Do you work on you own bike?

[maddmaxx]

I suspect that there may be some diversity here in the 50+

Do you work on your own bike. Are you just barely able to put air in the tires. Can you handle adjustments to the parts that are already on the bike. Could you change out simple parts, saddles, seatpost, handlebar, grips. How about something just a little more complicated, could you change a stem.
Are you one of the mechanic types who can take the drive line apart and put it back together complete with all the proper adjustments. Can you build a wheel or check a frame for straightness.

How does our 50+forum align with these questions. This is not a test of your skills, there are not any right or wrong answers. This is just a sampling of how the members of this forum view themselves.

[dbg]

I wrench more than I ride. Always a project going on, sometimes 5.

[Louis]

Yes to all your questions except wheel building. I really enjoy the mechanical side of cycling. My fantasy is being a bike mechanic. Then I realize that job would involve too much pressure and too much other BS, so I happily toil away in my basement at my own speed.

[MichiganMike]

Don't do anything on my bike, although I want to start doing some of it myself. Have looked at a few manuals, and want to check the local Community College to see if they might offer a class at some point. Weird because I am pretty handy. I do a lot of car repair, tons of stuff around the house, plumbing, electrical, you name it. But, I don't trust myself to work on my bikes.

[oilman_15106]

Yes to all your questions except wheel building. I really enjoy the mechanical side of cycling. My fantasy is being a bike mechanic. Then I realize that job would involve too much pressure and too much other BS, so I happily toil away in my basement at my own speed.

Been thinking about building a set of wheels! Have never done it but I love a project.

I do much of my own work but some things are just better left to the LBS. Had a frame bottom bracket faced and the threads chased. A job I could do no doubt but who needs a $300 tool laying around that will be used a couple of times in a lifetime. Same goes for a headset I need reamed.

My LBS owner told me I should come work for him but I know he was just passing an offer that would never be taken up. Love the bikes and fixing them but not as a living.

[Jet Travis]

I'm not much of a wrench. I have just enough skill to take my folding bike apart, wrassle it into a suitcase and put it back together again, but it's often a bit of an adventure that requires swearing in several languages.

[Road Fan]

I suspect that there may be some diversity here in the 50+

Do you work on your own bike. Are you just barely able to put air in the tires. Can you handle adjustments to the parts that are already on the bike. Could you change out simple parts, saddles, seatpost, handlebar, grips. How about something just a little more complicated, could you change a stem.
Are you one of the mechanic types who can take the drive line apart and put it back together complete with all the proper adjustments. Can you build a wheel or check a frame for straightness.

How does our 50+forum align with these questions. This is not a test of your skills, there are not any right or wrong answers. This is just a sampling of how the members of this forum view themselves.

I can do complete maintenance and rebuilding and have "mantled" half a dozen frames in the past few years. I don't like to build wheels any more. Our local Two Wheel Tango (Ann Arbor, MI) does a great job of truing, tensioning, and bearing work, and I haven't needed a new rim in quite a while. They've gotten sick of tryign to convince me to buy aftermarket wheels.

I also tend to look for help with crown races - they'll remove or install one for just a few bucks, nad the tool pair is aroudn $70 bucks for the remover and the setter.

I like to tune and adjust so things work the way I like them to.

Road Fan

[Yen]

I installed the cyclo-computer by myself... does that count? :)

I am planning to take a class fairly soon. A LBS offers the Park's repair manual as part of the class fee. I don't plan to be the sole mechanic of my bike, but I'd like to know how to do at least the basic and most important adjustments and repairs if I need to, and also know how to talk to the guys at the LBS when I take it in for other repairs. I have a pretty good mechanical aptitude to assemble things when I have the time.

[Trsnrtr]

I'm in my 26th season of riding. If I didn't do my own work, I'd be broke by now.

[bkaapcke]

I do most of my own wrenching. I'll leave wheel truing to the pros, because I would want it done right, and learning requires a few errors. Also, headset replacement goes to the shop, because the tools are too expensive for a job I may do once or twice in a lifetime. Everything else I do myself. It pays to know how your ride works. bk

[cyclezealot]

If i were to wrench more than I ride; I'd have to give up the wrenching. Nothing interferes with my ride time. I do some minor stuff. I need expand on the number of tools I have.

