moonwalker

I can do basics but if I wanted to learn about bicycle repair in depth is there such a thing? A book, class, video, youtube, online??

Thanks.

pavement_nyc

I'm not sure where you are from in Texas but I've found that co-ops like these are the best:
https://www.tram.txstate.edu/bicycling/Bike_Cave.html

dsbrantjr

This site is a good help in finding information and jargon to formulate intelligent questions to ask of forums such as this one or as a foundation for a Web search: https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help

This site has a wealth of information and repair/adjustment hints from a late master of the craft: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/

Web forums like this one are great resources. The key to finding help online is often knowing what questions to ask and what information to provide. Like in life it helps to be polite and positive; remember you are asking favors of strangers. It is also nice to share the results of the advice you are given.

HillRider

There are several bicycle repair schools. United Bicycle Institute and Barnett's are at least two (Google will locate several others) but they require you to go to their school for hands-on instructions. Is that what you are looking for?

bobotech

If you know mechanics already and understand basic mechanical principals such as being a car mechanic, then you can learn a ton by volunteering at a bike co-op. I started at mine last January and was made a lead tech after about 6 months but I picked up on it super fast being an old car mechanic.

gregjones

Some LBS offer a Park sponsered "course, seminar" over several evenings. Look on Park's site to see what it covers......it might be what you are looking for.

Kimmo

This should be in a sticky.

likebike23

i learned by getting a book and then fixing up a bunch of bikes. if you can get a bike for cheap/free and then fix it and sell/keep it you'll learn a ton. good luck.

goldfinch

Maybe. It depends on the person.

I bought a used bike from a guy who claimed to fix up bikes and then sell them. I went through the bike before the purchase and said this is wrong, that is a problem, and I am going to have to fix a number of things to make the bike work right. And then the price came down. I don't know if he was lying about fixing up the bike or just didn't know what he was doing. For example, if a chain is really stretched wouldn't you think fixing up a bike would entail a new chain? Or if a wheel has a big wobble would you true it? Not for this guy, throw some motoroil on the chain, make a fine mess, and it is good to go if the pedals go around, it shifts into most gears, and the brakes at least do not rub "too much" on the out of true wheel.

I took course through a bike shop. Two nights on general maintenance, two nights on bearing systems. It was very helpful and I learned things that just were not in the books. Also very helpful is this forum. I have been absolutely befuddled by some things that might be simple to people who have a background in fixing mechanical things. This forum has helped me figure out what to do without any judgment on my inability to figure it out for myself.

FBinNY 

Many community colleges offer bike repair courses in the adult eduction programs. Some of these are excellent, though they're generally targeted to newbies wanting to learn the basics.

likebike23

you are correct in saying that it depends on the person. i worked for 10 years as an electro-mechanical technician and saw "factory trained" technicians who were absolutely horrible at their jobs. and i don't assume for a minute that the kid wrenching at the local shop is competant. my point is that it takes a lot of practice and experience to get good at anything. to get that experience, you've got to work on a lot of bikes, and you can't keep them all. whether it's a newbie selling me a bike on craigslist or a shop, i go through all my bikes that i buy.

Wil Davis

Very true, and basically I agree with what you're saying, however I would take a person who has learned the basic rules of grammar and capitalization far more seriously than one whose writing I have to filter in order to decode the meaning!

- Wil

gregjones

Anything else you do cuts into the profits. There isn't a lot of margin in a bike you're selling for $40.

likebike23

sorry wil, i'm horrible at typing, and i can't seem to get the shift key down. thanks for agreeing with me though

bkaapcke

A book and a used bike will do the trick. Just do one job at a time and stick with it until it really works right. Then, on to the next repair or upgrade. You'll be petty good in no time. bk

IthaDan 

If you're anywhere near Austin, go down there and say hi to my friend Bobwölfé at Yellowbike and shadow that guy around.

