Trenches

What does it mean to be in the trenches of this industry? Is this the lowest form of existence working in bikes? Are the messengers in the trenches? I’d say they’re maybe pretty close, but at least they have some celebrity appeal, and at least they get to ride regularly. And they get paid to ride. I know there’s more to it than that, but I’m speaking generally here. Being in the trenches is working hard for a bike shop, part of the pay being divided between a low wage and hands-on learning. Early on you’re learning the skills needed to work on a wide variety of bikes. This variety being from shitty beach cruisers and neglected department store bikes to high-end racing machines with every kind of bicycle, tricycle, or Rhodes car in between. I consider myself a pretty skilled mechanic, and yet I still work on every kind of bike that rolls in—no matter its relative high (or low) status. Dirty, malodorous, rusted-out trenches.

The trenches are where you find yourself when you’re working for next to nothing and coping with it. I’m thankful I have progressed beyond receiving “next to nothing” but I’m certainly not stacking high-yield bearer bonds neatly in any of my many safe deposit boxes, and certainly our meager grocery bill still tends to widen my eyes a bit. Being in the trenches is thinking it should get better financially, but don’t actually see how. The trenches are where you persevere in an industry for little pay because you enjoy the work you’re actually doing. Doing what one loves isn’t valued enough in this society it seems—it’s obviously not about the money. I love working on bikes, helping people with their bikes, and aiding people’s self-reliance with their self-propelled transportation. This is why I began in the trenches and think of the mechanic’s role, for the most part, as being in the trenches of the bike industry. There is no glamour, there is no paparazzi, and no magazines, centerfolds, or subversive media depicting the typical bike mechanic in a golden light. We generally seem overlooked by comparison to many other professions.

(This post has sat idle for too long and simply needed to be published. It’s been busy at the shop, and I’m exhausted. It’s unfinished at this point, consider this part I.)

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