Mechanic of the Week p/b Abbey Bike Tools - Monday June 12th 2017

PBMA is pleased to introduce you to our latest Mechanic of the Week, Jordan White, of Los Angeles, California!
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For those of you just tuning into #mechanicmonday, this is where we feature one mechanic each week, chosen at random from nominations submitted the week before. It’s all about mechanics supporting fellow mechanics – even behind the scenes, where we are proud to say that our Mechanic of the Week is presented by none other than Abbey Bike Tools and the Friar himself!

Jordan White has been working as a mechanic for “sometime around five years” according to his friends and colleagues, but he has been riding and racing bikes for many years longer than that. Jordan is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, but relocated to southern California two years ago, where he is currently the Service Manager at Empire Bikes in Chino Hills.

While Jordan is still a relative newcomer to the SoCal cycling scene, that community recognized his talents almost immediately. He was quickly invited to work on the crew for a California-based Race Across America (RAAM) team as a mechanic, driver, and navigator. Any RAAM team or solo rider must be hyper-conscious about aerodynamics, and Jordan’s team was no exception. On the second day of their five-day relay, one of the team’s athletes broke the front faring on his Felt DA bicycle. Without a direct replacement part, the mechanics were stumped, and resigned themselves to just trying to ignore the constant whistling of the bike as the team kept pace at an average speed of 25-30 mph.

According to Jordan’s fellow crew members, who nominated him to be featured today, this is where he really shined. Jordan made a faring out of cardboard and duct tape. As his teammates wrote to us, “Jordan was so creative and fabricated the faring so that it was 100% functional, stayed in place, and survived for the remaining three days of the race, through all weather conditions.” To be clear, though, Jordan’s cardboard faring did not just “survive” RAAM; it also helped his athletes secure a first place overall finish in the 2015 team competition. Way to go, Jordan – and congratulations to all RAAM finishers, athletes and support staff alike!

For everyone reading this at home, we encourage you to join the #MOTW conversation: Post a picture of YOUR favorite mechanic and tag us @probicyclemech, #probma, or #mechanicmonday, or nominate him or her to be featured in next week’s post!