As appeared in SPOKE, the student newspaper at Conestoga College, January 29, 2007.

Wheels keep turning at Conestoga   2007/1/29
By TIFFANY MCCORMICK  
  
A new Conestoga course really gets its students moving as continuing education’s professional bicycle mechanic course begins its second session today.

The new course, which ran for the first time last semester, is a two-week intensive studies course that takes in 10 students each time at a cost of $1,495 per student.

The college has partnered with Winterbourne Bicycle Institute, founded by Jason Filer and Alan Medcalf in the summer of 2006, to hold the course.

“It’s the education division, if you will, of Winterborne Custom Bicycles,” said Medcalf of the Guelph shop that Filer solely owns.

Not only is this course new to Conestoga, but also to Canada. No other college or university offers it in North America, and only two locations run it in the U.S.

Filer and Medcalf, the course instructors, both attended courses offered in the United States and both had great experiences.

“I’d suggest that it was partly the positive experiences we did have that spurred us to want to create something in Canada,” Medcalf said. “Part of my personal mission in life is to help get more people on bikes more often.”

Medcalf said he and Filer thought the timing was right to launch the course in Canada as their skills and experience could work toward making the course a major success.

“Being under the academic umbrella of the college also gives us some credibility which has proven invaluable in attracting our first sets of students and in garnering support from within the bicycle industry,” Medcalf said.

He added they chose Conestoga because “not only does the college have the processes to efficiently handle registration and related administration, it has a strong history of partnering with external players to deliver trade courses and takes a sincere interest in making those partnerships work.”

The first session, which was held in the fall semester, was a blast according to Medcalf.

“There’s a real sense of accomplishment that’s quite visible when a student successfully builds their first wheel from a rim, hub and a handful of spokes,” he said.

The shop, Winterborne Custom Bicycles, is located in the Hanlon Industrial Park at the south end of Guelph, and that is where the professional bicycle mechanic course is offered.

According to the course outline, “students gain practical knowledge and experience with all major bicycle components, including: frames, bearings, wheels, drive trains, brakes and shifting systems, on a variety of bicycle styles and vintages. Two days are devoted to the skilled craft of repairing and building wheels, including design and selection of components for specific uses. The students will build two pairs of wheels, and have the option of purchasing the second set they build, at cost.”

Ten per cent of the course is self-study, reading and homework assignments, 30 per cent is discussion and instructor demonstration and 60 per cent is hands-on work.

“The pattern is quite simple, for each topic the students have a pre-read assignment and a set of homework questions that develop the theoretical knowledge base,” Medcalf said. “Then we discuss the topic in class and review the key points including anything related to safety or special tools and procedures. Then we talk our way through the particular procedure while demonstrating it. Then the students do it themselves at their workbenches.”

On the final day of the course there is a written and practical exam. The written portion, as Medcalf says, “mirrors the reality of life in a bike shop.”

It is open book and multiple choice. Students can use reference books and refer to their bikes at the workbenches, but cannot speak to one another.

For the practical part, new bikes, still in boxes, are shipped in. Students are supposed to unpack the semi-assembled bike, disassemble the parts that arrive already made and then fully assemble them to the manufacturer’s specifications

“Local bike shops lend us these bikes and we return them to their shops quality assured and ready to go on the showroom floor,” Medcalf said.

When students successfully complete the course, 88 hours in length, they are awarded with a certificate from Winterborne Bicycle Institute with both the company and Conestoga’s logos on it. It signifies that students have completed their course and tells prospective employers that student have some formal training and can be placed in the workfield.

Gillian Oldfield, continuing education program administrator, said she was surprised at the number of people interested in this course.

She’s hoping, in the future, that the course will develop into a certificate program and that students will “increase their knowledge of how to maintain their bikes on a professional level and hopefully secure employment in a bike shop.”

With another session scheduled for the spring semester, and one student on the wait list from this session, Medcalf has high hopes for the future of the course.

“We think there’s an opportunity to dovetail our bicycle-specific content into the college’s existing small business program and perhaps create a bicycle retail sales, service and operation program,” he said. “We see great opportunities in adding specialty courses such as one that focuses on mountain bike suspension maintenance, tuning and overhaul.”

Medcalf believes that “through our efforts there will be more and better trained mechanics available to the bike industry in Canada. The quality of service will improve and retailers who hire our mechanics will garner a larger and more loyal customer base.”

Medcalf said he was always eager to find better ways to get people on bikes more often and feels that “through the creation and delivery of this course, I believe we’re helping, in a small way, to improve the world one bike and one cyclist at a time.”

For more information visit www.winterbornebikes.com.