Bio -

 

Having a dad who was into bikes and cars and working they're mechanics was a good influence, always playing with spanners and all kinds of tools when I was young, but after Lego and Mechano :) my learning about bike mechanics was around the age of 10, after getting a racing bike for my birthday.

I enjoyed looking after my bike, it was fun and interesting and as I grew up in a small village with miles of fields between things, cycling was a constant pastime. It also meant that if I didn’t learn to look after it, I would have to walk everywhere.

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In my 30's, I came across this quote that, "If you find a job you enjoy, you’ll never have to work again." - this became my focus for some years and as I was very much into philosophy and all the 'ologies, a love of nature, ancient cultures and long distance walking, etc. learning to follow my heart as this teaching philosophy instructed, I thought maybe an artist or therapist was the role I needed to pursue.

However, life's a bit more organic than the mind wants to believe and on returning from a long distance walk along the Ridgeway (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, close to home. I could immediately see at least one good bicycle among all the random parts and so took these home and got to fixing up a new bike for myself. This soon had me exchanging my rucksack for panniers and getting into some long distance rides.

 

After many years of cars and camper-vans, this got me back into my old hobby of maintaining and modifying bikes and noted that when I was working on bikes, time seemed to stop and it was more like a meditation than a chore or work. I then met a guy, that soon became a good friend, selling parts on Gumtree, who had a load of retro bikes he wanted restoring for a project of his. I happily got onboard and started to restore all these bikes for him, with me, slowly being morphed into a bicycle mechanic and one thing led to another.... ​It was quite an unexpected profession, though on reflection, of a cyclic nature ;)

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Our best job, life's calling, whatever means, could actually be a skill we already possess.... so remember to play and do the things you love to do and look out for those things that put you in a zone or groove, and then see if there's a way to share that with others... you never know what may happen :)

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