Bicycle Mechanics - How/Why did you learn wrenching?

Obviously, knowledge of bicycle mechanics is pretty important, especially when you want to start building/upgrading a bike with specific components or you start touring.

But did you buy/receive your bike first, and learn the mechanics as problems arose? Did you practice on an old bike before buying/building one yourself? Who did you learn from, or did you do it alone/with help from a book/internet?

Just curious :)

Why: Too cheap to pay someone for something that I can do myself (and buy a new tool in the process)

How: "Installation is the opposite of removal."

I believe I was born with a Cresent wrench in one hand and a can of WD-40 in the other. For as long as I can remember I was constantly taking things apart, the 'rents got tired of putting them back together and told me... "You figured out how to take it apart, now figure out how to put it back together again." So started my adventures in to mechanics.

Sometimes it dosen't always go as planned. A special tool is neded to put it together, or you spend an hour fighting with something and when you least expect it things fall together.

You have your "Oh crap!" moments like when you pull apart a loose ball headset for the first time and the bearings scatter to the four corners of the work area. :lol: You just figure out somehow, how it's done or know how to find the information.

My wife and I had a lot of kids and not a lot of money. Bicycling was my only recreation and sometimes my transportation too. I learned to fix bikes because paying somebody else to do it just wasn't in the budget.

When I was around 11-12 yrs old, I had this Western Auto lead sled, fully fendered bike. I had a blast, but wanted something lighter. So bought this used Columbia 3-spd (I think) that wasn't quite working right. Sanded the frame and painted it, repacked the bearings, fooled with the gear changer (3-spd, S/A hub) until I got it to work right (no, I didn't take the hub apart-hey, I was just a kid!!). I just always liked taking things apart to see how they worked. I got some advice from the local bike shop-they thought it was cool that a kid was doing this. My sisters first dirt bike (motorcycle) was one my father & I built up from parts in a box- someone had started on a repair and couldn't do it, so we got it cheap and put it all back together. So, got starated at an early age, and found I enjoyed doing it.

I've been taking stuff apart since I was 2 years old, only recently have I learned how to put stuff back together! It's my mechanical engineering nature coupled with my insane cheapness. I detest paying people to do stuff I can figure out myself. I love wrenching for mates and they reciprocate by keeping me flush with Starbucks gift cards. Bikes are pretty easy and unlike when I worked as an auto mechanic, the tool outlay is minimal. Plus, it's just plain fun.

I learned by building my own bike. Well that and the Bike Mechanics thread here @ BF.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=259994

^^^^ w00t! Go BF!

Bicycles are pretty simple machines. I figured most of it out reading the Park Tools page and trial & error. I learned to save a few dollars and to save time when I needed simple repairs. In the summer, it feels dumb to loose your bike for a while because you can't figure out how to adjust your derailleur.

Obviously, knowledge of bicycle mechanics is pretty important, especially when you want to start building/upgrading a bike with specific components or you start touring.

But did you buy/receive your bike first, and learn the mechanics as problems arose? Did you practice on an old bike before buying/building one yourself? Who did you learn from, or did you do it alone/with help from a book/internet?

Just curious :)


I have two sons and whenever we have a project to build one looks at the plans and material and says dad how are we going to do this the other already has the toolbox out and says lets do this.

I know whos bike I won't have to fix when they are older.

Really started when I wrecked my first 10 speed back in '73 (Gitane Interclub) and needed to fix it. My dad had a woodworking shop in the basement so I had the hand tools I needed to start, and it's grown from there. Sheldon Brown's site was an immense help when I got back into this a few years ago.

I'm cheap, but I do really enjoy it. Like a lot of others on here I've always been taking things apart and getting them back together. I learned through trial and error mostly. But also read alot on sheldon's site, parktool.com/repair, and here of course.

I have two sons and whenever we have a project to build one looks at the plans and material and says dad how are we going to do this the other already has the toolbox out and says lets do this.

I know whos bike I won't have to fix when they are older.

The one who thinks about what he's doing before he starts right in willy nilly?

#1 I'm Polish, so I'm cheap, um...tight, um...frugal with my money.

#2 I'd rather do something myself with the help of a phone call to a knowledgable person, a thread on an internet forum, a book, or a past experience of seeing a "fix" in done by someone else; I'd rather go that route then pay someone else.