[guybierhaus]

Actually working on my own bikes is the second reason I have come to enjoy cycling. I have always performed work on my own car, but that work is becoming a real PIA with so many electronics involved and CV joints which do not come out as easy as manual suggests. So I'm reduced to changing filters, oil and light bulbs. Now bikes, well they are clean enough I can wheel them into family room. Don't have to craw underneath, no messy exhaust pipes to deal with. Best of all, parts are cheap relative to auto parts. I'm trying to build wheels, but don't appear to have the patient for truing. Not to mention till I buy all parts I could have gotten a complete wheel cheaper. Also enjoy building bikes my way. Currently hoping to get 30mm cyclocross tyres onto my Trek 1000. Already converted to flat bar, now looking to make it a light weight trail bike (compared to Hybrid).

[ticwanos]

I have never been particularly mechanically inclined and mechanical things come very slowly to me; for example, by the time I finally understood how a carborateur worked, they were obsolete and nobody used them any more. I gave up on cars at that point. After rediscovering bicycles in my fourth or fifth midlife crisis (I lost count) I became one of those ol' fogeys who haunts garage/estate sales and thrift stores looking for the old school vintage steel bikes with friction shifters and caliper brakes. The mechanics on those are simple enough for me to mess with and I enjoy piddling around with them, fine tuning the adjustments, doing simple upgrades, etc. I recently finished my first wheel rebuild, nothing complicated--just need to be patient-- and am almost finished rebuilding a '71 Schwinn Super Sport from the frame up. I'm lucky that I have a great LBS (Don Johle's in Garland, TX--shameless plug) that is happy to educate me on whatever I'm trying to do. I guess the proper answer to the question is that I aspire to do my own wrenching and am learning a bit more each day and am slowly adding to my collection of tools to get jobs done. Of course, I could fork out the bucks for a state of the art wonder that didn't need anything more than just the occasional adjustment to the brakes, but where would be the fun in that? I enjoy finding the older bikes in need of TLC and providing it. Wrenching is just as much fun as riding, and with the double whammy of riding and wrenching, this hobby can't be beat.

[Digital Gee]

I suspect that there may be some diversity here in the 50+

Do you work on your own bike. Are you just barely able to put air in the tires. Can you handle adjustments to the parts that are already on the bike. Could you change out simple parts, saddles, seatpost, handlebar, grips. How about something just a little more complicated, could you change a stem.
Are you one of the mechanic types who can take the drive line apart and put it back together complete with all the proper adjustments. Can you build a wheel or check a frame for straightness.

How does our 50+forum align with these questions. This is not a test of your skills, there are not any right or wrong answers. This is just a sampling of how the members of this forum view themselves.

What? Work on my own bike?

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/original/shock.jpg

[will dehne]

I am an engineer by training and do understand how things should work. I own four diverse bikes. I use them on trails and in parks. Other than flats, not much ever goes wrong. Adjusting saddles and stems are no problem. Adjusting cables for the gears is a bit tricky and requires some more skill. I rather have the LBS do that once or twice per year. Yeah that costs money but they do in minutes what takes me longer to do wrong.
Some repairs require spare parts and tools I do not have. Such as crank bearing adjustments. That happens once in many years.
Recondition and upgrades? I let the LBS do that. (I rather play with the computer or read a book)

[phinney]

Funny, I was just thinking the other day that working on my bikes is one of the things I like about cycling. I think part of the appeal is that bikes are so easy to work on. Few tools are required and you don't need dedicated shop space. If it's cold in the garage (or you don't have a garage) just bring the bike in where it's warm.

[Jet Travis]

Funny, I was just thinking the other day that working on my bikes is one of the things I like about cycling. I think part of the appeal is that bikes are so easy to work on. Few tools are required and you don't need dedicated shop space. If it's cold in the garage (or you don't have a garage) just bring the bike in where it's warm.


True that. No power tools that can saw off a limb. No electric shocks or inadvertent explosions.

[Beverly]

I can manage changing saddles, pedals and flat tires. I leave everything else to the LBS.