Otherwise, find a community bike shop (Co-Op) for some hands on learning and the satisfaction of doing good in your community. Hell, you might even land some sweet parts: https://www.bikecollectives.org/wiki/..._Organizations

Dave Mayer

Profoundly true. I have run across numerous bike mechanics who could only be counted on to perform the simplest, most routine tasks. This was despite years and sometimes decades of experience. OTOH, the best mechanic I came across was aceing the most complex bike related tasks that a mechanic can be expected to undertake after only a month of evening tinkering. This included wheelbuilding, building up a bike from parts, the complete overhaul of freehubs, derailleurs, bottom brackets, unsticking frozen stems, etc. For the he'll of it I decided he should try to fix a somewhat sticky dual-pivot brake. It was completely disassembled, really-lubed and reassembled perfectly on the first (brief) try.

The star in question had a masters degree in mechanical engineering, and extensive shop experience.

Raw talent. Unfortunately, shops cannot afford this class of individual. Which is why almost every somewhat complex task I've taken to a shop has been screwed up. That was before I just gave up and now do everything myself.

Kimmo

Yep, it's not rocket surgery... if you have a strong mechanical aptitude you can get stuck right in in no time.

cny-bikeman

Yes

Seriously, I'm not sure what exactly you mean by learning repair in depth, but there is no single answer, especially as concerns learning resources. People respond differently to each style of learning and each has inherent advantages and disadvantages. Print and static pictures don't always work for something as dynamic and three dimensional as a bicycle. Videos often miss important points. Anything not in-person can't convey the feel of something and doesn't allow for immediate feedback/questions. Classes are not able to always address individual questions or hit the right pace for everyone.

But none of those problems matter that much, because anyone can learn from any of those methods and some can learn quite a bit with none of them. None of those items you mention was available for decades, yet people learned to work on bikes. Some learned from others but many learned a good bit on their own. I first worked on my Schwinn coaster brake bike when I was about 12 years old, with no guidance. I overhauled every bearing, trued the wheels, etc. I have never had anyone else work on my bike, not even for a 30 day check. In the 70's when I started to work professionally we had Sutherland's and Glenn's - no Internet, no videos, no classes. The largest variable is not the method of learning but you.

I trained a wide variety of individuals to be full mechanics and an even greater variety of folks to work on their own bikes. There is a huge difference between learning the right/routine way to do a repair on one's own bike and diagnosing and solving a problem when the standard procedure does not work, or when the cause of the problem is not readily evident. To really learn to work on bikes you need to be able to observe accurately, to think logically, to have basic math skills, and at least an intuitive sense of geometry and physics. I don't think everyone has that combination of abilities, and that is evidenced by the experiences noted by previous posters. If you do have the aptitude the way you learn is less important, though in-person trumps everything - as long as you learn from someone who understands that it is the why, not the how that is most important.

Bike (car/computer/etc) repair is more than just "turn this screw clockwise," and some underestimate the complexity of working on a bike. Yes, most things on a bike are easy to see, but the parts interact at differing angles that are critical, with the human body, and with the environment. There is not much standardization (though it's not the nightmare it was in the bike boom days) and the wealth of information now available can include contradictions and of course widely differing opinions. Saying that anyone can work on bikes is just not true when you get beyond the Park Tool clean, straight, lubricated and uncorroded procedures.

If you want to be a mechanic and are weak on basic geometry and physics (especially in regard to leverage/torque/power) and then improve your knowledge with tutorials - lots available free online. Even learning more about muscles and anatomy can help - remember what is powering the bike. You will of course need good reference sources for technical info - you can't intuit the relationship between 700c and 622. Sheldonbrown.com is a great one for going into depth on almost any topic, and Park tool, the Shimano site and many others are useful as well.

So, dive in and see how you do. I'd recommend checking every type of resource for each thing you want to learn, and focus heavily on any of them that explain the reason behind what you are doing, or the mechanics/physics of how a part works. Remember that you can't just focus on one item in most cases. The derailleur is attached to the frame, in a particular relationship to the cassette in order to move and align the chain properly when the lever pulls the cable through the housing, so knowing which limit screw to turn is not enough.

Yeah, I know - the above may seem overly philosophical, but these longer posts are a start on developing material for a blog project.

