Bicycle Mechanic

During my second year of mechanical engineering, I had learned various mechanical concepts related to design, machining, and manufacturing. Many of these topics had been taught in class, but by the end of the academic year, I wanted to continue developing and applying those concepts learned from school to the real-world with a strong hands-on approach.

From the beginning of June 2018 to May 2019, I worked as a bike mechanic at Shift Transit, operator of Bike Share Toronto – a city wide bicycle sharing system. My responsibility was to repair and maintain the fleet of bicycles, report my progress through a data-entry network to the Operations Manager, assist in the ordering and receiving of parts inventory, and maintain a safe work space.

Before I started repairing my first bike, I learned various components that make up a bike share bicycle by reading and understanding its engineering drawing (Figure 1). Afterwards, I started off doing simple repairs with the support of my supervisor, such as replacing brake and shifter housings. Over time, I began doing more complex repairs, such as replacing flat tires, fixing bottom brackets, adjusting headset mechanisms, building new wheels to replace old broken ones, analyzing and repairing parts with odd noises, and so on, to the point where I am able to now figure out problems with a bike independently and be able to completely disassembly a bike (Figure 2) on my own.