mechanics was about 10yrs old, after getting a racing bike for my birthday. Looking after my bike was fun and interesting and I'd say in a way, the bike taught me how to look after it. Its such a simple machine if you take an interest... but needs an attention to detail and the finest of adjusting sometimes to get it to work well.

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I grew up in a small village with miles of fields and country lanes, so cycling was a constant pastime and it also meant that if I didn’t learn to look after it, I would have to walk everywhere.​

By the time I'm in my 30's, I was very much into philosophy and theology and came across this quote that said, "If you find a job you enjoy, you’ll never have to work again." - this was an intriguing prospect!

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So with my love of wisdom and a love of nature, the arts, ancient cultures and at that time, long distance walking, I thought maybe an artist or therapist was the role I needed to pursue.

Then there's this joke...

Q. What makes God laugh!?

A. Tell him your plans  :)

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Than, one day on returning from a long distance walk along the Ridgeway Path; a path to check out for both cyclists and walkers alike, I came across a pile of old thrown away bicycle bits left by some bins. It was close enough to home and so seeing at least one good bicycle among all the random parts, I took these home and started fixing up a new bike for myself.

Within weeks, I'm exchanging my rucksack for panniers and getting into some long distance bike rides.

 

After years of cars and camper-vans, this new bike also got me back into my old hobby of maintaining and modifying bikes. I noted that when I was working on a bike, time seemed to stop, I was at peace with the world and it was more like a meditation.

I later met someone selling parts on Gumtree and found they had a load of retro bikes that needed restoring for a project of theirs.

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They asked if I'd like to help out and so started servicing and repairing all these lovely old bikes and found my little hobby slowly being morphed into a full on bicycle mechanic.

So I decided to set myself up as a sole trader and things start to just line up! I find a very cool charity company, Bikework.CIC, offering classes for City & Guild bicycle mechanics qualification. After successfully completing this course, I was invited to be a teachers assistant for the next scheduled classes!! Next thing I'm leading my own classes and so it began.

So, it was quite an unexpected profession, but on reflection... kind of a cyclic nature ;)

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​So as a little philosophical reflection... I feel our best suited job, could actually be a skill we possessed from childhood and our genes and so feel it's important to keep playing and doing the things we love, however life and duties may get in the way. Look out for those things that put you in a zone or groove, and then check to see if there's any way you can share or exchange that with others... Love is after all the only real way and then you never know what might happen :)

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​​I learnt only a few years after starting my business, that my Great Grandad owned a Bike Shop!