Mr. Beanz

Just a post on encouraging others to "do-it-yourself".

I heard a tick in my bike. I swear them little clicks and tick echo in the tubes. I wanted to make sure the noise was not coming from the rear wheel so this is what I did!

Tools:
$2.00 spoke wrench
$7.00 chainwhip
$5.00 cassette tool
crescent wrench
allen wrench

I removed the wheel form the bike. Removed tire and tube. Removed cassette then installed on backup wheel. Install tire and tube into backup wheel. Replaced onto bike. Realized backup wheel has gone loco in the closet sitting for 3 years. So I true the wheel. Then adjust the brake caliper.

Evertyhing is set so I take the bike out for a 7 mile test ride. Noise takes a few minutes to present itself so testride must be more than down the driveway and back. Darn, noise still there after a few minutes so I take 'er home.

Get home, remove cassette again, remove tire, tube then replace all back onto ride wheel. Make sure everything is centered and adjusted.

Few mechanical moves, a 7 mile testride all done within one hour. Not bad! and cheap too!

How's your skill?

MetalClydesdale

I've taught myself most of the ins-and-outs of bike maintenance, mostly in an effort to stop paying so many mechanics bills. At this point I can fix most of the minor problems and true and tension my own wheels. It's hard to say how much of a savings this will work out to as I've ended up spending the money I saved on professional wrenching buying new tools.

flip18436572

I am trying to learn my bikes. I have been mechanical all my life, so it is natural for me to tear into things, my problem is that I don't have all of the "bike" tools. I have a lot of auto and motorcycle tools and a welder, etc.... Not much help with a bike.

scrapmetal

I would say excellent After 10 years of keeping my 86 CJ7 on the road - including engine swap and other rather big jobs, working on a bicycle is a treat. Of course there are some tricks of the trade, but that's the same with everything.

Gotta say I have a bit of an advantage, since I am originally mech.eng. In my former life, they trained me to be a T-55 technical officer (long story) - and over the two years we literally took the whole tank apart and put it back together. As I said, bicycle is a treat, nice clean mechanics without any confusion of combustion

DieselDan

I've been a bike mechanic for 15+ years. My only weak areas are wheel building and framesmithing.

bakerjw

The only time that my bike goes to the shop is when it is a potential warranty replacement issue. As for repairs or alignments, there are very few things that I cannot fix with the right tools. I did buy a bike toolkit and that has been a lifesaver while working with my bikes.

My wheel truing skills sometimes are not good enough and I have to take my wheels in to have them trued.

jakereed

I was thinking about this exact subject last week.
I concluded that if you ride a lot of miles it's imperative to be able to some of your own repairs, otherwise it can be pretty expensive to maintain the bike.

Not only would I be able to save money on labor charges, but I find the cost of parts runs about 20 percent higher at the LBS than I can get the same parts online.
For example, I paid over $50 to get a new cassette installed, which is a simple procedure with the right tools. I could have saved $10 on the cassette by buying online, plus $10 in labor charges, for a total of $20 bucks. I estimate that if I'm riding over 700 miles per month I would need this done about every three months, so it would be well worth it to do it myself, and the cost of the tools required would be paid for the very first time of doing it myself.

cstamper

I haven't done the math on it, but I'm sure that I've saved many thousands of dollars over the years. I started out wrenching on the cars and now, unless there's a warranty issue or something that demands something from the dealership, I do it all myself.

Home improvement - all me. I recently lost a lot of shingles when Ike passed through. I just bought a square of shingles and some roofing nails, climbed up the ladder, and fixed the roof.

I just recently bought a 2001 Jamis Comet frame on eBay and built up the bike myself. Yes, I paid for tools and building the bike up in this manner almost always costs more than buying a complete bike, but I learned a lot in the process and I now have all the tools and knowledge I need to work on my own bikes.

There's a lot of things that I've never done - truing a wheel, replacing a crank position sensor on a Taurus SHO, but I'm sure that I'll figure it out and learn in the process. It's also a great stress-reliever.

cohophysh

pretty much do my own work with advice from time to time

Neil_B

As a fat, bookish kid with a limp I never learned mechanical skills, and certainly not how to fix a bike since I didn't ride one. And I never developed any mechanical skills in adulthood. Beyond some simple roadside fixes on my bike I'm lost. There's a lot I need to learn.

Jerry in So IL

I didn't know you could work on bike til I got back into riding this summer. But they were Wally World specials and we didn't have any tools. Now, I have a box full of specialized tools, almost all the bikes fixed up to how I want them, and several neighborhood kids with repaired rides. I'm ready to build my own bike as soon as I figure out what is the "best" one for me! LOL

Jerry

TechKnowGN

The co-op has been a blessing. Thus far I haven't done a lot to my own bike yet other than a new seat, a pair of used grips (that I need to replace still) and trading the MTB tires for slicks. That was fun, learning to get the wheels off, pull the tubes, and put it all back together.

On other peoples bikes, I've removed a cassette to tighten the axle, trued wheels, tightened brakes, etc. I still dont have a lot of confidence knowing specifically whats wrong at first, but Im learning. I have a long way to go but twice a week at the shop cant hurt.

Wogster

I'm not bad, I don't do as much as I would like though...... If it doesn't need a special tool or tools, then I do it myself, if it requires a special tool, then it depends, if it's a tool I am likely to use on a semi-regular basis, and is reasonably priced like a chain tool, or a crank wrench, then I'll add the tool to my collection and learn to do the work myself. If the tool is very expensive and is unlikely to be used often, then I'll get the LBS to do it, OR go down to CBN and for $6 an hour use one of their workbenches and tools. I usually read up on it before hand, and decide whether I should give it a go or not. This winter I need tp do a bunch of stuff, so plan on adding several tools to the collection.....

neilfein

I can adjust brakes, the rear deraileur (I don't mess with the front one), lube and clean the bike, and add/remove/mutate accesories - computers, racks, etc. I bring the bike in when I need an expert opinion - a recent problem with the seatpost slipping made no sense at all, and it took three mechanics to figure it out.

