The Bike Inn Training Course

I’ve just completed a two week Bike Mechanic training course in the Bike Inn in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. I’ve always maintained my own bikes, and liked to think I knew a good bit about bikes. But after two weeks of intensive training I now realise that I knew very little and that I still have an awful lot to learn.

If you want a first class bike mechanic training course and are anywhere near the British Isles, the Bike Inn is the place to go. If you pass you will get a City and Guilds qualification, but that is incidental, what this course will really give you is a serious grasp of all aspects of the bicycle, its design, manufacture, use, maintenance and repair.

The Bike Inn

The course is delivered by Alf and Theresa Webb in a beautiful old School House, in Wragg Marsh a few miles outside Spalding. Not only is the school house their place of business it is their home, and they are very affable hosts.

Alf in one way or another has worked in the bike business for 57 years, having started as a teenager working on a production line in a bike factory. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of bikes and bike components. He can with total ease recall almost any component used on any bicycle in the last 57 years. He is a total master of the subject, a natural teacher and a very nice man.

Theresa is a first rate bike mechanic, wheel builder and teacher. She has a much more direct and concise style of teaching than Alf, but together their contrasting styles make them a formidable team. In a world where so much has become bland, standardised and clinical the Bike Inn is a welcome oasis where the personalities and experiences of the trainers shine through.

In the first week they were ably assisted by former student Neil (never did catch his surname) who runs his own bike repair business in nearby Stamford. There were three teachers and seven students, a very impressive ratio. Most of the two weeks were spent at the workbench working on bikes. In the second week I built a bike from a bare frame, wheels and all.

If you want to start your own business, get a job in the industry or just learn to maintain your own bikes, you will not get a better two week training course than at the Bike Inn.

The Bike Inn Website