gerv 

Since I use my collection of bikes daily, it seems to me I'm always fixing one thing or another on my bikes. A week doesn't go by without something needing attention.

Plus, since I have 3 bikes in the rotation, I'll often pick up a bike and make a mental note like, "Gee, these brakes are quite a bit slacker than my blue bike". This, of course, just generates even more attention to the stable.

How often do you get your bikes repaired? Do you do it yourself or have the LBS fix things?

tsl

It depends, I guess, on what you call a repair. IMHO, lubing the chain or turning an adjuster isn't a repair. It's routine maintenance.

To my mind, a repair is something that requires Mr. Toolbox. That sort of stuff I like to keep to once a year on the three three-season bikes and twice a year on my four-season bike.

ro-monster

Simple maintenance, like lubing chains and making minor adjustments, I do myself, every week or two. Actual repairs go to the shop, about once or twice a year (per bike). I don't have many tools or the knowledge to be sure I'm doing things correctly.

JeanSeb

Not too often, I'll probably have a little thing or two every 3 months or so. I had to install new cables and housing and had to retrue the front wheel last month. I do everything since I was a bicycle mechanic for about 4 years and own most bike-related tools.

wahoonc

Define repair?
I grab a bike to ride, note something a bit off, grab a wrench and take care of it.

Major overhauls are on an as needed basis determined by how much service the bike has seen. I do all my own work, LBS for parts if I don't already have them on the shelf. Most of my bikes are vintage so parts are purchased when I can find them on Ebay or in an old shop somewhere. I also bulk buy things like cables and tubes when they are on sale.

I enjoy wrenching and restoring bikes almost as much as I enjoy riding.

Aaron

dcrowell

I have five bikes, so I always have something to ride. I noticed a broken spoke the other day, which means hauling the wheel out to have it fixed.

I leave wheelbuilding and replacing broken spokes to the pros. That's not a skill I want to take the time to learn. I also currently leave hub bearing maintenance to the shops also, as I haven't gotten around to buying cone wrenches. Headset works is also for the pros.

Nearly everything else I do on my own. Yes, I've got one bike waiting for a wheel to be fixed. Another that needs re-cabled, but is rideable. It also needs a new drivetrain, but it's got 6600 miles on it and has been ridden in every condition imaginable.

I spend a small amount of time overall keeping the bikes going. Cars need maintenance and repair also, and living without one, leaves more time and money for bike maintenance and repair.

Oh, and doing the work yourself, at home, means you don't need to haul a broken bike into the LBS without a car, which I do find to be a pain. I guess that's not an issue if you live within a few hundred feet of your LBS.

Caretaker

It's about two years since I left one of my three bikes into a workshop to have something done with it.

Most adjustments and replacements I can do myself.

Roody

After a hard winter of salt and mud, parts of the drivetrain often need some work. Otherwise, the type of bike i ride most often is pretty rugged. Once in a great while I replace a chain or brake pads, everything else even less often.

Cycocross

Live in goathead heaven so I'm fixing flats weekly. I curb hop a lot so spokes need constant attention. I live a few hundred feet from a LBS and wouldn't let them lube my chain. Another LBS is a few hundred yards from that one and I wouldn't let them know I owned a bike. I could do better maintenance blindfolded.

SparkyGA

I do everything myself, regardless if its bikes or anything else. I like learning how things work. Its generally cheaper too..

I have 1 bike that requires repairs just about daily to keep it running lol. The other bikes gets weekly cleaned and maintained.

Booger1

It gets maintained once a week,get torn down once a year.I don't have repairs.Been working on my bicycles since I was 6,I'm now 54.

Machka 

Rowan maintains our fleet ... and it can be an ongoing, just about daily, thing. Maintenance, repairs, upgrades, etc. etc.

Artkansas 

Every time it needs it.

chefisaac

You all have any hydraulic brakes on your bikes?

350htrr

Maintenance I do every year, repairs... My bike has probably been in to the LBS maybe 5 times in the last 15 years, it has about 36,000KM on it now and still in excellent shape.

mconlonx

My main commuter bike usually gets an annual overhaul where I check everything out, take things apart for lube, tighten things up, swap out the chain, new cables and housing. It might include something like going from drop to flat bars... and back again because I didn't like the flat bars. I had a BB which was too short and fixed with spacers that eventually got swapped out for one with a correct-length spindle. Went from canti to v-brakes. Swapped shifters.


Regular adjustments and lube as needed, on more like a quarterly schedule. Air in the tires weekly.

My other bike, the lockup on the other end of a bike-bus-bike commute gets seriously neglected. Air every month. Chain lube a couple times per year. That's it. But it's got a 2sp kickback hub with coaster brake, so it's not like there's anything to do with it anyway.

I got tired of not being able to do my own work, especially with all the hare-brained ideas I come up with which many mechanics would balk at or charge a lot for, so I spent 5 years as a bike mechanic and still do it seasonally, PT. Which means I do all my own work, wheel builds included.