ASHLAND, OR (BRAIN)—United Bicycle Institute (UBI) is open for business at its Portland, Oregon campus at 3961 N. William Avenue. It has opened one classroom for mechanics' training and plans to open an additional frame-building classroom next door.
“We scheduled five mechanics classes up there between late September and mid December, and three of them are already full with waiting lists. Amazing,” said John Baxter, UBI’s administer. UBI is offering its two-week professional mechanics, and one-week into to mechanics courses this year.
A group of Boarder Patrol mechanics officers from California and Texas took a class before the Portland facility officially opened. In addition to the officers, UBI expects to train about 60 people at the Portland campus by the end of the year.
So far Baxter says the new campus is not taking students away from Ashland. He has only had two students switch to the Portland location from Ashland, but they lived in Portland. The waiting list at Ashland is so long that their spots quickly filled.
Steve Glass, who has been in Portland since June, will be one of the mechanic instructors and Jeff Menown will be the other. Menown is a long-time UBI instructor. The classroom workbenches, tools and set-up, as well as the curriculum and tuition, are identical between campuses. Baxter says you could take the morning session in Ashland and the afternoon session in Portland without missing anything.
—Matt Wiebe
