delbiker1 

[QUOTE=CyclingFool95;21314299] I did strip the derailleur hanger on a certain Fuji Ace through carelessness and hurry. Lesson, slow is good as long as you're enjoying the journey. Now, coffee and tunes are always part of the process.

CyclingFool95, I really enjoyed rebuilding your Fuji Ace. I also enjoy riding it and with an 8 speed cassette and 9 speed RD, high limit screw snugged down, I can use all 8 cogs. So your fix on the hanger works fine.

BlueCyclist

I know some bike mechanics personally and i wouldn't let them change a car wheel, never mind go anywhere nr a bicycle. Even the better mechanics i talk to, make some very queer and odd statements regarding engineering and maintanance which makes me shudder.
I do my own cycle repairs and maintanance. Sometimes i screw up, sometimes i break stuff i shouldn't, but mostly, i do ok and i have the satisfaction of being self sufficient.

The mangling of this^ bike just makes me angry. On principle, i would have gone back to the shop and gone bananas at them, least they think this is normal behaviour.

Where bike shops and mechanics do have an advantage is in tools and experience. The experience can be mostly substituted with the internet (Thank god for forums and youtube) but the tools can be a problem. Thankfully, most of the jobs can be done with some get arounds and you only need a few key items (such as spocket wrenches, etc) to fix up a bike. They really can be simple machines.

Like any other hobby, Cycling is full of woo and voodoo but just once in a while, sometimes that voodoo has a reason behind it and you end up messing up because you have no experience to know better. Just take it on the chin and move on.
Well done to the OP. Sounds like a job well done.

Unlike the c*** who went at the bike in this picture!

Miele Man

I remember another shop in Toronto Canada where I went to in the mid-1980s after riding a 15 Speed Asahi MTB fom Toronto to Lindsay and back again. I told them I wanted a 6 speed freewheel and chain put on and that I wanted the 5 speed freewheel and chain returned to me for another project. i remember thinking after seeing the removed 5 speed freewheel and chain that they must have taken the freewheel off with a hammer and punch as theslots for a two prong Suntour freewheel remover were all bashed up as though a punch had been used a number of times on it. The chain was all twisted as though they had used to screwdrivers to twist it apart. Needless to say I was no happy nor did I ever go back there.

Now I do all my own work on bicycles except if I need something done on a long ride that I don't have the tool for.

Cheers

Welshboy

I've often built-up bikes from frames I've bought and about 20 years or so ago I built up a nice 631 winter bike one Saturday afternoon (new frame and old groupset) and had just put the pedals on finger tight when my wife brought me out a much needed cup of tea.

Fast forward to the Sunday club ride and I'm on the front (on the left - remember, we drive on the left in the UK) "giving it a bit of welly" as we say. Next thing I know I'm in a ditch after a spectacular forward roll off the bike - very acrobatic apparently.

Yes, of course, the left hand pedal had unscrewed itself (precession) and my momentum saw me crash. Mercifully, no one else came off although some of my club mates soiled their bibshorts through fear or wetting themselves laughing.

A lesson learned.

jacksbike

I grew up working for my Dad's bike shop and eventually purchased and owned my own shop. So I have many decades in the business. I currently happily volunteer at a non-profit and enjoy every second of it. Because of my background, I am the most experienced mechanically, and I most enjoy helping and tutoring others with the many frustrating issues that come up daily. I have been told that I make it look too easy, when I help someone. This is because I have done all of this repetitively for years and it is second nature. There is another volunteer who is a wiz with working on trucks and car engines. So I have told my fellow volunteers that , yes, I can do this particular task with my eyes closed, but I do not have the learned skills to work on cars and trucks like the other fellow. We all have our particular skills and they have been learned by doing them over and over for years , and also encountering those weird problems. Kudos to getting your hands dirty and just giving it a try.! There are so many tools available today that were not when I was learning the trade. One can easily go to YouTube and watch videos of what those 'innards' look like before you tear them apart. Publications and exploded parts diagrams are so readily available on line. So, rise to the challenge and be aware there are so many avenues available if you run into issues !

CyclingFool95 

[QUOTE=delbiker1;21314307]Glad you're enjoying it. I cant take credit for the fix. I brought it to the one LBS that hasnt screwed me yet. I'm somewhat mechanically inclined, and have been wrenching bikes for a long time, but there are certain things I just dont mess with (headset pressing, fork steerer cutting for example) partly because I dont have the right tool, and dont want to buy them, and partly because I dont want to try out the lower slopes of the learning curve on a bike I value. The "fix" for twenty years, was that a machinist friend of mine tapped the inside of the derailleur body, and cut me a thin headed cap socket bolt to fit. Nice idea on his part. I clamped the derailleur on tight and just left it alone. It was only when I went from 7 speed downtube Chorus to 10 speed Shimano, that I had to deal with it.

Miele Man

I remember helping a fellow who fixed bikes up or inexpensive resale. One time I discovered that he had somehow managed to thread a right side pedal onto a left side crank arm.

Another guy I used to help but stopped (he was too dangerous a builder) would leave a stem with about 1/4" left inside the steerer tube. I told him that was a bad accident just waiting to happen and I lowered the stem. When i had turned my back to work on something else I saw that he was putting that stem back into the same position it was in before I lowered it. I gathered my tools and left.

Cheers

bikerbobbbb

A few thoughts. I've been doing this to reduce stress associated with bike repairs/maintenance.


Plan it all out. Have all the parts and tools you need.
Watch youtube videos. How to books. Posts online. Mentally walk through it many times before actually doing it.
Get advice online here. Take pics/video. People will see things with different eyes here.
Make it reversible, so you can always go back if you need to. Maybe just investigate and take things apart at first instead of actually fixing.
Get good tools. It's not worth it to damage something due to a crappy tool.
Keep the time realistic for how much you want to work on the bike / when you need the bike working again.
Break it down into parts. For something like wheel truing, I've gone to just cleaning the wheel one day, starting to true it another, finalizing the truing another day.
My goal is to do any repairs or maintenance myself on my own bike. I don't care so much about learning other bikes. It's control over the bike as a form of transportation.

Mad Honk 

BikerB's,
I took control over an exhaust system on a 1981 Ford pickup tonight. I went to my local muffler shop, but they said they couldn't weld the system together over an apparent fuel leak. So it was on the hoist tonight with a trip to the parts store, for a new seal. Then a couple of hours helping the service manager fix his old beater with a heater. He was having problems with the support hangers, not understanding the easy way to install them. After showing him how we would do the job he sez: Wow I learned something from Dave tonight. He is a newer era GM tech, I am a 1976 certified tech. Back then we had to work some things out in our head and implement them. Smiles, MH And keep on mastering the principles!

Miele Man

Another thing a beginner or a person who gets interrupted a lot, is to get a small paper pad and jut down the last thing you were doing if you have to leave the bike for some reason. I know that a lot of errors or forgotten things are done simply because the person working on the bike got distracted and then when they came back they forgot to finish the item they were working on prior to being interrupted.

Cheers

Clyde1820

Good tip.

Another one I've lived by, when doing "mechanic" stuff (bikes, cars, or whatever): draw a quickie diagram of the parts as they're found, in order ... and lay them out on a tarp or towel in that same order. Particularly useful when relatively unfamiliar with a lot of little parts in an assembly where the assembly needs to be taken down in order to clean it. Harder to reassemble if the sequence of a spring or clip or other part gets flipped with another, if not completely familiar with things. (A simple precaution that can save a lot of time.)