#3 In all my past DIY projects...I have never blown anything up or caused bodily harm. So I have a good track record going. :D

#4 I sit in an office and pound code all day...I like the "balance of life" euphoria when I actually get to do something constructive done with my hands (other than pounding code)

I've always been good with my hands. Give me a book and make me study for a test, I'll more than likely fail it. But give me something to take apart, fix and put back together, i'll get it 90% correct on the first try (w/o help). Second time around, i'll get it perfect.

I've went from fixing bikes, to building bikes, to building wheels, and now to building frames

There were several skilled mechanics in my family, chief among them my father. Dad tried to discourage me from things mechanical on the theory you can earn more $$ with your head than your hands. I have the degrees and lifestyle to demonstrate he was correct but growing up in Nebraska, there were enough friends & cousins fiddling with tractors, old trucks & cars for me to gain some knowledge. My inherent cheapness & curiosity cause me to always try to fix things myself & bikes aren't that complicated.

My oldest son is an extremely analytical type with degrees in Mathematics & Chemistry. Growing up, his best friend (now an auto mechanic) was one of those take it apart & see how it works types. These two cleaned/lubed & maintained their own bikes and once disassembled & successfully reassembled a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub when they were twelve. They used rags to catch parts, my son Jeremy sketched things as they worked & Charlie did most of the work. They were quite a pair and today both can repair just about anything. The best approach is tempering the "take it apart" impulse with some thought & analysis. Don

I believe I was born with a Cresent wrench in one hand and a can of WD-40 in the other.

Ouch.

I hope you've found a way to make it up to your mother ;)

Of course!!! I 'fixed' her car. :D

When I was racing, I was swapping parts all the time, and I couldn't afford to pay a mechanic each time, nor could I go days or weeks without the bike.

Like many previous post authors, I took things apart to see how they work and to modify them or made things I wanted from scrap. My father had tools around. I was also an avid reader of magazines like Popular Mechanics in the days (1950's and 1960's) when they contained a dominance of articles on how to use tools and plans for all sorts of things to make.

Why: I don't think any mechanic is as good as I am.

How: God given. Like Stacey said, I was born with tools in hand. I've just always been able to fix, modify, improve almost anything.

I've always been interested in taking things apart and fixing them, but never had the guts too. Now when I have resources like BF and all these books availiable and a co-op at school, I find no reason not to try something myself and get help if needed.

I started by doing setups on my guitars because I paid a tech 60 bucks to do it, and I hated how it felt after.

Worked at an LBS in college doing assembly and I've always tinkered. Then I got into motorcycle racing for a couple of years and really learned how to wrench. Found that its prohibitively expensive to have a good race mechanic wrench on your bike, and you have to be able to fix things at the track, so I learned.

Why: I can't handle waiting for the bike to be fixed by the shop.

How: Trial and Error, some talent and just want to know how. I may as well do it as someone elsse, and I don't have the budget to make the fixes.

Three reasons.

1) I hate shopping physically (I do it all online)
2) I wanted a bike with custom parts
3) I didn't wanna pay anyone to do it for me

Oh and I'm mechanically inclined...

Nothing to do with economics. A tinkerer by nature, I tinkered with bikes as a kid so it was just natural for me to work on my bikes myself. Never received any mechanical training.

Out of necessity I started learning to work on my own bikes 55 years ago when I was 9. My parents couldn't afford to pay a mechanic to fix a bike. For the same reason I did most of my own automotive work from the time I was 14. I Quit doing automotive mechanicals on cars after computers took over. I have no formal mechanical training. Now I work on bikes, including building wheels, as a hobby, plus I'd rather not have anyone else messing with them.

Al

While not a mechanic from an early age, I was a computer programmer from an early age. I figure if I can write and debug a couple thousand lines of code, I could figure out why it's not shifting / braking / whatever correctly as well. Bikes simply aren't that complicated!

I also don't like being without my bike for a couple days while waiting for the shop guy to get five minutes to fix it. Let's see. Drive there, drop it off, drive back, wait for phone call, drive back to shop, pick it up, drive home. Find out they did a half-assed job in fixing it anyway. Grrrrrr! I eventually discovered Sheldon Brown's site, decided this wasn't that hard, and that was that. I don't know diddly compared to many on this forum, but I know enough to keep my bikes running.

Truths I've learned from being a life long tinkerer: (1) If you want it done right you're often better off doing it yourself (real experts who care are very rare indeed). (2) After years and mucho $$ into a new hobby, it clearly was NOT cheaper to build it yourself, ...but you've got some cool tools, full junkboxes, and useless knowledge to bore people with (--which is nice).

