Manifesto for the Mechanics' Revolution
Jason GardnerYour bike is valuable to you, therefore your bike is valuable to us.
A bicycle’s owner is more than sum of his repair bill
When given the choice between doing something “okay” and doing something correct, we will choose the latter
Objective measurements supercede our feelings (“I feel like the shifting is pretty good”)
You deserve to get what you pay for and only what you paid for
We deserve to get paid for the work you receive
You pay for a mechanic’s best efforts; therefore you should always receive their best efforts
You deserve to know what was done to your bike and not just things that might be done to other bikes
We assume some responsibility for knowing what work your bike needs (it’s not entirely your fault if you didn’t know that you were supposed to ask us to check your suspension pivots; we know that stuff and we’ll do our best to help you know)
Some bikes are gimmick bikes. We won’t sell you a gimmick.
Some bikes are better than others and some bikes are not better than others. You learn the difference when you spend every day taking the things apart.
Most bikes are awesome; some bikes are carrying the nails to your coffin in their pockets
Not all bikes require the same work
Not all riders require the same depth of work
Don’t know the difference? That’s ok.
When you respect a bicycle’s owner, you will respect their bicycle, but in that order
Take things apart. Learn. Repeat.
Happy bikes make happy riders.
Clean bikes are happy bikes
Clean bike shops make clean bikes.
“Good enough” has no meaning
Trained sales tactics are annoying
Fake answers to valid questions are unacceptable
“I don’t know” is okay
“I’ll find out” is awesome
The person who sells you your bike might have dirty hands; that’s okay
Torque matters
Proper assembly matters
Worn out parts can only work so well.
There’s nothing wrong with owning something beautiful
Owning only one bike is great
Owning more than one bike is good too
We should only do the things to your bike that we would be proud to be showing you
Treat a hammer like trained tiger: skillfully and always with a little bit of fear
Keep learning.
Learn some more.
Ride bikes.
