Are you a bicycle user who wants to learn how to keep that wonderful machine of yours operating efficiently? We want to help teach you to become more self sufficient in your pedal-poweredness.
Are you a cyclist or budding bicyclist who wants to become a more confident rider? We want to teach you how to take control of your life on two wheels and empower yourself to be all the vehicle that you can be.
Our staff are 
professional bike mechanics with certificates from prestigious institutions such as Winterborne Bicycle Institute and Quadra Bike School. Not only that, we have been riding and fixing bikes for a long time, are passionate about bikes and really want to give people the the necessary knowledge to make them more confident when it comes to dealing with safety issues, potential problems and just general maintenance. We can teach anything from how to fix a flat tire, a simple tuneup, brake adjustments, wheel truing and much more.
There are a couple of educational options which we offer which vary in length of instruction time, formality and structure of the instruction, scheduling and cost.
Drop-in
For an hourly fee (see the usage fee structure chart), a co-op member can come by the shop and use the tools and ask for instruction from a staff member. This is a very flexible and convenient way to get smaller jobs done and acquire knowledge as you need it.
Free Workshops
Workshops will be held on a regular basis a variety of topics which co-op members can attend for free, and non-members for a small donation, in order to help entice, educate and empower users to make the most of monthly and yearly packages available with free shop and tool usage. Keep an eye on the events calendar or subscribe to our email updates on the left side be sure you don’t miss them.
City of Nanaimo Bike Maintenance Workshops
Over the course of this biking season, we will be hosting regular bike maintenance workshops facilitated by the City of Nanaimo Parks & Recreation Department which can be found in their activity guide. Take a look at the events calendar for more details.
Park Tool School
We are currently running a 25 hour Advanced Bike Mechanics Class about once a month. It takes about two weeks of evening classes 3 days a week and Sunday class 1 day a week to complete. The schedule is flexible and can be adapted to participants.
This program will help give tinkerers, beginners and anyone with little to no bike maintenance knowledge, an overview of how to completely overhaul a bike from top to bottom. There will be only four students and one instructor per class, so there will be plenty of opportunity for questions and one-on-one learning.
The curriculum is from a program called Park Tool School. Park Tool is the world’s largest bicycle tool manufacturer and a well respected name in the industry. Each student will receive the Park Tool Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair which is a great resource for repair information at your fingertips, and from which class readings will be assigned.
The cost is $288.75 or $236.25 for low income/students.
Keep an eye on the events calendar to be sure you don’t miss them or contact us to be put on the waiting list.
Public and Private Group Instruction
We are also available by request to do public and private instruction and workshops at community centres, schools, businesses, residences and more on a variety of topics. Contact us to discuss this opportunity.
Bike Riding Safety Courses
CAN-BIKE program is a series of courses on all aspects of cycling safely and enjoyably on the road. Students who complete CAN-BIKE often report it as a watershed experience similar to learning to swim, drive a car, or speak a new language. Graduates are no longer rolling pedestrians, trapped in a world of discontinuous sidewalks, pathways and other well intentioned but inferior infrastructure. They become functional, integrated elements of vehicular traffic flow. Graduates look at cycling in traffic in a whole new light and their new attitude inspires confidence, safer traffic integration and more frequent use of their bicycles in general. Graduates make better informed, more effective cycling advocates in their community. Keep an eye on the events calendar or subscribe to our email updates on the left side to be sure you don’t miss them.