Obviously, knowledge of bicycle mechanics is pretty important, especially when you want to start building/upgrading a bike with specific components or you start touring.

But did you buy/receive your bike first, and learn the mechanics as problems arose? Did you practice on an old bike before buying/building one yourself? Who did you learn from, or did you do it alone/with help from a book/internet?When I was a little kid, my favorite toys were cap pistols. I would spend hours daily clcking them off until I got blisters on my trigger finger.

At some point I discovered that if I undid the two screws that held the two halves together, I could get to the internal parts, and that a drop of oil on each of the moving parts would greatly reduce trigger effort. That was my start in mechanickng.

My father (http://sheldonbrown.com/george-matson-brown.html) died when I was 9, so I was left without anybody to fix my bike for me. I started hanging out around Marblehead Cycle, in Marblehead, Mass. and the owner, Frank Loftus taught me a lot of the basics.

Growing up in Marblehead, one of my favorite places to hang out was the Town Dump. One day I found an almost complete J.C. Higgins 3-speed bike there, missing only the front wheel. On the other side of the dump was a wrecked bike with a good front wheel. Presto, I had my first multi-speed bike! When I was in junior high school, I made pocket money that way, building up bikes to sell from discarded parts.

I set up a mini-workshop area in the cellar, under my mother's antique shop, where I made all of the usual mistakes.

I was in high school when I learned of the existence of butted spokes. I thought that was so cool that I bought a set to rebuild the rear wheel of my Elswick Lincoln Imp. That was the first wheel I ever built, no books to read a that time, I just had to figure it out by looking at existing wheels.

Also, while I was in high school, I built my first homebuilt tandem (http://sheldonbrown.com/tandem-build.html) out of two Raleigh three-speeds. I turned it into a 9-speed by adding a derailer and three sprockets on the Sturmey-Archer hub...

The rest is history...

Sheldon "Autodidact" Brown

I'm mechanically adept and used to do lots of performance oriented auto work. It just made sense to start doing my own wrenching when I got into biking. It started out with routine maintenance, clean, lube and adjust. Then one day, I walked into the local Performance Shop and they were having a going out of business sale. I got a "Team" tool kit for $65.00 out the door. I've been wrenching ever since. Bought more tools too. You can never have too many tools.
As for learning, I bought Bicycling Magazines repair book. It has got me through everything I've done so far. If you are not afraid of tools and taking things apart, bike wrenching is a breeze. They are not that complicated.
Oh yeah, I have gotten a lot of good tips by reading this forum regularly. It's amazing how often stuff comes up that you can use. bk

Bike first, problem second. I'll tell you something, get an Xmart bike, and you'll be an expert mechanic on bikes, so true :P Anyway, thats what I did. I learned new tool, and techniques and it's all pretty cool.

Also, to the post above, I tinker with everything as well, even if not broken. Electronics I mostly end up breaking because of tinkering, but I learn something in the process. learning is fun, except for the boring learning in school, UGH.

I remember my father brought home a brand new Shelby ( looked like a Schwinn) for me for Christmas. About a week later I had the whole thing apart. I was about 10 or 11. You wouldn't believe the tools we used, but we managed, and had fun.

I have two sons and whenever we have a project to build one looks at the plans and material and says dad how are we going to do this the other already has the toolbox out and says lets do this.

I know whos bike I won't have to fix when they are older.


If you expect one of your children to be inept at something, he will end up being just that. This is called the Pygmallion effect, and if you're a good father, you won't subject your children to your prejudiced, skewed view of what they can and cannot do. Let them grow and develope their own talents, and support them in anything they want to do.

After years and mucho $$ into a new hobby, it clearly was NOT cheaper to build it yourself, ...but you've got some cool tools, full junkboxes, and useless knowledge to bore people with (--which is nice).

Hell yea. That, and saying to chicks "I can fix up your bike - for free!"

Truths I've learned from being a life long tinkerer: (1) If you want it done right you're often better off doing it yourself (real experts who care are very rare indeed). (2) After years and mucho $$ into a new hobby, it clearly was NOT cheaper to build it yourself, ...but you've got some cool tools, full junkboxes, and useless knowledge to bore people with (--which is nice).

Well said!

Thanks for sharing your stories, everyone.

