Bicycle Mechanics - Essentials to have for a beginning cyclist

I just started mt biking a few weeks ago. I am already catching the fever. I feel like i have nothing in terms of maintenance. What i do have is:

mountain bike
camelbak
simple green
white lightning

and that about sums it up.
What are key things i need?
repair stand?
tire tube?
necessary tools?

Thanks for your knowledge.

You need a allen key set, pump, adjustable wrench set, puncture repair kit, spare tubes, spoke key (once you learn how to true a wheel) :) Thats just a start, I'm sure there will be many additions.

Always carry at least one tube with you, a pump and maybe a patch kit. Nothing is worse than having to push your bike out of a trail because you had a lousy flat. I would suggest some tire levers as well. Something I always carry is some extra chain links and a Park chain tool. Breaking a chain and not being able to fix it is almost as bad as flatting with no tube or patch. If you tear the sidewall of your tire on a rock or something you can improvise a boot to get off the trail using some duct tape. I wrap about 8 feet of it around itself and stuff it into my bag. Believe it or not, lots of weird stuff can be fixxed into limp mode using zip ties, so I carry 4 8" zip ties as well. A Topeak or some other multi tool would round out the repair kit nicely.

I second getting some kind of multi-tool. I'm personally quite fond of the Crank Bros. tool, which has a chain tool and four spoke wrenches integrated into it, along with screwdrivers and allen keys. If you've got that, a 6" adjustible wrench, a spare tube and/or patches, and a pump you should be fine away from the garage.

At home, it'd probably help to have another adjustible wrench (larger for more leverage) and, sooner or later, a truing stand (although I'm not so lucky ;) ). If your bike has shocks you'll probably need special equipment for those sooner or later, also.

benito,

I always carry a spare tube, a patch kit, some tire levers, a mini-pump, and multi-tool with me on longer mountain bike rides. I carry the mini-pump under a water bottle holder and the rest of the stuff in a seatbag. Those are pretty much the essentials.

As for home repair stuff, getting a workstand is a huge step. Whether you make one yourself or buy one from a company like Park (I have been very happy with my PCS-1 that I purchased a few years ago), it will make repairs easier and faster. Getting a good repair manual is also key. Many people are happy with a book like Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance. I own this book and picked up a copy of Barnette's manuals as well. Nothing can compare to the Barnette's manuals in my opinion in terms of diagrams and attention to detail for every step. The set of four books even goes into which tools are recommended and why to help you with purhcasing what you might need. Setting up a good, clean work area is also important. I have claimed about 1/4 of my basement as a work area and have set up overhead lights, a sturdy table(which you can make yourself for only a few bucks), and some tool cabinets. The table has a truing stand, a grinder, and a vice bolted to it for stability.

As for tools, you could be looking at a lot of things. You can buy many of them at a hardware store. You are going to need thins like adjustable wrenches, screwdrivers, vice-grips, normal and needle-nosed plyers, a ruler, and a soft mallet. I'm sure there are other things that I have forgotten as well. I hang most of my tools on pegboard in easy reach and store some of them in tool cabinets.

These are some of the tools that I have:
In terms of specific bicycle tools, you will want to get a full-size chain breaker. A pair of bicycle specific cable cutters will help with cutting the tough housings used on a bicycle. Some tools you might want to look into eventually would include cone wrenches, headset wrenches, a pedal wrench, spoke wrenches (I've found those on multi-tools to be useless except for trailside emergencies to get back to the car - get something with some quality, like those by Park), a truing stand, a Park 4th/3rd hand tool, and a crank puller, along with many other things I know I've forgotten. I started out with the book by Zinn, a Park PCS-1, a pedal wrench, some basic tools from around the house, and an interest in learning how to work on any part of my bike. I used an old MTB and bought new tools as I learned how to do new things, knowing I would need them for the bikes I road every day eventually anyways. I can now work on and fix nearly everything on my bike. I leave the headset to the LBS because of the price of the tools required ($100+). You won't beleive how easy some of the maintenance is that the LBS charged you for at one point. I picked up a tool package from Park when I was just starting. I thhink it was around a hundred bucks. It had everything nike-specific that I needed for a while.

A chain cleaner will also be usefeul because it doesn't require you to seperate the chain to clean it. If you've got a Powerlink, it's not an issue. Some people swear they will never use an on the bike chain cleaner, and that is their preference.

Going to a site like Parktool.com will give you an idea as to what tools you will need for an area of your bike, as will the online version of Barnette's manuals available here on the site. Good luck!

-Moab

Thanks for your replies. I'm building a laundry list of things to get. Any other suggestions

Check out this link for Pictures (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28922&highlight=home+workshop/) of my home workshop.

-Moab

First off, you're so lucky to live in Santa Clara ;-)

Being somewhat mechanically challenged, I always appreciated the British author, G.K. Chesterton's answer to the question, "If you were marooned on a desert island, and could have only one book with you, what book would you choose?" You would expect that this great Christian writer would have responded, "The Bible". GKC (who was an eccentric genius and humorist like Winston Churchill ) surprisingly answered, "Thomas' Guide to Practical Ship Building." If GKC were asked: "If you were to find yourself suddenly without wheels in the endless mesas of Durango, what (virtual) book would you choose. I think GKC would have answered, "Fred Milson's Complete Bike Maintenance"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076031330X/bridgebooks/104-9860840-1333553
However, GKC (always full of surprises) might have also replied,
"Break it, Fix it, Ride it CD Rom
http://www.bfr-it.com/
plus the PolyNote M2000E ('World's lightest 14".1 notebook')". http://www.polywell.com/us/notebook/polym2000e.asp

:roflmao: