TOMAS
Senior Retro Guru
Re:
Quick update - so i've not really been on Retrobike much over the last few months. I made the leap, rightly or wrongly! So i'm now a fully fledged independent mobile cycle mechanic! Talk about a changed person - very, very different to my last job but really enjoying it (at the moment) - I operate from my well equipped double garage at home, any tools I was missing I grabbed whilst I could before they became really scarce in lockdown. I advertize locally via social media and word of mouth, registered with gov't for the ' £50 Fix Your Bike' vouchers which has kept me very busy over the last few weeks and also acted as free advertising for me - its incredible how well 'word of mouth' works in the local cycling community.
Lockdown/Covid has come as a perfect storm, i've lost nearly 2 stone purely from being on my feet and active all day instead of driving all day to addresses and eating due to boredom. At the minute im hitting around 15-20 services a week, however at peak I hit nearly 30 and come the monday didn't want to see another bike haha! At present its a very viable business, mainly due to very low overheads with working from home. I'm also braced for a very quiet winter - i've geared for almost zero income over 3 months, mentally I think I can cope with that and will have to shrug off the 'fine weather rider' in me and get riding all the miles I used to daydream about with my old job to keep me active and busy or find a side line.
So, it can be done, if done right. You'd never get me working as a skivvy for someone else or on PAYE, the way I do it is the only way I would or thats financially viable tbh.
Dare I say that with handling and dealing with lots of modern bikes that the retro has taken a little bit of a back seat, I was ever so tempted to sell up most of my Retro collection due to the incredibly strong used market at present but have held off, especially when I think of the time, effort and pride I took in building most of my collection!
Tom
Quick update - so i've not really been on Retrobike much over the last few months. I made the leap, rightly or wrongly! So i'm now a fully fledged independent mobile cycle mechanic! Talk about a changed person - very, very different to my last job but really enjoying it (at the moment) - I operate from my well equipped double garage at home, any tools I was missing I grabbed whilst I could before they became really scarce in lockdown. I advertize locally via social media and word of mouth, registered with gov't for the ' £50 Fix Your Bike' vouchers which has kept me very busy over the last few weeks and also acted as free advertising for me - its incredible how well 'word of mouth' works in the local cycling community.
Lockdown/Covid has come as a perfect storm, i've lost nearly 2 stone purely from being on my feet and active all day instead of driving all day to addresses and eating due to boredom. At the minute im hitting around 15-20 services a week, however at peak I hit nearly 30 and come the monday didn't want to see another bike haha! At present its a very viable business, mainly due to very low overheads with working from home. I'm also braced for a very quiet winter - i've geared for almost zero income over 3 months, mentally I think I can cope with that and will have to shrug off the 'fine weather rider' in me and get riding all the miles I used to daydream about with my old job to keep me active and busy or find a side line.
So, it can be done, if done right. You'd never get me working as a skivvy for someone else or on PAYE, the way I do it is the only way I would or thats financially viable tbh.
Dare I say that with handling and dealing with lots of modern bikes that the retro has taken a little bit of a back seat, I was ever so tempted to sell up most of my Retro collection due to the incredibly strong used market at present but have held off, especially when I think of the time, effort and pride I took in building most of my collection!
Tom