I have another, somewhat different question. When you buy a bike from an online store, do they ship it to you completely assembled? Is most of the bike assembled, and you just have to put the saddle, tires, handlebars, pedals on? Does anyone sell 'bike kits' (i.e. all the parts to a bike, but none of it put together, so you must do it--and therefore learn--yourself)?

Thanks

1. Learned how to fix BMX bikes way back in the late early 80's.You think my parents would spring for a mechanic :lol:

Still learning about road bikes as I just got back into it :o


2. I ordered a Cannondale R1000 from across the country and saved HUNDREDS (not kidding) of $$.
It came mostly assembled.The following is what I had to do.

A. I had to mount the front and rear wheel.Tires were already mounted.
B. Attach the handlebars.Stem already attached.
C. Attach my pedals.


From what I can remember, that's about it.My front wheel and read derailleur did sustain damage from UPS :mad: The dealer I purchased it from made it right :)
He told me they do not remove the rear wheel for shipped bikes as the derailleur can sustain damage that way.
It was a new guy who boxed it and he made a mistake.

Why? Because I'm a male, and I believe that I can make anything better then it is, even though it is seldom true. Plus with my style of riding I'm constantly fixing things.

How? Lots of swearing, cut knuckles, thrown tools.

Picked it up because it was fun.
Then went to U.B.I. as a kid, it was my version of summer camp.
Now I just tinker and try to turn out something nice every once in a while.
Peter

I learned how to work on my bike as a way to really be more in touch with my bike. I had purchased a Bianchi road bike that was easy to take a part and work on. Anything that I didn't know I made sure I found out how by asking those that knew; like a friend who once worked at a bike shop, a local LBS mechanic, from reading off the net and books. I basically tore down my bike from head to toe and even started working on building my own wheel. Now after assembling four bikes from scratch and building 11 wheels, I can say I am very confident at repairing any bike and rims for myself and others. My friends now refer to me as the Bike Dr.. And the best part is everyone of my bikes are always kept tuned. My two cents.

Now after assembling four bikes from scratch and building 11 rims, I can say I am very confident at repairing any bike and rims for myself and others.
You build rims? You have a rare skill.

I think you'll find a lot of us here can build a wheel. It's not hard.

FWIW ~ I can cane a chair seat too. :D

I think you'll find a lot of us here can build a wheel. It's not hard.

Wheels yes, that I can do (in fact, mine are quite good, actually), but rims?

Anyhow, thank you for killing my sarcasm, you insensitive clod.

You build rims? You have a rare skill.

He must be a man of extrusionary talents. :D

To answer the OP I just like to fix stuff.

As has been mentioned several times in this thread I also learned I can uaually do a better job myself than a paid "professional" but I think that has more to do with the fact that the bike/firearm/car/motorcycle/camera/toilet/(well, you get the idea) belongs to me and doesn't represent just one more item on a busy repair schedule.

I also like tools, but maybe this isn't the correct forum for that subject... :eek:

I also like tools, but maybe this isn't the correct forum for that subject... :eek:

Actually, it is.

Oh... wait ...

Actually, it is.

Oh... wait ...

:roflmao:

A couple of years ago, when DA went to 10 speed, the LBS was offering a screaming deal on the now "obsolete" 9 speed DA. So I had them upgrade the drivetrain on my "good bike" from Ultegra to DA. So, then I had a nice DA bike and a box full of very usable Ultegra parts. I decided I'd upgrade my commuter from RSX to Ultegra. I bought a basic toolkit and the Bicycling Magazine bike repair book, and printed out a bunch of pages from Sheldon's site and the Park Tool website. It was pretty simple to disassemble and then reassemble the bike.

Since then, I've built up 4 bikes from the frame. The next step is to build wheels. Then I'll feel complete.

When I was a kid, riding my bike was the only way for me to get around. I also took apart most things in hte house just to see how they worked, so when my bike got it's first flat tire, I decided to fix it myself. From then on, I just wanted to keep being able to make my own repairs.

I've been thru several deep dive hobbies (loudspeaker design, golf club building, bike building, ..are just a few) and another thing I like is the ability to loan out even my favorite toys and tell them if it breaks it would just be another cool puzzle trying to repair it. I had someone return a loaner set of golf clubs having exploded the head of a classic macgregor 3-wood. He was apologetic ...and I was just excited to hear the details and look at the "stump". He was pretty surprised that all I wanted to talk about was what it felt like, who was laughing the hardest, and how I was actually jealous it didn't happen to me.