Mechanic of the Week p/b Abbey Bike Tools - Monday March 6th 2017

PBMA is excited to announce our newest Mechanic of the Week, James Ballentine, of Bicycle World in Austin, Texas!

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!

James has been working in the cycling industry in some way since he was 12 years old, and he competed in elite-level MTB and BMX events before settling into shop life full-time. He is currently one of the managers at Bicycle World (formerly Jack and Adam’s) in Austin, and he is also a mechanic with the USA Triathlon national team. James started working with USAT in 2004 and has supported well over 15 world championship events since then.

James was nominated to be featured this week by his customers and USAT athletes. Every triathlete we heard from said that they have never felt more “race-ready” than when James is the lead mechanic for Team USA. In the words of one athlete and friend: “James is literally the only person I let touch my bikes!” As if that message isn’t glowing enough, we also heard from multiple Bicycle World customers who purchased their bike elsewhere but came to James for service, and every single one of them said that their bike left his stand working better than when it was brand new.

We are proud to feature James this week, and we hope that he will continue to instill such incredible confidence in his customers and Team USAT athletes!

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!