print email stumble Digg

Norco Bikes: No Sweat

Ian MacNeill

| December 1, 2006

Image by: Nick Westover

Since I love biks, I jump at the chance to chase my dream job – working at Norco, which has been making bikes since 1964.

As perverse as it is to admit, I’m less interested in company president Jim Harman’s corner office than the mobile desk occupied by product tester Ryan Leech. Since I love bicycles, I jump at the chance to chase my dream job – working at Norco, which has been making bikes since 1964. As perverse as it is to admit, I’m less interested in company president Jim Harman’s corner office than the mobile desk occupied by product tester Ryan Leech Unfortunately, I might have a better chance at the former than the latter. In addition to having been with the company for 10 years, Leech, 27, is one of the world’s premier “trials” riders, which is to say he can hop around on the rear wheel of his bicycle like it’s a pogo stick and jump over cars like a superhero in a comic book. He also sets his own schedule and gets to take home any bike he wants. I ask him for some tips on how to ride like a pro but he looks at me apologetically and shrugs. “I don’t know how it works,” he laughs. “It’s kind of weird.”

Unfortunately, I might have a better chance at the former than the latter. In addition to having been with the company for 10 years, Leech, 27, is one of the world’s premier “trials” riders, which is to say he can hop around on the rear wheel of his bicycle like it’s a pogo stick and jump over cars like a superhero in a comic book. He also sets his own schedule and gets to take home any bike he wants. I ask him for some tips on how to ride like a pro but he looks at me apologetically and shrugs. “I don’t know how it works,” he laughs. “It’s kind of weird.”

Evidently I have to start at the bottom, which means assembling bikes at the company’s Langley warehouse/assembly plant where about a third of the 90,000 bikes Norco sells in a year get cobbled together at the rate of one every two to three minutes. It doesn’t take long before I realize starting low may not be any easier than taking an end run at the top.

Despite the assembly-line nature of the work, job turnover here is minuscule, says production control manager John McGaire, himself a 25-year Norco veteran. The competition here includes Ty Chau, who, along with her husband Co Khuu, has been with Norco more than 20 years. I start to worry when I learn that Ty can spoke as many as 900 wheel hubs a day, by hand. “You can get a machine to do it,” McGaire says with a chuckle, “but then you have to hire someone to run it, and machines break down.” He goes on to explain that the production-line crew is like a well-lubricated bike chain – there’s nobody telling them how and when to do their jobs. “We let them manage their own schedule,” says McGaire. In addition to making his job easier, he says, this kind of self-management allows employees to develop a sense of ownership in the product. The result: fewer mistakes and a reputation for quality.

I’m off to try my luck at the company’s head office, which just happens to be located on the scenic 24-kilometre Traboulay PoCo cycling and hiking trail overlooking the Pitt River in Port Coquitlam. Not surprisingly, riding to work is both popular and encouraged; showers and a heated bike lock-up keep enthusiasm from waning on rainy days.

Thanks to a five-day-a-week casual Friday ambiance and a reputation for helping employees establish a healthy work-life balance, vacancies here appear even harder to come by than at the plant. HR manager Sheila Stacey tells me about an accountant who picks her own hours so she and her husband don’t have to send their kids to daycare, which can set you back a minimum of $700 a month per child. Clearly, she’s not going anywhere.

Martin Tammik, manager of the parts and accessories division, has a nice corner office, but he has to play the parts game like a futures trader. Too much pressure there, I decide. I check out the marketing department, where I find PR marketing manager Pete Stace-Smith. He’s one of those human-dynamo types and unfortunately, after 26 years with the company he’s not going anywhere either.

Well, I guess that just leaves the president’s job after all. Hey, everybody has to start somewhere.