How-To/Mechanics: What can be Self-Repaired vs. LBS Repaired.

Yet another thread from me. This thread is inspired by cicadashell and lord_athlon from my thread on component upgrades.

Lord_athlon and cicadashell both mentioned their skills in dissembling and maintaining/repairing the headset on their bikes.

In this thread my goal is to find out what you guys choose to replace, repair, and maintain on your bikes yourselves vs. what replacements, repairs, and maintenance you take to the local bike shops. Instructions are not needed, just names. Maybe and hopefully we can start "How-to" threads with your tips on the specific repairs.

Let me know what you think and if the goal of this thread is something you'd be interested in. i myself am very interested being one of the less experienced people on here. Thanks and look forward to hearing from you guys.

Posted By: deermattI get confused with headsets , but you should be able to do everything on a bike without help. I needed help with learning how to install a headset, but everything else is pretty self explanitory

Certain things have just sort of freaked me out. For example the whole putting on the back wheel while simultaneously making sure things are aligned and your chain tension is good. Or what tools do I need? What kind of grease should you use? Do you wax on or wax off? I feel like this things would be useful for people like me to know ahead of time from people who have actually done the repairs themselves.

oh also keep a tube of phil grease and a roll of electrical tape on hand.

The great thing about bikes is that, really, they have so few parts and are so simple -- and I'm not talking fixed-gear bikes versus those with derailleurs. Any bike, even something with a tricked-out, top-end setup, is a thousand times simpler than any car. Bikes have bars, brakes, gears, wheels, and that's pretty much it. They're just not that complex. Sure, you need some tools and some knowhow, and an LBS can come in handy (I leave threading and full-on wheel trues to them), but ultimately, you can do anything you set your mind to.

Posted By: Joshua A.C. NewmanBottom bracket facing and chasing is pretty much all I can't do. I don't know how to maintain shock absorbers, never having had real suspension, but I'll learn that if it ever comes up.

Everything else is a matter of patiently learning how to do it and using the right tools.

This forum's not so great on mechanical stuff, sadly. Too much complaining that other people are hipsters (the hipster national pastime). You might want to tryBike Forums,Sheldon Brown's site, and thePark Toolsite. They're bristling with information.

There will always be hating going around, but instead of submitting to that I'm trying to make threads that are more useful. In the threads that I've started so far, people have been more than helpful and personally I like it here a lot better than the other forums. Maybe it's just me.

Wouldn't that be the How-To/Mechanics: category, in which this very topic is located? I admit, I hadn't noticed that the topics were categorized until you mentioned the idea.

I'd have to be in big time trouble before I took it to a shop to get fixed. I just hate paying people to do things. The only thing I need to get to a shop for at the moment, is to get some spokes cut and threaded. The old shop I used to work at had a spoke threader, so I'd just buy boxes of 312s and cut them to whatever. Now that I no longer work there, and that shop no longer exists, I need to take all my spokes somewhere else to get cut. After that I'll just buy the right length spoke.

There's a shop in town that doesn't really like working on bikes, he mostly sell parts, but they have a whole room in the back for people to work on their bikes and will let you use any of his tools, so while I don't have bottom bracket taps yet, or anything to face headtubes and bottom brackets, I can do those there.

Even if you don't have that many tools, and don't think you can afford a whole workshop full of tools, it's usually the same price to buy the tool instead of paying someone to do it, then you have the tool for next time.

IN LBS I TRUST!!!!

i am new to the bike scene, especially the mechanical side but fixing and putting bikes together is totally easy and fun. i just got done restoring/building up my bike in my garage, all of which i did myself except for the removal of my old style pin spanner bottom bracket. the pin spanner for this was 30 dollars, my lbs took it off for 10 and since i wanted to purchase a sealed bracket, there was no need to purchase the tool. you can go to your local bookstore chain, boarders, barnes and nobles and purchase a fairly decent haynes style "how-to" book in the exercise/bicycle sections, usually near the triathlon and competitive training section for some strange reason and it will guide you through any and all repairs. your local library may also have these books but it is nice to always have them by your side.

i would not completely dismiss your lbs though. while it may only be needed as a last resort or life line, your lbs will for sure have tools that you or even your friends may not have and in some cases it may be even easier or less expensive to have them help you or completely take care of something for you. all it takes is something as simple as stripping your bottom bracket shell to realize what i mean by this!

it is also good to create a steady relationship with the lbs because the nicer you are to them and more they get to know you, the more likely they are to help you out when you are in a bind. also, when it comes down to ordering and purchasing parts, your lbs will most likely be competitive if not better than most online deals (this is including shipping). if not, you can always bring this up to them (again a good relationship always helps) and ask them to match and or beat the price you were quoted online.

i worked with my lbs to purchase all my parts for my bike, mainly because i wanted to support the local indie shops. i explained to them early on that i wanted to do all the work myself and instead of them being upset, they actually helped me quite a bit. in the end i started enjoying making my weekly and even sometime daily visits to my lbs. it became sort of like a school for me to learn all the different tricks of the trade. also, when it came down to buying certain parts i got amazing deals that you wont find online. for instance, the crankset i bought they had special ordered for a kid who ended up flaking on them, so they hooked me up with a screaming deal, just to get rid of it! not to mention countless little fixes and tweaks here and there that they were so eager to help me with, since my project also became part of theirs. in the end, i guess it depends on the specific place you end up going but if they love what they do, they should love helping you! good luck!!!!!


BY THE WAY...
i just started a thread called LETS TALK TECH. i would like to invite everyone over there to show off bikes and talk about them. as i learn more and more about bikes, i really seem to enjoy learning and discussing all types of technical aspects of bike... hope to see you there!!!!

I didn't change the category on this thread - the person who started it has that option I believe.

ohhh the good old days.

Anything that's built with mostly metric measurements is most likely navigable by the general population. That's the first sign it was built by someone who likes things to make sense.

Haha. I'm glad the thread made a resurgence. Well, I guess from here hopefully we can start some "How-to" threads for each type of repair and maintenance.

I've had some experience already with my lbs and it's been great so far. Like any other lbs they encompass all aspects of biking, but they have a unique expertise in fixed gears. The people seem knowledgeable and very nice. The prices are decent. They can be on the expensive side for parts and repairs sometimes, but you get experience with them. They know what they're doing and won't jack up your ride. Kinda priceless in my mind.

Also, there is supposed to be a another shop nearby where you can rent workspace and tools for cheap and there are people who help you with repairs. I have yet to check it out, but seems like a great place to gain some mechanical knowledge. The Boston/Cambridge area luckily is pretty good for cyclists.

I guess I am just blessed with being mechanically inclined? I do 99.9% of everything on all of my bikes. They are very few things I will not at least try to do, and have learned quite a bit
in the process. I will visit the LBS's for parts, but they pretty much know I can handle most of what I do. There is nothing more satisying than finding an old bike, blowing it completely apart, and rebuilding it
from the frame out. It's an obesssion I guess, since I seem to keep building regardless of garage space. I average about 20 personal vintage road bikes, and another 20 or so including vintage mountain bikes, etc

For those that frequent bikeforums, I go by Bikedued. I just joined this site last night.