Wil Davis

I agree with you, but your point about "getting stuck right in" reminds me of something that is true in any skilled job/vocation/hobby which is that the mark of a skilled mechanic/operator/craftsperchild¹ is someone who knows what to do when stuck with a problem, or when something shown behaviour different to what is described in the manual. It usually comes with experience and that is the main difference the young kid fresh out of school, and the old guy who has been wrenching since his teens.

- Wil

¹ PC (think about it)

BentLink

Im no great wrench, but I found the videos here to be useful, https://bicycletutor.com/
along with Park's great resources...and some lessons learned the hard way

brianmcg123

Buy a couple of $50.00 bikes off craigslist. Take them apart. Put them back together, rinse, repeat.

dbg

It's a journey, not a destination.
If you have an engineer's mind and like to tinker with mechanical stuff -and you are motivated into learning bikes, it will happen. I once bought 15 "grab bags" of random bike parts on ebay (they were cheap --no other bidders) because many looked to contain parts I'd not seen before. I spent hours going through those parts to figure out what they were --and mostly tossed them out. I also started picking up bikes left out for garbage and restoring them --and then giving them away to neighbors. I never attended UBI or BBI but I do own a full set of the Barnett's manuals. I love conjuring up a new project idea and then trying to make it happen.

I guess my point is that you'll need to be motivated. If you're looking for a magic switch to throw or short cut to becoming an expert --probably not going to get there. It's a journey, not a destination.

IthaDan 

No, please, I fully support this thread is venturing into the philosophical. I've been burning out on the "Bicycle Mechanics" subforum lately, I feel like I've been handing out too many fish and not helping to teach the art of fishing.

I taught myself how to fix bicycles, this was before the internet, so it was mostly trial and error. I made a lot of errors, but I also took the time to really notice how things work, and to deconstruct some of the engineering decisions made to design the parts. The biggest head start you can give yourself now that we're in the internet era is to familiarize yourself with the names of parts, once you have those, you can google any problem you may have.

The thing you [one] need[s] to remeber above all else is that it's a machine- it's logical, if it doesn't work one day, something is broken. Machines don't have moods; machines either work or they don't. That's not to say problems can't be intermittent, but it is to say that if it malfunctions once, it will continue to malfunction.

Quick thoughts:
Bowden cables are based on tension- one direction is a human input and the other direction is spring energy stored from the human input. Basically, if you remember that you can't push a rope, you'll be lightyears ahead of the game when it comes to cabled systems. Similarly, every one bearing has a matching bearing on the other end of the axle.

The key to understanding a bicycle is being able to see the complete bicycle instead as a grouping of distinct component (AHA!) systems (suddenly the "integrated" nomenclature of the STI brifter comes into focus as well)- the brakes are each a distinct system, the derailleurs have a little interplay, but are mostly distinct, the bearings are a system, the wheels are a system of static tension, the tires are a system of pneumatic pressure. If you can break it down, you'll be amazed how easily traversed the landscape of bicycle maintenance is. Also, you'll be amazed how much the insight you have for other machines you've gained simply by learning how bicycles work.

Read Pirsig's Zen and the art..., but only the first half- once he starts crapping himself, it's a waste of time.

Just a heads up- There is a point when the knowledge of how things work won't be enough. There have been so many analogous, but distinct and incompatible products in the history of bicycles (threadings, tapers ISO/Metric) that there will come a time that you need to catch up on your history and educate yourself to the universe of parts. To do this, you can go take two routes- become a cat-lady style bike hoarder who buys anything novel that you come across and learn through experiential learning and reverse engineering, or you can start lurking a resource like the C&V forum and learning conceptually. Personally, I've taken a path where both routes are relevant in my life and both have been very helpful to me. If you don't have the resources to buy a pile of bikes [and flip them], then the aforementioned community bike shop is a perfect venue to work on offbeat parts and make some serious headway.

goldfinch

But then, just sell it. Don't say you fixed it up or tuned it up. Though I know "tune up" is an extremely ambiguous term.