Bicycle Mechanics - I now know why repairs cost so much

Repairing/overhauling a bike sure takes a long time. And its messy. I now understand why those tune ups cost so much (usually making the bulk of the profits at a shop).

Tore apart my mountain bike to the bare frame. Most of the grease had turned black or brown with a nasty smell. Gary Fisher had the bright idea of putting unsealed headsets on the bike and the bottom bearing was really bad. Unsealed headset + dirty riding + 2 years no cleaning = nightmare to clean. I'm going to just replace the bearings. I need 22 of 5/32"? loose bearings. I hope my shop has a 22 bearing retainer. Loose screws doesnt have one.

Rebuilt the hubs too. Front wasn't bad, but the rear was horrible. My non-drive side bearings are all dull grey and requires replacement. Once again, unsealed bearings + dirty riding + 2 years no cleaning = nightmare.

I need to invest in a shop apron and feels good to have saved a huge chunk of change by doing it myself.

Everything is relative. For me it's nice to work on such simple machines after playing with internal combustion engined vehicles most of the time.

I personally think almost everything labor-wise at the LBS is too much since I can do it myself.

Kudos to you on the self-help. Sounds like you had fun.

Cheers

repairs are not all that hard, but its skilled labour so they have to pay the mechanics probably double minimum wage or somthing like that, and they still need to make enough profit to make it worth their while. There was on time where i was shocked at how low the price was. After completly trashing a wheel and wipping the rim, i had to get the wheel rebuilt, and the rim fixed as it was warped, they laced it together with a new set of spokes seeing as most of mine had just been snapped on 1 side and bent on the other. They sent it off to be rebuilt somewhere else, so here i am hoping it will cost less then £50, it cost me £30! for a new set of spokes, and an external professinal rebuild.

Yep, it depends on what you're doing and how good you are at it.

I *can* replace spokes and tune the rear derailleur, given a few hours, but I'd rather pay and get a pro to do it in 5 minutes. Stupid rear derailleurs!

Gary Fisher had the bright idea of putting unsealed headsets on the bike and the bottom bearing was really bad. Unsealed headset + dirty riding + 2 years no cleaning = nightmare to clean.


There's nothing at all wrong or unintelligent about using unsealed bearings. It allows you to do an overhaul on the cheap, since you don't need to replace all the bearing units. They do need attention far more often than cartridge units, though. Whose bright idea was it to wait 2 years during dirty riding to clean and repack all the bearings?

For some of us, the repair/maintainence/upgrade/just-messin'-around aspect of bicycles is as much fun as riding. As Eros said, bikes really aren't that complicated yet making them work well can be very satisfying.

For some of us, the repair/maintainence/upgrade/just-messin'-around aspect of bicycles is as much fun as riding. As Eros said, bikes really aren't that complicated yet making them work well can be very satisfying.

Agreed. The journey is as fun as the destination! I just love disassembling a bottom bracket, scraping a bunch of sand and crap out of it, packing it up with new bearings and grease, and then feeling it just spiiiiin! So simple and elegant, and its easy to go from YUK to YAY in just a few short minutes. Very satisfying.

peace,
sam

I built my bike from the spoke up so I fix it all myself. During the winter when I dont feel like riding in 10 degree weather I overhaul my bike a lot. As for bearings, Do you have an Applied tools near you? http://www.applied.com