Part of our training for the park bike program is a maintenance class where we're taught basic repairs we might need to help riders on the local trails. In addition to fixing flats it covers brake adjustments and broken chain repair. I've never encountered a broken chain on the trails but I've helped fix many a flat and slipped chains. One of the most frequent problems I see are bikes that haven't seen any type of lube for years. They probably just pulled them out of the garage after years of sitting and everything is rusty:(

[bcoppola]

Don't do crown races, BB housing facing or anything involving metalwork/fabrication, but all else is fair game. Haven't built a wheel yet but will eventually; I've already done truing. Did the fixed gear conversion in my sig myself.

None of this is rocket science, y'know.

[maddmaxx]

For those of you who don't want to buy tools for crown race work try the FSA Orbit XL II headset. The secret is the phrase "split aluminium crown race". On and off with the fingers!@#$% WHO KNEW

[Beverly]

Funny, I was just thinking the other day that working on my bikes is one of the things I like about cycling. I think part of the appeal is that bikes are so easy to work on. Few tools are required and you don't need dedicated shop space. If it's cold in the garage (or you don't have a garage) just bring the bike in where it's warm.

Since I don't do too much work on my bike I've never seen the need to bring it indoors for working on it. However, the shower with the hand held shower head is the perfect place for cleaning up the bike after one of those cold winter rides:D

[Retro Grouch]

Hmmm. Not only do I do all of my own work including frame alignment and wheel building, but I ride just barely enough to see how my wrenching ideas are going to work.

[maddmaxx]

:roflmao: Oh I know that feeling too well :roflmao:

[Terrierman]

I do the basic stuff myself. Son Chris is a mechanical genius, his second bike is a full suspension MTB he assembled from a high end Santa Cruz bare frame and parts he bought on e-bay and the LBS. He's pretty handy to have around. He'll be building wheels next, I'm sure. He's pretty interested in bikes right now which are quite a step back from him hot rodding Mazda rotary engines, doing an engine swap to put one in a Miata and turning it into a full out race car.

[CrossChain]

Yes. I need three bikes because guaranteed two of them will be going thru disassembly or re-assembly for some often picayune reason. Anybody remember, back in the days of loose bearings, chasing the little buggers across the garage floor where they invariably rolled under the freezer?

DG....I'm not particularly "mechanical"...probably less so than Mother Teresa. But, with a little diligence you can work your way into a functional ability to do what you need... and, after much trial and error and saving help from the friendly LBS wrench, learn. Have to invest in some appropriate tools as you go along, though. But they're far cheaper than setting up, say, an enthusiast's kitchen.

[byte_speed]

Do all my own work, even the stuff I'm not qualified to do. Just easier to DIY than load up and go to the LBS. Never did a complete build, but I've replaced both deraillers and built a wheel. I find taping the handlebars to be the hardest to get right for me (especially considering brifer placement and bar angle).

[Marge]

afraid not, well I changed flats and lube my chain. (I've even taken classes on bicycle maintenance.)
I am a customer of the most excellent bicycle shop in the world. http://www.rideyourbike.com/
Aaron and his wreches are the best!!! I feel it's my duty to support the local economy.

[Monoborracho]

My motto---"if you know absolutely nothing about it, work on it anyway". I have few qualms about backing off anything I can get a wrench on...and that includes crescent wrenches. That's why I have my latest purchase in pieces, either parted out in boxes, spread across the workbench, or hanging on pegboard hooks in the garage. Its a great reason to buy more tools.

[stapfam]

There is only one job that I prefer to farm out and that is retensioning wheels. I can retrue the little out of true ansd replace spokes but once those spokes get loose on a well used wheel- it goes into my LBS for the Wheelsmith to sort the Bu**ers out. Saves me a fortune as they come back as if they were a new set of wheels so saves me buying them.

[rbrsddn]

I can do most maintenance on my bikes except for building wheels. My regular riding buddy worked in a bike shop as a mechanic for a few years, so he is good to have around.:)

[Bud Bent]

I do all of my own work, except I don't build wheels. I even built one of my bikes from a bare frame I bought.

[Thrifty1]

Restoring antique motorcycles (British) is my prmary passion so I perform all wrenching including wheel building. I maintained Teletype machines while in the Air Force and, in comparison, a bicycle is just slightly more complicated than a stick.

