The Bike Doctor's mobile repair history

After working in bike shops and actively racing bicycles for 9 years, I took the plunge late in 1986. My wife and I held on tight for the next year as i began experimenting with ideas and strategies to implement this business concept. By the second year the business had evolved into a full time occupation. For the next 23 years my work week has averaged 30-40 hours per week, while my income increased each year.


From my 35 years of experience in the bicycle business, I"ve concluded that it is a recession proof industry (especially bicycle repair), due to a few constant factors. First, almost every person will own a bike from the age of five, that's alot of bicycles in circulation. Second, when the economy is good new bicycle Sales go up and that's more bicycles out there to repair. And third, when the economy is poor, people begin to commute on their bikes and families turn to less expensive activities to do together, and bicycling is high on that list. Along with the damand of maintenance on all those bicycles, people love to spend money on their hobies, and bicyles are constantly evolving with new products to sell and upgrade.


My business, "The Bike Doctor", has been featured in several Bay Area newspapers, spotlighted on the local TV news, and appeared in Bicycling Magazine article "Live The Dream" (May 1991). Soon after the article ran in Bicycling Magazine, calls from all over the country and some out of the country, flooded in from frustrated bicycle mechanics in the same situation I was in as a shop bike mechanic. Loved the work, hated the income and had the desire to be my own boss. Starting and owning my own bike shop was a daunting prospect and came with a large capitol outlay, loads of overhead, and the problems of dealing with employees.

Mobile bike shop was the answer that was drilled into me for years as a bike mechanic. Many customers would remind me of the trouble of bringing in a bike and that there were a few more bikes at home that would not fit on a car bike rack. And most didn't want to wait the week or more to get the bike back.  

Now 22 years later and I'm still loving my business, my three day weekends, when I want them, and being my own boss. I thought it was time to offer my experience and contacts in helping other frustrated mechanics start their own mobile business. After the Bicycling magazine article featuring my business calls came flooding in from all over the country and a few from overseas. All bicycle mechanics looking for information. I began writing a business manual over the next half year of everything I did to get it to that point. Since then I've updated it yearly with all the new information that has grown it to a solid very low overhead efficient mobile bicycle business. The business manual  includes everything I have learned and experienced over the years.