Calvin Jones has spent much of his career teaching bike repair at Oakdale’s Park Tool, one of the world’s largest bike tool manufacturers. He has written hundreds of how-to guides and manuals for the company, but it is his stage work in front of a white pegboard surrounded by silver and blue tools that has earned him the most acclaim.
The Stillwater resident is the face of Park Tool’s YouTube channel, helping the average cyclist repair their own ride. Jones said his mission is to teach people well enough that they wouldn’t need to watch his videos. Still, they have come back for his straightforward, no-nonsense expertise. The page has more than 900,000 subscribers and 13 million views.
Friend and former student Pete Hamer, who runs a mobile bike service company, said Jones is one of the most famous mechanics in the bike world.
“He’s the most recognizable bike mechanic,” Hamer said. “For a bike geek, seeing Calvin is like seeing Tom Cruise.”
Jones announced his retirement this month in a video on YouTube that has garnered thousands of comments and over 80,000 views in just 24 hours. One comment described him as the “Bob Ross of the bike industry.”
“Probably my most trusted person on Youtube, no nonsense, clear, concise, accurate, straightforward, and just generally bloody brilliant,” said another commenter. “You shall be greatly missed but enjoy retirement.”
Jones came to Park Tool in 1997 after growing up in Colorado and living for a time in Texas. Since then, he has published nearly 200 how-to guides and a bike maintenance handbook for the company. As the director of education, he has also taught hundreds of bike mechanics at conventions and trade shows and designed a curriculum used at Park Tool on how to teach bicycle maintenance.
Known for his tall stature and signature bushy, brown mustache, Jones explains how to know if there’s a problem and how to understand the root cause of that problem.
