Bike Design

benneally

[Sorry for posting this in this section, but as you guys consider yourselves at the upper end of cycling, I felt that you are more likely to be able to help me ]

I'm currently doing an Engineering Degree at Cambridge, and when I graduate I'd really like to work in the bike industry designing bikes. So im looking for a summer placement with a company that is involved with the design of bikes or components, to get an idea of the industry/what the job would be like.

I've tried approaching companies directly but with little response and so I was just wondering if anyone has any contacts/knows anyone that may be able to help me out?

I know its a long shot, and no one really knows me, but any email addresses, phone numbers or anything would be really helpful.

Thanks guys.

teagar

Youth unemployment, even at grduate level, is in and around one in five.

The reason you're not getting anywhere is that there are literally hundreds of thousands of people, already with their degrees are doing the same thing.


It's tough out there, just keep at it. Don't be picky.

They're unlikely to be recuiting at all, even if there is a (relative) rise in bicycle demand.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/ja ... -companies

Monty Dog

Learn Chinese and get yourself to Taiwan - that's where the bike industry is.
The only 'bike' design that goes on in this country is more akin to product management and marketing, rather than the pure 'engineering' and design. If you are serious, develop a 'portfolio' of your ideas which demonstrate your creative skills and show to prospective employers your abilities - far more than any CV will.
The majority of bike companies are in fact quite small scale and probably get hundreds of applicants every year, even from interns looking to work for free.

teagar

Just to cheer you up:

You're graduating in a time when a degree has never been worth less, and student debt never higher, into the worst recession in 80 odd years.


Any work you get at all is worth it, however exploitative (within reason) once you graduate. As long as you're not idle for too long.

Chip \'oyler

benneally wrote:

[Sorry for posting this in this section, but as you guys consider yourselves at the upper end of cycling, I felt that you are more likely to be able to help me ]

I'm currently doing an Engineering Degree at Cambridge, and when I graduate I'd really like to work in the bike industry designing bikes. So im looking for a summer placement with a company that is involved with the design of bikes or components, to get an idea of the industry/what the job would be like.

I've tried approaching companies directly but with little response and so I was just wondering if anyone has any contacts/knows anyone that may be able to help me out?

I know its a long shot, and no one really knows me, but any email addresses, phone numbers or anything would be really helpful.

Thanks guys.

The problem you have is that there aren't many frame manufacturers in the UK - and if you're interested in carbon then they're even thinner on the ground.

Try a traditional British frame shop like Bob Jacksons or Brian Rourke though I doubt they'll be able to pay you - in order to get a placement you may need to offer your services for free anyway. This way you'll learn the traditional way of building frames and working out angles etc

Then go back to Uni - and when you graduate start your own bike company. I still feel there is a market out there for handbuilt carbon UK frames, based on the traditions of old but using modern carbon materials. Let me know if you do and I'll help you all I can

mrushton

Why not email the guys at Cervelo or Mark Reilly at Enigma? Sacha White and Richard Sachs and Chris King in the US are builders and have full order books, why not email them and see what they say. Brian at TWMP knows them and his feature on bike builders in Portland is excellent reading.Designing may be one thing but knowing how the bits work may be just as important. Ben Serotta learnt his trade building bikes in the UK. Send him an email.

www.thewashingmachinepost.net

www.serotta.com

tom_k

Bloody hell, it's all doom and gloom from some of these guys. I don't have any particularly good advice but I *think* that when I was a 4th year in the Engineering dept a couple of years back someone told me that there was a lad doing his 4th year project with some involvement with Ribble. Dunno who it was but if you're going into your 4th year and can think of a decent project that a bike company would be interested in and you can persuade someone to supervise it then I'd recommend putting together some sort of proposal and sending it out to some bike companies. People are much more likely to respond if you have a decent idea about what you can do for them and they will be much more keen to take you on for a (possibly unpaid) internship if you offer to continue the work into your 4th year project (when you will also be supervised by an expert).

It is definitely possible, I had a mate who did something similar with a power kite manufacturer.

Lastly, get your ass over to Igor Wowk's office in the Engineering Dept. He's got a whole room full of contact details and if anyone from Cambridge has ever been near a bike company, he'll probably know.

mercsport

Apply yourself to inventing a really workable, functioning, lightweight hubless wheel system that will equal - at the very least- the properties of the spoked wheel of today, and I would imagine you may become the Bill Gates of the cycling world.

benneally

tom_k wrote:

Lastly, get your ass over to Igor Wowk's office in the Engineering Dept. He's got a whole room full of contact details and if anyone from Cambridge has ever been near a bike company, he'll probably know.

Haha yeah Igor is a legend. I will see if I can find out about that Ribble project thing. Thanks