Originally Posted by
himurastewie
So I brought the bike into my LBS today. The wrench there told me that they could take a look at it, but no guarantees of perfection on targetbikes. That's fine, but then he told me that it would cost $50 for a tune-up and a week's turnaround. I decided it wasn't worth it, so I bought the blue book of bike repair from Parktool and maybe I can take care of it myself.
The next issue is tools, there are only a few that you really need, a set of Allen keys, being primary, a few screw drivers, if you have bolt on wheels, you need some wrenches, a small set is good, or just pick up ones the right size. There are some bike specific tools, which range from cheap to outrageous, if you think you will use it on a regular basis, then it can be worth buying, some jobs use more expensive tools, and I let a shop do those jobs.
For example I need to replace a crank arm, I will buy a crank arm wrench, because it's likely to be used again, because then I will put the wrench on them once in a while and make sure they stay tight. If you are the least bit mechanically inclined, then bicycles are one of the easiest mechanisms to keep repaired. Although some things are different from a target bike and a bike shop bike, many things are very similar.