Cytech training

damonlock

Hi guys a friend of mine has started a bike shop and I am working there helping to run it and fixing bikes, I would like to get some training and was looking at the cytech courses and wondered if anyone here has done them and what your thoughts on course are? I've always worked on my own bikes form a young age and built a few bikes from scratch and helped many friends with theirs so I feel I have some knowledge but would like to expand it and have something the public can recognise as experience and knowledge in the field

Cheers

Damon

supersonic

Mainly a waste of money. Nothing that you cannot learn in the shop you are in and online.

damonlock

I do agree with the online as I've watched so many vids of the years of how to do stuff plus read the parktool big blue book a few times over!

Dannyboy95

Cytech training is very very expensive hundreds of pounds!

damonlock

Even thousands I'm waiting for them to get back with fade prices!!!

The Rookie

The level 2 course is £1250ish plus VAT inc exam, exam only is £400 ish. They had a stand at the cycle show.

dmorton

Any alternatives to Cytech?

Practical courses do have some merit as someone could show you a way of doing something in a better/easier way. Also somethings go on feel, such as how tight do you do up hub cup and cone bearings? You can't get that from a video or book. Suppose you just try it yourself though, you'd soon find out if they were too tight

I'd personally like to learn wheel building

The Rookie

Cytech is the only industry recognised, not much pointing doing any other as no-one will recognise it unless they actually no the course provider.

dmorton

The Beginner wrote:

Cytech is the only industry recognised.

Thought as much. Though the end aim for me isn't to work as a bike mech.... but I suppose it's always good to have a backup

Great Ayton

supersonic wrote:

Mainly a waste of money. Nothing that you cannot learn in the shop you are in and online.

It was a running joke where I last worked. People would come in with there Cytech certificate yet not have a clue what there doing. We even once had the Cytech people come visit the work they where trying to convince us that mechanics even with some 20 years experience absolutely must get the qualification on how to change a flat tyre. They where laughed out the shop

Great Ayton

The Beginner wrote:

Cytech is the only industry recognised, not much pointing doing any other as no-one will recognise it unless they actually no the course provider.

Many manufactures have there own training. For example DT Swiss do there own wheel building training. Cannondale do training in working on Headshoks. Mavic, SRAM and many others all have there own training. For many these courses are far more valuable as they often go in to great detail unlike Cytech that is more to do with the basics and commonsense.

smashford

Already having a good base knowledge when you do Cytech helps a lot in being a good mech, I liked the Cytech (I didn't pay for it myself) but it was good to see how other people do things, to reassure you are in fact doing some thing the right way and if you're not sure there's some one there to show where you're going wrong - but the course alone doesn't make you a good mechanic that comes with doing the work a lot for a long time but it does help to start off doing it right! but like someone else pointed out a lot of manufacturers also have their own product specific courses which are also worth getting on if you get the opportunity - but I liked the Cytech course and would recommend it..

stumpyjon

Does the Cyctech training covers forks, shocks, uppy downy seat posts, if not seems a lot of money for many up us have picked up as we went along. Would've thought the best practical training would be to work with a time served spanner monkey and pick up the tricks of the trade that way.

supersonic

There are a few courses - the newer, more intensive courses does cover some of the latest tech, but as we know, it moves on quick. This is if you have the chance, a shop is the best place to learn, as they have a lot more parts in stock. Mechanics are learning all the time, but the best ones are usually the older ones that know some tricks, have a good eye and can fix older bikes that come in.

chazkayak

So the general concensous is Cytech = Waste of Money........Go get some experience???

But then this comes back to the age old problem of no experience = no job. Yes we know experience is better but you have to have a starting point and a qualification is a good starting point.

Im quite happy that I can fix/maintain/service my bike and have done all of mine over the past twenty years of riding but If I was to go to an interview with that and someone else came with a certificate in bike maintainence....who would get the job??????

chazkayak

So the general concensous is Cytech = Waste of Money........Go get some experience???

But then this comes back to the age old problem of no experience = no job. Yes we know experience is better but you have to have a starting point and a qualification is a good starting point.

Im quite happy that I can fix/maintain/service my bike and have done all of mine over the past twenty years of riding but If I was to go to an interview with that and someone else came with a certificate in bike maintainence....who would get the job??????

Dannyboy95

Its all about experience you can have the all the certs under your belt but if your not practicing the skills on a regular basis you will just forget them and be left looking red faced or flicking through a book. Yes I understand what you are saying about it being recognized, but me and my dad ride bikes and me and him know what were on about(not saying you dont lol) and the amount of shops i've gone into i've not been interested in looking for a cytech cert on the wall we just want the problem sorted what ever the problem may be. The cytech certs are more suited to team mechanics. Thats my opinion anyway.

Great Ayton

Best thing to do is learn as much as you can at home from doing but reading and videos can help too. Then find your self a few friendly bike shops and once they get to know you offer to help for free. Then once they know you and know you can do the job if there ever is a job going odds are you will get it. Though I would warn you a bike tech even for a bike brand is not a well paid job.

damonlock

Ok I'm thinking I can't afford it at the min spoke to one of the course providers and asked about their trade prices and was told £1250 + VAT which makes it the same as what joe blogs can pay for it so, I think that is a poor effort really as they are aiming at the trade to be an industry standard but want to charge the same for everyone fail in my book! I am also looking in to courses with manufactures to service their items such as forks, brakes & shocks and think this is the route I will take as I have serviced and repaired my own fox forks and shocks and brakes and these can be the more involved areas so would like a bit more know how just to feel confident working on other people's parts!

The Rookie

There are ways of getting experience...

My daughter volunteered at her local recycling centre where they did up bikes for sale, she also helped me build her own MTB, off the back of that she got an interview at Halfords where she was asked to demo some stuff and was offered the job (from application to job offer was 5 hours!), Halfords have then given her a stack of training (yes honest they do train their staff) and she has learnt by doing more and more stuff on the family bikes.