Installing drivetrain components is a little beyond me. I'm currently building up a mountain bike and I'll have to learn more for that, though. I'll probably have my LBS give it a once-over when I'm done, though.

bakerjw

To add, I bought a bike tool kit and it has been a blessing for getting apart the oddball nuts and other hardware on my bikes. It is a great investment.

Panthers007

I've been working on bikes since 1972 at age 12. I wrap handlebars from the top-down - and would never think to use electrical-tape (just a little dig at this new phenomena)! I actually went to the United Bicycle Institute (UBI) in Ashland, Oregon in 1984 - it was a nice vacation - where I learned to build wheels. No frame-building skills as yet. So, all-in-all, my mechanical-skills are pretty good. I had a home shop that was open to people who were referred to me for about 10 years - and never had a complaint to speak of. Re-built a lot of people's bikes from the bare frame up. It was fun! But I moved and have no room for such endeavors at present.

Regards tools, I am very impressed with the multi-tool I finally broke down and bought: The Alien II from Topeak. This 1/2 pound (250ish grams) of consolidated steel - that fits in a decent, included pouch with a belt-loop - has just about everything you will ever need. In a home shop AND on the road. Granted it's probably not tough enough to be used for a daily shop operation, but it's certainly good enough for the general adjustments and installations/repairs we all encounter. I think everyone should get one of these critters. It even has a chain-tool.

JoelS

I can do the basic stuff. Today (if the package arrives), I'll be changing a cassette on one bike, a chain on another, and a tire.

Indie

I took a bike maintenance course this past month. The workings of a bicycle are so transparent (if greasy), and there are no electrical parts or combustible substances with which to seriously injure yourself. It's totally worth learning what the parts do and how to fix them so that you don't have to pay someone else to do it.

txvintage

When I was a kid, my house was where everyone brought their bikes to get repaired. My Dad would work on any kids bike at any time, except mine. Any time I had a problem he would sit with me and talk me though finding the cause, picking out the tools, and then tell me to have at it. He would keep an eye out and answer questions, but wouldn't do it for me. Smart man, my Dad was. Oh yea, I think I was every bit of 6 yrs old when he started this approach.

I have a basic tool kit, but if your just getting started, I wouldn't recommend a pre assembled kit. They come with some stuff you will likely never use. Buying your tools as you need them, and buying quality, is the way to go IMHO. Some standard stuff like pedal wrenches, bottom bracket and crank tools, cassette tool, T handle allen wrenches, and chain tool will get you pretty far.

My last frontier is wheel building, which is hopefully not too far away. I would like to build a frame, but that's not likely to happen. I can paint one though.

I need to get some good crimping stuff for cable building and I can then get as OCP as I want with cables, lol.

txvintage

Sounds like it may be time for a new Bottom Bracket..................................or, check you rear dérailleur adjustment and make sure it's not creeping into you spokes in the low gears Look for shiny spots on your spokes.

Bill Kapaun

IF you have older wheels, get a GOOD ($6-7) spoke wrench, instead of the $2 variety. You're MUCH less likely to round off nipples. That's definitely one of my "if I had to do it over..."
I made my own chain whips with a piece of flat bar and old chain.

epcolt

I have been an import auto tech for 30+ years. I can do almost everything with a bike also, a little weak on wheel building, but working on it

JKing

Before my kids sucked every last penny from my fun fund, I road raced middleweight sportbikes. When you are putting yourself into triple digit speeds you get pretty good at working on your machines. Now that my bicycles are the only thing I ride at speed I have learned to do everything needed to build and maintain a bike with off the shelf parts. I have yet to build or finish a rough frame or build a wheelset mostly due to time and space limitations. My winter project will be building up a new road bike since I currently do not have a true road bike.

My skill comes from growing up poor and driving beat up cars. My dad has on more than one occasion build a daily driver from multiple donor cars, and at 18 I had to rebuild the tranny and engine in my Regal after losing reverse and drive and using 2nd gear for a couple weeks.

sumguy

skills are minimal. can change tubes, tires, pedals, install fenders. might get lucky trying to adjust brakes. Bookworm as a kid and internet junkie/workaholic as an adult so never made time to learn these skills. Also tend to lose or break parts while fixing stuff.
Chain joining, hub/BB bearing repacks, and cable adjustments/replacement are the skills I would be happy with knowing.

CACycling

+1 This new way to wrap makes no sense to me and I'll continue to do it "old school".

As for wrenching skills, I tore bikes apart and put them back together all the time as a kid in the late 60s / early 70s. My dad had great carpentry skills but wasn't mechanical so I just tore into things and figured them out on my own. Then I got my driver's license and bikes were things to hang in the garage and take down once or twice a year to go on a long (sometimes as far as 5 miles) ride.

Then last year, having given my MTB to my older son, I picked up an '86 Diamondback Ascent on Craig's List for $40 that needed a lot of work. I tore it apart and put it back together again. Along the way I relearned how enjoyable working on bikes was (as well as relearning how fun riding bikes was). I've done tear down and rebuilds on 3 other bikes I've gotten since then as well as doing maintenance and upgrades on our other bikes.

I've been building up my tool set (just got new cone wrenches to replace the ones that came in a dime store bicycle tool set I got in the early 70s) and, with the exception of wheelbuilding, will tackle anything on any of our bikes. Actually, I've yet to pay to have a bike worked on.