It's Official!!! I am enrolled at UBI!!

Well, the first post was accidentally erased due to an error, so I thought I would give a little up-date:

First off, UBI stands for United Bicycle Institute.

They teach everything from basic to expert bicycle mechanics, bicycle frame building to include brazing/TIG welding, and everything from Cromoly Steel to Titanium, AND how to run a bicycle shop!

I have been working towards getting my GI Bill approved (and waiting until my health is stable enough to make it worth while) to be able to do this, so now that the VA has started realizing not all of us are white collar (gee you think? :wink: ) and more suited to trade school training than working at a desk, they have allowed the GI BILL to be used for schools like UBI too!

I will be starting on April 23rd to take the entire curriculum, with the exception of the frame building classes that aren't available until July & November respectively, and some of the advanced courses on disc brakes and Chris King components.

The best part of all, is that because I am an Operation Iraqi Freedom Vet, I qualify for the Yellow Ribbon program which means while I am going to school, I will receive full living expenses, and 100% of my school expenses paid!

This will allow me to not have to live at my parents house at least while going to school, and pay for lodging when I have to go to Ashland Oregon for the November Titanium TIG welding course.

I plan to eventually open a bicycle/E-Bike shop in the next 3 years or so, this will give me a huge boost towards that goal. 8)

Congrats and a great deal that is. Now you can make me a new rear triangle when I get the frame cuz I am lazy. ;^)

My congrats to Li-ghtcycle on this news!

...and also his understanding when I was culling spam and deleted his thread instead of just the spam post(s) on his thread! on me.

Congratulations!

And thanks for the post. I never knew there exists an institute for teaching bicycles. Is UBI the only one in the USA?

SamTexas said:

Congratulations!

And thanks for the post. I never knew there exists an institute for teaching bicycles. Is UBI the only one in the USA?

Click to expand...

No idea, all I know is there are people on this board from over-seas (Voicecoils in Oz IIRC?) that come here to attend.

I imagine there are, but probably more common on the West Coast where the weather is generally milder and bicycling is most common.

UBI is supposed to be the top school in the US from what I have seen, and they have continuing professional courses to bring you up to date with the latest in bicycle technology.

biohazardman said:

Congrats and a great deal that is. Now you can make me a new rear triangle when I get the frame cuz I am lazy. ;^)

Click to expand...

Sure! I'll put you at the top of the list! Just might have to wait a bit till I finish my courses and get welding equipment, unless you want to be part of the "experimental" prototype projects I am working on now.

I don't think you would have to worry about the quality of welds being done by my neighbor with 30 yrs+ experience, but the geometry might be on the "experimental" side! :lol: :lol:

Good Luck in your total endeavor. 8) 8)

Congrats! I wish i had something like that in my land

Congratulations! Here is a link, looks fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB1ITtrKs8k

matt20 said:

Congratulations! Here is a link, looks fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB1ITtrKs8k

Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree, in fact that is one of their stated goals, to teach while making it fun, I didn't realize they had been doing this since 1986! Thanks for posting that vid.

Thats awesome! I wish you the very best of luck, but you won't need it thou, you've got a lot of talent and creativity. Keep posting on your experience or start a blog, I'd like to follow along with your experience.
Take care

Steve

That's great LI-ghtcycle. Tell them they should share courses online too, preferably free like MIT and others have to some extent, or with a small fee.

Come back with new bike magic to teach ES .

greenerwheels said:

Thats awesome! I wish you the very best of luck, but you won't need it thou, you've got a lot of talent and creativity. Keep posting on your experience or start a blog, I'd like to follow along with your experience.
Take care

Steve

Click to expand...

Thanks Steve! I hope I live up to your compliments, I will probably just post on ES on my experience.

Dayn-

John in CR said:

That's great LI-ghtcycle. Tell them they should share courses online too, preferably free like MIT and others have to some extent, or with a small fee.

Click to expand...

Thanks John!

You know, they probably would, but there are several free ones I'll see if I can find the one I was recently shown, bicycle tutor or something?

I will definitely mention it to them, but I bet they are going to say it's not something you can learn on-line since most of the stuff is hands-on, very little is book work (perfect for me! )

I am sure they could teach some of the stuff with a video, but things like welding the frames especially wouldn't translate too well I would imagine compared to in the class hands on training.

Here is a link of "Bicycle Tutor" put on by Park Tools I think:

http://bicycletutor.com/

Kin said:

Come back with new bike magic to teach ES .

Click to expand...

Will do! I'm no expert, and still won't consider myself one after the school, but I'm always happy to share what I learn, but I have to be honest, ES is where the rubber meets the road on that as far as I am concerned, sure they will teach the "industry standard" kind of stuff, but the practical use and knowledge base will still be here on ES! 8)