We can all learn, but we can’t all be passionate about all learning. Certainly those things that instil passion make learning easier.
Nathan Webb is passionate about working on motorcycles. The assistant mechanic at PC Bikes, Mr. Webb said: “That’s what keeps me driven.”
He’s been with PC Bikes for four of the seven years it’s been operating.
“I was a good friend of Hubert (Preece), and he just happened to start bringing in bikes, so I just joined the team,” he said.
Mr. Webb grew up, as most Bermudians do, fixing their own bikes. He also helped out at his uncle’s garage, doing odd jobs and fixing cars. But it’s hands-on on bikes that gave him pleasure and from which he still derives satisfaction.
“(It’s) just something fun to do,” he said. “Some people do it for a hobby. I do it every day.”
Mr. Webb was invited to spend close to four weeks at Mr. Preece’s residence in Thailand, where daily he observed and learned from the Thai workers at the bike shop next door.
“I’d like to go back to Thailand and learn a little more tricks,” Mr. Webb said. “They can make anything work; make something out of nothing… The language barrier is different, but when it comes to fixing a bike, there ain’t no talking.”
So, Nathan Webb now rebuilds bikes. He responds with that passion of his to the challenge of “a bike that is almost mashed right up, and you have to bring it back to life.”
Mike Caines, a distant cousin of PC Bikes’ manager Mel Caines, is a repeat customer. On this occasion, head mechanic, Morocco ‘Rock’ Burch attended to the tyre change and general servicing of his 100cc Yamaha Nauvo.
“I’m a regular customer. At least twice a year,” Mr. Caines said. “I bought two bikes from here… You can’t beat the service, and the quality of the bikes is great. Like anything that’s good, you always go back for it.”
He also said: “It’s a hands-on thing, like I come in here and actually speak to the mechanic. It’s very personal.”
He noted the two-day turnaround for his job, reasonable cost and attention paid.
“(The attention) makes you feel important every time, like your bike is the most important bike,” he said.
The assistant mechanic, Mr. Webb, pointed out how customers might have taken their bikes to another shop only to have it lay around for a couple of weeks without anything being done to it.
“They get fed up… and they bring it to us and it’s done in the week,” he said.
He said that the problem lies in those other shops not carrying the parts that PC Bikes does. And PC Bikes, according to Mr. Webb, also have the most reasonable prices.
While Mr. Webb and Mr. Burch work on their customers’ bikes through the day, the occasional rider will come in with a flat tyre.
“We’ll definitely hook (them) up,” Mr. Webb said. “It only takes 20 minutes.”
He added: “For a small company, I think we’re doing pretty good.”
For more information on PC Bikes, log on to its website at www.pcbikes.bm, or call 296-0796.
Find out how passion gives pleasure to the learning and the fixing of your most important set of wheels.