as a bike lover I'm geeking out about
today's fixers and focus we're headed to
the workshop of Chris Mathis he's the
lead mechanic and equipment manager for
Lunas professional women's mountain bike
team I can't wait to see his tools and
awesome bikes he gets to play with let's
go meet him hi my name's Chris Mathis
I've been the lead mechanic and
equipment manager for the Luna pro team
for the last 14 years hey Chris hey
thanks for having me this workshop is
awesome thank you fun tools and
everything fun putting it together
making it exactly what I need for a job
yeah so you're the mechanic for the Luna
team tell us a little bit about the team
the Luna protein is the longest-running
most successful team in the history of
mountain biking
men or women Wow and you've been with
the team for ever since the second year
of the team the team was conceived in
2002 so I've been here since 2003 tell
us a little bit more about what they do
and if there's anything beyond just
racing that they can stand for well
they're here to promote women in sport
and it's not as much to to sell Luna
bars a lot of people things just sell
Luna bars but well that's the brand and
that's who we we work for and work with
it's really there to promote these
athletes and the show what what one you
can do and athletes can do so tell us a
little bit more about yourself when you
were starting out or maybe go into
college is this what you thought you
would be doing I never thought I'd be
here now doing this this was not my plan
although I didn't have a plan got my
business degree and concentrated
management so you know I was doing that
but while I was doing that I was going
was working in a bike shop I got this
opportunity to go work for helped out
these guys on the road today not like TV
just help them to new spikes like try
that is there a certification or
something there you know there are
there's bike schools out there that are
very helpful for a lot of people if you
are learning just
want to go to a bike school they have
that I don't have that I've been more
learn by doing and having a fortune of
meeting the right people and got into
the job so tell us about about the team
and like like a race day erased and a
race day is preceded by getting there
early in the week getting everything set
up for tents and the van and all our
tools and all the equipment we need for
a race then the riders arrived they're
ready for them when they get there
and so this leads up with them
practicing and checking out the course
or styling in their bikes to race day
where everything's done is idea wake up
the morning the bikes are clean to
charge we got electronics don't know
we're ready to get they warm up a little
bit give them the start line make sure
everything's working perfectly tire
pressures and then they're off so you
mentioned electronics which some may not
know that there are electronics on these
bikes yeah there are these days it's
made the the job a lot different in what
we do on the bikes it's there's
batteries and there's wires and you have
to make all the little parts talk to
each other because the suspension it's
just a flip of a little switch now so
what is a race day for you what what are
the main things that you're doing during
the race again best-case scenario is we
don't do a single thing that's the
that's the best thing can happen is we
never see the bike to the start to the
finish line and that's what happens most
of the time with our equipment with our
racers not crashing and equipment
working perfectly and that we've done
our jobs ahead of time it's all out of
the way so cool well thank you so much
for having me here and this has been
awesome just seeing your workshop and
seeing some really cool bikes I didn't
even know that that they are at this
level at this point so it's super cool
and seeing all your awesome tools yeah
we learned a lot and I really hope that
this encourages some women out there to
get into sports and and men and women to
get into repair for their bikes
yeah thanks so much welcome all right