Bicycle Mechanics - thoughts on Park Tool School?

I'd like to start doing some of my own maintenance, and have discovered that a PLBS (Pseudo-Local Bike Shop) offers periodic Park Tool School (http://www.parktool.com/clinics_training/parktoolschool.asp) sessions. Has anyone tried these classes? If so, I'd like to hear your opinion of the overall quality/usefulness of the beastie.

The cost is fairly low, so I'm not too concerned about that aspect. The shop is rather out-of-the-way, however, so I'm trying to decide if this is worth the travel and time requirements. Thanx!

Park has it all on their site,and the Zinn maintenance book is about $20. Basic maintenance is far from rocket science.

Park has it all on their site,and the Zinn maintenance book is about $20. Basic maintenance is far from rocket science.

True, but some of us (myself included) tend to learn much easier in a more interactive setting.

I'd like to start doing some of my own maintenance, and have discovered that a PLBS (Pseudo-Local Bike Shop) offers periodic Park Tool School (http://www.parktool.com/clinics_training/parktoolschool.asp) sessions. Has anyone tried these classes? If so, I'd like to hear your opinion of the overall quality/usefulness of the beastie.

The cost is fairly low, so I'm not too concerned about that aspect. The shop is rather out-of-the-way, however, so I'm trying to decide if this is worth the travel and time requirements. Thanx!

I would go for it. I looked into doing them in the UK over here, but just beat away at it myself using the web site. If I could have done it reasonably easily I would

Like Sydney said, if your working on modern road or mountain bikes the Zinn Maintenance books will get you through 95% of what might come up. Plus there's nothing like hands on experence.

In my neck of the woods, they offer a "basic" and "advanced" course - each in either "road bike" or "mountain bike" dialect. I took the basic road bike course last year; this winter I hope to take the advanced course. I recommend it with some qualifications.

Some people learn best by tinkering; I preferred the hands-on approach:

- you get to ask questions immediately
- you work on your own bike
- you can see how the same procedure works on other student's bikes
- all the tools, etc. are at your fingertips
- instructor had a lot of good tips, stories, etc.

The instructors are LBS wrenches, so you might get a good one, and you might get one who isn't. They follow a standard curriculum to a degree, but emphasis on topics can be different based on student/
instructor interest. In my class, there were a number of mechanical-phobic women, so we spent more time on changing flats than we might have. I think this was great, but changing a flat is one of the tasks that I can do.

The basic course is good if you are mechanically challenged or new to road bikes. It covered a lot of simple stuff such as changing flats, adjusting derailleurs, brakes, headsets, etc. We talked a little bit about wheels, but as noted, emphasis was not equal on all topics. It was good, although I felt I was an "advanced moron" as opposed to "beginning moron". It was only a few hours, after all. But it defintely did boost my confidence on my abilities to work on my bike and demystify a few things.

Assuming that you are okay with the stated curriculum (ask LBS for this), I would do what I could to check out *who* will be teaching the course, and ask them about it, since this will be a primary determinant.

Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

I'd like to start doing some of my own maintenance, and have discovered that a PLBS (Pseudo-Local Bike Shop) offers periodic Park Tool School (http://www.parktool.com/clinics_training/parktoolschool.asp) sessions. Has anyone tried these classes? If so, I'd like to hear your opinion of the overall quality/usefulness of the beastie.

The cost is fairly low, so I'm not too concerned about that aspect. The shop is rather out-of-the-way, however, so I'm trying to decide if this is worth the travel and time requirements. Thanx!


I thought about it last year but the location was not convenient and since then I built a whole bike on my own so now I have probably learned already more alone that what I could learn by attending this course. I would say go for it or plan on building a bike. If you go the build way it helps to have more than one book for reference and to have your computer close to check the park tools website and this forum.

I took the course. Twice a week for six weeks. Three hours per night. I did learn a lot. But I knew zero going in. If you know something and everyone else knows a little something, they'll be able to cover a lot. With me and a couple of other people, it kept the class from getting really advanced, but we still did go through the entire book. It was a very good course.

Koffee

I learned my mechanics from getting a part-time job at a local bike shop. I learned everything I needed to know, and the cool part was that I got discounts on things I needed to buy (including a new bike at 10% above dealer's cost). That is my helpful hint if anyone would like to use it.

Thanx to everyone who responded... jazzy and koffee were particularly helpful. I think I'll go ahead and sign up for next month's basic home-mechanics course, and see how things go. If it's helpful enough, I can consider the advanced class which comes up in January.

Thanx!