a long history & respected reputation
About Bike Inn
The Bike Inn has a long history and much respected reputation within our industry.
Most of today’s bicycle mechanic training schools have built their own businesses on the Bike Inn model in an attempt to emulate our successes and rival our position in the market.
We train individuals to meet their career goals and we train companies to compete better in the cycling industry.
2023 sees the 32nd anniversary of the Bike Inn in it’s current guise – that’s 32 years of offering full time courses with professionally accredited qualifications.
The school is led by Jon Colborne – a highly respected wheel building master, and himself a Bike Inn graduate. After gaining his qualification, Jon continued to work with the then owners Alf and Theresa Webb, helping them to expand the school and build their benchmark reputation. When Alf and Theresa reluctantly retired in 2017 it was only natural that Jon should take over the business, and it was then that he decided to move it back to his home territory (and cycling nirvana) in Cumbria.
be the best
Train with Bike Inn
The Bike Inn is the industry’s leading training provider of professional, accredited bicycle mechanic qualifications here in the UK.
It has always been the ethos of the school to offer the best, most comprehensive, and most relevant course structure to assist cycling professionals, avid hobbyists, future mechanics and those wishing to make a career change. The IMI accredited courses fit that bill perfectly. They are internationally recognised qualifications – proven by the number of foreign students we have travelling to the UK specifically to attend the Bike Inn – so you can be sure that if you go to an IMI accredited mechanic anywhere in the world, be it in India or Inverness, you will always receive the same level of top-quality service.
We also include in the course structure advice and information to assist new graduates seeking to set up their own business – whether as a mobile mechanic, event support provider, custom bike engineer or repair workshop. As well as being able to provide them with all the tools they might require from the most reputable brands, at very competitive prices (making use of our trade associations).
Mechanic's Continued Professional Developement:
To complement the professional IMI qualifications we have also developed a range of short courses of between 1 and 2 days, either to allow existing mechanics to delve deeper into areas such as hydraulics or wheel building, or to offer the avid amateur knowledge and skills relevant to their own bikes with a general maintenance program.
meet the team
The Bike Inn Family
Here at the Bike Inn we are all about the cycling community – from our social media pages, to our Strava cycling club, graduate forums, and even branded cycle wear in the iconic Bike Inn orange and black. Our team are all Bike Inn graduates (of course) and we also run our servicing, maintenance and repair workshop Helmwind Cycles at the same location. Is it any wonder cyclists from far and wide find our premises to be a little bit of bicycle heaven?
M.D. & Chief engineer
Jon Colborne
Jon originally trained at the Bike Inn when it was located in Spalding, Lincolnshire – and when owners Alf and Theresa Webb retired in 2018 he took over the business and relocated it to it’s current home in Cumbria.
Jon has worked tirelessly to bring the Bike Inn racing into the 21st century, making it the industry leading educational establishment that can boast itself as the place where the trainers train!
He has also expanded the scope of the Bike Inn’s course schedule to offer a wide range of short courses.
Away from work Jon is an avid foodie, and can whip up a mean dinner with little more than his trusty wood fired stove, and some locally sourced ingredients.
Director & tUTOR
Mark Wilcox
Mark has had a successful career in his own right, but when he decided to take early retirement he found he had too much time on his hands and started looking for something more to fill his time.
Being an avid cyclist, and a local man, his path inevitably crossed with Jon. He attended the Bike Inn and did the professional training course and the rest, as they say, is history!
Mark teaches at the Bike Inn a couple of days a week, as well as continuously reviewing the written course materials to ensure they are fully up to date with all the latest specifications.
When trying his hardest to be semi-retired Mark manages to relax out and about on the fells with his dogs or on a touring adventure on his bike overseas – often with his camera in hand.
Director & pro rACER / COACH
Henrietta Colborne
Henrietta is most definitely her father’s daughter – and the apple has not fallen far from the tree! Known affectionately as simply ‘H’ she is also a Bike Inn graduate, and the driving force in the Helmwind Cycles workshop when it comes to get things organised.
She has recently started teaching in the Bike Inn school too, as well as being an assessor for course ‘homework’.
H splits her time between Cumbria and mainland Europe, where she trains and competes at UCI level for the Dutch based GT Krush TUNAP women’s pro cycling team.
In order to keep her fitness in peak condition to optimise performance there is no such thing as a rest day for
H – she trains every day – rain or shine – cycling or running, and working on her strength and conditioning in the gym.
When in Cumbria, H is almost always accompanied by her ‘partner in crime’ Bailey – who has rapidly become a permanent and much loved member of the team.
Our Courses
Courses
Theory and Foundation
“What is says on the tin”
This course incorporates an IMI Level 2 qualification
Part 1
Modules 1-3 30h of supported guided learning over 3 weeks
Part 2
80h on site over 2 weeks
Professional
“Stretch the envelope”
This course incorporates an
IMI Level 3 qualification
Part 1
Modules 1-6 60h of supported guided learning over 6 weeks
Part 2
80h on site over 2 weeks
E-Bike
“Be part of the revolution”
Part 1
2 weeks supported guided learning
Part 2
2 days on site
Cycling Essentials
“Get to know your bike”
5 days on site
Bike Fit
“a fish on a bicycle”?
Part 1
2 weeks supported guided learning
Part 2
2 days on site
Wheel Building
“just like knitting”
Part 1
1 Week supported guided learning
Part 2
2 days on site
