[AT] OT Bicycle mechanics.

[Henry Miller]

On Sunday 28 May 2006 08:34, charlie hill wrote:
> Wow,  He must have been the last of the trade in the US.  I suspect you
> could find a pretty good bicycle mechanic in Cuba, Viet Nam or China.  Now
> days you can buy a pretty decent 10 or 12 speed bicycle for about $90 at
> Wal-Mart or Target or an old style single speed cruiser type for about $60.
> It's kinda hard to hire someone to work on one when you can replace it for
> that kind of money.

You haven't looked at quality have you?   There are many good bike mechanics 
around.   It isn't worth working on a wal-mart bike, as you quickly go over 
the cost of the bike, and you are still stuck with the wal-mart quality 
frame.  

In the US there are people who either depend on their bike (if you make a lot 
of solo trips under 10 miles and are in good health there is no reason to use 
a car), or are really into sport bikes (race or mountain).  Either group will 
want a higher quality bike.  They will go to bike mechanics (If they don't 
work on the bike themself), often a quality bike will no come with the 
options you want, so you change the derailers or something, and there your 
bike mechanic is useful.    

There are many bike shops , the ones that are not as much mechanic as sales 
will know who the mechanics are.  Most of these are a little upscale from the 
old bike mechanic, but they are around.