[Dogbait]

I do everything except facing bottom bracket shells and aligning fork ends or dropouts. I would do that too if I had the right tools. I especially enjoy building my own wheels. I built all of the bikes in my sig from bare frames.

[John E]

I have built up a number of bikes from bare frames (including the UO-8) and and lots of wheels from bare hubs. I have stripped a number of bikes down to the bare frame for restoration (with or without repainting) and have successfully reassembled them with either stock or updated/upgraded components (including the two Capos, the PKN-10E, and the Bianchi.) I rarely encounter a problem for which I don't have the right tools, such as chasing the threads in a bottom bracket or removing an extremely stuck fixed BB cup. I have a good bench vise, a Park shop stand, and a VAR truing stand, plus a goodly assortment of BB spanners, a chain whip, a cog vise, and a couple of wire "third-hand" brake caliper clamps.

[genec]

I suspect that there may be some diversity here in the 50+

Do you work on your own bike. Are you just barely able to put air in the tires. Can you handle adjustments to the parts that are already on the bike. Could you change out simple parts, saddles, seatpost, handlebar, grips. How about something just a little more complicated, could you change a stem.
Are you one of the mechanic types who can take the drive line apart and put it back together complete with all the proper adjustments. Can you build a wheel or check a frame for straightness.

How does our 50+forum align with these questions. This is not a test of your skills, there are not any right or wrong answers. This is just a sampling of how the members of this forum view themselves.


I do everything but straighten the frame or "facing." In other words anything related to tune up or bolt on parts, I take care of. I have built my own wheels.

I tend to be more careful about my approach than perhaps a hurried shop might be.

[twobikes]

During the first few rides on my new Specialized Allez Triple Sport something was out of whack on the front derailleur adjustment and I limped home without a full range of gears a couple of times. It was all completely different from the friction shift levers on my old mid-1960's 10-speed. I got information from several sites on the Internet and got it adjusted so it worked like it should. I also made some notes so it will be even easier the next time. When I took the bike back to the LBS for its 20 hour break-in check up, they did not need to change anything I had done.

I like to make or improvise special tools whenever possible. Even if I have to buy a tool, it will probably pay for itself in one or two uses.

Most of the time I can do a good job of what needs to be done. If I do make a mess of something, I will pay a shop to fix it and will still be ahead over the long haul.

[Jet Travis]

It was all completely different from the friction shift levers on my old mid-1960's....
.

Good point. As a mediocre wrench, I've been able to keep things mostly ship shape during long-distance touring (six-months through Europe) on a 1980s touring bike with friction shifting, etc. If my modern-day brfiters went haywire in the middle of nowhere, I'd be stumped.

[Bill Kapaun]

I do as much as I can with my now limited tool supply (I had a bunch of my bike appropriate tools stolen and don't have the $ to replace).
I try to pick up "junk" bikes, repair/tune and actually try to make $5. Not much luck so far. (anybody need a RoadMaster?)
I'll adjust/change ders, brakes, flats and do MINOR truing.
In the indeterminate future, I'm going to try a salvage project on a couple CHEAP rear wheels. 1 has a garbaged hub & straight rim and the other has the opposite. I think it may be good, cheap practice to see if I have any knack for wheelbuilding.

[spry]

I enjoy cheating in 6-7 gears into an old classic rear cog,instead of just 5.

[maddmaxx]

I have a solution to the price of tools. I work for tools. When I take in a job like a preseason cleanup and tuneup the price is one tool. Next weeks job, a general cleanup, tuneup, wheel truing with hub regreasing, chain cleaning and headset adjustment comes at the price of one headset cup press, about $49 on sale or ebay. Its amazing how many tools you can acquire this way.

Like many of the other posters in this thread though it is unlikely that I will spring for a set of bottom bracket taps.

[Tom Bombadil]

Just basic things. No problems with saddles, have swapped a couple of handlebars, adjusted brakes. Have tweaked my derailleurs here & there. Picking up a little more here and a little more there. Recently got the Park book when at a big sale event. Have no interest in wheel building or major maintenance. But would like to become adept at routine stuff.

[John E]

I enjoy cheating in 6-7 gears into an old classic rear cog,instead of just 5.

