I have been riding, racing, and wrenching on my own bikes since I was in grade school. I decided to take my bike mechanic skills to the next level. Last fall I completed the Professional Mechanics class at United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon to become a Certified Bicycle Mechanic. This month I completed the the continued learning certification classes including advanced suspension, Fox suspension, DT Swiss wheel building, disc brakes, and dropper posts. Another 8 days of great instruction at United Bicycle Institute. I built a set of wheels from scratch that passed at 84.5 out of 100 possible points. Anything over 75 points is deemed a passing/sell-able wheel-set in a shop by DT Swiss. It was hard working under a time crunch and I got dinged because I went up to working tension too soon on my front wheel and had a radial hiccup just under 0.4 mm that was hard to get any better (80/100). My back wheel was much better because I took more time to set it up (89/100). The instructor comment was “Nice job. Add some spoke freeze and enjoy.” Only a few students out of 12 passed this class.
On the suspension side we worked on 6 different kinds over the 4 days including brand new Fox forks. The tech inside these small compartments and the abuse they go through on a regular ride of a recreation rider blows my mind. It is amazing that they continue to work at all without regular maintenance. The higher end suspensions degrade in performance slow enough that it might not be apparent to the rider. So much engineering and physics to continue learning!