Absolutely! I find I need at least 12 gears (10 or 11 usable) to get the 2:1 overall range I want with the 6 or 7% ratiometric progression I want. Whenever I have set up the gearing on a 10-speed bike, I have always compromised on the top gear (88 gear-inches, in one case, which even I found too low), the bottom gear (54 gear-inches once, not great for hills), or the spacing between ratios (lots of big steps or "missing" points on the progression).

[Velo Dog]

I do everything but build wheels, though if I had to do a one-time operation that requires special tools (bottom bracket fixed cup, for instance), I'd probably have the shop do that rather than buy the tool. I've built my last two bikes from frames and a box o' components, though, and my commuter is made from three old mountain bikes. No particular reason, except that I can, and why tie up the bike for three days in the shop for a problem I can fix in half an hour?

[bkaapcke]

Bikes are simple enough that all but the most mechanically challenged should become familiar with routine maintenance and repairs on their ride(s). You never know when something will come up on an outing and a little repair work will get you home. Some basic tools, a good manual (about $20.00) and you are in business. Caution; common sense is required.
Derailleur adjustments are the one voodoo item, but they are not that tough once you tackle it. Yes, I had a few rides with less than ideal shifting until I sorted out the adjustment sequence. But now, no fear and flawless shifting. Always. bk

[BSLeVan]

I do about 95% of my own work. I have built wheels, and done about everything except install or remove headsets. Wheels, cranks, pedals, etc. all get bearing checks. lubes, or changing on a regular basis. The only time I take my bike to the LBS is when I've got to much on my plate at work and wrenching would cut into the riding time. Then, even if it's something I can do, there's a pretty good chance the LBS will get the call.

[JanMM]

A repeating motif: No wheelbuilding. Me, too.
Paid to have the headset (the last original part) replaced on my older Cannondale hybrid because I didn't trust my expertise with a really crude headset press (from Nashbar a long time ago) on the alloy head tube. I really appreciate when the shifting is spot on after I've spent too much time getting it right.

[BluesDawg]

When I restarted riding 17 years ago, the closest bike shop was 40 miles away. I learned to do minor adjustments and gradually more extensive repair work out of necessity. I bought a repair book and fumbled my way through most jobs. I could mail order parts and needed tools quicker than I could make a couple of trips to the shop, and usually for less $. Over time I have collected most of the reasonably inexpensive tools needed for bike repair and have become reasonably skilled at working on my bikes.
Jobs requiring expensive tools I either take to the shop or borrow the tools from them (now that there is a truly "local" bike shop). I true my wheels, but have not built wheels yet.
I have built several bikes from bare frames, some for myself, some for others, and have completely disassembled and rebuilt all my bikes a few times to keep everything clean and working right.

[Road Fan]

Yes. I need three bikes because guaranteed two of them will be going thru disassembly or re-assembly for some often picayune reason. Anybody remember, back in the days of loose bearings, chasing the little buggers across the garage floor where they invariably rolled under the freezer?

DG....I'm not particularly "mechanical"...probably less so than Mother Teresa. But, with a little diligence you can work your way into a functional ability to do what you need... and, after much trial and error and saving help from the friendly LBS wrench, learn. Have to invest in some appropriate tools as you go along, though. But they're far cheaper than setting up, say, an enthusiast's kitchen.

Oh, yeah that's why I have 5!!!!

[Road Fan]

There is only one job that I prefer to farm out and that is retensioning wheels. I can retrue the little out of true ansd replace spokes but once those spokes get loose on a well used wheel- it goes into my LBS for the Wheelsmith to sort the Bu**ers out. Saves me a fortune as they come back as if they were a new set of wheels so saves me buying them.

Stapfam, a man after my own heart!!!

Road Fan

[Road Fan]

Restoring antique motorcycles (British) is my prmary passion so I perform all wrenching including wheel building. I maintained Teletype machines while in the Air Force and, in comparison, a bicycle is just slightly more complicated than a stick.

Oh my god yes!! In my first engineering job I was a repair engineer (glorified technician with a BS!!) for an early modem company, and the dude at the next bench was the Teletype expert. I was just stunned at what he was doing and dealing with, amazing gadgets!

Road Fan